I'm back on the children's-books bandwagon again, but if you don't have much time but want an entertaining read, hark back to childhood. Kids have some of the best literature written for them.
Some really enjoyable children's novels (easy to read in a short period of time):
- any in the Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald (stories about the Fitzgerald family growing up around turn-of-the-19th-century in Utah)
- the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis (starting with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe)
- any of the Green Knowe books by Lucy M. Boston
- George Selden's charming series that began with The Cricket in Times Square
I would also love to recommend the Harry Potter books, but nobody could call them "short" - unless you're a fan and the end of a favourite one is looming (I was so sad when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was over - even though there are more than 600 pages of it!).
Short adult books: someone suggested poetry and short stories, both good - but what about plays, too? not all are short (it takes a while to wade through any meaty Tennessee Williams, for example) but some are and are well worth reading (eg Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, anything by Euripedes, Thornton Wilder's Our Town etc.).
And for a completely charming quick read, one of my favourite books: The Young Visiters, by Daisy Ashford.
