Doomreader

Reading list

Short classic books you can read in a weekend

The classics have a reputation for length that a lot of them do not deserve. Every book here is under about two hundred printed pages, most can be read in an afternoon or two, and none is a lesser work by its author. Several are the best thing they wrote.

25 books, all free to read

The reading times assume an average pace. On a phone, a few minutes at a time, most of these take a week of commutes.

  1. 1. The Great Gatsby

    by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    The great American novel, at under fifty thousand words.

    48,830 words, about 195 pages, about 3 hours to read

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  2. 2. A Christmas Carol

    by Charles Dickens

    Dickens in two hours: a miser, three ghosts and a change of heart.

    29,218 words, about 117 pages, about 2 hours to read

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  3. 3. Heart of Darkness

    by Joseph Conrad

    A steamer up the Congo, and the darkness at the heart of empire. Short and unforgettable.

    38,670 words, about 155 pages, about 3 hours to read

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  4. 4. Candide

    by Voltaire

    Voltaire's comic novel races through a dozen disasters in thirty chapters.

    35,710 words, about 143 pages, about 3 hours to read

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  5. 5. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

    by Robert Louis Stevenson

    The original split personality, in a single sitting.

    26,257 words, about 105 pages, about 2 hours to read

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  6. 6. Meditations

    by Marcus Aurelius

    Twelve short books of private notes. Read one a night for a fortnight.

    50,425 words, about 202 pages, about 4 hours to read

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  7. 7. The Call of the Wild

    by Jack London

    A dog stolen into the Klondike. Jack London at full power in about two hours.

    32,451 words, about 130 pages, about 2 hours to read

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  8. 8. Siddhartha

    by Hermann Hesse

    A quiet novel about a search for meaning, readable in an evening.

    39,821 words, about 159 pages, about 3 hours to read

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  9. 9. The Turn of the Screw

    by Henry James

    The ghost story you will want to reread as soon as you finish it.

    42,904 words, about 172 pages, about 3 hours to read

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  10. 10. Notes from Underground

    by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Dostoevsky in miniature: bitter, funny and painfully modern.

    44,812 words, about 179 pages, about 3 hours to read

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  11. 11. Ethan Frome

    by Edith Wharton

    A sled, a hill and a long New England winter. Wharton's shortest great book.

    36,433 words, about 146 pages, about 3 hours to read

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  12. 12. The Prince

    by Niccolò Machiavelli

    Machiavelli on power, short and shocking.

    37,251 words, about 149 pages, about 3 hours to read

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  13. 13. The Time Machine

    by H. G. Wells

    Time travel, the class war and the end of the world, in a hundred pages.

    32,970 words, about 132 pages, about 2 hours to read

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  14. 14. The Awakening

    by Kate Chopin

    A wife on holiday in Louisiana wakes up to her own life. Banned in its day, admired since.

    50,339 words, about 201 pages, about 4 hours to read

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  15. 15. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

    by Frederick Douglass

    Frederick Douglass's own account of slavery and escape. Two evenings, and essential.

    40,984 words, about 164 pages, about 3 hours to read

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  16. 16. The Importance of Being Earnest

    by Oscar Wilde

    Wilde's comedy of names and cucumber sandwiches. Ninety minutes of perfect lines.

    21,223 words, about 85 pages, about 1 hour to read

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  17. 17. Antigone

    by Sophocles

    The Greek tragedy of conscience against the state, in an hour.

    11,023 words, about 44 pages, about 46 minutes to read

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  18. 18. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

    by Lewis Carroll

    Down the rabbit hole in an afternoon.

    27,300 words, about 109 pages, about 2 hours to read

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  19. 19. Flatland

    by Edwin A. Abbott

    A square discovers the third dimension. A geometry lesson and a satire.

    34,265 words, about 137 pages, about 2 hours to read

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  20. 20. The Communist Manifesto

    by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

    The most influential pamphlet ever written, readable in under an hour.

    14,350 words, about 57 pages, about 1 hour to read

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  21. 21. Tao Te Ching

    by Laozi

    Eighty-one short chapters, each a minute long and worth a day of thought.

    39,738 words, about 159 pages, about 3 hours to read

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  22. 22. As a Man Thinketh

    by James Allen

    A tiny classic of self-help, readable in forty-five minutes.

    10,522 words, about 42 pages, about 44 minutes to read

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  23. 23. A Modest Proposal

    by Jonathan Swift

    Swift's savage satire, under ten pages.

    6,422 words, about 26 pages, about 27 minutes to read

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  24. 24. The Prophet

    by Kahlil Gibran

    Gibran's sermons on love and work, a few minutes each.

    13,004 words, about 52 pages, about 55 minutes to read

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  25. 25. The Invisible Man

    by H. G. Wells

    Wells's invisible man, a fast and grim little thriller.

    49,103 words, about 196 pages, about 3 hours to read

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More lists

Read them free

Every book on this list is free in Doomreader: open one and it reads as short posts you scroll, with your place kept and its best pages a tap away. You can listen to any of them free too, read aloud by your device.

Start reading, free