Decent but Short Books?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>I need a list. Please post some books that you know that are short in length (200 pages, max), and are "decent" (it's a subjective term, because I'd consider a pokemon book at my local library "great" but apparently my English teacher won't accept it).</p>

<p>She (my english teacher) is pretty insane; I need a list of 10 minimum and need to read 2 in a week (this part, I won't do). What happened was my english class was so lax and chill, we never did much, and lowest grade's a 85% (and not like it's a class of geniuses, either), so she suddenly got high on morphine and yelled today, "OH, my god, You guys never do any work! This is English Honors! You will read. you WILL read. I promise you. I will make you. Here's your lengthy assignment now! Do it." (Her costume today, by the way...was...)</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure it'll become a lot chill again, and this'll be the only time, but anyways, I'm ignorant in the realm of books, so a couple suggestions.</p>

<p>It's another books thread, but hopefully something that's at least somewhat new and not "what's your favorite" and every other person stroking their ego with a bunch of 800-page-I'm-so-intellectual books.</p>

<p>EDIT: On a side note, it might be surprising why I'd have such a strange assignment. Two reasons: 1) My teacher's on morphine. 2) It's actually many different categories, I just happened to have the "short" books category, the "decent" I just added on there because I assume it has to be decent and I cannot tell the difference between quality literature and "pokemon", apparently.</p>

2

<p>A Separate Peace
Catcher in the Rye
Huckleberry Finn
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Secret Life of Bees</p>

<p>All are relatively short -- and not half-bad. Good luck.</p>

3

<p>5 already. You are amazing. Thanks.</p>

4

<p>Lololol, some of the most difficult books that I've ever read have been <200 pages. The really long ones are easy! ;D</p>

<p>Anyhow, I presume that you want fiction books? Preferably the easy to read kind?</p>

<p>A cursory trip to my room and a glance at the bookcase there yields a few few that fit the bill. Try:</p>

<p>Hiroshima
The Time Machine
From the Earth to the Moon
Siddhartha
Candide
The Prince and the Pauper
The Metamorphosis
The Old Man and the Sea</p>

<p>edit, oh and Animal Farm</p>

5

<p>I actually thought A Separate Peace was the worst book I've ever read.</p>

<p>I'd like to add Nectar Through a Sieve, Life of Pi, and The Perks of Being A Wallflower to your list. Also, you read Candide.</p>

6

<p>I'd suggest The Gospel According To Larry and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.</p>

7

<p>Animal Farm by George Orwell</p>

8

<p>A Clockwork Orange
Good luck understanding it the first time through though.</p>

<p>Also Heart of Darkness</p>

9

<p>A man called Thursday
Life as PI</p>

10

<p>I'm feeling just terrible for your poor teacher. I can hardly believe my eyes that you find reading 2 books a week (and at 200 pages a book, no less!) to be such a burden that you cannot manage it.</p>

<p>You don't say what grade you are in, unfortunately.</p>

<p>ARe you a girl? If so, what about the books about The Traveling Pants? Any bookstore or library would know some titles in this series and author.</p>

<p>I know, I know, not classic literature. But it doesn't have to be classic, just something you enjoy, for you to improve in vocabulary and in reading comprehension.</p>

<p>My d loved Tamora Pierce novels in high school. They are fantasy, and very popular.</p>

<p>Try Day of the Triffids, a book my younger brother said was the best thing he ever read as a teen. It's probably out of print and only available at the public library.</p>

<p>I'd have to know how old you are and if boy or girl to think more about this.</p>

11

<p>Ah, someone already said Candide. Although, read that one for sure, I think you'd enjoy it, actually.
Heart of Darkness is incredibly dense and I feel like that's not exactly your favorite kind of book, haha, although I loved it.
The Metamorphosis by Kafka is nice, and entertaining at least.
The Great Gatsby, dunno how long that is, but it was quite short if I remember correctly.
How bout.. Daisy Miller? By Henry James, I think. It's quite short.
Animal Farm, although you may have read that already. But come to think of it, you prolly haven't ;]
Oh, and if you're going for REAAALLY short books, A Death in Venice. :]</p>

<p>K I seriously need to go to sleep... lol.</p>

12

<p>oh dear, this is going in bookmarks to impress my english teacher >:]</p>

<p>(btw, if you want to make her think that you're a depressed sadistic maniac you could try reading as many depressing sadistic books as possible. i suggest "go ask alice" :D )</p>

13

<p>Check out "The Stranger" by Albert Camus. Really interesting and provocative.</p>

14

<p>"lowest grade's a 85%"</p>

<p>^ (ahh my edit time has lapsed) isn't that bad? especially for an honors class even if it's not filled with geniuses lolz</p>

15

<p>Farhenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 1984 by George Orwell, Night by Elie Wiesel</p>

16

<p>I would definately just read Animal Farm and 1984.. you can finish both of them in one afternoon, plus they are amazing</p>

17

<p>1984 is > 200 pages and not a lot of fun. It has an incredibly long section where Orwell goes off onto his political theories. I've read the book about three times and I always skip that part.</p>

<p>Animal Farm, OTOH, is a piece of cake. You can read that in like an hour.</p>

<p>Consider Hemmingway: The Sun Also Rises. For Whom the Bell Tolls. Short and sweet and very simple.</p>

18

<p>The political philosophy was my favorite part of 1984, actually, though I do agree Animal Farm's a lighter read.</p>

<p>I definitely second The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I can think of a bunch of David Levithan books (if you're not against books dealing largely with teenage homosexuality) and David Sedaris (if your teacher would allow that...He's hilarious, but classic literature he is not).</p>

<p>Also, not sure how strictly they fit your page limit, but if you haven't read them yet Dan Brown books are always an easy read.</p>

19

<p>I already have more than 10, wow, thanks. I don't need any further suggestions, but of course, everyone's welcome to discuss about the books and keep going on with the topic. (I really have never even heard of 96% of the authors/books you people have listed, so I'm confused; but I'll take a look online)</p>

<p>
[quote]
I'm feeling just terrible for your poor teacher. I can hardly believe my eyes that you find reading 2 books a week (and at 200 pages a book, no less!) to be such a burden that you cannot manage it.</p>

<p>You don't say what grade you are in, unfortunately.</p>

<p>ARe you a girl? If so, what about the books about The Traveling Pants? Any bookstore or library would know some titles in this series and author.</p>

<p>I know, I know, not classic literature. But it doesn't have to be classic, just something you enjoy, for you to improve in vocabulary and in reading comprehension.</p>

<p>My d loved Tamora Pierce novels in high school. They are fantasy, and very popular.</p>

<p>Try Day of the Triffids, a book my younger brother said was the best thing he ever read as a teen. It's probably out of print and only available at the public library.</p>

<p>I'd have to know how old you are and if boy or girl to think more about this.

[/quote]

If you couldn't tell, I'm a male sophomore. </p>

<p>And I'm trying to get out of this bad habit of mine of AVOIDING reading books entirely; last year I read 1 book, and throughout my entire middle school years I've touched like 3 books. I was never fond of books, but since "reading skills" are important, apparently, I'm trying to start reading now.</p>

<p>Hence, reading 2 books a week is literally impossible in my eyes. If you wanted an explanation, I'm really not much of a reader.</p>

20

<p>So far what I read in my sophomore Honors Lit...</p>

<p>-Catcher in the Rye
-The Great Gatsby
-A Raisin in the Sun
-To Kill A Mockingbird (<333333333333333333333333333333333333)
-The Secret Life of Bees</p>

<p>We're also supposed to read A Death of a Salesman and The Glass Castle before the end of the first quarter. The Catcher in the Rye is a little more than 200 pages, The Great Gatsby's like 150, A Raisin in the Sun is a play (you can probably read it in an hour or two) that's about 100 pages, To Kill A Mockingbird is close to 300, but its such an amazing book that I'd recommend no matter how long it is. The Secret Life of Bees is close to 300 as well and kind of girly, but I (a guy) actually liked it a lot and thought it was really good (pretty sad though).</p>

<p>Yeah we've been reading a lot so far -_-</p>