Start 2021 and the Read Great Things 2021 Challenge off right and mark your short book off the list.
What counts as a short book? Good question. For people who read 900 page books, a 500 pager is going to be a brief adventure, right? We’re willing to be flexible with the definition of “short,” but in general if you want some guidelines, aim for 250 pages or fewer or about 6 hours or shorter for an audiobook.
But wait! What if the audiobook of a short book is longer than 6 hours? Does that count? Sure. For example, Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy (a beautiful book, and available through ILL) is about 250 pages in print and about 8 hours as an audiobook. Does it count if you read it as an audiobook? Sure. (Why not? If you’re going to go to the work of cross referencing page number vs. audio time, we can respect that.)
Do novellas count? It’s a book, so it counts! Have we told you about Murderbot? (Answer: Yes we have and we will over and over again. It also takes place in space– another category!) I’m also loving Nghi Vo’s The Singing Hills Cycle novellas, likely available through your local public library’s Overdrive/Libby collection.
Without further ado, let’s get to the list of short books in a variety of subject areas.
Available at the Main Campus Library (QR 360 .Z65 2011) 
Available at the Main Campus Library (PS 3573 .E4932 A79 2019) 
Available at the Main and Orange County Campus Libraries (P 94 .P63 2006) 
Available at the Main Campus Library (PL 873 .U73 C6613 2018) 
Available at the Main and Orange County Campus Libraries (RC 280 .C6 B68 2018) 
Available at the Main Campus Library (BF 408 .C645 2019) 
Available at the Main Campus Library (PS 3558 .A8378 A6 2015) 
Available at the Main Campus Library Graphic Novel Collection (Q 172.5 .P77 C86 2013) 
Available at the Main Campus Library in the Phail Wynn Collection (HM 883 .K38 2018) 
Available at the Main Campus Library (PS 3552 .A45 I4 2006) 
Available at the Main Campus Library (PL 865 .O7138 K5813 2006) 
Available at the Main Campus Library (BD 171 .B53 2018) 
Available at the Orange County Campus Library (PS 3555 .L5965 A6 2019) 
Available at the Main Campus Library (PS 3563 .O8749 S8 2004) 
Available at the Main Campus Library (PS 3619 .O43724 D44 2019) 
Available at the Main Campus Library (QH 331 .T45 1978) 
Available at the Main Campus Library (QL 81 .A24 1992) 
Available at the Main Campus Library (PZ 7 .O8685 Slo 2014)
I’d also like to remind you of the wonderful A Very Short Introduction series where, in under 150 pages, you can learn about ethics, demography, sociology, modern architecture, fairy tales, law, film noir, among the 156 books we have across our three campuses.
Want to check one of these books out? You can either request it yourself through the catalog or contact us and we can grab it for you and schedule a time for you to come get it.
Happy (brief) reading! And remember that any of these books fit into our favorite category– A book suggested by a Durham Tech Library staff member or on the Library blog!
