Ask Lemmy

I have just the book for you!... Ah, finish in a day, nevermind.

Someone else already suggested it, but I would second Terry Pratchett. Even though most of the books are standalone, I recommend start with the Colour of Magic and follow publication order.

Best? Hard to say. But favorite?

Galactic Pot-Healer by Philip K. Dick. It's quite short, like many of his books, and you could absolutely knock it out in a day.

Roadside Picnic. it's a story of unmanaged survivors guilt, in an increasingly desperate and accurately depicted Soviet dystopia, where the players hustle and vie for mediocre survival even in an exceptionally bizarre, hostile, and literally alien environment, just as they would in any other terrestrial conflict zone.

There's a good reason it spawned an epic film and 4 outstanding games so far

The Coldfire Trilogy

I don’t know…I read a lot of good books often.

I guess you could say my options are booked.

I've never read a fictional book. They don't exist. hurhurhur

But seriously, I did kind of enjoy reading the Manifold series (Origin, Space, Time) by Stephen Baxter way back when. If you're a quick reader, I reckon you could probably zip through one of the novels in a day.

And I'd recommend reading at least a couple in order to get to know the characters, because then you could pick up the short story anthology set in the same multiverse (Phase Space), where for some you'd only need half an hour.

(Baxter has a bunch of other books and short stories - the Xeelee Sequence springs to mind - but I never got around to those, so have no idea how long the novels are, or whether they're any good.)

I know they're not everyone's cup of tea, but The Stormlight Archive books speak to me like no other books ever have. They're a huge time investment, but they're all about the journey, not the destination. 😉

Basically most Terry Pratchett books really. Some will take more than a day, but it's like a mix of Lord of the Rings and Monty Python. Whimsical and silly with some good moments that make you think.

I would recommend checking out audio books as a medium for reading. It allows you to increase the speed to whatever works for you, so 2x for me, and listen to a lot more in a day. It also frees you to listen at any times you have nothing cognitive happening, so dishes, washing, cleaning, etc.

As for single day books, the first book of the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor. I loved the whole series including the recently released 5th book and the first is only 9.5 hours at normal speed, so about 4.75 at double speed.

Also All Systems Red is the first book in the Murderbot series by Martha Wells. The perspective of a SecUnit, a type of sentient cyborg, which has hacked its own programming and removed its limiters so it can act freely. This means no guard rails, no rules, no limits, which results in lots of TV shows being watched and avoiding humans. It is snarky, fun, and interesting. It comes in at 3.5 hours normal time, so 1.75 at double speed.

A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers easily can be finished in a day.

Then Murderbot series by Martha Wells. They are fun, yet insightful and novellas. Easily finished in a day too.

Do androids dream of electric sheep by Philip K. Dick. It's the basis for the blade runner movie. Short, easy to read.

Blood Meridian is critically acclaimed and you could read it in a day. I only got around to reading it last winter despite my "litbro" friends recommending it for years. It's very violent but the prose style is really unique and original. The plot is kind of Moby Dick-esque where it examines mankind's place in nature (mixed with a fair amount of Heart of Darkness).

Actually Heart of Darkness is extremely worth reading and it is probably less of an ordeal. Maybe start with that if you haven't read it. Conrad spoke like 5 languages and English was the ~3rd he learned so he has a very interesting prose style.

Fahrenheit 451, really awesome dystopia that predicted a lot of things in our modern era

"Short enough to finish in a day" seems pretty tough for me, but maybe I read slowly.

Short story books are good for casual reading in short sessions. Robot Dreams by Asimov, or Welcome to the Monkey House by Vonnegut. I used to carry each of those around and read a short story while waiting at a restaurant or at the DMV or whatever.

I really liked Altered Carbon. Approachable sci fi with drugs, violence, sex, politics, and of course high tech ideas like flying cars, AI hotels, digital consciousness.

The Culture by Ian M. Banks. It's a little difficult to approach, but an incredible exploration of Sci-Fi, humanity, AI, and life in general. Unlike a lot of other great Sci-Fi (like The Expanse, which I also highly recommend) it's gritty, but overall The Culture is a hopeful and optimistic take on the progress of humanity and technology.

The best books are The Player of Games, Look to Windward, and Excession.

Depending on how you're feeling, I think you can skip The State of the Art, Matter, and Inversions, though they're worth an eventual read. They're just less connected to the main Culture story.

It's a series that truly changed me and my perspective on life.

If you're into short stories the Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury is a good one.

And while I didn't read much Issac Asimov myself my wife, who loves reading but dislikes sci-fi, read one of his books (Foundation) in a day and said he's an excellent writer.

Completely ignoring your "short enough to finish in a day" instruction, try out Worm

For you, I'd suggest 'I, Robot,' by Isaac Asimov.

It's a short story collection with a bunch of logic puzzles. the writing is clear and easy to follow and the conundrums are engaging.

Recently, I finished Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_(Asimov_novel) It's a collection of a few stories, so you can read it one by one.

A couple of my favorite books are probably longer than a day’s read:

• Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut (319p)
• The Watermelon King - Daniel Wallace (240p)

Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf is a short book about the adventures of an alienated young man in a big city. Hesse also wrote a really good novella about Buddha titled Siddharta.

Ray Bradbury’s Mars Chronicles is a collection of short stories around the settlement of Mars.

Cryptonomicon. It's not really a short book, but it's easily digestible as it has clear divisions where it is suitable to take a break.

The way the WW2 plot and the 90's-plot intertwine is so much fun to read, especially since the 90's characters are descendants of the ww2 characters.

And of course GEB Kavistik would grow up to be a pretentious cunt...

The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear

I think Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes fits the bill. Not too long and has punched everybody I've recommended it to in the guts.

It's a super generic choice, but Catch-22 (if you're looking for something less generic, Heller also wrote the more obscure Something Happened that focuses his satirical prowess on 1960s family life, but that's a longer book). It's just so effortlessly funny.

Rn I'm currently rereading The Inheritance Cycle, it's fantasy, but it goes very in depth, there are your different races, elves, "orcs", dwarves, you got dragons, there are different languages that the author made, its very good. Of course I might be biased since I'm rereading it rn lmao

Edit: I did not read the bit about reading it in a day. I guess you could if you read fast

My favorite easy fiction that helps me unwind is Agatha Christie mysteries. There is a reason she is the greatest mystery ŵritwr of all time. She sets up compelling situations and makes her way to a damn satisfying conclusion by the end.

A few of her shorter but still excellent stories: The Secret Adversary N or M The Unexpected Guest 3 Blind Mice Halloween Party Murder of Roger Akcroyd

Also if you like Mysteries I have to plug my all time favorite: 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

It is a great mystery in which the protagonist wakes up with no memories and has 8 chances to solve a murder.

"Best" often is a literary work that can be slow to read and/or very long. You want stuff that is short and quick, which is fine, I read a lot of fanfiction for that purpose. But I'm going to recommend Pohl and Kornbluth's "The Space Merchants" and their other short novels from that era (1950s). Their cynicism is absolutely prescient. The Space Merchants is about a world run by advertising agencies. A quick read while hard hitting.

The Broken Earth series, Enders game series (the first 5 books about Ender), American Gods, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and the follow up A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, The Kingkiller Chronicle (we've been waiting 10+ yrs for the final book 3, some folks are pretty irked atp, but it will be ok). If you want YA beach reading, anything by Seanan McGuire / Mira Grant for easy fun books about fairies, cryptids, and zombies.

I was entranced by the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brien. Sailing ships, adventure, and a little romance.

Robert Silverberg's "The man in the maze" is a cool science-fiction book based on the Greek play Philoctetes. Iirc it's a very short story (maybe about one or two hundred pages), I don't remember the exact length but I recall reading it in one sitting. It is a very character-driver story where the "maze" itself is an allegory about mankind, isolation and disability, but it is very much enjoyable as a casual read as well.

The protagonist ("man in the maze") is an astronaut who has been somehow cursed to always radiate its emotions in such a way that others, even his family, find repulsive, so he self-exiles to a remote and long-dead planet to live the rest of his life in isolation. But when an alien species makes hostile contact with humans, he is needed again, as his "curse" is the only way to properly communicate with them and maybe convince them that humans are sentient beings and thus their equals.

The Fifth Season may take a bit longer than a day, but it’s worth it.

Not sure about the length, but Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End is one of my favorite works of speculative fiction that really aged well so far.