If you feel like your attention span has gone to the dogs, don’t worry – you’re not alone. Countless studies over the past 20 years show that on the whole, our attention spans are indeed getting shorter. The reason? We carry with us at all times the ultimate distraction in our pockets – phones. These dopamine-delivering digital devices are designed to be as addictive as possible, so it’s no wonder we feel compelled to check them every 10 seconds.
Here’s the good news: reading books doesn’t just improve our attention spans, it helps reduce stress, improves sleep and reduces cognitive decline. So if you used to read a lot more before the age of social media, here are 15 short books to help you get back in the habit.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
You might think a story concerning an unorthodox teacher in 1930s Edinburgh would have somewhat limited appeal, but it’s hard to imagine anyone resisting the charms of this endlessly witty and surprisingly complex novel. When Miss Jean Brodie takes five young girls under her tutelage they become “The Brodie Set”, a group enlightened in matters far beyond the school curriculum. It’s impossible not to admire and even love Miss Brodie, but there is a mildly sinister undertone to proceedings, especially when she says things such as, “Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life.”
The Outsider, by Albert Camus
If you’ve ever heard Killing an Arab by The Cure, you know the score. Meursault, after his mother’s funeral and on the verge of heatstroke, shoots and kills an Arab man on an Algiers beach. That, however, was not his only crime. Camus himself summarised The Outsider (or L’Étranger if you want to get all posh about it) in a single sentence: “In our society any man who doesn’t cry at his mother’s funeral is liable to be condemned to death”. A short, endlessly debatable, brilliant book everyone should read at least once.
[ How absurd: the world as Albert Camus saw itOpens in new window ]
Orbital, by Samantha Harvey
One of the shortest books to win the Booker Prize, Orbital is a slim volume with huge scope. Taking place over 24 hours on the International Space Station, it follows six astronauts as they circle the earth and ponder their place in it. Filled with beautiful descriptions of our planet and thoughtful philosophical musings, it is an unexpectedly and unashamedly optimistic book. Just what the doctor ordered, then.
The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James
Hailed by Stephen King as one of “the only two great novels of the supernatural in the last hundred years” (the other being The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson), The Turn of the Screw has terrified readers time and again since its publication in 1898. The now familiar tale of a young governess taking charge of two young children in a haunted manor, it only takes a few pages to fall completely under its spell. It is a book that deserves to be read alone, at night. And when you’re finished, seek out the 1961 film The Innocents – a superior adaptation.
[ ‘Not a place fit for people’: Shirley Jackson and The Haunting of Hill HouseOpens in new window ]
Lady Gregory’s Toothbrush, by Colm Tóibín
Biographies tend to be on the heavier side of the literary page scale. Often dense and bloated affairs, they are more often than not abandoned halfway through and sit gathering dust on your bookshelf. They sit there for years, taunting you. Mocking your lack of resolve. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If you don’t fancy spending six months struggling through a 1,000 page tome on some obscure Bavarian industrialist, you should pick up Lady Gregory’s Toothbrush. A brief yet illuminating portrait of Augusta Gregory, it is shot through with Tóibín’s sharp insight and good humour. And besides all that, how could anyone not want to read a book called Lady Gregory’s Toothbrush?
Three to Kill, by Jean-Patrick Manchette
Every so often you discover an author that impresses you so much you feel compelled to read every book they’ve ever written. Jean-Patrick Manchette is one such author. A French crime novelist who redefined the genre, his effortlessly cool novels are filled with violence, weary detectives, femme fatales, killer dialogue and more than a smattering of social commentary. In Three to Kill, an ordinary guy witnesses a murder before becoming a target himself. With a propulsive plot and some incredible set pieces it is as lean and hard-boiled as they come.
Tokyo Express, by Seicho Matsumoto
If you’ve got a hankering for even more crime, you can’t go wrong with the postwar classic Tokyo Express. When the bodies of a beautiful young couple are discovered in a rocky cove, the police immediately assume it was a double suicide. But of course, that’s just the beginning. Throughout a supremely satisfying investigation you’ll question every alibi and doubt every suspect. You’ll chain-smoke cigarettes and glug pot after pot of coffee whilst cross-referencing Japanese train timetables with sworn witness statements. Because by God you will crack this case, sleep be damned.
A Woman’s Battles and Transformations, by Édouard Louis
Shooting to fame as a literary wunderkind in France with the publication of his debut novel The End of Eddy, Édouard Louis has cemented his position as one of the finest young writers working today. Every new book is as impressive as the last, but A Woman’s Battles and Transformations is arguably his most tender and moving. Tracing his relationship with his mother through childhood and beyond, it is an incredibly empathetic examination of how political and social systems shape and damage our lives. Can easily be finished in a single sitting.
West, by Carys Davies
In the early 19th century, a Pennsylvanian settler embarks on a thousand-mile journey through the unmapped interior of the continent in search of giant monsters he believes to still exist. He leaves behind a 10-year-old daughter, a sister who sees him as a fool, and a sinister, scheming neighbour. In this small Coen-esque western of exploration, discovery and Native displacement, it becomes clear soon enough that you don’t need 600 pages to write an epic.
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, by Nathan Thrall
Winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama is an unflinching look at life under Israeli occupation in the West Bank. The story takes place over a single day, following Abed as he tries to find his son following a tragic accident outside Jerusalem. What follows is a heartbreaking and infuriating examination of the humiliations and injustices faced by Palestinians on a daily basis.
The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
When a woman with post-partum depression (or “nervousness”) is taken by her husband to a country estate to recuperate, her mind begins to unravel. A haunting and moving account of mental illness, it makes for a particularly disquieting audiobook. Just 40 minutes long, it will stick with you long after the credits roll. And yes, before anyone asks, listening to an audiobook counts as reading. If someone suggests otherwise you should immediately cut them out of your life and never speak to them again.
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
When Okonkwo, the greatest warrior and wrestler alive, accidentally kills a fellow clansman he is sent into exile for seven years. Eventually returning to his village he finds it changed by the recent arrival of Christian missionaries; a clash of cultures that can only end in tragedy. Originally published in 1958, and chosen as one of BBC’s 100 Novels That Shaped Our World, it is a devastating critique of the unrepairable damage wrought by white colonialists during the Scramble for Africa.
The Details, by Ia Genberg
You reach a certain age and you realise there’s no great narrative arc to our lives, it’s all just memories and impressions. This is what makes The Details so great – we’re reading about someone else’s memories, but they might as well be our own. As the narrator, under the throes of a fever, revisits the loves and losses of her past, Ia Genberg cleverly exposes universal truths about memory, relationships and the need for human connection.
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
So often a lightning rod in censorship debates, John Steinbeck’s classic was recently back in the headlines when it was removed from the GSCE syllabus in Wales amid “concerns about racism and the use of racial slurs”. This decision has been predictably used as ammunition by one particular side of the Great Culture War. Should this book be banned? Of course not. Should it be taught to young kids in school? Read it yourself and decide.
[ When John Steinbeck visited Ireland to trace his ancestral rootsOpens in new window ]
Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
Has there ever been a book that said so much with so few words? With the release of the film adaptation last year it’s no surprise Small Things Like These was the best selling book in Ireland last year, but its enduring popularity nevertheless suggests something deeper. We all need to reckon with our country’s past, and it’s no exaggeration to say that books such as this play a vital role in helping us do so.
