Books that can be read in a couple of hours

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Reading is useful, great, necessary, even if there is no free time at all. We have prepared a list of books that can be read in just 2-3 hours.

1. "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

“The old man threw the forest, stepped on it, lifted the harpoon as high as he could, and with all the strength that he had and which he was able to collect at that moment, thrust the harpoon into the fish's side, just behind its huge pectoral fin, towering high above the sea to the level of a human chest. He felt the iron enter the pulp, and, leaning against the harpoon, thrust it deeper and deeper, helping himself with all the weight of his body.

And then the fish came to life, although it already carried death in itself - it rose high above the water, as if boasting of its enormous length and width, all its beauty and power. She seemed to be hanging in the air above the old man and the boat. Then she crashed into the sea, flooded with streams of water and the old man, and his entire boat."

2. "Roadside Picnic", Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

“No, guys, it's hard to describe this thing, if someone hasn't seen it, it's very simple in appearance, especially when you look closely and finally believe your eyes. It's like describing a glass to someone or, God forbid, a glass: you just move your fingers and curse from complete impotence. Okay, we will assume that you understood everything, and if someone did not understand, take the institute's "Reports" - there in any issue of the article about these "dummies" with photographs …"

3. "Omon Ra", Victor Pelevin

“The rocket mock-up was assembled rather tentatively, in some places it was even simply hammered out of planks, and only the crew's workplaces exactly repeated the real ones. All this was intended for practical exercises, which Mitko and I were not supposed to begin soon. But despite this, we were transferred to live deep down, into a spacious box with two paintings depicting windows with a panorama of Moscow under construction. There were seven bunks, and Mitko and I realized that we would soon be replenished."

4. "Unadorned Cat" by Terry Pratchett

“Just as keg beer has replaced good old ale, in recent years, many people have begun to favor standardized cats devoid of any individuality. And even though their faceless pets are full of health and shine from vitamins, they are not suitable for real cats either. The Real Cat movement aims to help people distinguish true felines from all the tailed beasts of popular culture. This is why our book was written - in defense of true cats and against barrel cats."

5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

“And then one Thursday, after the rain, almost two thousand years after one man was nailed to a tree for the fact that he called at least sometimes, just for a change, to treat each other in an amicable way, a certain the girl, sitting alone at a table in a small cafe in Rickmansworth, suddenly thought of what was the whole problem and how the world can still be made the abode of happiness and peace. This time it's all in the bag, everything will certainly work out - and no nails and nailed living people to trees and other objects!"

6. Adrian Mole's Secret Diary by Sue Townsend

“Today the drawing class was incredibly interesting. I drew a lonely guy standing on a bridge. His first love just cheated on him with his former best friend. Former best friend walks in a stormy river. The guy watches him drown. The ex-best friend looks a little like Nigel, and the guy looks a little like me. Miss Fossington-Gore said there is depth to my painting. The river is also deep. Ha! Ha! Ha!"

7. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

“Covered somewhere near Barstow, at the edge of the desert. I remember saying something like: "My head is spinning, get behind the wheel." And suddenly a terrible roar was heard from all sides, the sky was filled with some huge bats, screeching and diving and soaring around our convertible, which with the roof down, rushed to Las Vegas at a speed of one hundred and sixty kilometers per hour. There was a cry: “Oh my God! What kind of creature is this ?!"

8. Amsterdam, Ian McEwan

Poor Molly. It began with a tingling sensation in her hand as she hailed a taxi at the Dorchester Restaurant; this sensation never passed. After a few weeks, she could hardly remember the words. “Parliament”, “chemistry”, “propeller” she could forgive herself, but “cream”, “bed”, “mirror” - it was worse. When Acanthus and Bresaola temporarily disappeared, she went to the doctor, expecting to be reassured. However, she was sent for examination, and, one might say, she never returned from there. How quickly the fighting Molly became a sick prisoner of her gloomy owner-husband George. Molly, food critic, photographer, woman of inexhaustible wit, daring gardener, lover of the foreign secretary, able to walk easily at forty-six years of age. Everyone was talking about her rapid plunge into madness and pain: loss of control over the shipments, and with it - and sense of humor, and then - a gradual eclipse with episodes of powerless rampage and muffled screams."

9. Catcher in the Rye by Jerome D. Salinger

- When you overcome all these Mr. Vinsons, you will begin to come closer and closer - of course, if you want, if you strive for this, wait for it - you will come closer to the knowledge that will become very, very dear to your heart. And then you will find that you are not the first in whom people and their behavior caused confusion, fear and even disgust. You will understand that you are not alone in feeling this way, and it will please you, support you. Many, very many people have experienced the same confusion in matters of moral, spiritual, that you are experiencing now. Fortunately, some of them recorded their experiences. You will learn a lot from them - if, of course, you want to. Just like others will learn from you someday if you have something to say to them. Mutual help is great. And it is not only about knowledge. She is in poetry. She's in history.

10. "Remembering My Poor Sluts" by Gabriel García Márquez

“On the day I turned ninety years old, I decided to make myself a present - a night of crazy love with a young virgin. I remembered Rosa Cabarcas, the owner of the underground dating house, who in the old days, having got hold of a "fresh" girl, immediately notified her good clients about it. I was not tempted by her vile proposals, she did not believe in the purity of my principles. "Morality is a matter of time," she used to say with a malicious grin, "the time will come, you will see for yourself."

11. White Fang, Jack London

“Time passed, and love, which arose from inclination, grew stronger and stronger. White Fang began to feel it himself, albeit unconsciously. Love made itself felt with a feeling of emptiness, which persistently, eagerly demanded filling. Love brought with it pain and anxiety that only subsided at the touch of the new god's hand. In those moments, love became joy - an unbridled joy that pervades the entire being of White Fang. But as soon as God left, the pain and anxiety returned and White Fang was again seized by a feeling of emptiness, a feeling of hunger, imperiously demanding satisfaction."

12. "Mashenka", Vladimir Nabokov

“Sighing, he looked with a quiet smile at her raised face and could not answer her, when, clutching his shoulders, she in a flying voice - not the same old nasal whisper - prayed, all flew away in words:“Yes, tell me me at last - do you love me? " But noticing something in his face - a familiar shadow, involuntary severity - she again remembered that she needed to charm - with sensitivity, perfume, poetry - and again began to pretend to be a poor girl, or an exquisite courtesan."

13."Notes of a Young Doctor", Mikhail Bulgakov

“A lightning lamp with a twisted tin shade burned hot, with two horns. On the operating table, on a white, fresh-smelling oilcloth, I saw her, and the hernia faded in my memory.

Blond, slightly reddish hair hung from the table in a tangled, dried tang. The braid was gigantic, and the end of it touched the floor.

The calico skirt was torn, and the blood on it was of a different color - a brown stain, a greasy, scarlet stain. The light of the "lightning" seemed to me yellow and alive, and her face was papery, white, her nose was pointed.

On her white face, like a plaster of paris, motionless, a truly rare beauty was extinguished. Not always, not often, you see such a face."

14. "Nero Corleone", Elke Heidenreich

“And on such a day Madonna lamented. There were four kittens, and for the first time among them was one black - pitch black, like a raven's wing. No, not entirely black: the right foreleg was white. But that is not all. It was un maschio, boy, man, cat. Black cat, born on Friday, November 17th, under thunder and lightning, at noon, high noon. Oh oh. They named him Nero. Nero means black.

15. "Suitcase", Sergey Dovlatov

“I have to start with a frank confession. I practically stole these boots …

Two hundred years ago, the historian Karamzin visited France. Russian emigrants asked him:

- What, in a nutshell, is happening at home?

Karamzin didn't even need two words.

- They steal, - answered Karamzin …

Indeed, they steal. And every year everything grows wider."

16. Animal Farm by George Orwell

“Remove a person from the scene, and the cause of hunger and overwork will disappear forever. Man is the only creature that consumes without producing anything. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to carry a plow, he is too slow to catch rabbits. And yet he is the supreme master over all animals. He drives them to work, he gives them enough food to feed them so that they do not suffer from hunger - all the rest remains in his possession."

17. "Pyshka", Guy de Maupassant

“The conversation was, of course, about the war. They talked about the atrocities of the Prussians, about the courage of the French; and all these people, who fled from the enemy themselves, extolled the valor of others. Then they turned to the personal affairs of each, and then Pyshka, with genuine excitement and with the fervor with which such girls sometimes express their natural impulses, told why she had left Rouen.

“At first I thought to stay,” she said. - My house was full of all sorts of supplies, and I would rather feed a few soldiers than leave my homeland, God knows where. But as soon as I saw these Prussians - I feel: no, I can't stand it! My blood just boiled. All day I cried with shame. Oh, if I were a man, I would show them!.. If my maid did not hold my hands, when I looked out of the window at these fat hogs in pointed helmets, I would have thrown all my furniture in their backs … Then several people from They came to me to wait, but I was the first to grab my throat. Well, isn't a German just as easy to strangle as anyone else? I would have finished him off if I hadn't been pulled by my hair. Well, after that I had to hide … And as soon as the opportunity presented itself, I left."

18. "The Kid and Carlson", Astrid Lindgren

“In the city of Stockholm, on the most ordinary street, in the most ordinary house, lives the most ordinary Swedish family by the name of Svanteson. This family consists of the most ordinary dad, the most ordinary mother and three most ordinary guys - Bosse, Bethan and the Kid."

19. "Ten Little Indians" by Agatha Christie

“Philip Lombard only had one glance to form an impression of the girl opposite: pretty, but something in her from the teacher … Cold-blooded and certainly knows how to stand up for herself - both in love and in life. And she, perhaps, should be dealt with …

He frowned. No, no, now is not the time. Business is business. Now we need to focus on work."

20. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

“And in fact: what does Time smell like? By dust, by hours, by man. And if you think about what it is - Time that is - by ear? It is like water flowing in a dark cave, like calling voices, like the rustle of earth falling on the lid of an empty box, like rain. Let's go even further, ask, what does Time look like? It is like snow flying silently into a black well, or an old silent film in which one hundred billion faces, like Christmas balls, fall down, fall into nothing. This is what Time smells like and this is how it looks and sounds."

21. "Gifts of the Magi", O. Henry

“The Magi, those who brought gifts to the baby in the manger, were, as you know, wise, amazingly wise people. It was they who started the fashion of making Christmas gifts. And since they were wise, then their gifts were wise, perhaps even with the agreed right of exchange in case of unsuitability. And here I told you an unremarkable story about two stupid children from an eight-dollar apartment who in the most unwise way sacrificed their greatest treasures for each other. But let it be said for the edification of the sages of our day that of all the donors, these two were the wisest. Of all who offer and receive gifts, only those like them are truly wise. Everywhere and everywhere. They are the Magi."

22. Study in Crimson by Arthur Conan Doyle

“In England I had no close friends or relatives, and I was free like the wind, or rather, like a man who is supposed to live on eleven shillings and sixpence a day. Under such circumstances, I naturally aspired to London, to this huge dustbin, where idlers and lazy people from all over the empire inevitably end up. In London I lived for some time in a hotel on the Strand and eked out an uncomfortable and meaningless existence, spending my pennies much more freely than I should have. Finally, my financial situation became so threatening that I soon realized that it was necessary either to flee the capital and vegetate somewhere in the village, or to decisively change my way of life. Having chosen the latter, I first decided to leave the hotel and find myself some more unassuming and less expensive accommodation."

23. The Trial, Franz Kafka

"He was always inclined to take everything extremely lightly, admitted that things were bad only when it really became very bad, and he was used to not doing anything in advance, even if a threat was imminent."

24. Waffle Heart by Maria Parr

“Actually, Lena has green eyes and seven freckles on her nose. She is very thin. Grandfather says that she is a horse-girl, although she looks more like a bicycle. And Lena loses to everyone in the fight in her arms, but this is simply because everyone is dying, she says.

I myself, in my opinion, look like everyone else, I have blonde hair and a dimple on my cheek. Only the name is unusual in me, but this is not visible from the outside. Mom and Dad named me Theobald Rodrik. And they immediately regretted it. It's not good to give a little kid such a big name. But it was too late: what's done is done. So I have already lived by Theobald Rodrik Danielsen Uttergård for nine years. And this is a lot. This is my whole life."

25. It's Good to Be Quiet by Stephen Chbosky

“I don’t know how rumors spread around the school and why they are so often confirmed. It seems that it was in the dining room. I do not remember exactly. Dave looked through his ridiculous glasses and said: “Michael committed suicide. His mother was playing bridge with one of the neighbors, and they heard a shot."

I don’t remember exactly what happened to me later, only my older brother rushed into the director’s office and said: “Don’t be limp.” And then he hugged me by the shoulders and said: "Pull yourself together before my father comes home."