Short enough to finish in one plane, train, or car ride. Meaningful enough to stick with you throughout your travels.
Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed
Dubliners by James Joyce
Page Count: 236
Excerpt:"He lived at a little distance from his body, regarding his own acts with doubtful side-glances. He had an odd autobiographical habit which led him to compose in his mind from time to time a short sentence about himself containing a subject in the third person and a verb in the past tense."
Joyce's short story collection focuses on the details of ordinary life in early 20th century Dublin. The stories are quiet, of simple people with humble ambitions in the moment of epiphany, and planted in a city at once grotesque and beautiful.
Flickr: holgalicious / Creative Commons
Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo
Page Count: 209
Excerpt: "People in free societies don't have to fear the pathology of the state. We create our own frenzy, our own mass convulsions, driven by thinking machines that we have no final authority over. The frenzy is barely noticeable most of the time. It's simply how we live.”
Protagonist and asset manager Eric Packer rides across Manhattan to get to his hair appointment, and along the way he's confronted by the danger and decadence of the city and, specifically, his Wall Street lifestyle. The 28-year-old billionaire's journey never takes him out of the city (and barely out of his limo), but it's an odyssey in its own right, with some risky business deals, a dangerous threat, and plenty of sex.
Simon and Schuster / Via eveningstarbooks.info
A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
Page Count: 207
Excerpt: “I called Monsieur Menicucci, and he asked anxiously about my pipes. I told him they were holding up well. 'That pleases me,' he said, 'because it is minus five degrees, the roads are perilous, and I am fifty-eight years old. I am staying at home.' He paused, then added, 'I shall play the clarinet.'"
Peter Mayle turned a lifelong dream into reality when he and his wife relocated from Britain to Provence, France. He let all of us readers live vicariously through that move when he created this celebratory autobiographical novel. It tracks the couple's first year in a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in essentially the middle of nowhere, along with all of the unexpected wonders and obstacles of country life.
Vintage / Via amazon.com
