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It's not too late to hit your reading goals for this year

By Kobo • October 04, 2024Recommended Reading

If you bit off more than you can chew with your yearly reading goal, we are here for you

Yearly reading goals are a wonderful way to motivate yourself to read more and it’s so rewarding to achieve them. Sometimes, however, we get ahead of ourselves. Sometimes, life gets in the way. And when this happens, our reading ambition falls to the wayside and with it, our hopes and dreams of meeting our reading goal wither and die. But not this year. This year, we solider on, we strategize. How, you may ask? Below, we’ve compiled a list of some of the shortest books out there that we think you’ll enjoy. Breeze through, even. Additionally, for the longer books in this list, we’ve consulted our reading data. We rounded up the under 300 and under 400 pagers that Kobo readers read the fastest, so that you can do the same. Consider your reading goal crushed.

Under 100 pages

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

64 pages, 1-2 hours to read

Set in a small Irish town during the 1980s in the weeks leading up to Christmas, a local coal merchant uncovers a dark secret hidden within the local convent. This forces him to confront both his own past and the moral complexities of his community. Keegan's keen insight into human nature makes this a thought-provoking read about the quiet power of doing what is right. For only 64 pages, it packs a serious emotional punch.

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Galatea by Madeline Miller

65 pages, 0-1 hours to read

Though not as long as The Song of Achilles and Circe, Madeline Miller’s retelling of the Pygmalion myth is no less compelling. Galatea, a beautiful statue, is brought to life by the skill of her sculptor and the blessing of a goddess. While no longer made of stone, Galatea experiences little freedom, forcibly married to her sculptor and expected to please and obey him. With desires of her own, dreams of independence, and a daughter to rescue, Galatea is determined to break free, whatever the cost.

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Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin

78 pages, 1-2 hours to read

Set in the slow, wintry town of Sokcho, South Korea, Winter in Sokcho follows a young French-Korean woman working as a receptionist in a tired guesthouse. Her monotonous days are upended by the unexpected arrival of a French cartoonist seeking inspiration in the desolate landscape. The two form an unlikely bond, through which shared identities and divided selves, vision and blindness, intimacy and alienation are explored.

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Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke

71 pages, 1-2 hours to read

If you’re looking to be plunged into a nightmare of psychological horror, look no further than Sour Candy. Phil Pendleton and his son Adam seem to be an ordinary father and son, no different from any other, aside from Phil’s leniency with the child. What no one knows is that Phil is a prisoner, and that up until a few weeks ago, he had never seen the child before in his life.

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Finna by Nino Cipri

97 pages, 1-2 hours to read

If you’re into sharp social commentary with a sprinkle of sci-fi, Finna is for you. When a wormhole opens up in a Swedish big-box furniture store, two employees—Ava and Jules, who recently broke up—are thrust into a surreal adventure across multiple dimensions. As they navigate bizarre and dangerous worlds, they must confront their unresolved feelings and work together to find a missing customer.

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Under 200 pages

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

183 pages, 4-5 hours to read

Cozy and reflective, Before the Coffee Gets Cold is set in a small, tucked-away café in Tokyo that offers its visitors the chance to travel back in time. However, there are strict rules to this time travel. Visitors must return from their trip before their coffee gets cold. Through the interconnected stories of four visitors, the novel will leave you wondering: what would you change if you could travel back in time?

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Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

176 pages, 2-3 hours to read

Convenience Store Woman introduces us to Keiko Furukura, a 36-year-old woman who adores her dead-end job at a convenience store in Tokyo and doesn’t understand the concern of her friends and relatives who want her to settle down. When an outsider disrupts her carefully constructed world, she is forced to confront the norms and values of the society around her.

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Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

158 pages, 3-4 hours to read

For those that enjoy a lyrical and deeply emotional read, Open Water explores the tender and tumultuous journey of two young Black artists in London. As they navigate the complexities of love, vulnerability, and identity, their connection deepens amidst the backdrop of a city that often feels unwelcoming.

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A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

127 pages, 3-4 hours to read

Imagine a world where humans and robots coexist in harmony. Seems like a recipe for disaster, right? But for Becky Chambers, it’s an opportunity for a heartwarming and thought-provoking story. A Psalm for the Wild-Built follows Dex, a tea monk seeking purpose, and Mosscap, a robot trying to understand humanity. As they journey together, they explore profound questions about life, purpose, and what it means to be truly content.

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Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

144 pages, 2-3 hours to read

Kim Jiyoung is the most common name for Korean women born in the 1980s. Kim Jiyoung is representative of her generation. Kim Jiyoung is depressed. Kim Jiyoung’s husband sends her to see a psychiatrist. This is his clinical assessment of the everywoman in contemporary Korea. Through her life experiences from childhood through to motherhood, Nam-Joo relects on the systemic gender inequality and the blatant and subtle ways women are marginalized.

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Under 300 pages

Silverview by John le Carré

272 pages, 3-4 hours to read

Spy novel superstar John le Carré knew a thing or two about writing a page-turner, and Silverview is no exception. Julian Lawndsley has just left his city job for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But Julian’s new life is quickly disrupted by a visitor who seems to know a lot about Julian’s family and is too interested in the inner workings of his new business. When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea.

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The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

279 pages, 6-7 hours to read

Imagine Jane Eyre meets Southern Charm, give or take a twist. Boom, you’ve got The Wife Upstairs. The novel follows Jane, a broke, down-on-her-luck dog-walker in a gated community full of wealth and bored housewives. When she meets rich, handsome widower Eddie Rochester, Jane can’t help but see an opportunity for the life and protection she’s always yearned for. As they fall for each other, Jane is haunted by the legend of Eddie's glamourous deceased wife. How can she ever measure up? And can she win Eddie’s heart before her past––or his––catches up?

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The Maid by Nita Prose

288 pages, 2-3 hours to read

Get ready to fall in love with Molly, the endearing and socially awkward hotel maid extraordinaire. Molly passionately lives a life of careful order and cleanliness. But that life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s suspect number one and caught in a web of deception.

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The Night Shift by Alex Finlay

242 pages, 5-6 hours to read

New Year’s Eve 1999. At a Blockbuster Video in New Jersey, four teenagers working late are attacked with only one surviving. Police identify a suspect, the boyfriend of one of the victims, who flees and is never seen again. Fifteen years later, more teenage employees are attacked at an ice cream store in the same town, and again only one makes it out alive. In the aftermath of the latest crime, three lives intersect: the lone survivor of the Blockbuster massacre; the brother of the fugitive accused; and FBI agent Sarah Keller who must delve into the secrets of both nights to uncover the truth about murders on the night shift.

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Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen

288 pages, 4-5 hours to read

Fashion? Fraud? Say less, we’re in. Counterfeit follows Ava Wong, a by-the-book lawyer whose life takes an unexpected turn when she reconnects with her college roommate, Winnie Fang. The shy, awkward girl Ava once knew has been replaced with a confident, luxury-clad woman. The secret to her success? Winnie has developed an ingenious counterfeit scheme and now she needs someone with a U.S. passport and a squeaky clean image to help manage her business. But when their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishes, Ava is left to face the consequences.

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Under 400 pages

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman

368 pages, 6-7 hours to read

Thursday Murder Club fans, unite. Who doesn’t love cozying up and reading these tales cover to cover? In The Bullet That Missed, the Thursday Murder Club are pulled into decade-old cold case that leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers. Then a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit and suddenly the cold case has become red hot. While Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim chase down the clues. But can they solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?

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Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

352 pages, 7-8 hours to read

If you’ve ever dreamed of playing in, or simply attending, Wimbledon, you’ll fly through Carrie Soto is Back. The story follows titular character Carrie Soto, a fiercely competitive and legendary tennis champion. Six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning player named Nicki Chan. At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and attempt to reclaim her record.

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The Housekeeper by Joy Fielding

368 pages, 6-7 hours to read

Dark complexities, trust, deception...are you hooked yet? The Housekeeper centers on Jodi Bishop, a successful real estate agent who hires a housekeeper, the energetic and attractive Elyse Woodley, to care for her aging parents. As Elyse grows closer to Jodi’s parents, Jodi finds herself shut out, only to watch in horror as Elyse takes over their lives.

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Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

368 pages, 6-7 hours to read

Ali Hazelwood is beloved for her all-consuming, sexily scientific romances, and Love on the Brain had readers locked in. When neuroscientist Bee is forced to collaborate with her nemesis, the brooding and enigmatic engineer Levi Ward, sparks fly both in and out of the lab. As they work together, Bee discovers that there might be more to Levi than meets the eye, and their professional rivalry begins to transform into something much deeper.

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The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell

384 pages, 8-9 hours to read

Page-turner and Lisa Jewell might as well be synonymous at this point. When human remains are discovered in the Thames, Detective Samuel Owusu learns the bones are connected to a cold case that left three people dead thirty years ago. Meanwhile, Rachel Rimmer’s husband, has been found dead and the French police need her to answer questions about his past that she doesn’t want to answer. And after fleeing London thirty years ago in the wake of tragedy, Lucy Lamb is back and settling in, until her brother takes off to find the boy from their past whose memory haunts their present. As they all race to discover answers to these convoluted mysteries, they will come to find that they’re connected in ways they could have never imagined.

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