A couple of times a year, Friends of the Memphis Library - a volunteer organization that supports the work of our local library system - puts on a book sale. The sale is one of the Library’s biggest community fundraisers and is anticipated by book lovers throughout the city. As you can see in this picture from this weekend, the sale brings me personally tremendous joy.
Shopping a rare used book sale is a competitive sport and, as you can imagine, your ultimate success is very much a question of luck. However, this year I went in with the strategy that served me so well that I thought it was worth sharing: I went looking for TINIES.
TINIES is my word for short books around ~200 pages or so - short novels, novellas, short story or essay collections. I am a newcomer to TINIES on account of growing up with the idea that good books must be BIG books. Thankfully, with age I have liberated myself from the notion that in order for reading to matter, it must be dense, obtuse and literally HEAVY… So, tinies:
Tiny books get you into the story FAST which, in my experience, makes them perfect for times when you are busy, distracted, spaced out or otherwise unfocused. I love reading tinies on hectic work weeks when I know that I can’t necessarily settle in, slow down, give myself the time to sink into a novel, etc.
Shorter books trigger an embarrassingly high AND healthy dopamine spike for me. I think that the experience of reaching the end of something relatively quickly is what makes this feel so satisfying — the almost literal opposite of the infinite scroll. If algorithmic social media is endless, ephemeral and anxiety inducing, then reading a short book is tangible, tactile, finishable and calming. If you are in a scrolling-induced reading slump, pick up a tiny.
Speaking of scrolling, there is a reason why we all scroll so much - our phones are so f-cking convenient, cute and available. I used to think that if I had time to kill, I would just open my Kindle app on my phone and ta-daaa… READ. But what actually happens is that the moment I touch the device, I am scrolling. I have zero self control. The only way for me not to scroll is to not touch the phone. So, instead, I bring a little book. People ask me… isn’t it ridiculous to always be bringing a book… to which I say…. Well, a BIG book may be a little awkward… but not a TINY one. Plus, isn’t it ridiculous that we are always bringing our phones?! Just the other day I caught myself picking up my phone as I moved between floors in my two-story house. THAT’s insane. Throwing a little book in your bag is not. Before leaving the house, I used to say to myself keys, wallet, phone. I now say keys, wallet, phone, book. That’s all.
So, to move this conversation into our favorite part - the actual BOOK part - here are the tinies I found at the Friends of the Library Sale this weekend! These are not all the books that I bought, but I was specifically browsing for tiny spines and had a lot of fun enlisting my daughter in helping me find them.
A lost lady by Willa Cather - currently reading The Professor’s House which is really great, so I literally squealed when I saw this. 173 pages
The member of the wedding by Carson McCullers. 153 pages
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. 114 pages
The Metamorphosis and other stories by Franz Kafka. 88 pages
I am so excited about all of them! Especially because they are not only tiny books but also classic titles, which I am trying to read more of this year!
Other tinies that I have read and enjoyed recently include:
Foster and Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan - Keegan’s work is exquisite and I am currently “saving” So Late In The Day for a special day when I am sad, when I need my heart broken in a good way, when I am in a reading slump and need to be shaken back into reading shape, etc. If you are a tinies-sceptic, I dare you to read any one of these titles and then report back.
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata - I reviewed this last month. It was just oddball and delightful. I can’t stop thinking about it.
Clear by Carys Davies - JUST read this past weekend and I am totally obsessed! More in my April reading wrap up next week.
The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt
As I am writing this list of tinies that I have read and loved, I am also realizing that tinies are the perfect book to re-read. As I get older, I am becoming more and more interested in re-reading books that I read when I was younger because I am now realizing how much of what I read went completely over my head due to lack of life experience. However, I also know that there are so many amabooks that I have never read that I am dying to read and thus typically prioritize reading non-repeats. But good tinies would be an entirely different story… so fast to begin with, they would be 2x more delicious the second time around. I am pretty confident that I will be re-reading Clear by Carys Davies very soon.
A question for you:
Did I convince you to give tinies a try?
If you did not need convincing, which are some of your favorite titles?
Not usually a fan of "tinies" - I prefer the big ginormous book that I can be lost in forever (you know, 3-5 days - ha!). However! That's not to say I haven't tried a hand at a few over the years.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
All Systems Red - Martha Wells (5 of 7 of the books are tinies)
The Body - Stephen King (the inspiration for Stand by Me)
I am Legend - Richard Matherson
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
For a Breath I Tarry - Roger Zelazny
Too Loud a Solitude - Bohumil Hrabal
Assembly - Natasha Brown
Answers in the Pages - David Levithan (YA)
Dear Martin - Nic Stone (technically not a novella at 224 pages, but still good)
on my TBR list for recommended novella:
This Is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata
The Hole - Hiroko Oyamada
Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri is definitely one of those small books that are actually ginormous.