@ Your Library
I hope all you readers are still making progress on your 2025 reading challenge to read 25 books following 25 different prompts. And if not, today is a great day to start or return to the challenge. And even if you don’t want to participate in the challenge, we hope you will visit the library and borrow a book. Reading can be a very important part of life and help us all relax, know more, become more empathetic and even sleep better. Another reason for adults to read is to show the children in their life that reading can be an activity of choice and that it is one of the many ways we learn throughout our entire lives. Grab a book today and let a child see you reading. If you do most of your reading digitally these days, show your children the screen so they see you are reading.
Today we’ll look at titles that are under 250 pages. That isn’t super short, but not a tome either. Many books are under 250 pages, including lots of juvenile and young adult fiction. So wander over to the young adult shelves, or wander down to the junior room and find a book that interests you.
Try Peter Pan by James Barrie, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis or The Giver by Lois Lowry, all located in the junior room. Try Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton or The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, shelved along the north wall of the library, the young adult section.
Here are some fantasy and science fiction stories that qualify as less than 250 pages. All Systems Red, the first Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
Classics under 250 pages include Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Call of the Wild by Jack London or Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Contemporary novels under 250 pages include Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice or Elevation by Stephen King. And slightly older titles, but not old enough to be called classics yet include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, or Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.
Of course, you are also welcome to read non-fiction titles. So here are a few that are less than 250 pages. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, or The Introvert’s Way: living a quiet life in a noisy world by Sophia Dembling. Or try a memoir like A Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher or Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. And like all recommendations, you are always encouraged to find your own titles as options.