Light reading books
February 15, 2022 9:32 AM Subscribe
Can you recommend entertaining books for light reading before bed? I'm looking for calm and interesting reads without heavy drama, suspense, conflict or too much dense information/ideas. In the past I've enjoyed James Herriott books (All Creatures Great and Small series), Bill Bryson (Walk in the Woods), and Sherlock Holmes since it is in short self contained chapters. Fiction or non-fiction are both good.
I got a lot of good answers to a similar question a while ago.
posted by gauche at 9:41 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by gauche at 9:41 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
Crome Yellow, my #1 most recommended book to read.
posted by phunniemee at 9:42 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by phunniemee at 9:42 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
You might like Fannie Flagg's books. They're light and a lot of fun, and many of them involve the same characters so it feels like an ongoing story you can drop in on any time. Though my personal favorite is Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man.
posted by Mchelly at 9:46 AM on February 15, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 9:46 AM on February 15, 2022 [4 favorites]
Gerald Durrell's Corfu books and his various short story compilations are the bees' knees especially if you like Bryson. I read pretty much all of Bryson in bed before going to sleep, his work is tailor-made for this purpose.
I posted a similar thread myself, focusing on non-fiction. There are some great recommendations here (including Durrell!).
posted by unicorn chaser at 9:51 AM on February 15, 2022 [7 favorites]
I posted a similar thread myself, focusing on non-fiction. There are some great recommendations here (including Durrell!).
posted by unicorn chaser at 9:51 AM on February 15, 2022 [7 favorites]
Gerald Durrell would be my goto for light, funny entertainment before bed.
Read more on goodreads.
Jinxed by unicorn chaser..
posted by Thug at 10:02 AM on February 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
Read more on goodreads.
Jinxed by unicorn chaser..
posted by Thug at 10:02 AM on February 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
The early Raffles stories (written by Doyle's brother-in-law) might work for this.
Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts is a nonfiction account of the first part of his walk across Europe in the 1930s. There are Nazis about, but mostly it's him doing an incredible job of schmoozing his way through the Continent as a late teenager.
posted by praemunire at 10:06 AM on February 15, 2022
Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts is a nonfiction account of the first part of his walk across Europe in the 1930s. There are Nazis about, but mostly it's him doing an incredible job of schmoozing his way through the Continent as a late teenager.
posted by praemunire at 10:06 AM on February 15, 2022
David Sedaris’s diaries would be good.
posted by something something at 10:07 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by something something at 10:07 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
When my elderly dad had an accident and was in the hospital for a couple of months, I read Vinyl Cafe stories out loud to him. They are light, amusing, good natured short stories about a Toronto family.
I started Dad off with Secrets From the Vinyl Cafe. If you like that one, there are plenty more. I remember that collection in particular because while most VC stories are the gentle chuckle or smile type, the story “Teeth” caught me off guard by being so funny I actually could not continue reading out loud for a minute because I was laughing so hard. So maybe don’t read that story right before bed (but do read it!).
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:13 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
I started Dad off with Secrets From the Vinyl Cafe. If you like that one, there are plenty more. I remember that collection in particular because while most VC stories are the gentle chuckle or smile type, the story “Teeth” caught me off guard by being so funny I actually could not continue reading out loud for a minute because I was laughing so hard. So maybe don’t read that story right before bed (but do read it!).
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:13 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
A Quiet Afternoon edited by Liane Tsui and Grace Seybold. Tagline: "The stakes have never been milder or more reasonable!"
posted by neushoorn at 10:19 AM on February 15, 2022
posted by neushoorn at 10:19 AM on February 15, 2022
I just looked at the other thread gauche referenced and was reminded of Laurie Colwin’s short essay collections Home Cooking and More Home Cooking. They are superb comfort reading: warm, witty, and soothing essays about food, life, and relationships. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read them.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:20 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:20 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
I really loved, We Learn Nothing: Essays, by Tim Kreider. I've read it twice, which I hardly ever do with books.
posted by alex1965 at 10:42 AM on February 15, 2022
posted by alex1965 at 10:42 AM on February 15, 2022
Fiction doesn't get much charmingly lighter than Miss Read. Needn't be read in order.
posted by JanetLand at 10:56 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by JanetLand at 10:56 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
Sticking with the "things that have been adapted for TV and aired on PBS" vibe, Four Faultless Felons is a collection of stories by Chesterton (of Father Brown fame). Also The Man Who Was Thursday. Chesterton can be very problematic at times but IIRC these bypass his worst instincts and let the you enjoy most playful & humane parts of his writing.
Also John Mortimer's Rumpole books.
Enthusiastic seconding of Wodehouse.
Outside of that, Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy is her dealing with real life issues, often hilariously recounted. I read that after it was recommended by Christopher Moore, many of whose books would fit the bill too.
posted by mark k at 11:12 AM on February 15, 2022
Also John Mortimer's Rumpole books.
Enthusiastic seconding of Wodehouse.
Outside of that, Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy is her dealing with real life issues, often hilariously recounted. I read that after it was recommended by Christopher Moore, many of whose books would fit the bill too.
posted by mark k at 11:12 AM on February 15, 2022
If you have any interest in words qua words, Word by Word by Kory Stamper is a fun, fascinating, endlessly wry book.
posted by ejs at 11:30 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ejs at 11:30 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
Kim Newman's horror-historical fiction reinterpretations/remixes are pretty light. Small caveat, since the source material is often the public domain Victorian era/golden age pulp like Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, etc., certain characters may spout the racist/misogynist/ableist attitudes of that era (most prominent with the mildly unreliable narrator villain Sebastian Moran in Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles) but it's not a textual thing.
The Moriarty book and also Angels of Music (some Phantom of the Opera characters with guest appearances from many roughly contemporaneous women of fiction like Irene Adler, who are in a detective's agency together) are broken up into cases and despite gruesome aspects, murder mystery stuff and so on, the tone is predominantly comedic. Lots of sharp and dry humor in the dialogue and narration. There are a lot of footnotes and fictional cameos that are fun. The Anno Dracula series are novels and less easy to divide up.
posted by automatic cabinet at 11:33 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
The Moriarty book and also Angels of Music (some Phantom of the Opera characters with guest appearances from many roughly contemporaneous women of fiction like Irene Adler, who are in a detective's agency together) are broken up into cases and despite gruesome aspects, murder mystery stuff and so on, the tone is predominantly comedic. Lots of sharp and dry humor in the dialogue and narration. There are a lot of footnotes and fictional cameos that are fun. The Anno Dracula series are novels and less easy to divide up.
posted by automatic cabinet at 11:33 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
Gervase Phinn's Dales series are very much in the same vein as James Herriot.
Leo Rosten's Hyman Kaplan stories - "O Kaplan! My Kaplan!" collects them all - are also a favourite here.
(Both of the above have excellent audiobooks too - Phinn reads his own, Rosten read by Kerry Shale.)
posted by offog at 11:58 AM on February 15, 2022
Leo Rosten's Hyman Kaplan stories - "O Kaplan! My Kaplan!" collects them all - are also a favourite here.
(Both of the above have excellent audiobooks too - Phinn reads his own, Rosten read by Kerry Shale.)
posted by offog at 11:58 AM on February 15, 2022
You might like Kerry Greenwood's Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, if you'd like to stick with the short/gentle historical mystery theme, or Anthony Horowitz's Hawthorne and Horowitz mystery series, which is calm enough that I've fallen asleep listening to the audiobooks.
If you're in more of a non-fiction mood, Sam Kean's The Disappearing Spoon (and most of his work generally) is broken up into individual, disconnected short chapters about scientific discoveries and the people who made them. Jessica Pan's Graduates in Wonderland is an epistolary novel of her emails with her friend, which is quite low-stakes and gentle. Geraldine DeRuiter's All Over the Place is also mostly gentle, self-deprecating short stories of her travels.
posted by tautological at 2:32 PM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
If you're in more of a non-fiction mood, Sam Kean's The Disappearing Spoon (and most of his work generally) is broken up into individual, disconnected short chapters about scientific discoveries and the people who made them. Jessica Pan's Graduates in Wonderland is an epistolary novel of her emails with her friend, which is quite low-stakes and gentle. Geraldine DeRuiter's All Over the Place is also mostly gentle, self-deprecating short stories of her travels.
posted by tautological at 2:32 PM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
My spouse is a big Sherlock Holmes fan and also loves P. G. Wodehouse as the go-to thing to read without thinking. It might be worth a try.
posted by eotvos at 3:12 PM on February 15, 2022
posted by eotvos at 3:12 PM on February 15, 2022
A Man Called Ove
Mary Lawson's Crow Lake trilogy
Mary Lawson's A Town Called Solace
Maeve Binchy's books
Totally agree about Wodehouse
Sorry, am on phone so can't link to the above
posted by purplesludge at 4:04 PM on February 15, 2022
Mary Lawson's Crow Lake trilogy
Mary Lawson's A Town Called Solace
Maeve Binchy's books
Totally agree about Wodehouse
Sorry, am on phone so can't link to the above
posted by purplesludge at 4:04 PM on February 15, 2022
Alexander McCall Smith is your man. Try anything, anything at all, that he has written. Wise, kind, funny, generous and gifted guy, with deep insight into the human condition.
posted by ragtimepiano at 4:05 PM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by ragtimepiano at 4:05 PM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
It's an old book, but I've always enjoyed Helen Hoover and her books; "A Place in the Woods" comes to mind. She and her husband gave up corporate jobs back in the late 1950s and 60s, bought a cabin in the Michigan woods, and she wrote about their experiences. There's also "The Gift of the Deer" that I also enjoyed very much.
I find her entertaining, and it's easy to read just a chapter now and again.
posted by annieb at 4:59 PM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
I find her entertaining, and it's easy to read just a chapter now and again.
posted by annieb at 4:59 PM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
I love Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts, but it's the epitome of dense information/ideas. The man was a polymath and his books are absolutely crammed to the gills with obscure geography, comparative linguistics, deep art history, obscure classical literary references, cultural anthropological musings and just about everything else. Sentences can meander for a full paragraph. Great stuff for sure. It could easily put you to sleep, but I wouldn't call it light reading.
posted by Text TK at 6:54 PM on February 15, 2022
posted by Text TK at 6:54 PM on February 15, 2022
My Uncle Silas. Country of the Pointed Firs. Anne of Greene Gables. The Wind in the Willows. And maybe Arthur Ransome? Swallows & Amazons is classic; my personal favorite is Winter Holiday.
posted by Text TK at 7:04 PM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Text TK at 7:04 PM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
If you liked Bill Bryson, particularly his science and history books, try Mary Roach (not sure if that link will work, damn you Amazon for your obfuscated links). She writes (nonfiction) science and history in a totally approachable and understandable way, and she's funny as hell.
posted by Hold your seahorses at 3:48 AM on February 16, 2022
posted by Hold your seahorses at 3:48 AM on February 16, 2022
On the same topic but even older than Helen Hoover is Louise Dickinson Rich's We Took to the Woods.
posted by JanetLand at 6:37 AM on February 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by JanetLand at 6:37 AM on February 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
For me, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is delightful before bed. Funny adventures in another world with some wit. Light, but not too light.
posted by jander03 at 1:11 PM on February 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by jander03 at 1:11 PM on February 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
I've asked a couple questions in this vein before. You might find some of them helpful:
Dear diary: Other people's diaries for light bedtime reading
Soothing books with short chapters for pandemic brain and despair
posted by mostly vowels at 4:14 PM on February 16, 2022
Dear diary: Other people's diaries for light bedtime reading
Soothing books with short chapters for pandemic brain and despair
posted by mostly vowels at 4:14 PM on February 16, 2022
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posted by caek at 9:37 AM on February 15, 2022 [12 favorites]