It’s less than a month now until Novellas in November (#NovNov23) begins, so Cathy and I are getting excited and making plans. I gathered up all of my potential reads of under 200 pages for a photo shoot, in rough categories as follows:
Library Haul
Short Classics (pre-1980)
Novellas in Translation
Short Nonfiction
Contemporary Novellas
I’m still awaiting various library holds, including Western Lane by Chetna Maroo, one of our buddy reads for the month; and Ferdinand: The Man with the Kind Heart by Irmgard Keun, which would do double duty for German Literature Month.
I read 29 novellas in November 2021 and 24 in November 2022. I wonder how many I’ll manage this year.
Spy any favourites or a particularly appealing title in my piles? Give me a recommendation for what I should be sure to try to get to!
Have any novellas lined up to read next month?
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
There are no words … but you have more than enough here …
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like having lots to choose from! When the time comes I can pick up what I feel in the mood for.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re incorrigible.
LikeLike
Just singling out one (though actually it’s two) from these large piles: Quicksand and Passing. I read them almost a decade ago but I remember both so well, particualrly Passing. Happy reading, as ever!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I read Passing last year for the 1929 Club, so it’s Quicksand that would be on the docket.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So many good ones (They, Mrs Caliban, Woodrell, Naspini to pick out a few), but I see no Beryl B! It would be lovely if you could tie in to my BBRW for mid-late Nov.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really want to read They and Mrs Caliban as I treated myself to them in a Faber sale. And of course you passed on the Naspini to me and I need to get to it this year since I didn’t last time.
Sorry about that! After I did the photo shoot I found my copy of The Birthday Boys and added it to the pile, and I’m awaiting a library hold of The Girl in the Polka-Dot Dress.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yay!
LikeLike
[…] You can check out Rebecca’s reading plans for the month here. […]
LikeLike
Your piles are putting my small stack to shame! Lots of amazing choices here. I have a copy of Winter’s Bone and didn’t realise is was under 200 pages, so I might sneak that in if I have time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve seen the film (ages ago) but have only read one book by Woodrell before, The Outlaw Album, a short story collection. I think the book is 180 pages or so.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I must dig it out.
LikeLike
Woof, there are loads to choose from here! I’m hoping to get to some novellas in November—I haven’t started planning yet, as my strategy is to go to the library late in October and pick up a smattering. Are we counting the upper page limit as 200, or 150? I seem to recall it was the latter in the past, but could be wrong there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’re saying 200 pages as an absolute upper limit. The designation of a novella is by word count, which is often hard for a reader to tell. I tend to gravitate towards the super-short books and cram as many in as possible, but there will also be many gems in that 180-200-page range. Hope you find some good stuff!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, that makes sense! Thank you 🙂
LikeLike
Gosh, what a wonderful collection of possibilities! Nothing like a good novella and I’ll look forward to seeing what you choose!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I certainly won’t run out 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have a Nouwen in my stacks I keep meaning to get to. But, I mean, you could never go to the library again and have plenty to get you through November and far beyond!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is true! I probably have enough unread books in the house to keep me going for a year and a half. The problem is that I keep acquiring more, and borrowing from the library…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I might be a bit confused… These categories (contemporary, classics, translated etc) AS WELL AS the prompts you put in the announcement post (ie. What is a Novella? Long and Short of It etc etc)? Maybe I haven’t read the instruction properly!
LikeLike
No, this has just been my own way of organising my piles for the past year, long before we agreed on the new prompts. They’d be overwhelming otherwise (as if they aren’t anyway!). I’ll mix and match from the stacks as I think about how to coincide with the weekly themes.
LikeLike
Gathering Moss appeals to me as I keep meaning to read Braiding Sweetgrass but am put off by the length!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Braiding Sweetgrass is long, yes, and best read at a relaxed pace, one essay at a time as a bedside book maybe. I can hardly believe it’s 10 years old as it still has such strong word-of-mouth momentum.
I hope Gathering Moss will be a little more accessible, but I don’t expect it to be a quick win for November.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Whoo hoo! Lots to choose from there, amazing piles! I have read a few of them, I’ll be interested to see what you make of The Three of Us if you decide to read that. I wasn’t going to make my pile but now I want to!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was surprised to see that it came in at novella length. I think it’s been described as almost play-like in its construction?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hm, it’s in three acts (from the three perspectives) and they are in the kitchen talking then flitting back to other events through the years, so maybe. I remember it being quite short but I read it on e-book so didn’t know how long it was. I have made a pile but saving it for if I have a gap in my blogging schedule …
LikeLike
I methodically strode the stacks to pull all the novellas at the library here and found three (all new to me, there were a couple of others I’ve already read) and I hope to put in some more requests for novella ILLs (I asked for one already, and it’s terrific) too.
I loved the Grumbach, Ehrlich, and Dillards in your NF stack; that Moss book will take some tiiiiiime, don’t be fooled by the size of it (I was, and bought a copy because I couldn’t finish it in the three-week loan period and it was constantly on demand heheh). Bear I love, Desperate Characters and Gate of Angels I’ve had on my TBR forever…oh, there’s a lot of overlap with your contemporary stack and my shelves (but most aren’t books I was considering for this November, I understand you are going by page count though). I hope you have a lot of great reads ahead of you for the event and that it makes for a nice wind-up to December’s longer reads too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m surprised you only found three on your trawl! I hope ILL turns up some more goodies for you.
I’m so looking forward to all of those you mentioned. I know from Braiding Sweetgrass that her work is dense and best read in small doses, so maybe I’d start that one on 1st Nov. and read it through the whole month.
LikeLike
It’s a very small library and I had already read three or four; it’s strange, but also fun, just to wander along and pull out the skinniest books. I’ve got a “shelf” saved in the Toronto library, so I’ll request some of those as I return the current ILLs, if we’re not back there later in October.
I’ve pulled Moss from the shelf and there are twenty pieces, a few that I can imagine reading in a session, others that would be good in two; I might try the same approach depending on my mood Nov 1st! (What does that mean? A moss mood?)
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] thanks to Cathy and Rebecca who are organizing November in Novellas once […]
LikeLike
[…] you as always to Cathy and Rebecca, who have posted their own, truly intimidating […]
LikeLike
Wonderful post and excellent fotos of novellas! I’ll save this post for reference in the future. Here is my reading list for #NovNov23!
NovNov23 Reading List
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you!
LikeLike
Wow! So many possibilities! I’ve read several that are in your stacks there. 🙂 I like this idea of piling up *all* the novellas from your shelves and taking a picture of them. I might just do that too! 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was a little overwhelming! I’ve now dispersed the piles around the upstairs of my house.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So many fantastic books on your list! This is my first time to participate in Novellas in November. I did not realize that nonfiction could be considered to be a novella.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wonderful, I’m glad you’d like to take part! We go by number of pages (although the technical definition is by word count): under 200. I have always included any short nonfiction that meets that definition.
LikeLike
Those are some impressive novella piles! I love looking at them. I’ll be curious to hear how many you read this year! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
They have only grown since then. I set aside one stack I think could be one-sitting reads, so I’ll see how close I can get to one per day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] was inspired by Rebecca’s Novellas in November Possibilities Pile post to start pulling off more books from my shelves that are under 200 pages. I came up with a good […]
LikeLike
Phew, that contemporary pile looks as if its just about to topple under the weight of all those words! I like the idea of digging out candidates though so shall enjoy going through my shelves tomorrow. I know I’ll be reading two novellas by Hubert Mingarelli – Four Soldiers and The Invisible Land
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve read a couple by Mingarelli before. Hope you enjoy. My stacks have gotten divvied up into mini-stacks all around the house.
LikeLike
[…] relish building rather ludicrous stacks of novellas through the year. When I’m standing in front of a Little Free Library, browsing in […]
LikeLike