Top 10 short books

Dan Rhodes is the author of Little Hands Clapping, Anthropology, Timoleon Vieta Come Home, and Gold, a tale of a Japanese woman finding her place in a small, Welsh seaside community. It is a short book and, according to the book's publisher, read it and "you'll laugh, probably cry and you'll be finished in time to go to the pub."

In 2007, Rhodes named his top 10 short books for the Guardian. One title on the list:

Candide by Voltaire

Reading a book as hilarious and intelligent as this, it's baffling to think that even now the use of humour in fiction is routinely mistaken for a lack of seriousness. And Voltaire knew when to stop (I'm prepared to believe that the lamentable sequel was written by an imposter).

Read about another entry on the list.

Candide is a book Rolling Stone political columnist Matt Taibbi reads every couple of years. It is on John Mullan's list of ten of the best visits to Venice in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue