Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups

A rich and comforting anthology of more than 70 short stories, poems, fairytales, and bedtime classics—from William Shakespeare to B.J. Novak and from Charles Dickens to Neil Gaiman—for grown-ups who want to unwind, unplug, and slip into soothing stories that will send them off to slumberland.

There are few more precious routines than that of the bedtime story. So why do we discard this treasured ritual as grown-ups and risk sacrificing our good health and well-being?

In this groundbreaking anthology, Ben Holden, editor of the bestselling Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, challenges how we think about life—one-third of which is spent asleep. He deftly explores not only the science of sleep but also why we endlessly tell stories—even to ourselves, as we dream.

Holden combines his own illuminating storytelling with a treasure trove of timeless classics and contemporary gems. Poems and short stories, fairy tales and fables, reveries and nocturnes—from Robert Frost to Haruki Murakami, Jimmy Carter to Roald Dahl, Margaret Atwood to Nora Ephron, Vladimir Nabokov to Walt Whitman—are all woven together to replicate the journey of a single night’s sleep.

So close your laptop and put away your mobile phone. Curl up and crash out with the ultimate bedside book, one you’ll return to again and again, or give as a gift to a friend or loved one. Filled with moonlight and magic, laughter and tears, Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups joyfully provides the ultimate way to end the day—and begin the night…