Book suggestions

[Doomboy911]

I have excess time and need to fill this with good reading. If I can find it in pocket size that would be handy but I'm flexible.

As for interests I enjoy Dresden files for the wise-cracking and urban fantasy (and of course Michael the amazing), I superbly enjoyed The Martian for being beyond cool jumping between multiple perspectives and just excellent story-telling and I love books about nature such as Hatchet and My side of the mountain.

Any suggestions?

[Gnoman]

Try The Case of The Toxic Spell Dump and Ruled Britannia by Harry Turtledove. He's mostly known for his long series, but these are one-off books that can be used to gauge your reaction to his style. The former is a pun-heavy story about an EPA agent in a magitech version of the US that is investigating a possibly-leaky toxic spell dump (might click well with your Dresden Files interest due to the style of humor and the magic of the setting), while the latter is set in a version of Elizabethan England that was conquered by the Spanish Armada, rotating between the viewpoints of William Shakespeare and Lope De Vega (which is also fairly wise-cracky in places, and has the rotating protagonists you mentioned liking - Turtledove usually has at least a dozen such characters, but here there is only two).

[JoshL]

Some things that I like, that you might too, based on your parameters

Wisecracking - can't go wrong with Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, an absolute classic.
Urban Fantasy - Charles de Lint is my go to here. Double the recommendation if you like folklore and traditional music. Dreams Underfoot is a short story collection that is sort of interwoven; characters will mention something in passing, and then a later story will be about that. This carries into the novels too.
Multiple perspectives - I just finished NK Jemisin's Broken Earth series, which I loved, and the first book hits this button brilliantly. Post-apocalyptic science fantasy stuff.
Books about Nature - can't help but go back to Douglas Adams. Last Chance To See is about animals on the verge of extinction. Adams' humor makes it easy to read, but doesn't diminish the gravity of what he's talking about.

[GrayDeath]

If you like butchers style (its not only the wisecracking you like in Dresden Files), maybe try his Codex Alera Series.
Different, but very cool magic system and world, and wisecracking/brains over Power MC.

[Artemis97]

I'll also suggest Butcher's newest book, the Aeronaut's Windlass. It's steampunk fantasy with airships which I absolutely devoured. Can't wait for him to write the next one.

Also going to suggest Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora. It's the start of the Gentleman Bastards series, and is rip roaring fun. The schemes and the plots twist and turn and barrel towards the ending. I'd give the first one a read, even if you don't continue with the others.

[Doomboy911]

I'm also quite fond of Edgar Rice Burroughs even though he has zero attachment to anything close to reality. I'm particularly fond of his John Carter of mars.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I superbly enjoyed The Martian for being beyond cool jumping between multiple perspectives and just excellent story-telling

Well, Weir just released a new book, Artemis (https://www.amazon.com/Artemis-Novel-Andy-Weir/dp/0553448129/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1518030977&sr=1-1&keywords=artemis+book), and his style hasn't changed (no multiple perspectives this time, though), so if you enjoyed the Martian, you'll probably enjoy this one too.

GW

[HowNowBrownCow]

The Martian is really rather good Sci-Fi. For some more good Sci-Fi I recommend everything ever written by C.J. Cherryh, but start with the Alliance-Union books. Chronologically, that's starting with "Heavy Time" and "Hellburner", both have paperbacks that are pretty compact, though there's also an omnibus of the duology called "Devil to the Belt". After that, it's on to the classic "Downbelow Station".

[2D8HP]

Pre-1990's most sci-fi and genre fantasy was printed pocket sized (I still have a lot of those books), unfortunately the print is usually small, and the paper yellows making so the lack of contrast also makes those books harder to read now.

Anyway, I recommend the fantasy books of Poul Anderson, and Fritz Leiber, which greatly inspired Dungeons & Dragons.

The Martian Chronicles by Bradbury?

The Foundation by Asimov?

The Maltese Falcon by Hammett?

The Prisoner of Zenda by Hope?

Really a decent used bookstore should have hundreds of pocket sized books.

Start with "Swords Against Death".

For more modern works, I've seen some Terry Pratchett that's pocket sized, start with "Mort".

[Wookieetank]

Jonathan Maberry's Joe Ledger series is fun. Wise cracking spec ops main character facing supernatural threats turned real. First book in the series is Patient Zero and has zombies caused by a weaponized prion disease created by a group of terrorists. You can tell Maberry puts a lot of effort into researching his material, and it makes the threats the cast face even more creepy because he writes them as something that could believable happen IRL.

[Doomboy911]

Aeronaut's windlass wins for now for being steampunk pirates written by jim butcher I'm already on chapter seven. Any other suggestions after this I might look at Weir's moon heist.