Books

House of Stairs by William Sleator messed with my head for a while.

Among other aspects, I read it in - I think - the mid nineties. At one point one of the main characters describes a past activity - leaving her car to rescue another person, IIRC - and details how difficult was to do so because you have to put on a gas mask to be out in the atmosphere or something like that. (It's been most of thirty years since I read it, I apologize for being light on the details.)

At the time I was a kid and thought it ridiculous. After all, humanity had conquered acid rain and the hole in the ozone (though I don't recall if that had happened yet). Climate change would never get that bad.

Fight Oligarchy by Bernie Sanders. Read in an afternoon and got me fired up.

@eightpix The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Your God is Too Small (1952, about 128 pp depending on edition)

My favorite kids book "Stone Soup" is only 32 pages. The story is at an elementary reading level, but the story itself dates back ages and was often told by adults. Almost every culture has their own rendition of it, and I love the moral of the story. I first read it as a kid, but I still appreciate it to this day.

The Children's Story by James Clavell.

Probably the Alchemist by Paul Coelho at 160 pages or Seagull by Anton Chekhov at 60 pages.

A Short Stay In Hell stuck with me to some degree ever since I've finished it. It's somwhere around 100 pages long if I remember corecctly.

It's quite disturbing but it, somewhat ironically, helped me put things into perspective back when I've read it.

"Now I know my ABCs" (title pulled out of my ass from the song) - learning to read at all is the biggest impact of all.