# My Favorite Reads Under 200 Pages

By [Sandra Rhee](https://paragraph.com/@sandrarhee), 2026-04-26

books, literature, reading

---

I know that reading can be a slog sometimes. Holding a long heavy book can be annoying. The payoff can take weeks.

These books are different.

Each one is under 200 pages, and worth your time. You can finish one in an evening. By tomorrow, you can read prolific writers like Tolstoy or Kafka.

**Here are my favorite reads under 200 pages.**

1.  This book put my life and all my ambitions into context.
    
    **_Ecclesiastes_ (30 pages, Ancient Israel, ~3rd century BCE) — Bible**
    
2.  When I meet someone who pities themself, I think of this story's protagonist. Kafka did unforgettable character development.
    
    **_The Metamorphosis_ (55 pages, Austria, 1915) — Franz Kafka**
    
3.  I quit my engineering job because of this.
    
    **_The Death of Ivan Ilyich_ (60 pages, Russia, 1886) — Leo Tolstoy**
    
4.  In 75 pages I was convinced that the systematic oppression of a race was real. Yes, I needed to be educated to realize it, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. I read this because one of my favorite comedians, Dave Chappelle, recommended it.
    
    **_Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave_ (75 pages, U.S., 1845) — Frederick Douglass**
    
5.  Every time I think of "energy", I remember this ancient chinese text. It describes how humans, rocks, and everything was one with the Tao.
    
    **_Tao Te Ching_ (80 pages, China, ~4th century BCE) — Laozi**
    
6.  I could recognize good writing, but I didn't know why it was so. Until this book.
    
    **_The Elements of Style_ (105 pages, U.S., 1918) — William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White**
    
7.  The most precise, honest, short memoir I've read. Written by a legend in advertising.
    
    **_Scientific Advertising_ (120 pages, U.S., 1923) — Claude Hopkins**
    
8.  My life was worse after realizing that its shitty qualities persist day after month after year. Camus captured that tiring loop of struggle I was in. He told me that the struggle itself was worthy of my time.
    
    **_The Myth of Sisyphus_ (160 pages, France, 1942) — Albert Camus**
    
9.  This guy convinced me that walking—yes, the action with feet—would change my life. Now I do it for hours each week. On its own, without music. Just me and the walk.
    
    **_Walking: One Step at a Time_ (160 pages, Norway, 2019) — Erling Kagge**
    
10.  There's a quote in here that I memorized and thought about daily. Frankl taught me that self awareness was freedom.
    

    **_Man’s Search for Meaning_ (165 pages, Austria, 1946) — Viktor Frankl**
    

**Honorable Mentions:**

*   Emily Dickenson is a genius and my favorite poet. She lived an untraveled, reclusive life, yet _thought_ with depth. I was blown away by her use of words like a sharp knife.
    
    **_Poems_ (150 pages, U.S., 1890) — Emily Dickinson**
    
*   Indiginous people, with their superstitions and rituals, should learn from the sciences of the white nations. Right?
    
    **_The Eclipse (1 page, Honduras, 1959) — Augusto Monterroso_**
    
*   I never forgot this story of a fat girl sacrificed to save a group of well-to-do-people's asses. Our nastiness is revealed in how we treat unattractive people.
    
    **_Boule de Suif_ (30 pages, France, 1880) — Guy de Maupassant**
    
*   Communism is scary, we all say, but what really does it mean? I was curious, so I went straight to the source. I was shocked.
    
    **_The Communist Manifesto_ (40 pages, Germany, 1848) — Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels**
    
*   When I gossip, the negativity seeps back into me. Why do I do things that hurt myself? This book cajoled me.
    
    **_The Four Agreements_ (140 pages, Mexico/U.S., 1997) — Don Miguel Ruiz**
    

* * *

_Written by Sandra Rhee. Originally published at_ [_sandrarhee.com/writing/my-favorite-reads-under-200-pages_](https://sandrarhee.com/writing/my-favorite-reads-under-200-pages)_._

---

*Originally published on [Sandra Rhee](https://paragraph.com/@sandrarhee/my-favorite-reads-under-200-pages)*