Restless and hungry: good books to tackle before you turn 30

March 10, 2016 5:52 PM

30 Books You Need To Read Before You Turn 30 (Huffpost Arts & Culture, Katherine Brooks) / 33 books everyone should read before turning 30 (Business Insider, Richard Feloni and Drake Baer) / 30 works of Canadian fiction to read before you're 30 (CBC) / 30 Books by Women to Read Before You Turn 30 (Bustle, Gina Vaynshteyn) / 30 Books Every Man Should Read By 30 (slideshow or thumbnails, Esquire, Sam Parker and Claudia Canavan)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (47 comments total)

All of which were written, obviously, in the 30s.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:53 PM on March 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you're over 30, do not attempt these books
posted by clockzero at 6:00 PM on March 10, 2016 [35 favorites]

*sigh* Another lifepoint failed.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:01 PM on March 10, 2016 [9 favorites]

*sigh* Another lifepoint failed.

or.... another lifepoint avoided! *drinks really strong beer from the brewdog thread*
posted by Huck500 at 6:03 PM on March 10, 2016 [5 favorites]

ALL THESE BOOKS ARE YOURS EXCEPT IF YOU'RE OVER 30. ATTEMPT NO READING THEN.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:10 PM on March 10, 2016 [10 favorites]

our favorite books that likely never made your high-school or college reading lists

Only if you never took a humanities course...
posted by bibliotropic at 6:11 PM on March 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

Those lists were...interesting? I will suggest, though, that no one, at any time of their life, needs to read Iron John.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:12 PM on March 10, 2016 [4 favorites]

These books do not trust anyone over 30.
posted by NoMich at 6:17 PM on March 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

All these books are written at a frequency that's only legible to younger people. By the time you're thirty, the reading receptors in your eyes have deteriorated enough so you only see a blank page.
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:21 PM on March 10, 2016 [17 favorites]

As featured on the carousel of the library at Logan's Run.
posted by ardgedee at 6:24 PM on March 10, 2016 [12 favorites]

They have neither "The Alien Under the Apple Tree" nor "The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove". They have neither "The Secret Guide to Computers" by Russ Walters nor "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" by Steven Levy.

Hornblower isn't on there once. Neither are any of the "Monster Blood" Goosebumps Books.

Any Twistaplot books in there? No. Anne Rice? No. Ecyclopedia Brown? No. Agatha Christie? No.

Neuromancer? No.

The Hobbit? No.

Snow Crash? No.

Dragon Riders of Pern? No.

Toni Morrison? Bluest Eye? Yes! OK, we have one... Kurt Vonnegut? Yes! But, geeze, that's not a book that should be there for him...

Pynchon? No. Judy Blum? No.

"Guards, Guards!" - no.

"A Wrinkle in Time" - no.

"The complete run of Black Panther by Christopher Priest" - no.

"The complete run of Castle Waiting" - no.

"The Complete Run of Sandman." - no.

If you have not read all those books they say you should have read, and read from my list instead, you will be as literate, and more fun. (In bed.)
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:25 PM on March 10, 2016 [15 favorites]

That Business Insider list, though. You're like, okay, Anna Karenina, Siddhartha, that makes sense, I really should get around to reading Fun Home, and then, kablonko! The Tipping Point, followed by books on investing and working hard at your job and stuff. They couldn't possibly recommend thirty novels, of course, that's too liberal-artsy.
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:26 PM on March 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

Wait. Ignore my list. I am old. PEOPLE APPROACHING 30! Improve my list! You all know what should be on there. J.K. Rowling first among the overlooked... c'mon, millenials! What are the REAL books that shaped you? I wanna read 'em.

I'd feel bad, but the list in the OP had a science fiction novel published during WWI that I had never heard of before today. And they think you should waste time reading it.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:32 PM on March 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

It's such a weird idea, honestly. Read what you want to read. Everyone is different and has different interests. There aren't specific books that everyone has to read before they hit some artificial milestone.

Having said that, there are a several books on the Bustle list that I read before I was 30 and enjoyed!
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:36 PM on March 10, 2016 [4 favorites]

Or: 5 lists that I may now ignore.

No, of course I looked at all the lists and added up my reads (as I always do). Just 11. And one of those was The Fountainhead. Which I liked. But I was 12 so I only feel somewhat ashamed. I did read The Power Broker so that should count as 2 or 3.
posted by blairsyprofane at 6:36 PM on March 10, 2016

1. sees fpp material
2. anticipates heavy chuffing
3. rubs hands together
4. clicks comments
5. not disappointed
posted by stinkfoot at 6:36 PM on March 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

No The Pushcart War? I revoke these people's reading permissions for 30 years.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:40 PM on March 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

I spent more time reading why these lists were made (other than because lists!) and I'm left scratching my head. There are definitely books that I want to read before I turn thirty so that I read them again in my thirties, fourties, fifties, sixties. Returning to them with age and memories.

I also scratched my head at a lot of them. There didn't seem to be a lot of helpful stuff. All About Love by Bell Hooks, Why Does He Do That by Lundy Bancroft both sprung to mind. Those are the books I've lent out the most to people my age (mid 20's) and it's changed all of them quite a bit.
posted by Neronomius at 6:44 PM on March 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Some of this would have been impossible for me to have accomplished since the books hadn't been written yet. Some of them, I would argue, read differently below-30 and above-30, but are not inadvisable to read after-30. I just read "Housekeeping" last year, and I was devastated- what a great book. I'm sure under-30 I would have identified with the young sisters, whereas now I frighteningly identified with the aunt. But never mind- I want to quibble about Plato. I read Plato as an undergraduate, and I was required to write an essay about him. I had absolutely nothing to say- nothing. I had no life experiences, no other philosophical reading, no possible way to connect with Plato. I am now well over 30 and if anyone offered, I would have lots to say about Plato.

Read what you want when you want to.
posted by acrasis at 6:46 PM on March 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Neuromancer? No.

Yes! It's there in the '30 works of Canadian fiction to read before you're 30' list.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 6:54 PM on March 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh hey I'm turning 30 in...*counts* five and a half months? And my new year's resolution this year was to read more books. So basically what I'm saying is joseph conrad is fully awesome made this post for me! Thanks :D

But first I have to read A Deepness in the Sky and Ancillary Mercy and Seveneves and The Fifth Season and City of Blades and The Peripheral and dammit why are there so many good books :(

More smileys :D :D :D
posted by quaking fajita at 7:02 PM on March 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

This is probably more about my particular life experience than anything inherent to the numbers themselves, but I feel like 25 might be a more meaningful dividing line. I guess I will have to turn 30 before I find out but in the past few years (I'm 28) my reading world has only opened up, and I find myself able to relate to stories I never would have in my teens and early twenties, about adulthood, work, family, all kinds of things. On the other hand certain Novels of Youth really have to be read before 25. Weetzie Bat. Valencia. Everything Is Illuminated. Shanghai Baby. This Side of Paradise. I've reread all these in the past few years and Everything Is Illuminated is the only one that is truly terrible, I'm still fairly delighted by the rest, but I know at least part of that is because I have my memories of reading them for the first time to go along with the actual words on the page.

I'm not fully decided on whether this is the place to vent my spleen about Everything I Never Told You (on the Huffington Post list), I guess it's probably not, but if you are a mixed-race Asian American woman, every single character in that story has become totally predictable and ugh looooooong before you hit 30.

The Business Insider list reads like an OKCupid profile written by my mortal enemy.

The Joy Luck Club?! *silent screaming*
posted by sunset in snow country at 7:13 PM on March 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

I didn't really get Jane Austen until I reread them once I turned 30. ESPECIALLY Persuasion.
posted by sallybrown at 7:18 PM on March 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Fountainhead? FOUNTAINHEAD?!

Fer fuck's sake.
posted by sutt at 7:19 PM on March 10, 2016 [5 favorites]

I'm going to read the books I want to read and basically fuck everything else
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 7:39 PM on March 10, 2016 [10 favorites]

Books You Need to Read Before You Turn 30 or Whatever Age It Is When Asshole Behaviour Ceases to Be Charming and/or Mysterious

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. Because all of the characters are assholes, including God.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Because all of the characters are assholes, including America.

Jane Eyre by Jane Eyre. Because all of the characters are assholes, except for Helen, except she dies, which is kind of an asshole thing to do.

The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. Isn't one of the characters literally an asshole?

Reylo fanfics by Kylo Ren. Because all of the characters are assholes, including the Wookiees. Kylo isn't an asshole, he's a tormented soul who needs love and understanding. These powerful stories of galaxy-shattering love can be enjoyed at any age.

Middlemarch by George Eliot. Because if you read it when you're old, you'll realise that you were always Casaubon, who is kind of an asshole, and never Dorothea.
posted by betweenthebars at 8:14 PM on March 10, 2016 [15 favorites]

Slap*Happy: "Neither are any of the "Monster Blood" Goosebumps Books."

I've only read Monster Blood for Breakfast, and, man, it was really disappointing. I wasn't aware that there were other Monster Blood books. Are they any better?

(No, I'm not being sarcastic, my younger son likes me to read him Goosebumps books at bedtime).
posted by Bugbread at 10:21 PM on March 10, 2016

Yep, you should totally misread Nietzsche before you're thirty. Nietzsche is an enchanting trap to fall into. Later he will help you realise, as betweenthebars pointed out, that you were, in fact, a talking asshole.
posted by sapagan at 10:35 PM on March 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

If you have not read all those books they say you should have read, and read from my list instead, you will be as literate, and more fun. (In bed.)

I would add Jitterbug Perfume.
posted by fairmettle at 1:46 AM on March 11, 2016

Thirty books to read before thirty:

First, read Less Than Zero immediately after you are born.
A year later, move on to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.
Then, A Tale Of Two Cities.
The Three Musketeers.
The Sign of Four.
Slaughterhouse-Five.
Rainbow Six.
A Brief History of Seven Killings.
The Eight.
The Nine Tailors.
Ten Things We Did.
Eleven Minutes.
The Twelve Chairs.
The 13 Clocks.
14.
Fifteen Dogs.
The Sixteen Pleasures.
Seventeen.
Eighteen Acres.
The 19th Wife.
Twenty Years After.
The Twenty-One Balloons.
Catch-22.
Turbo Twenty-Three.
Twenty-Four Eyes.
Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels.
Twenty-Six.
Twenty-Seven Bones.
Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty‑Eight Nights.
And finally, 29.

There, was that so hard?
posted by kyrademon at 3:06 AM on March 11, 2016 [11 favorites]

Is there a 'before 40' version of this list? I already blew the first one.
posted by synthetik at 5:43 AM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Is there a 'before 40' version of this list? I already blew the first one.

Yes. Please help us while we still have time.
posted by ihaveyourfoot at 5:53 AM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Luckily there are other books. For me to read. Before I die.
posted by Splunge at 6:59 AM on March 11, 2016

Is there a 'before 40' version of this list? I already blew the first one.

If you are over 30, though, what's the point in starting a book? You could die at any moment
posted by clockzero at 7:55 AM on March 11, 2016 [9 favorites]

I'm going to read the books I want to read and basically fuck everything else

I see two ways of reading this comment. Both make me smile.
posted by xenization at 8:22 AM on March 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

Pynchon? No.

I tried to read Gravity's Rainbow around ten years ago but failed miserably. It was a good learning experience, though, teaching me that I'm not nearly as smart as I thought I was.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 8:36 AM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

"30 ways to make a listicle that you think appeals to the tastes of your demographic"

"30 ways to drive links to your webpage through little to no effort of your own except maybe for a casual interoffice email you prepped the week before"

"30 ways to completely estrange your audience because they didn't happen to share the same interpretation you did about a certain book you read at a certain point in your life because most people don't share any of those same contexts whatsoever"

"30 ways for the crowd of Metafilter to express how much better read they are because of free floating cultural signifiers around certain ideological extremes"

"30 ways these lists are similar to Books That Literally All White Men Own but are trying so desperately hard not to be except in the case of Esquire because well lol"
posted by runt at 9:03 AM on March 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

30 is the new 20.
posted by BWA at 10:01 AM on March 11, 2016

Tom Robbins! Now THERE is a prime example of a writer who must be read before 25. My life would be smaller and sadder if I had not read him obsessively as a teenager, just as it would be smaller and sadder if I still took the old fool seriously now.
posted by sunset in snow country at 10:49 AM on March 11, 2016

and basically fuck everything else

Yes, this is another common recommendation for how to spend your twenties.
posted by eykal at 11:01 AM on March 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

dammit xenization that'll teach me to assume i refreshed the page before commenting
posted by eykal at 11:03 AM on March 11, 2016

Super, another article to remind me how far behind I am on my reading.

What do I do if these books didn't exist before I was 30? WHAT THEN? Last thing I needed back then was for old-fart future-me to have tumbled out of a time-machine and to have given me a pile of books to get read. I can tell you confidently that, even if someone gave me a pile of books from the future, they'd mostly still be in the "to be read" pile to this day.

What I need is for someone to give me this list of books, and then go over each one: "Movie. Movie. TV series; skip it. Read it before the reboot movie. Read it before it's an Oprah book."

Seriously, there's still time. Pick a date 10 years from now. Take a look at this list of books, and you'll see about 3 books made into movies, one a TV show, and at least one of the authors will be discredited or publically shamed. 3 authors will write something better. 10 of the authors are flashes in the pan.

There's no profit in trying to guess which of these books are going to be valuable to future-you. Might as well knock a few out while you're waiting for Donna Tartt's next book, but nobody's a lesser person, not even a lesser-read person, for having missed these books. Missing these articles might make you a better person in the long-run.
posted by Sunburnt at 12:36 PM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Well, I think its really clever how they use the same number for the list length and the age. Really really clever. And smart too!
posted by Pembquist at 12:40 PM on March 11, 2016

So much of this is about signaling to others that you're a grownup with sophisticated intellectual tastes and a decent amount of cultural capital. The books themselves and the content in them? Entirely beside the point.
posted by naju at 1:13 PM on March 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

i know i'm going to read all of these lists, then come back and slag them off. I know i am, i'm just saying. I bet my fortune on it (£39). (NB if you're 30 and female, get a fertility test, so you can make informed decisions about the next five to ten years of your life, not assumptions, it's a big deal, maybe the biggest one in life (and you know how you really feel when you face it, like everyone who gets an aids test is goes from like don't care to help! oh no! so this way too you know if you really want to or not, an extra plus)
posted by maiamaia at 5:48 AM on March 13, 2016

actually they're quite good. All cultural works make their biggest impact in your teens, but those with great maturity are enriched by your life experience when you are older, so Middlemarch says more when you are older. Your tolerance for experiment eg Ullyses is greater when you are younger. But i veto the business books - seriously, those are full of sht and you believe that rubbish when you are young, i give fundamentalist Christianity one credit: i learned i had to argue for everything, no The Secret or magical thinking bs allowed. People at university were swearing it was the truth. I've lived through the Atkins diet (credit to vegetarianism/veganism), and business books are the same thing. They combine a few statements of the obvious, some motivation-quotes and some dumbass deductions (when France booms while UK's bust, it's "we must learn from France?" "why are they more successful?" and vice versa when we boom and they bust: yet it's impossible that a company should boom forever, or a country. There's one lesson in that: nothing is eternal. Well, maybe geology and astrophysics and death and taxes, but otherwise stuff changes, usually at random but sometimes you can figure out why. See, i said i'd manage to find something to slag off. But i learned more than i expected:) These lists are usually so rubbish

tl;dr truly great books are even greater when you read them when you're older. Others are better read when young, because they make a greater impression then. I'd suggest Rumi was a young book. War and Peace is the epitomy of an old book. Nooteboom's The Following Story is a young book that works when old. Dating and mating are young person's affairs, but war and empire are seen better from the vantage point of decades
Woolf's Room of one's own is important to read for young women, but maybe even for young men, as it's true for everyone, she was just saying 'you need this, this is why, women without it won't succeed' but nobody without it will succeed, men included.
Also, why would anyone read any Woolf novel (as opp. essay) before The Waves? Read the Waves, then read the rest which is also-ran stuff after. The Waves you must read, it's the best of the stream-of-consciousness books.
posted by maiamaia at 6:04 AM on March 13, 2016

or: preachy books telling you exactly how the world is and what you ought to be doing, theoretical books of morality (or politics, which is also morality) like (and i love them, but this genre) woolf, bell hooks etc, should be read young. You have no tolerance for nietzsche etc when old, it reads like obvious nonsense (hooks is one of the few who still work when you're older; but the big enchantment of them works only when you are young).
posted by maiamaia at 6:30 AM on March 13, 2016