10 Books Everyone Should Read Before Turning 30

Great literature grows out of periods of change, and there are few transitions more more, well, transitional than the end of your twenties and the onset of the whole rest of your life. Whether you're bored or just passing your time, in a journey or just before bed time these books contains everything that one demands for.

1. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius : As you become an adult, you realize that there will never be a time in your life where everything is just as you hoped it would be.
"Meditations" is a collection of personal writings on maintaining mental toughness from the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, who ruled from 161 to 180 AD and became remembered as one of the great "philosopher kings."
As Gregory Hays notes in the introduction to his excellent translation, Marcus wrote his musings on resilience and leadership in a "dark and stressful period" in the last decade of his life.
The emperor's version of Stoic philosophy has remained relevant for 1,800 years because it offers timeless advice for gaining control of one's emotions and progressing past all obstacles in one's path.


2. Adulthood Is a Myth by Sarah Andersen : One of the hardest lessons to learn in your 20s is that there is no promised land of adulthood--everyone, no matter how polished or in control they seem, is just making it up as they go along. Sarah Andersen's collection of comics can help you grasp this difficult but essential truth, the librarians of New York Public Library suggest in their list of best books to get through in your 20s.
"It's a nice idea, that entering your 20s means somehow graduating into adulthood. But as every young-at-heart baby boomer or senior will tell you, adulthood never really arrives. At some point you just start doing 'adult' things," comments BI's Chris Weller. This book illustrates that truth.

3. Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam : Two women who've been friends since high school try to reinvigorate their relationship when one becomes engaged and asks the other to be her maid of honor; yet as their lives move in increasingly different directions, their friendship strains.

4. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin : A young American man living in Paris confronts his sexuality after entering into a romantic relationship with an Italian bartender named Giovanni.

5. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara : Speaking of empathy, if you're looking to expand yours even further, several recommenders suggest this massive but highly readable novel (I barely put it down once I started it) about four friends making their way in New York City after graduating college.
It sounds like an innocent-enough premise, but the reality lurking behind the familiar surface is devastating. "The author picks away at our ability to understand grief and depression, challenging the reader to be more and more empathetic. And your 20s is a better time than any to hone the oft-overlooked trait of empathy," writes the Huffington Post's Katherine Brooks. (Warning: This is polite way of saying it'll leave you feeling completely emotionally crushed.)

6. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky : Regardless of your personal philosophy, there will be times when the world pushes against you and you wonder why it's worth trying to better yourself and help others.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel is not only a gripping story, it's an argument against the nihilism that was popular among Russian intellectual circles in his time.
"Crime and Punishment" is the tale of a 23-year-old man named Raskolnikov who, acting on a nagging urge, murders two old women and then struggles with processing the act.
Dostoyevsky argues that rationalism taken to its extreme ignores the powerful bonds that connect humanity and give us responsibility over each other.


7. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy : The iconic American novelist William Faulkner, as well as Time magazine, called Leo Tolstoy's novel "the best ever written."
As the main plotline of a doomed affair between Anna Karenina and Count Vronsky unfolds, Tolstoy explores the strife present in nearly every aspect of human existence, like love, family, social class, and what it means to be happy.
We recommend the excellent English translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

8. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler : On her 26th birthday, a black woman finds herself kidnapped and transported from 20th century California to the antebellum South. She begins regularly shuttling between the present and the past where her ancestors slave away on a plantation.

9. Open City by Teju Cole : A newly single young doctor in his psychiatry residency wanders around Manhattan, ruminating on the city, with insights on his society, global history and his future.
In its ranking of the top 10 fiction books of 2011, TIME called Open City "a profoundly original work, intellectually stimulating and possessing of a style both engaging and seductive."

10. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho : Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts. 

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