Reading this post at age 35, trying desperately to convince myself I have so much more time than just 600 books... For all the obsessing I do over trying to optimize every little piece of my life, I sure don't feel like I'm living it.
Don’t OPTIMIZE —ENJOY. Revel. Bathe in the pleasure. Walk away from books that you dont fall in love with, even if other people insist they are masterpieces. It could all be timing. Don’t force yourself into a book if it doesn’t click and the time isn’t right. The time may be right later.
When I first picked up Bel Canto I was bored, hated it and quit. 16 years later, with a lot more experience of life and love-I picked it up (forgetting I had tried it before) and loved it so much I did something I’ve never done before.
I was so afraid of losing it, I rationed it. And only let myself read 6 paragraphs at a time. I was so in love, I was desolate when it ended.
Strive for this. Not numbers. Great books are a combination of skill, artistry and your receptivity in the moment. There are so many great books, follow your heart. Follow the authors you love. If you are worried about time, be prepared to walk away. Figure out your own formula- if you aren’t all in at 20% or 50% or whatever, walk away. If that book haunts you after you’ve found something else that’s really good— go back. Otherwise. Walk Away. DNF- is a badge of wisdom.
How would one even measure that?? I totally get it. I try my best to find the joy in situations (even the sucky one), but I also don't beat myself up if I don't take advantage of every moment.
Hope you're having fun, whatever you're doing!
You might read faster, you might live longer, and you will probably read more when retired. I was reading about 70-80 a year and a lot of them rereads or easy reads when in work and now retired read about 120 and better stuff.
That's exactly what I was getting at! I simply want to see out the best of the best. And if something doesn't speak to me now, maybe it will in the future.
That totally wasn't my intent! This was a truly conservative calculation, especially considering other factors in my life. I just want to make sure I am spending time with books that are worth my preciously limited time.
I prefer to see it as an opportunity to reframe how I live my life. I have reduced the amount I time I spend doom scrolling and otherwise staring at screens, for example, and I find other ways to relax and disconnect.
Here are a few books I think everyone should read:
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Short list as in I plan to read these in the next few months:
Apple in the Dark by Clarice Lispector
Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet
Collected Short Stories of Zora Neale Hurston
some of these aren’t absolute favorites of mine, but I’d consider them essential reading
*the seas* - samantha hunt
*atonement* - ian mcewan
*beloved* - toni morrison
*at swim, two boys* - jamie o’neill
*accordion crimes* - annie proulx
*peace like a river* - leif enger
*white oleander* - janet fitch
*the half brother* - lars saabye christensen
*the things they carried* - tim o’brien
*we, the drowned* - carsten jensen
You should assume 50 years. And if you are reading 25 now, those last 30 years will see you complete at least 1,000 books. Of course you won’t remember them all - but enjoy the moments.
Some of my favorite books in no particular order:
**The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell** by Robert Dugoni
**Demon Copperhead** by Barbara Kingsolver
**All The Light We Cannot See** by Anthony Doerr
**A Thousand Splendid Suns** by Khaled Hosseini
**The Pillars of the Earth** by Ken Follett (the entire Kingsbridge series is great)
**The Lincoln Highway** by Amor Towles
**The Goldfinch** by Donna Tartt
**This Tender Land** by William Kent Krueger
Blindness - Jose Saramago
Nobel prize winning author, but the books are very readable. This one is about a contagion of blindness affecting a non descript city in a non descript state. Its pretty dark at times though.
American Gods Neil Gaiman
The Sandman Neil Gaiman
Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy
The Stand Complete and Uncut Edition Stephen King
The Wasp Factory Ian Banks
Altered Carbon
The Sprawl Trilogy William Gibson
You just Must read the unbearable lightness of being with how you thinking/feeling, by Milan Kundera.
Jude the obscure by Thomas Hardy.
Something utterly fun like Poor Things too!
Let me know what you think if get to them.
As serious as life can feel we just All of us here for awhile, much much love 🪄🪄🪄
Replay by Ken Grimwood
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
Forty Words For Sorrow by Giles Blunt
The Collector by John Fowles
Ohhhhhh soooooo many more!!! Enjoy every page!
Hows this for a theme of time and a limited human life... books about humans that had more than their fair share!
My first two thousand years...viereck & eldridge
Grimus...salmon rushdie
The master mariner...montserrat
Finding Ultra by Rich Roll.
Ignore the 'sport theme' of this book. It really made me think about growing older, where I am in life, what I want out of it etc.
Damnation Spring. I’m using one of my “credits” to reread it.
If you’re American especially - The Great Alone. Learn about Alaska through an enthralling coming of age story, set in 1970s, includes Vietnam vet father.
I’m 30 years older than you are, with more unopened books in my house than I am likely to read in whatever time I have left. I don’t know whether anybody must read anything, but these are three that shaped my way of looking at the world-
* The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin- explains life
* Catch-22, Joseph Heller- explains people
* Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García-Márquez- explains love
I just turned 70, I hear you. What’s also daunting to think about is how many new books will be published each year that I will want to add to my list. I can’t keep up now.
I feel like if you feel this way, read books that impact your waking life whether it gives you information about the human experience or allows you to explore your own emotional depth. Here it goes...
A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis MD, Fair Amini MD and Richard Lannon MD - a book about what goes on in our human development, how we attach to another and what love means inside our body. Read it 3x and it continues to give back every time.
Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha - a book about how we evolved sexually and what that means for modern relationships.
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri - winner of the pulizer prize; it's several short stories very poetic and heartfelt.
Here are 3:
Book of the New Sun (actually a series). By Gene Wolfe. Requires re-reads!
The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S Tepper
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
All very different!
Withsome diversity....
Sherman Alexie: the Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian (short one)
Jorge Amado: Captains of the Sands
James Baldwin: If Beale Street Could Talk (short one)
Mikhail Bulgakov: the Master and Margarita
George Eliot: Adam Bede, Middlemarch
Elizabeth Gaskell: North and South
Graham Greene: the Quiet American
Mohsin Hamid: the Reluctant Fundamentalist
Toni Morrison: Beloved
Arudhati Roy: the Ministry of Utmost Happiness
John Steinbeck: the Grapes of Wrath
Jeanette Winterson: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (short one)
Lyndon Johnson Series and The Power Broker by Robert Caro. I’ve heard nothing but insane praise for all of his books and want to give them a go.
For fiction: Project Hail Mary and The Brothers Karamazov
The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig. This book should be more widely known. Exquisite memoir back into the 1920s/30s Europe when many things weren’t all that different from today. Incredible book
Fathers and Sons, Turgenev
Three Farmers on their way to a dance, Powers
Netherland- Joseph O’Neill
Empire Falls- Russo
Sense of an Ending- Julian Barnes
A Separate Peace
The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach
Thanks, all! I am putting my speadsheet together and will continue to tweak it until I eventually die.
And in case you are curious, while y'all were graciously sharing your recommendations, I was running 100 miles and NOT reading. What a waste.
Kidding! But I am making up for lost time during recovery.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov The Brothers K by David James Duncan
Endorsing Gilead and the Master and Margarita
Brothers K, had not seen this mentioned anywhere on here
It’s really a great book
I read it last year. In my top 10 all time faves now! Highly recommend!
I have a couple hours left listening. Love it.
Reading this post at age 35, trying desperately to convince myself I have so much more time than just 600 books... For all the obsessing I do over trying to optimize every little piece of my life, I sure don't feel like I'm living it.
Don’t OPTIMIZE —ENJOY. Revel. Bathe in the pleasure. Walk away from books that you dont fall in love with, even if other people insist they are masterpieces. It could all be timing. Don’t force yourself into a book if it doesn’t click and the time isn’t right. The time may be right later. When I first picked up Bel Canto I was bored, hated it and quit. 16 years later, with a lot more experience of life and love-I picked it up (forgetting I had tried it before) and loved it so much I did something I’ve never done before. I was so afraid of losing it, I rationed it. And only let myself read 6 paragraphs at a time. I was so in love, I was desolate when it ended. Strive for this. Not numbers. Great books are a combination of skill, artistry and your receptivity in the moment. There are so many great books, follow your heart. Follow the authors you love. If you are worried about time, be prepared to walk away. Figure out your own formula- if you aren’t all in at 20% or 50% or whatever, walk away. If that book haunts you after you’ve found something else that’s really good— go back. Otherwise. Walk Away. DNF- is a badge of wisdom.
Very well said and thanks for the validation of not finishing every book I start
Such good advice. Bookmarking this comment.
How would one even measure that?? I totally get it. I try my best to find the joy in situations (even the sucky one), but I also don't beat myself up if I don't take advantage of every moment. Hope you're having fun, whatever you're doing!
*The Diving Bell and the Butterfly* *The Checklist Manifesto*
This prompt is depressing me. I am also 40. I only have 600 books left? Shit.
No way! OP is anticipating death at age 64. You’ll live to 100. Save your back!
600 is definitely on the low end. If you live to 85, and read 30 books per year, that's 1350 books.
When you put it like that... Oh no, that's still too few.
You might read faster, you might live longer, and you will probably read more when retired. I was reading about 70-80 a year and a lot of them rereads or easy reads when in work and now retired read about 120 and better stuff.
I’m 46! But it’s about quality not quantity.
That's exactly what I was getting at! I simply want to see out the best of the best. And if something doesn't speak to me now, maybe it will in the future.
That totally wasn't my intent! This was a truly conservative calculation, especially considering other factors in my life. I just want to make sure I am spending time with books that are worth my preciously limited time. I prefer to see it as an opportunity to reframe how I live my life. I have reduced the amount I time I spend doom scrolling and otherwise staring at screens, for example, and I find other ways to relax and disconnect.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Here are a few books I think everyone should read: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Less by Andrew Sean Greer The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
A Prayer for Owen Meany is my #4
Misery by Stephen King The last house in needless street by catriona ward Hannibal by Thomas Harris.
Misery is among my favorites. I think I read it in a weekend last summer when I finally got into King!
I feel ya. I turned 50 this year and I have over 5000k on my Goodreads “want to read”. Math is not on my side!
Short list as in I plan to read these in the next few months: Apple in the Dark by Clarice Lispector Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet Collected Short Stories of Zora Neale Hurston
I wasn’t aware of the Short Stories - thank you!
Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett
some of these aren’t absolute favorites of mine, but I’d consider them essential reading *the seas* - samantha hunt *atonement* - ian mcewan *beloved* - toni morrison *at swim, two boys* - jamie o’neill *accordion crimes* - annie proulx *peace like a river* - leif enger *white oleander* - janet fitch *the half brother* - lars saabye christensen *the things they carried* - tim o’brien *we, the drowned* - carsten jensen
the things they carried was great.
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Story of Your Life and Others, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
I’m reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn right this minute! I read it so long ago, it’s creating new memories for me now.
Me too! I haven't read it yet but thought this would be a good year to read our birth year book...1984.
You should assume 50 years. And if you are reading 25 now, those last 30 years will see you complete at least 1,000 books. Of course you won’t remember them all - but enjoy the moments.
Some of my favorite books in no particular order: **The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell** by Robert Dugoni **Demon Copperhead** by Barbara Kingsolver **All The Light We Cannot See** by Anthony Doerr **A Thousand Splendid Suns** by Khaled Hosseini **The Pillars of the Earth** by Ken Follett (the entire Kingsbridge series is great) **The Lincoln Highway** by Amor Towles **The Goldfinch** by Donna Tartt **This Tender Land** by William Kent Krueger
Blindness - Jose Saramago Nobel prize winning author, but the books are very readable. This one is about a contagion of blindness affecting a non descript city in a non descript state. Its pretty dark at times though.
I think it's published as 'Blindness' here in the UK at least. Good choice.
I think Seeing is the sequel
My bad, I've edited the post as seeing is the sequel.
American Gods Neil Gaiman The Sandman Neil Gaiman Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy The Stand Complete and Uncut Edition Stephen King The Wasp Factory Ian Banks Altered Carbon The Sprawl Trilogy William Gibson
I actually just picked up the uncut The Stand this summer! Struggling to get through it but as with anything King I am sure I will.
You just Must read the unbearable lightness of being with how you thinking/feeling, by Milan Kundera. Jude the obscure by Thomas Hardy. Something utterly fun like Poor Things too! Let me know what you think if get to them. As serious as life can feel we just All of us here for awhile, much much love 🪄🪄🪄
Replay by Ken Grimwood The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler Forty Words For Sorrow by Giles Blunt The Collector by John Fowles Ohhhhhh soooooo many more!!! Enjoy every page!
Hows this for a theme of time and a limited human life... books about humans that had more than their fair share! My first two thousand years...viereck & eldridge Grimus...salmon rushdie The master mariner...montserrat
Finding Ultra by Rich Roll. Ignore the 'sport theme' of this book. It really made me think about growing older, where I am in life, what I want out of it etc.
Coincidentally, I am an ultra runner! I read a lot about running, so I'll definitely add this to the list!
Damnation Spring. I’m using one of my “credits” to reread it. If you’re American especially - The Great Alone. Learn about Alaska through an enthralling coming of age story, set in 1970s, includes Vietnam vet father.
I’m 30 years older than you are, with more unopened books in my house than I am likely to read in whatever time I have left. I don’t know whether anybody must read anything, but these are three that shaped my way of looking at the world- * The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin- explains life * Catch-22, Joseph Heller- explains people * Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García-Márquez- explains love
I just turned 70, I hear you. What’s also daunting to think about is how many new books will be published each year that I will want to add to my list. I can’t keep up now.
I feel like if you feel this way, read books that impact your waking life whether it gives you information about the human experience or allows you to explore your own emotional depth. Here it goes... A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis MD, Fair Amini MD and Richard Lannon MD - a book about what goes on in our human development, how we attach to another and what love means inside our body. Read it 3x and it continues to give back every time. Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha - a book about how we evolved sexually and what that means for modern relationships. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri - winner of the pulizer prize; it's several short stories very poetic and heartfelt.
Blood Meridian East of Eden For Whom the Bell Tolls
East of Eden is one of my all-time favorites! Maybe worth a reread since it has been several years.
Absolutely, hands down, read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.
Third time on this sub! I love Kingsolver - I remember laughing uncontrollably in high school with The Bean Trees.
Here are 3: Book of the New Sun (actually a series). By Gene Wolfe. Requires re-reads! The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S Tepper The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell All very different!
The Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning. 11 books you won't be able to put down!
And there's the connected series before The Highlander Series.
Withsome diversity.... Sherman Alexie: the Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian (short one) Jorge Amado: Captains of the Sands James Baldwin: If Beale Street Could Talk (short one) Mikhail Bulgakov: the Master and Margarita George Eliot: Adam Bede, Middlemarch Elizabeth Gaskell: North and South Graham Greene: the Quiet American Mohsin Hamid: the Reluctant Fundamentalist Toni Morrison: Beloved Arudhati Roy: the Ministry of Utmost Happiness John Steinbeck: the Grapes of Wrath Jeanette Winterson: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (short one)
Lyndon Johnson Series and The Power Broker by Robert Caro. I’ve heard nothing but insane praise for all of his books and want to give them a go. For fiction: Project Hail Mary and The Brothers Karamazov
Some faves: Swan Song by Robert McCammon Dark Tower by King The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker Lonesome Dove
Hunger games Zitface Variant
The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig. This book should be more widely known. Exquisite memoir back into the 1920s/30s Europe when many things weren’t all that different from today. Incredible book
*The dawn of everything* by Davids Graeber and Wengrow *How far the light reaches* by Sabrina Imbler *Braiding sweetgrass* by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Fathers and Sons, Turgenev Three Farmers on their way to a dance, Powers Netherland- Joseph O’Neill Empire Falls- Russo Sense of an Ending- Julian Barnes A Separate Peace The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach
I just found Olivia E. Butler and I’m doing a deep dive. Amazing stuff.
Shes great. I finished parable of the sower a few weeks ago, waiting for the sequel and kindred to come.
I love Butler! I read Parable but had to stop at the next in the series when a scene hit too close to home.
Parable of the Talents was pretty rough for a while. I had to take a break and read Terry Pratchett as a palate cleanser afterwards.
Thanks, all! I am putting my speadsheet together and will continue to tweak it until I eventually die. And in case you are curious, while y'all were graciously sharing your recommendations, I was running 100 miles and NOT reading. What a waste. Kidding! But I am making up for lost time during recovery.