30 Books to Read Before 30

After reading dozens of "30 Books to Read Before Turning 30" or "30 Books to Read Before You Die" lists to find one that resonates with me, I have decided to simply create my own. Who else knows my wants and needs better than me? My list of the 30 Best Books to Read Before 30 is partly borrowed from other lists, includes older books that I have been wanting to read for a long time and others that I have just discovered or that were recommended by friends. There is a mix of self-improvement and career books, non-fiction, classics and modern literature. If it suits you, feel free to read along or use my list of best books to read before 30 as inspiration for creating your own reading list.

30 Books to Read Before 30

Legend: Read | Reading | Tried to Read and Gave Up

​1. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
3. You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers
4. The Vegetarian by Han Kang
5. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
6. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
7. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
8. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
9. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
10. Zero to One by Peter Thiel
11. How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen
12. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
13. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
14. Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephan Chbosky
15. Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
16. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
17. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
18. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
19. Instructions to the Cook by Bernard Glassman and Rick Fields
20. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
21. Daytripper by Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba
22. 7 Tattoos by Peter Trachtenberg
23. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
24. Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante
25. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
26. The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
27. The $100 Startup by Chris Gillebeau
28. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
29. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
30. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

What's on your 30 Before 30 Reading List? If you've read any of my picks for the best books to read before 30 list, let me know what you think in the comments!