A couple of weeks ago, Milana from A Couple Reads posted a question to her Instagram stories asking for recommendations of books she should absolutely read before she turns 30 next year. We got to talking about this and it eventually became a whole buddy read challenge we’re going to do together! This post just covers what it is and which books we’ll be reading 🙂
THE NITTY GRITTY
It’s pretty simple. From the recommendations she received on Instagram, and our own brainstorming, we put together a list of 30 books we want to read before we turn 30!
THE TBR
Here is our official 30 Books Before 30 TBR:
1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer
2. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
3. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
4. Mistborn/The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
5. Daughter of the Forest by Juliette Marillier
6. Far from the Maddening Crowd by Thomas Hardy
7. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
8. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Dia
9. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
10. The Book Theif by Markus Zusak
11. War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
12. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
13. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
14. Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
15. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
16. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
17. The Goldfinch by Donna Tart
18. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
19. Dracula by Bram Stoker
20. Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
21. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
22. Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck
23. Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobbs
24. Jamaica Inn by Daphne de Maurier
25. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
26. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
27. A Room of Ones Own by Virginia Woolf
28. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
29. The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
30. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
THE PLAN
The goal is to read an average of 2 books each month until Milana’s next birthday! We’ll have to squeeze a few more in here and there but not often. Plus, we aren’t picking which two for each month far in advance. So far we only have chosen September (Station Eleven and Daughter of the Forest) but haven’t settled for October (though I’m leaning towards Dracula and Haunting of Hill House for obvious reasons).
On top of reading them together, we will be doing a sort of “book review series” on our blogs. That is, we’ll post our reviews at the same time that include just a couple of questions we asked the other person in regards to the book. The first one to come out will be for Station Eleven this Friday!
I’m actually super excited for this because it seems like it will accomplish a few reading goals I have for myself: read more out of my comfort zone (which is YA), and read more classics! Not everything on the list is classics (thank goodness), but there are plenty of them. Plus, I think incorporating it into our blogs with the reviews will be a lot of fun!
Have you read any of these books? Thoughts on them?
Any we should get to ASAP?
14 Comments
I put off The Book Thief for so long before I read it a couple years ago and I’m so glad I did. It was so beautiful, but completely broke my heart. I cried so much 😂 I’ve also read The Haunting of Hill House and at first I wasn’t sure, but the more I thought about it the more powerful it became and it’s definitely a book I’ll never forget!
Good luck for the challenge 😀
I’ve been putting it off foreverrrrr hahah I’m excited to finally read it though. For Hill House, have you seen the show? I watched it and didn’t love it, but books are usually better anyways – we shall see haha
I started watching the show, but haven’t gotten around to finishing it yet! It’s pretty different though like they changed a lot, so hopefully you’ll have better luck with the book!
I recently bought The Haunting of Hill House so I’m hoping to get to it now in Creeptober! 🙂 Mistborn and Extremely Loud and Incredibly are also two i HAVE to read 🙂 Good luck whit your list Molly !
I just got Hill House in a sub box so I’m excited to get to it! I’ve read Extremely Loud (but Milana hasn’t so I’m going to reread) – it’s such a good book! One of my favorites.
I love how varied your list is! It’ll be interesting to follow your progress and see what you think of these.
I just read Anne of Green Gables for the first time, and I loved it – it was so charming! I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by Daphne du Maurier. And The Historian is one of my favorite books! Great list, have fun with your challenge!
Oh that’s exciting! I know a lot of people love Anne of Green Gables so I’m looking forward to that one 🙂
I’ve only read Fahrenheit 451, and remember enjoying it. But I haven’t got around to watch the newer adaption with Michael B.Jordan!
We put that movie on a little bit ago but I fell asleep. Oops haha
This looks like so much fun! I don’t think I’ve read a single one of these. I hope you enjoy all of them!
I’ve only read a few >.< But it was so long ago that I'm going to reread them anyways!
I’ve read Of Mice and Men (v. good), Fahrenheit 451 (good but I like The Martian Chronicles by him better), and Dracula (not my favourite gothic but it’s out there). Best of luck with this challenge!
That’s awesome! I’ve already read a few on the list but I figured I’d just go ahead and reread them lol