This article caught my eye on my Facebook feed. Now, I would have considered myself well-read and I am in my 20s.. but man… I feel so inadequate having read this list. Inadequate yet inspired.
I have read a couple of the books on this list (The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plaith and the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman) and I have heard of a dozen or so of these books, but there are so many I haven’t heard of and from reading the (often too short) descriptions of the books given in this article, I feel that there are more than a few I want to pick up and read soon.
Surely I am not the only one out there who was surprised at how many books on this list I haven’t read? As with most of these lists, the selection is all based on one reviewer’s opinions, but still, to have let so many good books pass by me I think I really need to expand my horizons more and be more accommodating to titles I haven’t heard of before instead of trying to read all the ‘famous’ books out there!
Also, one more thing – is it not weird when someone gives a list of however many books, but then clumps trilogies and series together as one entry? I see why it is done, but technically there are more than 65 books here to read!
How many of these have you read?
1. The Emperor’s Children, by Claire Messud
2. What She Saw…, by Lucinda Rosenfeld
3. The Deptford Trilogy, by Robertson Davies
4. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
5. Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin
6. A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
7. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz
8. Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid
9. The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy
10. White Teeth, by Zadie Smith
11. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
12. Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace
13. Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay McInerney
14. The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri
15. Call Me by Your Name, by André Aciman
16. The Rachel Papers, by Martin Amis
17. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
20. A Home at the End of the World, by Michael Cunningham
21. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
22. The Group, by Mary McCarthy
23. Quicksand and Passing, by Nella Larsen
24. Pastoralia, by George Saunders
25. Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
26. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers
27. The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
28. Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis
29. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
30. Generation X, by Douglas Coupland
31. The Fortress of Solitude, by Jonathan Lethem
32. Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson
33. I Love Dick, by Chris Kraus
34. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
35. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, by Tom Robbins
36. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami
37. Bossypants, by Tina Fey
38. Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain
39. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, by Toby Young
40. The Dirt, by Mötley Crüe and Neil Strauss
41. Lunar Park, by Bret Easton Ellis
42. Just Kids, by Patti Smith
43. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, by Nick Flynn
44. Oh the Glory of it All, by Sean Wilsey
45. I Don’t Care About Your Band, by Julie Klausner
46. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
47. Lit, by Mary Karr
48. I’m with the Band, by Pamela Des Barres
49. Dear Diary, by Lesley Arfin
50. The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton, by Anne Sexton
51. Actual Air, by David Berman
52. The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch, by Kenneth Koch
53. Alien vs. Predator, by Michael Robbins
54. The Collected Poems of Audre Lord, by Audre Lord
55. Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris
56. How to Be a Woman, by Caitlin Moran
57. My Misspent Youth, by Meghan Daum
58. Slouching Towards Bethlehem, by Joan Didion
59. Up in the Old Hotel, by Joseph Mitchell
60. How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman
61. How’s Your Drink?, by Eric Felten
62. The Elements of Style, by Strunk & White
63. Letters to a Young Contrarian, by Christopher Hitchens
64. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards
65. He’s Just Not That Into You, by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo
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RachelCabbit.com 
I’ve read (maybe) ten of the books on this list, and NONE of them are books that you need to read. Some of them are good, but you know…