
Have you ever wondered why there were so many lists of books that you are meant to read before 20 or 30 or 40 years-old? Well, I’m going to find out!
Also because it’s my birthday and because I will be celebrating it with my 2 dogs and 4 cats [and very few humans], here is a gif of an adorable dog for your amusement:

As a birthday gift to myself, I created yet another TBR list. This time I read through many different websites and posts that were mostly called “30 Books to read before 30!” [I will link all the posts I checked down below], and picked the books that (A) I was already interested in or (B) that were on my radar at least once during my reading and blogging career. As a result, here are 15 books I’m going to read during the next year [before I actually turn 30], and see why these particular books were recommended.
Hopefully, this challenge won’t take me a year to complete…

Out of these 15, I already own 8 and the rest I will purchase with the birthday gift cards! 😀 This is actually perfect, as I’ve been in a weird reading mood lately which also affected my book buying – I just don’t know what books I want to purchase… This won’t be a problem anymore!
Let me know if you’ve ever done similar challenges. Have you read any of the books from this list? What did you think about them?
Let’s chat! ❤
Sources:
1 – 10 Books Everyone Should Read Before They Turn 30
2 – 30 Books You Need To Read Before You Turn 30
3 – Popular 30 Books To Read Before 30 Shelf
4 – 30 Books to Read Before 30
5 – 30 Books You Should Read Before You’re 30
6 – 30 Books to Read Before You’re 30
7 – The 12 Novels Every Woman Should Read Before Turning 30
8 – 20 books everyone should read by 30

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Fab list Alex! I’d like to read #GirlBoss. Is that related to the TV show with the same title? Jen
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Thank you! 🙂 I’m really excited about this new “challenge”, and also one more excuse for me to buy more books. Lol
Yes, the TV show is based on that book. I loved the TV show and it was amazing!!!
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Happy birthday, Alex! 🎉 I hope you have a great day. 🎉
I know those lists and often look what I have already read and what would interest me but I never actually take one to check off the books myself. I always feel so pressured by those.
I really hope you make it though. Good luck!
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Thank you so much!!! ❤
It will be a quite one, but very lovely and I'm still so lucky to have my closest family members nearby.
About this challenge, I'm just very curious why those particular books have to be read before 30. Like are the main protagonists in their twenties? Are the themes important for that specific period of time when you're in your 20s and are building a life for yourself? I want to find answers to these questions 😀
It's going to be fun!
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Great list! Sadly, I haven’t read any of these but Jane Eyre and the Handmaid’s Tale are also on my TBR 🙂
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I’m so excited to read all of these! Hopefully they will be great and I’ll be able to find some new favorites 🙂
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First of all, Happy Birthday 😀 hope you have a wonderful day!!
And what a great, ambitious list! I know for a fact some of those are huge and with heavy themes so most of them wouldn’t be my kind of thing tbh, but I really want to read The Handmaid’s Tale (the graphic novel) as well. I’m curious about A Little Life but so hesitant because of what I’ve heard! Good luck!
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Thank you so much! It was a very good day. I definitely ate too much cake… lol
Yeah… All of these are kinda intimidating, but I’ve already ordered most of them (even the ones I had on Kindle) and I’m so excited for all them to arrive and sit neatly on my shelf. It’s going to be an amazing challenge, I can feel it!
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Happy birthday!! 🥳 this is such a fun idea!! It’ll be so cool to look back on later!
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Thank you!!! 🥂 I’m soooo excited about reading these books. Even if I end up not liking some, I still hope they will teach me something. 🙂
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The funniest thing about it is that I know only four titles but never read any of them.
Personally speaking, I’m not very much into this kind of challenges, but maybe would help me boost up my reading pace. In general, I just like picking up by random chances, because I can always discover some hidden gem or something like that
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😀 Some of them I haven’t even read the blurb, but I just know that I want to read them. Doesn’t make any sense whatsoever but I’m very excited. Lol
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Happy Birthday!! 🥳🥳🥳 I hope you had a wonderful day!!
I go thru phases of ‘should I read it or not 🤔’ in regular basis regarding A little life. It’s soo intimidating 😣
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Thank you!! 🎁 It was such a good day, with family and boyfriend, and all of the pets 😀 I know! It’s BRICK! and the font is tiny… what did I sing myself to… Lol
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Happy birthday!! Hope you have/had a great day with your furry friends 🙂
I like this idea! I read the Kite Runner in school and have to say that I didn’t like it. But maybe that’s because I had to read it for school? I don’t remember haha.
I hope you enjoy these books!
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Thank you so much! ❤ It was such a lovely day, we ate tons of cake. There is still lots left, but I don't think I'll be eating cake any time soon. Ahaha
And thank you, I'm very excited about this challenge and 10 of these are currently on their way to me!
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Happy birthday Alex! Have a glorious day!
Awesome list! I’m a bit late for it because I turn 30 in November (Old people cry) but I did try to do the 100 before you die several times and failed. 😀 I love your idea of picking through and combining lists! I think I’ll do that and create one for myself. 🙂 The Handmaid’s Tale and Jane Eyre are awesome, haven’t read the rest, great post Alex!
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Thank you so much, hun ❤ I was kinda sad at first to be celebrating while in quarantine but it turned out great, very calm and relaxing 🙂
Ahaha, no crying! And you still have time before November *wink*
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Happy Birthday!!! This challenge sounds so great, best of luck! Hope you like all the 15 books!
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Thank you so much! 🙂 I hope so too, but even if I don’t I still hope that they will teach me something, and I will finally understand why those particular books had to be read before 30. Lol
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, again 😅✨❤️ Loving this idea, here to see what you think about each one of these books 🥰
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Thank you, honey! ❤ I'm beyond excited to read them all, I just need this excitement to continue for longer than couple of weeks. Ahaha
And I'm already planning my July TBR which has nothing to do with this challenge… I'm all over the place with this excitement. Lol
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I love The Handmaid’s tale! 🙂 great picks.
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Yay! I hope to love it. I tried TV show last year and didn’t really get into it, but now I’m glad that I didn’t want more than the 1st episode, as I much prefer reading before watching. 🙂
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Happy Happy Birthday!! I hope you have a lovely day. I think this is a fabulous idea! One of the things I love about the Popsugar Challenge is how it pushes me out of my comfort zone. Many of these are still on my tbr, but I have read Persuasion, Jane Eyre, and The Handmaid’s Tale. I highly recommend all three. Good luck!!
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Thank you so much! ❤ Oh, it's sooo good to hear that you loved all three. I'm very excited to read all of this, but I'm also mentally preparing myself that they might not be 5star reads and that's totally fine, as long as I get something out of them. And yes, absolutely! That's the main reason I want to try Popsugar challenge once I'm done with my internship. 🙂
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Happy Birthday!!!! 🎉🎉❤️
I love this post! I clicked on some of the links… man there are so many books I’ve never even heard of. I hope you enjoy Behold the Dreamer. I really liked that book! The other book I’ve read on your list is A Little Life… that is a hard read, you gotta be in the right headspace for it, but it’s such a powerful novel!
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Thank you, hun! ❤ Ahaha, I know! That's what I thought as well, that's why I decided to pick only the ones I've heard about before. Lol
Dedra said that she loved Persuasion, Jane Eyre and the Handmaid's Tale. You liked Behold the Dreamer. You all are getting me even more excited about these!
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You’re welcome!! 😀 💞
Yay! I’m glad you do enjoy all the reads you’ve picked for yourself!! 😀
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I’m almost 63 and I’ve only read Handmaid’s Tale. I don’t do these things because I’m certain there will be books in the list that aren’t in genres I like, and I’m too old to change now!
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😀 very good point! I think it will be a fun “experiment” 🙂
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Omg I don’t think I’d read any of these before I turned 30 🙈🙈🙈 Best of luck with this challenge. Rooting for you 😊😊😊😊 I hope your birthday was a good one Alex. Much love ❤️💚🧡💜💛💙💖
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Thank you, hun 🙂 It was very very nice, much better than I expected tbh. lol
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Happy birthday!! I’ve not read any of these yet but The Kite Runner, The Handmaid’s Tale, A Little Life and The Alchemist are on my list.
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Thank you so so much! 🙂 Uh, I hope they will be good ones! Although… I used to be a huge Paulo Coelho fan, but not sure how I will feel about his books now. It will be interesting to find out.
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HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!! I’m so sorry I missed it! )): I hope you had a wonderful day with lots of sweet things and cuddles ❤ I really like your list! I've only read The Handmaid's Tale though, so I can say you definitely need to read that one 😉
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Thank you so much! 😀 You didn’t miss anything special! Ahah, but it was lovely nonetheless, and I still feel like it hasn’t passed because the bookish presents just keep arriving everyday! 😀
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awww that’s great!!! What did you receive? 😀
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Mostly books and house plants 😀 And a few knick knacks, lol
Oh, and a looooot of flowers! ❤
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A belated Happy Birthday to you!! I hope you had an amazing day with your pets 😀
I haven’t done any challenges like this – mostly because I am terrible at sticking to TBRs – but I would like to try some day.
I really enjoyed Persuasion, but other than that I haven’t read any of the books on your list! A lot of them are ones I want to get to someday though – especially Everything I Never Told You and Boy, Snow, Bird. I have heard so many amazing things about A Little Life but I just don’t know if I can put myself through the emotional pain, haha.
I hope you end up getting to all these books in time and that you enjoy them all!
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Thank you! 🙂 It was a fantastic day! But we did eat too much cake.. Lol
I’m so excited about all of these books! Some of them were ordered for me as my bday present, some of them I bought for myself 😀 I’m just patiently sitting here waiting for the books to finally arrive.
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HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY ALEX!!! Hope you had fun celebrating with your 4 cats (!!!! I NEVER KNEW THIS PLS SEND PICS 😍) & 2 dogs!! 🥳I know you only have Persuasion on your list, but now you’ve inspired me to read ALL of Jane Austen’s books before I’m 30 – watch this space! 😂
I reallllly want to read A Little Life but the size of it TERRIFIES me 😨 I might just listen to it as an audiobook (that’s my coping mechanism for anything more than 600+ pages not written by Cassandra Clare 😂)
Hope you’ve had a fab birthday month so far! 💛💛💛
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Ahaha, thank you so much, hun ❤ I'll need to share their photos in some future wrap ups 😀 For some reason I can never take thought beautiful insta pics of my pets, they never cooperate! Lol
Uuh, that would be a GREAT challenge! and I'm kinda tempted to join you. I've only read Pride and Prejudice so far, definitely need to read all of her other books, and it could also be an excuse for me to buy vintage classic editions of all of them. Hmm… 😀
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Hahahaha I’m quite fortunate because my cat sleeps for 90% of the day so it’s fairly easy to get photos 😂
Hehehe *whispers* DO ITTTT – the Vintage Classic editions are all so stunning!! 😍
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A belated happy birthday Alex!!! I hope you had a wonderful day in spite of lockdown. This looks like a lovely varied list – I’ve read a few, Jane Eyre and The Handmaids Tale are some of my all time favourites. Happy reading and I’m really looking forward to hearing what you think of all these books! I might take some inspiration from your list too X x x
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Thank you so much! 🙂 It was such a great day! We celebrated three times during the day, and ate too much cake. 😀 I’m very excited about the vintage classic edition of Persuasion that I ordered, it should be arriving this week. Wheeeee 😀
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Happy belated Birthday fellow May baby ❤ ❤ ❤ I'm sorry I missed wishing you on your birthday! I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating at home with your doggos and cattos and very few humans 😀 I've read 5 books on this list but the rest are all on my TBR (surprise, surprise lol)! I have no doubt that you'll be able to easily get this done 😉 Good luck!
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Thank you soo much!! 😀 and don’t worry about it at all!! 5?? You’re winning right now, all previous comments only had a max of 3 read books, ahah. I’m SOOO excited for all of them to finally arrive, so I can stack them neatly on my shelf and HOPEFULLY read. Lol
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