30 for 30: Three decades of reading highlights

When I go someone’s house for the first time, I make a beeline for their bookshelf. You can tell a lot about a person by what they read and I firmly believe that books are at least partly responsible for shaping our worldview, particularly those we read as kids. While most of us have a story about a book that profoundly changed us, I think even the pulpiest airport novel we pick up to pass the time leaves an impression, however subtle. And we fall in love with stories for different reasons: they challenge us, comfort us and remind us of what was happening in our lives while we were reading them. They offer escape and teach compassion. They shape and build our understanding of language, inform and reflect our personal aesthetic and taste, and a million other things besides.

I turned thirty last month, and I’ve been using the milestone to have a bit of a think about what I value, how I got where I am and where I want to go next. Books play a big part in that, so today I thought I share the thirty books that have most influenced me in my first thirty years. Some have indeed shaped the course of my life in very real ways, while others have had a more subtle effect: teaching me about language and how stories work, influencing the kinds of stories I like to tell, introducing me to genres I love, keeping me company as a kid when I was scared and couldn’t sleep, or been the reason I couldn’t sleep. They contain some of my favourite characters and take me to the places I most want to go. They’re the books that I’ve read again and again and keep coming back to, the stories that most feel like friends.

Looking at them all laid out, I’m keenly aware that it’s a fairly conservative list. In fact, it kinda screams: ‘Snobby lit. grad with a weakness for crime’. I’m a preppy anglophile at heart, and that’s probably not going to change, but I am keen to diversify. If you have recommendations, hit me up.

I’ve listed titles roughly in the order I remember first reading them. I haven’t included blurbs, but if you’re keen to know more about any of the titles, I’ve provided links to their Goodreads pages. For those who are new to Lectito or don’t know me very well, consider it an introduction of sorts. Firm friends, humour my self-indulgence, and if you have recommendations for what I should read over the next thirty years, please do leave a comment. As a quid pro quo, I’d also love to know what titles you’d include on your list and what role(s) you see books playing in your life.

Seven Little Australians

Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner

See on Goodreads.

Little Women

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

See on Goodreads.

peterpan

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

See on Goodreads.

TheMagiciansNephew(1stEd)

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

See on Goodreads.

The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

See on Goodreads.

Five On a Treasure Island

Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton

See on Goodreads.

Boy

Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl

See on Goodreads.

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables  by L. M. Mongomery

See on Goodreads.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

See on Goodreads.

The Shining

The Shining By Stephen King

See on Goodreads.

Harry Potter book 1

Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

See on Goodreads.

Northern Lights cover

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (a.k.a. The Golden Compass)

See on Goodreads.

To_Kill_a_Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

See on Goodreads.

Red Dragon

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

See on Goodreads.

Eliot Collected Poems

Collected Poems by T. S. Eliot

See on Goodreads.

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

See on Goodreads.

Nineteen Eighty-four

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

See on Goodreads.

The Tempest

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

See on Goodreads.

Oscar and Lucinda

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey

See on Goodreads.

Lolita

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

See on Goodreads.

Talented-Mr-Ripley

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

See on Goodreads.

The Secret History

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

See on Goodreads.

the-picture-of-dorian-gray-by-oscar-wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

See on Goodreads.

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

See on Goodreads.

Jane Eyre

 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

See on Goodreads.

rebecca

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

See on Goodreads.

Brideshead Revisited

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

See on Goodreads.

04_wolitzer

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

See on Goodreads.

 The Summer Book

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

See on Goodreads.

pursuit-of-love

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

See on Goodreads.

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