The Secret History (one of the books on the list) with an origami crane, a brunt map, an instant camera about to develop a pictures, twine, and yellowed dictionary pages

The Book List That Got Me Back Into Reading

When I first got back into reading, it started with a book list, 30 Books Every Woman Should Read, on MSN. It has since been removed, but I wanted to share with you some of the books.

The Taming of the Shrew

Growing up, I devoured books. All the way through high school, reading was a passion. During the summer between high school and uni, I was reading Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare for fun. However, I had to put that down and read Bel Canto for my first college assignment. Desiring to be ultra prepared for school, I read it twice. Between work and school, I was short on time, and the assigned reading material wasn’t challenging. This led to a long period of no books.

Then, I came across this book list. I started off by reading just 6 books a year, one book every other month. The books vary in subject matter and length.

Now, I am at the #3 US book reviewer on GoodReads, but it all started with this list.

  1. Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
  2. Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill
  3. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
  4. Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
  5. Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace
  6. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
  7. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
  8. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
  9. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship by Alice Munro
  10. Henry and Jane by Anais Nin
  11. How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
  12. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
  13. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
  14. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
  15. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
  16. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
  17. The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck
  18. Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

*Yes, I know that 18 does not equal 30. When I started to read the books from the list, I became concerned that the list might disappear before I could finish them all. So I saved all of the books that I had not yet read at that time. These are the books that I saved from the list.