30 Books To Read Before You Turn 30.

In just over a month it will be my birthday and for those who don't know me, I take birthdays VERY seriously! I think it is a beautiful thing to celebrate one more year in this one beautiful life. It is a time to give thanks for all the blessings that have been poured out in the past 12 months and look forward with hope into a new chapter with new stories.

But not only is it my birthday, it is my THIRTIETH BIRTHDAY! Can we get a woop! woop! And when you have a milestone birthday such as the big 3-0 you can help but do some serious thinking on the three decades that have flown by, and what you look forward to in the (hopefully) decades to come.

I want to share it all with you. 

I found this blog that totally resonates with me as it is lists, lists, lists and one of them just happens to be 30 Books Everyone Should Read Before Their Thirtieth Birthday. I took a read though, and let's just say, I came up short. So instead, here is my list of 30 books I have read and would recommend or would like to have read by my 30th birthday.

1. The Bible: Need I say more?

2. The Giver : As a young reader this was the book that taught me to think.

3. The Man in the Box: A Novel of Vietnam: another book that was read to me in elementary school that taught me to have compassion and be aware.

4. The Book of Negroes: An intimate picture of the slave trade in North America.

5. Long Walk to Freedom, : The best Autobiography I have ever read.

6. War and Peace : On my side table as I type. Why? Because so many people, whose opinions I value and respect say that I should.

7. Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot, one of my favourite poets.

8. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide: Because Awareness is the first step.

9. Lord of the Flies : So that when someone says, "Die Piggy Die!" You'll know what they are referring to.

10. The Great Gatsby: Because we are human.

11. Uncle Tom's Cabin: Before The Help


12. Nineteen Eighty-Four Perhaps, however this may hit a little too close to home?

13. Works of Love: We are not forgotten, or alone, but loved and meant to love.

14.Where the Red Fern Grows: This book, somehow, taught me to feel.

15. The Count of Monte Cristo: A-MAZING. Just a great all-round story.

16. The Cave: A beautiful Story with a surprise ending

17. The Practice of the Presence of God : Don't we all long for peace?

18. Pride and Prejudice: Because we just can't get enough of that Mr. Darcy.

19. Les Miserables: To this day a story that never fails to captivate my soul.

20. The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East: In my effort to understand the conflict in the middle east, my husband strongly recommends this short little read (and by short, I mean slightly longer than War and Peace)

21. The Handmaid's Tale : I struggled to know which Margaret Atwood book to put as I love so many of them. Right up there would also be Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood (they go together). Or Moral Disorder. Also very good.

22. The Better World Handbook: Small Changes That Make A Big Difference: Whether you subscribe to the suggestions or not, it is just good to know.

23. A Passage to India: I read this the first time I travelled Europe and it had a profound impact.

24. To Kill a Mockingbird: Do you see a theme here?

25. Unbowed: A Memoir : The incredibly inspiring memoire of the late Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement.

26. Mere Christianity: It's what it's all about.

27. Lolita: Scandalous! and yet an icon in the 20th century literature.

28. Things Fall Apart: Clashes of culture and yet each subject to the compulsions of the soul.

29. The Republic: What is justice?

30. Goodnight Moon : Because there is a child inside each one of us....and this child needs to go to bed.

I am sure that I have forgotten some  and omitted others but I'd say it is a fairly concise list. How about you? What are some of the most influential books you have read? What am I missing?