Content is king

And thus, I will steal it. Some guy listed the top thirty books you must read before you're 30. In honored fashion, a point by point exercise.

1. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Never heard of it.


2. 1984 by George Orwell

Read is a long, long time ago. Won't say it was before 1984, but it might have been. I'll tell you this: I'm sick of the comparisons.


3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Can't honestly remember if I've read it. I think so. But definitely saw the movie. Powerful stuff.


4. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Never read it. Or saw the movie.


5. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

Ditto.


6. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Ditto.


7. The Rights of Man by Tom Paine

Nope.


8. The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Nope. I might be an uneducated slob?


9. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Not this one either. But I read something else by him and didn't like it.


10. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

No. One of the most impactful books ever, but does it actually need to be read anymore?


11. The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton

Sounds boring.


12. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Nope.


13. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham

Probably?


14. The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Probably should read this one.


15. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

I tried to read this a long time ago, and couldn't get into it. Liked the movies though.


16. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Yeah right. 7000 pages on child abuse. No thanks. Could barely sit through the movie. Nobody plays Mcgongle like WC Fields, nor the stern step father like Basil Rathbone, however.


17. Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot

I knew a guy who escaped Dresden and watched it burn. Close enough.


18. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Another one I tried to read but didn't.


19. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Great book. Informs on the dangers of getting too "into" the party culture. It'll always end in tears.


20. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Another false start.


21. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Nope.


22. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

No, but I should.


23. Walden by Henry David Thoreau

GAFB.


24. The Republic by Plato

Nope.


25. Lolita

Saw the movie, and it creeped me out. Peter Sellers in a very weird role.


26. Getting Things Done by David Allen

Cram it. How can you get anything done when you're up to your jowls in ticklers?


27. How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

I have read this. Simple and to the point. Be nice. Be ethical. Expect same.


28. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

My asthma!


29. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

No. Does hearing my grandparents talk count?


30. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Nope.


31. BONUS: How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

Bittman's a jerk.


32. BONUS: Honeymoon with My Brother by Franz Wisner

Isn't this basically what Jimmy Buffet's Maragaritaville is about?