Life's a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death

 There's a list going around of 20 books to read in your 20s, posted by what has to be the most humorless, joyless person imaginable.  The list is a dreary march of mostly self-help tomes (the listmaker must presume everyone in their 20s is broken in some manner).  No fiction, and one lone woman that I noticed.  If the intention is to produce a boring, lonely human being by the time they're 30, then this list is f l a w l e s s.

 

As someone who reads a fair amount, I have a counteroffer if you will, take it or leave it.  Mine is, I think superior and it's not limited by age or language, sex or background.  It's a philosophy, and one I especially advocate for in this time of fascist book banning by small-minded cowards.

Read broadly, read fearlessly.

Read books by people like you, and read books by people as different from you as possible.  Read books by women, men, and non-binary people.  Read bestsellers and local works at your public libraries.  Read new releases and books a thousand years old.  Read translations and books you read as a child.  Read poetry and plays, histories, science books, biographies, and genre fiction. 

Every time I walk into a library, I feel overwhelmed by knowledge, wrapped in wonder, and spoiled for choice.  "I don't even know what language this is!"  "Oh, I've never read Persian poetry."  "Hey, Anais Nin, I should read her sometime."  "I wonder if this can help me with my French."  "A new translation of the Odyssey?  Huh."  "I haven't read Mary Downing Hahn since elementary school, I wonder if it holds up.  Wait, she kept writing?!"

The TBR is ever-growing and never-ending and it's glorious.