Twitter makes the rounds once again with a good idea rightfully mocked by people posting gags and wind-ups almost immediately.

20 books for your 20s. Controversially, as a 22-year-old and part of the target audience for these many varied and often dullard social media posts, there are only so many books that can truly be helpful. The collected works of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of the Wimpy Kid series, while hilarious, is not helpful.

But books are helpful to those that wish to seek help from them. Knowledge is porridge. Only to those that wish to read are they helpful, and only those that want to read a certain topic or writer will benefit.

There is no universal setlist of 20 books to choose from, deliberate over or study. Important books, yes, but books are personable experiences, so it would be futile to pick out 20 books and recommend them to everyone.

What that opens, though, is the possibility to reminisce and explain the 20 books that shaped the early years of decade number three (or four, as my birthday rests on the dying days of 1999). Unfortunately, that does mean putting up with personal encounters, first-person writing and gushing recommendations of books that will not affect you as they did me.

10 books of fiction, and another 10 of non-fiction, for good measure and balance.

Continue reading Ewan Gleadow’s 20 Books to Read in Your 20s →