Prompts

What are the best books to read in your 20s?

You're out of school and starting your own life in whatever shape that takes. What books are essential reading for someone entering this stage of life to be successful in life? This could mean non-fiction books that help with skills that weren't taught in school, or it could mean fiction that helps round out emotional development – or whatever else you think people in their 20s should read.

The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing

2006 • 106 Readers • 336 pages 4.4

The Midnight Library

2020 • 3,798 Readers • 288 pages 3.8

The Simple Path to Wealth

2016 • 23 Readers • 286 pages 4.4

A Short History of Nearly Everything

2003 • 1,349 Readers • 705 pages 4.2

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

2011 • 2,622 Readers • 443 pages 4.2

Your Money or Your Life

1992 • 259 Readers • 350 pages 3.9

Ishmael

#1 of 3 in Ishmael

1992 • 241 Readers • 240 pages 3.8

The Education of an Idealist

2019 • 55 Readers • 580 pages 4.1

The Happiness Project

2009 • 300 Readers • 315 pages 3.5

Everything I Know About Love: Now a Major BBC One Series

2018 • 518 Readers • 368 pages 3.7

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

2001 • 642 Readers • 292 pages 3.9

I'm Glad My Mom Died

2022 • 2,355 Readers • 313 pages 4.5

Moby-Dick: or, The Whale

1851 • 1,389 Readers • 822 pages 3.5

The Great Adventure Catholic Bible

2018 • 3 Readers • 44 pages 5

I Am the Messenger

2002 • 296 Readers • 376 pages 4

Return of the God Hypothesis

2021 • 8 Readers • 576 pages 4

Narcissus and Goldmund

1930 • 140 Readers • 320 pages 4.1

The Catcher in the Rye

200 • 3,668 Readers 3.6

Cat's Cradle

1963 • 1,465 Readers • 192 pages 4.1