Hello, you are pushing 30.
- aveelamba
- May 14
- 5 min read
I can barely picture what's to come in the next few months, let alone YEARS. I've been stuck in a perpetual state of disbelief since January. Creating this reading list has really helped me step forward (?) into my new, very different world. I hope to read each book during June of its respective year, a literary birthday gift to myself. A way to reflect on the past year. Somehow, the expectation that I will explore a new reality each year has helped me accept that my life will never be the same. FOR THE BETTER. Inshallah, lowkey.
2026
Happy Hour, Marlowe Granados
Hello, me.
You just finished your first year of college. This bildungsroman is all about being young in NEW YAWK CITY. Very fitting. I hope to relate, laugh, and maybe gain some perspective about what this year has meant to me. This is truly just self-indulgence... Nevertheless, this big city chronicle will be the perfect first read of my 2026 summer.
2027
Prozac Nation, Elizabeth Wurtzel
Hello, depressed college student.
This is the uncomfortably perfect mirror for the inevitable sophomore slump. I hope this can give me some semblance of guidance, or at least remind me that I have the agency to navigate an ever-changing life. I KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO BE SO STRESSED. YOU BETTER HAVE THAT GOLDMAN SACHS INTERNSHIP. I think I'll benefit from something as egregiously self-aware, comical, and honest as this memoir.
2028
The Gambler, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Hello, let's go to the LIQUOR STORE!
You WILL be at the casino. You WILL put it all on black. 99% of gamblers quit before they win big!!!! In all seriousness, this is an interesting examination of the meaning of currency and our role in assigning value to people, places, and things. Definitely not a perfect mirror of what my life will be.
2029
The Rules of Attraction, Bret Easton Ellis
Hello, college kid with no plans.
Is this book going to be me? I will pray every night that it won't. Maybe a tongue-in-cheek reminder of the fact that the real future is waiting for me this year. Hopefully, I will be putting it off with Harv Law. Regardless, I will be in the same mindset I am in right now, graduating again. I have changed so much over these past 4 years. I am so scared of who I will become in 4 more. If you see me tweaking out on the street corner, PLEASE toss me some spare change.
2030
Play It as It Lays, Joan Didion
Hello, Elle Woods.
I cannot wait to revisit my GOAT, Joan, 5 years from now. I will probably still be mourning my brilliant queen then. It's going to be hard to put this book off for 5 years, but there's something about being 20-something, reading about navigating loss and disconnection and uncertainty while experiencing it. Hopefully I'm in law school.. and rereading this won't trigger a generational crashout. Either way, I hope it works out and I can adapt to the cards I'm dealt.
2031
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
Hello, DUNCE.
I've tried to read this one before, but never got around to it. I will most likely be surrounded by morons in this stage of my life. And every stage of my life. I DO NOT HAVE A SUPERIORITY COMPLEX. This book is all about adventure and run-ins with eccentric characters, which is exactly what I want to be living through 6 years from now.
2032
Small Pleasures, Clare Chambers
Hello, are you sick of this yet?
I was drawn to the title more than anything else. I anticipate needing to find the joys in the small picture at this phase of my life. 25 is a big year, I'm basically pushing 30. I know it's going to be hard to be between post-adolescent life and true adulthood. This is really just a reminder to slow down and remember that, despite the looming figure of the bar exam, I am living right now. So I hope I make the best of this year, and all the moments being 25 will bring. Like renting a car with no extra fee.
2033
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Hello, cog in the capitalist machine.
If it all went according to the plan, this is your first year being a whole-hearted member of the workforce. I hope you are a good employee, and it's all exactly like The Office. Hopefully, you live in NYC again, or you stayed in Boston. Either way, I want to remain an individual. This book is about collectivism and the power of our minds, maybe to re-instill that agency I probably lost after being steamrolled by academia.
2034
Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín
Hello, Avee, in between milestones.
How blended is that proscenium arch? This is your year to change everything with your BIG BROADWAY DEBUT. Only 3 years left to secure that Tony before 30. I hope I'm employed and looking for that next tier on Maslow's pyramid. Strengthening and creating new relationships, finding community, and figuring it all out. This will be my year. Brooklyn is about opportunity and striving for a better future, not unlike myself in the big 2034.
2035
Persuasion, Jane Austen
Hello, senior citizen.
What do you mean it's been 10 years since you graduated from Troy High? Do you remember anything from this time? I have no concept of who I will be at this point. But I will reread Persuasion and MAYBE, 10 years later, Mrs. Liamini will have proven me wrong. Is it the greatest Austen? 2024 Avee thought it was boring... but what does he truly know?
I hope to have changed. To have grown and peaked 1,000 different times. I never want to stop evolving and reinventing myself. I hope I don't recognize myself, and these past 10 years have truly been worth every moment. I'm scared, but so full of aspirations. I welcome the regret, shame, and pain of nostalgia that these years will bring. But most importantly, I embrace the fact that a few months from now, my life will irrevocably change. I am so grateful, optimistic, and (honestly) a little resentful. If I stick to this reading list, I anticipate it will guide me in unexpected ways. Maybe I'll laugh at my 17-year-old self for everything I thought there would be. Whatever is to come, I know I will learn to navigate life in a million ways entirely alien to me. I've never dreaded something this much, and yet, I've never wanted something more.
I have no traditional book or album for this post.
Listening:
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