10 Year Syllabus

There are some unusual titles in this list. While following it, I also made some rules for myself so that I don't get discouraged to stop reading them. The most important of them being to read in no specific order, to give myself an illusion of choice, because we all know being forced to do something never allows us to enjoy the activity.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

My dad read this book and recommended me to read it when I was older. Blink goes through the thought process of untrained minds and almost trains the reader as the book progresses. I tried reading it when I was 11 and put it away due to the sheer complexity. I'm pretty sure this book will have a lasting impact on me, so this is the one I'll try to read the earliest to benefit the most.

The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

After having taken French for 4 years, I think it is very disappointing that I haven't read the most notable French novel. I watched the movie on Netflix and thought it had a really good message, since I am better able to process the deeper meaning behind novels, reading it is going to be a changing experience.

A Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

I had the opportunity to read the book in 10th grade, but got put on a different book club :( I couldn't find another opportunity to read it. The sci-fi genre was especially intriguing as I didn't expect many books from the 1930s to be sci-fi. It has the perfect balance of sci-fi and societal behavior which is amazing.

Lord of the Flies -

Same story as Brave New World, even though I'm not the biggest fan of books that have the topic of government and social issues, I love survival stories because of how universally applicable their ideas are. since I hate

A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

I wanted to be an astrophysicist for a really long time, even though things didn’t fall into place the way I wanted, I’m still very interested in the field. This one book can answer at least some of the numerous questions I have about black holes and the other mysterious bodies in the universe which made me so passionate about the field.

Harry Potter - J.K.Rowling

I know I'm well past the age of reading the series, but the amount of references I see every day is too much to carry on without having read any of the books. The only reason I never read it in middle school was because I never had the patience to read more than 20 pages since I had already seen the movie and wanted to get to certain parts fast.

Percy Jackson - Rick Riordan

Another book series that I am past the age of. With the amount of literature and films and other forms of art that reference Greek mythology, this is the best starting point I can think of for educating myself on the subject.

The Bhagavad Gita -

I really need to get in touch with religion

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

The protagonist loses her sanity just as she is about to get accepted to the internship she has been dreaming about and ponders questions regarding her identity and sense of self. I haven't read many novels from the point of view of a mentally ill person, and whenever I do, I always learn something new.

Existentialism - Walter Kaufman

Apparently, this book is supposed to have some meaningful insights into the meaning of life, and since it is one of the questions I ponder so much, it should be a good book to have on hand. Pairing this with "The Bell Jar" would also be interesting and serve as a place to get answers from.