Welcome back, my friends! Though I’m uploading this a little late, I’m happy to present the last installation of my 27-year reading history! Thanks for making it this far, if you have. This last leg of the race is mostly about my adult reading life and the books that have stuck out in my memory as I live through my 20s. The more I’ve read, the less often a book makes a lasting impact on me. Of all the books I’ve read as an adult, these are the ones that bring me back to a time and/or place that I’m no longer in. 

Enjoy the last of this three-part series as I now present to you Books 19–27!

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 

We’re starting this one off with a bit of a rewind. This is a title I meant to have as part of my high school reading career but totally forgot to include in my last post! So I hope you’ll forgive this brief break from chronology to talk about another John Green book, because I can’t get enough of that guy’s writing. 

I’ve always had an issue with being comfortable expressing my emotions, and this was an even worse problem in high school. But when I was sitting in the big, striped red chair in my parents’ living room at around 1 in the morning while finishing this book, tears came to my eyes. 

Crying while reading The Fault in Our Stars is not really a unique experience, because a YA book about terminally ill teens falling in love is going to make a lot of people cry, but for me it stuck out. I tried so hard to suppress my emotions, but sitting in the near dark, alone, with a book, I felt safe enough to cry. And I think this was the first time I realized I couldn’t stop feeling things just because I didn’t want to. 

Also, on a somewhat unrelated note, I freakin’ loved that big, striped red chair. When my parents refurnished their house, they let me have the chair for my apartment, and it made the place feel even more like home. That was the chair in which I’d slept while sick, cried while reading, and watched Doctor Who every night the summer before eighth grade. RIP to the big, striped red chair, and thank you for all you’ve done for me, including giving me a place to express grief while reading TFIOS. 

2. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

I, of course, had to include this other gem that was a big part of my blog for a few years. This is basically a compilation of Nick Hornby’s reading column from some newspaper or magazine. And you know what? It’s really fun to read about other people’s reading!

I loved the structure of these columns, which was that he would list the books he’d read, the books he’d bought, and then write a few paragraphs about his reading life—whether that was actually a review of the books, why he hadn’t been reading, or the circumstances in which he’d read/bought the books. I liked it so much that I based the format of my blog posts on this structure for a while, and it was really fun! It allowed me to take a closer look at what I was reading and why, as well as acting as a sort of online book journal. 

But mostly the reason The Polysyllabic Spree is on this particular list is that I would sneak in chapters between the rush of articles, allowing me to experience journalism from two different angles at the same time. 

I had a lot of issues with that job, but I remember there were a lot of fun people I worked with, and I got to talk to lots of people I never would have met otherwise. Reading these articles, even in a proofreading capacity, made me feel connected with the community around my college and the city. And reading Hornby’s public book journal gave me the courage to share my thoughts on reading and believe that they were valuable even if they were seemingly mundane. 

3. Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place by Jackson Bird

This is one of the first books I read about a transmasculine person that felt intensely personal to me. Jackson Bird is a YouTuber who is open about his transness and often talked about pop culture in his videos. The book’s title is a reference to Harry Potter, and while I haven’t reread Sorted in the wake of all the transphobia spewed by the author of Harry Potter, there are big chunks of this book that made me feel seen in a way I hadn’t before. 

I read this when I was grappling with my own transness, and I have a vivid memory of reading this book during family Thanksgiving. While I wasn’t out as trans to my family at the time, it felt like the first time I was truly being myself in my family home. I was experiencing these deep realizations and emotions right in front of everyone, even if they didn’t know.

There’s a specific scene in this memoir that I thought of years later after my own top surgery. In it, Bird describes a scene in which he comes out of the shower shortly after having chest masculinization surgery with his towel hanging around his waist instead of over his chest. The first time I could do this, it was so exciting to me, because I felt like it was the way I should have always been able to wear towels. It seems small, but that moment was huge for me, and one I’ll always remember. 

And though this book may seem like just one of many memoirs by a minor Internet celebrity, it made me feel so much less alone in the world. 

4. Ulysses by James Joyce

I read this book basically just to say I’d read it, but hey, I’ve read it now!

One summer in early college, when I was still at my parents’ house for the summer, I was deeply depressed and looking for a way to distract myself from my internal turmoil. So, like anyone whose identity was still attached to being a good student, I gave myself homework. 

Every day I would read a certain amount of this book, often with the SparkNotes website open next to me, because I had no idea what was going on most of the time. 

I would often sit outside on the front porch with the sun giving me that good, good vitamin D and slog through the portion of the book I’d set for myself that day. 

Even though it feels now like it was probably a waste of my time, I was actually very proud of myself for sticking with the book. I was proud of the fact that I’d set a difficult goal and achieved it with only SparkNotes to help me along the way. It was hard for me to feel any sense of pride in myself at the time, so this book will always be an important part of my reading history because of the moment of self-appreciation it offered me in the end. Plus, it is kind of cool to say I’ve read the book even if I only remember the grossest scenes. 

5. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain

I’m not gonna lie. I only picked this book up because one of my favorite Gilmore Girls characters reads it in the show… But it’s one of my favorites now! 

At the time I started reading it, I was just getting into reading nonfiction about music and counterculture scenes. What better marriage of these two topics than punk? I fell in love with reading about alternative music, and I absolutely loved the oral history structure (even though it’s often a difficult one to read). You get the intimacy of having someone tell a story they were a part of while also getting many different perspectives and a sense of the community. 

I learned a lot from this book, not only about punk but about myself, and whenever I think of this book I think about Gilmore Girls, too, and how this show taught me to both respect and appreciate pop culture as a way to interact with collective thinking. (I’m not sure if that sentence makes any sense to anyone but me…) Gilmore Girls got me through my freshman year of college, and Please Kill Me started me on a whole new reading journey that I’m still on today, so they will both be a part of me forever. 

6. This Savage Song by V. E. Schwab 

Not only was this the series that made me realize I love duologies, but it’s also a series I got as a gift for my birthday one year! 

As some background for this story, I’ve never been good at holding onto friends. They often seem to be temporary relationships in my life, partially because of my own reticence to be vulnerable. So the fact that the person who gave me these books is still in my life so many years later is actually a big deal for me. 

Receiving this gift is one moment I think of often when I reflect on why I am still friends with them. They specifically went into a bookstore and asked a worker there for a book without romance in it. I had recently gone on a rant about how I wished there were more books without romances in the main story, and the fact that my friend listened to that rant and went to the effort to find something for me just shows how much they cared about what I had to say and what I was feeling. 

They went out of their way to find not only a book without romance in it, but one in a genre I already loved (YA fantasy). I was touched by this gesture, because we had only been friends for about a year at that point, and I always tend to doubt whether my friendships are “real” or not. This one was and still is undoubtedly real. 

7. After by Anna Todd

This is not a good book at all, but oh boy, did I have fun reading it! 

While I was recovering from top surgery in my parents’ basement, I decided I needed to listen to an audiobook I didn’t care about. For some reason, I settled on After, maybe just to sate my curiosity, maybe because I was a Harry Styles fan, maybe I got sucked in by the hype. Who knows?

All I know is that I remember sitting in the basement listening to this book and being fully amused by it. It’s super problematic and not always well-written, but it was a blast to just indulge in some random fanfiction and have not-too-serious thoughts about it. Like the fact that Anna Todd has clearly never kissed someone who has a lip piercing, because she kept describing his lip ring as “cold.” Why is his lip ring so cold? Is he dead? 

Top surgery has changed my life for the better, but the healing process was far from easy. Thanks, Anna Todd, for helping me along the way. 

8. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

I know, I know, another John Green book? I can’t help it! John Green’s books seem to come into my life at pivotal moments, and who am I to deny reality in this list? 

The Anthropocene Reviewed was originally a podcast in which John Green rates aspects of the human-centered planet. I remember listening to this podcast while I walked to work in the summer of 2020, when we were all unsure what the future held, and when I truly needed John Green’s particular emphasis on beauty in the mundane. Or maybe profoundness in the mundane. Everything was changing, but I still had these thirty-minute walks to work to listen and appreciate the things around me in a new light. 

When the book version came out, we were in a different part of the pandemic, more used to what was going on but still shrouded by uncertainty. And again, it was helpful to read these little snapshots, little tidbits, and remind myself that it can be beneficial to reflect on both small and large things. Plus, I think about bananas way more than I used to, so that’s fun. 

9. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

I’m ending this list with my current favorite book of all time. 

Erin Morgenstern’s book The Night Circus was (and maybe still is) one of my sister’s favorite books, but the first time I read it, I didn’t care for it that much. It just left me feeling confused. Even after rereading it as an adult, I still have a middling opinion of it in terms of my own enjoyment. But Morgenstern does write beautifully and creates an atmosphere in her books that is almost palpable. 

Cut to the release of her long-awaited sophomore novel, The Starless Sea. I went into it with hope, because it sounded magical and bookish, but also some reservations. And lo and behold, this is now my favorite book of all time! I’ve reread it a few times already, and there’s always some new detail or connection to notice each time. Even typing this, I want to go on a long, long ramble about the book and why I love it, but I’ll keep it brief here, I promise!

I first read this book with my sister as part of our sibling book club, and if I’m being honest, having a favorite book by the author of one of her favorites makes me feel more connected with my sister. It makes me feel like I can understand a part of her better than before. I’m not sure if that’s actually true, but that’s how it feels!

This book is cozy and full of feeling. It leaves you with questions you want to ponder all day long. It’s both otherworldly and deeply rooted in reality. It’s existential and beautiful and bookish and cat-filled. I truly cannot emphasize how much this book feels like home to me. 

Conclusion

Well, there we have it! I’ve made it through all 27 books on this list and hopefully didn’t bore you too much in the process as I indulged in reminiscences. There are many books that didn’t make it on this list that I count among my favorites, but this list is not about favorites! It’s about history. It’s about the impact even a book you don’t love can have on your life if you read it at just the right time. 

Books have been a constant companion throughout this journey we call life, and I hope that they always will be. Because as long as I am reading, I am still alive. And what is more wonderful than that?

Here’s to 27 more years of reading! 

-Ryn PB