25 Books to Read Before You're 25

Or any age, it should say. This month's (June 2004) issue of Seventeen Magazine features a list of 25 books, compiled by the First Lady and former librarian, Laura Bush; books, as the title indicates, to be read before one turns a quarter of a century in age.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Atonement
Bless Me, Ultima
The Brothers Karamazov
Ethan Frome
Flannery O'Connor: The Complete Stories
The French Lieutenant's Woman
The Heart of the Matter
I, Claudius
Jane Eyre
A Lesson Before Dying
The Little Prince
My Antonia
Mornings on Horseback
Music for Chameleons
The Optimist's Daughter
Pride and Prejudice
The Razor's Edge
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Rebecca
The Secret Life of Bees
Ship of Fools
Siddhartha
Sophie's Choice
War and Peace

I think it is a very good selection spanning a good range of variety. It is the first good thing I've read in this magazine -- I had been kicking myself in the shin ever since the day I found myself subscribing to it (I was conned by my credit card company, which offered me a year's subscription for just two dollars!). I know I really can't speak for a seventeen-year-old, which seems to be the magazine's target reader, but when I imagine myself at 17, or even 16 or 15, I really can't imagine myself putting up with worthless pieces of crap. Articles about cheap lip glosses and what to do when your boyfriend's parent(s) walk in when you two are going at it like horny rabbits, tips for bikini waxes, extremely simplified solutions to relationship problems... it's the self-help book for youths, which isn't reinforcing the values of life as a youth.

In their college section, where they feature one college, they show about 8 pages on the fashions of the students, and one measly sidebar (more like a paragraph of 50-100 words) on stats. What about the great programs they offer? What makes them stand out? They simply imply that the major reason one would select U of Hawaii is for the beaches and the array of bikini one can wear, and to choose U of Texas, Austen is for the great outdoor music and festivities. What about the rigorous academics, or the well-known atheletics department?

In my opinion, Seventeen is as good as smut for the teenage girl. Regardless, the 25 books to read before you're 25, as listed above, does seem like a good set of choices. Amazing, the contrasts. But since I've barely read any on the list, and I will turn 25 in little over a year, I've got a lot of reading to do! War and Peace might be a reach, but I'd want at least one good Russian novel under my belt before the quarter of a century mark.