30 Books Every New Yorker Needs To Read Before They’re 30

You’ve heard your friends, your teachers, and every headline on the Internet say it: You have to read this. If we’re being honest, you can live a full and healthy life without ever picking up a book, of course — but why would you? After all, there’s nothing to get you through heartache, a new job, that less-than-pleasant living situation, or hey, even your morning commute like a good story.

Just in time for summer reading, we’ve put together the ultimate bucket list of books for every type of New Yorker under the sun. All 30 of these tomes, fiction and nonfiction, are essential for dealing with the increasingly difficult task of being a young person in New York City (or anywhere, really).