50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (2024)

50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (1)

The ReadDown

This list covers history, cookbooks, fiction, and poetry to help navigate a new stage of life. There are also a few classics that you should have read by now regardless! How many of the below books have you read?

  1. 1

    My Life in France

    by Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (2)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (3)

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  2. 2

    A Field Guide to Getting Lost

    by Rebecca Solnit

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (4)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (5)

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    $18.00

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  3. 3

    The Signature of All Things

    by Elizabeth Gilbert

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (6)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (7)

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    $18.00

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  4. 4

    Everything in Its Place

    by Oliver Sacks

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (8)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (9)

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  5. 5

    by Henry David Thoreau

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (10)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (11)

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    $12.00

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  6. 6

    Notes From Underground

    by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (12)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (13)

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    $5.95

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  7. 7

    Cook Like a Pro

    by Ina Garten

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (14)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (15)

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    $35.00

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  8. 8

    The Second Sex

    by Simone De Beauvoir

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (16)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (17)

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    $20.00

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  9. 9

    The Friend (National Book Award Winner)

    by Sigrid Nunez

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (18)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (19)

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    $17.00

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  10. 10

    The Source of Self-Regard

    by Toni Morrison

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (20)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (21)

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    $19.00

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  11. 11

    What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

    by Raymond Carver

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (22)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (23)

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    $16.00

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  12. 12

    Dubliners

    by James Joyce

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (24)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (25)

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    $19.00

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  14. 14

    Last Orders

    by Graham Swift

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (28)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (29)

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    $16.95

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  15. 15

    Of Human Bondage

    by W. Somerset Maugham

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (30)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (31)

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    $26.95

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  16. 16

    Salt

    by Mark Kurlansky

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (32)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (33)

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    $19.00

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  17. 17

    The Blind Assassin

    by Margaret Atwood

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (34)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (35)

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    $19.00

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  18. 18

    Becoming

    by Michelle Obama

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (36)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (37)

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    $18.99

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  19. 19

    Days Without End

    by Sebastian Barry

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (38)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (39)

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    $18.00

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  20. 20

    Bird by Bird

    by Anne Lamott

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (40)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (41)

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    $17.00

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  21. 21

    Good Soldier

    by Ford Madox Ford

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (42)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (43)

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    $16.00

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  22. 22

    Option B

    by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (44)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (45)

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    $28.00

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  23. 23

    The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

    by Marie Kondo

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (46)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (47)

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  24. 24

    Atomic Habits

    by James Clear

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (48)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (49)

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    $27.00

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  25. 25

    The Omnivore’s Dilemma

    by Michael Pollan

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (50)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (51)

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    $18.00

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    See Also
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  26. 26

    The Art of Travel

    by Alain De Botton

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (52)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (53)

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    $18.00

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  27. 27

    The Makioka Sisters

    by Junichiro Tanizaki

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (54)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (55)

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    $19.00

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  28. 28

    Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

    by Jamie Ford

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (56)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (57)

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    $18.00

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  29. 29

    Istanbul

    by Orhan Pamuk

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (58)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (59)

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    $18.00

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  30. 30

    Before We Were Yours

    by Lisa Wingate

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (60)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (61)

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  31. 31

    House of Leaves

    by Mark Z. Danielewski

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (62)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (63)

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    $55.00

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  32. 32

    A Year in Provence

    by Peter Mayle

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (64)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (65)

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    $17.00

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  33. 33

    The Rape of Europa

    by Lynn H. Nicholas

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (66)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (67)

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  34. 34

    Sons and Lovers

    by D.H. Lawrence

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (68)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (69)

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    $14.00

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  35. 35

    Wanderlust

    by Rebecca Solnit

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (70)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (71)

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    $20.00

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  36. 36

    The Artist’s Way

    by Julia Cameron

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (72)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (73)

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    $19.00

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  37. 37

    So Much Life Left Over

    by Louis de Bernieres

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (74)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (75)

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  38. 38

    Go Tell It on the Mountain

    by James Baldwin

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (76)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (77)

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  39. 39

    The Reader

    by Bernhard Schlink

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (78)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (79)

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    $17.00

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  40. 40

    The Age of Innocence

    by Edith Wharton

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (80)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (81)

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    $11.00

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  41. 41

    On Revolution

    by Hannah Arendt

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (82)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (83)

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    $18.00

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  42. 42

    The Second Mountain

    by David Brooks

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (84)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (85)

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  43. 43

    The Fire Next Time

    by James Baldwin

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (86)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (87)

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    $22.00

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  44. 44

    Far from the Madding Crowd

    by Thomas Hardy

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (88)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (89)

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    $24.00

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  45. 45

    Devotions

    by Mary Oliver

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (90)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (91)

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    $20.00

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  46. 46

    Anna Karenina

    by Leo Tolstoy

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (92)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (93)

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    $30.00

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  47. 47

    Too Much Happiness

    by Alice Munro

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (94)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (95)

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    $18.00

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  48. 48

    An Artist of the Floating World

    by Kazuo Ishiguro

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (96)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (97)

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    $17.00

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  49. 49

    Waiting

    by Ha Jin

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (98)

    50 Books to Read Before You're 50 | Penguin Random House (99)

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    $18.00

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