Your 20s are a time for figuring out who you are and what you want from life.
While the only way to learn is to survive the inevitable cycle of successes and failures, it is always useful to have some guidance along the way.
To help you out, we've selected some of our favorite books that likely never made your high-school or college reading lists.
It's an eclectic selection that focuses on topics like understanding your identity, shaping your worldview, and laying the foundation for a fulfilling career.
Here's what we think you should read before you turn 30.
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'Meditations' by Marcus Aurelius
As you become an adult, you realize that there will never be a time in your life where everything is just as you hoped it would be.
"Meditations" is a collection of personal writings on maintaining mental toughness from the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who ruled from 161 to 180 and became remembered as one of the great "philosopher kings."
As Gregory Hays notes in the introduction to his translation, Aurelius wrote his musings on resilience and leadership in a "dark and stressful period" in the last decade of his life.
The emperor's version of Stoic philosophy has remained relevant for 1,800 years because it offers timeless advice for gaining control of one's emotions and progressing past all obstacles in one's path.
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'The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays' by Albert Camus
We all have a reason to get out of bed in the morning, and we start to question that reason after entering the real world.
As "The Stranger" author Albert Camus sees it, all people find themselves in an irrational world struggling to find meaning for their lives where there is none.
His main message, however, is that just as the legend of Sisyphus tells of a god who was eternally punished by having to push a rock up a hill, only to have it fall down each time he reached the peak, we should embrace the drive for meaning and lead happy, fulfilling lives with a clear-eyed view of the world.
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'Crime and Punishment' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Regardless of your personal philosophy, there will be times when the world pushes against you and you wonder why it's worth trying to better yourself and help others.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel is not only a gripping story, but it's an argument against the nihilism that was popular among Russian intellectual circles in his time.
"Crime and Punishment" is the tale of a 23-year-old man named Raskolnikov who, acting on a nagging urge, murders two old women and then struggles with processing the act.
Dostoyevsky argues that rationalism taken to its extreme ignores the powerful bonds that connect humanity and give us responsibility over each other.
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