100 Books I'll Make My Kids Read
I won't make my kids read them. I will make it an absurdly good deal so that the feel like the can't pass it up!
I was on X (back when it was Twitter) and saw a tweet where a man joked that he had stumbled upon a genius parenting hack. His daughter was a voracious reader so he made a deal with her. if she got in bed on-time she could read for as long as she wanted additionally, for every book she completed she would get a dollar.
He revealed that not all books would qualify. She would have to read things like "A Tale of Two Cities" and other classics like it. He was shocked when she sped through as many books as she could. He confessed, with delight, that he was already out over $70 dollars.
He reflected a bit on how much of a steal this was. His pre-teen daughter had read through multiple semesters of books that many will only begrudgingly read in college. He got her to read more books earlier and, not only that, she liked it too! When he considered that he had got all of this benefit for only a dollar a book he realized he was helping his daughter get a quality education at a far far lower price than she would get a university.
My Plan
I think this is a phenomenally good idea. I'm making a few tweaks to it for my own children.
- Any book could be read to earn $1 (up to my discretion)
- I will also curate a list of 100 books that are on a different scale
- The tiers have to be read in order but the books within a tier can be read in any order
- $1 books before $5 books, etc...
- the $10 books can be ready in any order
- At the start of the reading list each kid will create a github site and publish an article per book
My list of 100 books will work like so
| Book Order | Total Books | Price per Book | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - 50 | 50 | $1 | $50 |
| 51 - 75 | 25 | $5 | $125 |
| 76 - 90 | 15 | $10 | $150 |
| 91 - 100 | 10 | $25 | $250 |
| 100 | $575 |
The List
I'm still working on the list. I will keep this up-to-date as I make decisions.
They are not currently in the final order.
- 1984 - George Orwell
- Animal Farm - Reiner Poppe
- The Emporer's New Mind - Roger Penrose
- The Apology of Socrates - Plato
- Out of the Slient Planet - C.S. Lewis
- Malacandra - C.S. Lewis
- That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis
- A Pilgrim's Regress - C.S. Lewis
- The Abolition of Man - C.S. Lewis
- Miracles - C.S. Lewis
- Water Buffalo Theology - Kosuke Koyama
- Every Good Endeavor - Timothy Keller
- Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis
- Boundaries - Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend
Changelog
9/19/25 Added
- Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis
- Boundaries - Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend
7/11/25 Added the books
- Miracles - C.S. Lewis
- Water Buffalo Theology - Kosuke Koyama
- Every Good Endeavor - Timothy Keller
Updated instructions to include rules for when a book can be read as well as starting a github repo.
7/7/25 Added the initial books
- 1984 - George Orwell
- Animal Farm - Reiner Poppe
- The Emporer's New Mind - Roger Penrose
- The Apology of Socrates - Plato
- Out of the Slient Planet - C.S. Lewis
- Malacandra - C.S. Lewis
- That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis
- A Pilgrim's Regress - C.S. Lewis
- The Abolition of Man - C.S. Lewis