it doesn’t have to be your favorite book or anything. It can be any book that you find yourself thinking of with a sense of pride for having read it.
Personally, I am really proud of myself for not DNFing A Little Life and pushing forward. I read a very good chunk of that book with tears running down my face–mind you, I was reading it on my phone during lectures for the entirety of my first semester last year–and I was always on the verge of putting it down just because of the horrible content. Also, it was pretty long; too long, actually. So when I was done, I was simultaneously Heartbroken, broken (just like in general), and relieved. It was truly a feat.
An honorable mention is A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, because I swear to God I did not understand a single thing about it even 10 chapters in. Charles Dickens is too much.
All the Shakespeare
Various Samuel R Delaney, especially Hogg (because it was written to be unpublishable/unreadable because it’s so vile)
Various important feminism authors (Adrienne Rich, bell hooks, Angela Davis, Carol J Adams, etc) because in my youth I faced a decision point: trust my women peers and learn what feminism is or just oppose it like so many young men my age, and I made the right choice.
Wilhelm Reich