As we have discussed numerous times, I am not a cool person*. I do, however, know several cool girls personally and I also observe cool reading babes in their natural habitat on Instagram. As a result of years of intense research, I present this entirely arbitrary and uncomprehensive list of books that cool personages read.

1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I have a theory that book-loving girls I know fall into two categories: The Brideshead Revisited girls and The Secret History girls. It tends to be a question of nuance, as most of them like both books and just slightly prefer one to the other, but nuances are important. Tartt’s campus novel is obsessively readable and deliciously dark. I would argue that in its wish-fulfilment (and the devotion it inspires in its many followers), the book in fact comes close to being uncool, but that’s maybe why it’s the ultimate example of the genre. In any event, it’s a great read. As with several books here, it’s best enjoyed when one is close in age to the protagonists.

2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. Of the many contenders in recent years, I think Moshfegh has come closest to having written the ultimate modern cool girl book. Sally Rooney had a great attempt with her Conversations with Friends and Emma Cline tried very hard with The Girls, but I think MYORAR is a much better book than the latter and unlike Conversations, has that dreamy (or in this case, literally sleepy) quality that many cool books seem to share. The premise of being young and beautiful and thin and smart, but checking out of life for a year with the help of an alarming number of pills is right at home on this list.

3. Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz. All cool people seemed to discover Eve Babitz a while back and I’m very grateful they did, as I would probably not have found her on my own. Eve’s stories (closely based on her own life full of drink and drugs and sex and her extraordinary breasts) of the life in L.A. are big on fabulousness and atmosphere, but they are also just strange enough to be cool. Slow Days is an excellent pool side read and will likely make you crave a cocktail. Or something. It also reminds me that summers, intense heat and a certain languor often feature in cool books.

4. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. Talking of languor, The Virgin Suicides has that in spades. It must be one of the most atmospheric books I’ve ever read, with the elusive Lisbon sisters drifting in and out of frame, always followed by the gaze of the neighbourhood boys. Some people are frustrated by the absence of the plot in this novel, but they clearly aren’t cool people and I agree with cool people on this occasion. As has been said many times before, this isn’t a book about what happens, it’s a book about nostalgia, innocence, obsession, longing, memory. It’s of course also the basis of one of the coolest movies of all time.

5. Just Kids by Patti Smith. There are, obviously, different kinds of cool and Patti Smith’s brand is a lot tougher and more intelligent than the one in The Virgin Suicides (and less voluptuous than Eve Babitz’s). Smith’s story of her life in New York and relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe is so imbued with street cred that it would still be cool even if Smith was a terrible writer, which she absolutely isn’t. I suspect her M Train might be even cooler, considering the amounts of black coffee consumed and the eclectic topics she tackles, but I have not read it yet.

6. Anything by Joan Didion. To continue with the intelligent side of cool, Joan Didion is the ultimate intelligent cool girl pin-up. She writes like an angel and looks like one, too – at least this is what I imagine cool girls dream they look like in heaven. She is also excellent at heat and atmosphere and a certain detached self-obsession, all great assets for the purposes of this list.

7. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. I was struggling a bit with the classics. Not that cool girls don’t read any, but the preferences seem to be very diverse when it comes to anything further back than the 20th century. Lolita, however, definitely belongs here and combines the different aspects of cool books – innocence, intelligence and darkness – in a way rarely (if ever) equalled. I read it when I was 12 and it is the only book I sometimes wish I had read later.

8. Bonjour, Tristesse by Françoise Sagan. I guess you got to have something French on a list like this? There are several other boxes it ticks as well, though: summer heat? Tick. Langour? Tick. Sexual tension? Tick. A young, beautiful, rather annoying female protagonist? Tick. Foreboding? Tick. Eventual tragedy? Tick. Written with the blind confidence of a gifted teenager, it’s another great beach read in this bunch – ideally read in the French Riviera, of course.

9. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It’s the only book on this list I haven’t read (although I own it** and have meant to read it for a long time; I’ve only read Plath’s poetry), but I could not leave it out. Plath symbolises the darkness and tragedy that is present in all the books I’ve chosen, to a lesser or greater degree. I could have picked Virginia Woolf, whose work I know much better (and whose death was equally tragic), but Plath seems to be a better fit. And this has made me to conclude on a rather sombre note, which wasn’t necessarily my intention with this not-entirely-serious piece.

I have used the word ‘cool’ about 749 times in this post. This is intentional. What would you add to the list? Or cross off?

*I promise I’ll stop saying that, but it’s relevant for this post.

**Could of course not locate the book when I needed it for the photo.