As this decade draws to an end, I’ve decided to take a look back at the last ten years and see what books have truly impacted my life. Choosing these was hard – for one thing, I’ve read a lot of books (663 since 2011) and for another, it’s harder to distance yourself from the ones you’ve read most recently. Ask me in five years, and this list may have changed!
Books have fundamentally shaped me, from the ages of 14 to 24. So much has changed, including myself. Without these books, times would have been darker, more difficult to overcome, and I definitely would have felt a lot more alone. Books have brought me closer to people, they’ve made me friends, they’ve given me something to talk (gush) about, and they’ve eaten up a whole lot of time and money (not one moment or penny do I regret!). This year I fell back in love with going to the library, a habit I seemed to forget to do as a teenager/young adult. I urge you to go there, see what they have waiting for you on the shelves (for free!) – use these valuable buildings of free books, chat to your librarians, shout about how great they are. If you have pennies to spend on books, shop independently, talk to the brilliantly passionate people working to make your shopping experience as special and as personal as possible. Support authors, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and shout about how much you love books. In a time when everything can feel difficult, and separate, and dark, and hopeless, books can and will give us hope.
Without further ado and in no particular order, here is the recipe of books that have shaped my late teen to early adulthood years:
1. Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb (read 2019)
Recommended by a friend in the office, this book has had a big impact on my year, this year. When Kate told me it was her favourite series and where to start (because I loudly declared that I’d bought Dragon Keeper), I was excited. When I went to the train station and the first two books were there in the small second hand bookstall with an honesty box, I was even more excited. Diving into this world this year has been wonderful – I ended up travelling to Seattle and picking up signed copies of two of her books for me and a friend and making my way through the third book in this trilogy thousands of feet in the air. [genre: high fantasy]
2. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (read 2015)
I picked this book up in Skipton, by chance, during one of the hardest years of my life. I felt very alone, I was travelling a lot, I was reading a lot. I happened upon this book during a visit to see my Gran and Grandad and the first sentence gripped me. I’d never really willingly picked up a 600 page book before, but TNOTW was my gateway drug to high fantasy, to being brave enough to pick up bigger books and know that if it takes me a while to read something, that’s okay. Rothfuss has a beautiful way of writing, and his world is so intricate. I know there’s a lot of frustration at how long this series is taking to progress, but I kind of love checking his blog, and will devour the final book when it does materialise. A book that fundamentally captures storytelling, TNOTW was an escape I needed, just at the right time. [genre: high fantasy]
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (read 2011 and 2012)
This book was recommended to me by my first boyfriend before we started going out (I admit I read it in part to a) impress him, and b) have something to message him about), and it was lent to me by my auntie (and subsequently bought for me by her, when she gave me my own copy after completing my AS levels). It went on to be the book I wrote about in my personal statement for University – it was definitely in part why I chose to study English, and what made me look at Universities like Kent and Lincoln, who offered American Literature modules (which I didn’t end up studying, woops). It’s my boyfriend’s mum’s favourite book and a book that has had such an impact – it made me pick up books about people and by people who have had very different experiences to me in life, and to never judge someone as you can’t know what someone’s been through. A great classic, and definitely one that reminds me of sweet, adventurous and hopeful summers. [genre: classic]
4. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (read 2012)
I read this in France, by a lake, on a campsite. It was hot and I was in pain having been given a diagnosis for my chronic back pain, and this book was magic and mystery and cold nights. The books I used to pick to take on holiday are always very special to me (I used to take around 14-16 for a two week camping trip) but TNC has always stayed with me and was often my choice if someone asked me what my favourite book was. I also include this because The Starless Sea has come out this year, and Morgenstern’s writing just speaks to my soul. TNC has always given me hope, too. Morgenstern wrote this for Nanowrimo which is something I’ve attempted, wanted to attempt, or talked about attempting for years (I didn’t actually properly give it a go until 2016) and the fact she drafted TNC in Nano made me hopeful that writing was something I could do. This book tastes of hot nights and toffee apples and I want to fall back into it all over again. [genre: literary/fantasy/speculative fiction]
5. How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (read 2013)
I was apprehensive including this book – Moran said things in here that I by no means endorse or am comfortable with. However, HTBAW was my introduction to the word feminism, to a group of people who thought, talked, and shouted about being a woman. Who ultimately put into words things I’d been feeling my whole life but didn’t know how to articulate. I read this the summer I turned 18, again in France, by the same lake as above, and it helped to untangle my young brain a bit. I went to University a little more able to articulate myself, and able to navigate through the gender studies section in the library with a little more ease. [genre: non-fiction/memoir]
6. Animal Farm by George Orwell (read 2012)
My Grandpa gave me a copy of this from the Folio Society – it was beautiful, I had no idea what it was about but I knew it was his favourite book and it was important to him. Orwell has impacted my life a lot: my Grandpa loved his works and willed me to read them as a teenager, my friend Ariel is obsessed with him and I remember seeing her receive a copy of AF back when she started making YouTube videos, I wrote about him in my undergraduate dissertation, and I now live near where he is buried. I like to think this book was another book that encouraged me to study and think when I was reading – to reflect on the world around me and the ‘bigger picture’. [genre: classic]
7. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (read 2015)
This book was consumed in the bedroom of my friend, Nicky, in London. It was hot and summer, and every morning I would pound down the stairs of her flat block, walk to Kings Cross, catch the tube to Caledonian Road, walk to my publishing internship, return, (see a show,) eat, devour this book, repeat. It makes me think of being brave, and taking the first steps in my career. It makes me think of seeing an insane amount of shows and spending way too much money (and being in a privileged position to do so). NAS optimised the move I was making, from North to South. I grew up in Yorkshire, I went to University in Lincoln (and would then move on down to Kent and settle in Oxfordshire), and I was doing a placement in London: a city that I only first went to in the last 10 years. I remember loving Gaskell’s writing, and wanting to read more – I remember devouring (and sobbing at) the BBC adaptation, and reading a classic ‘quickly’ for the first time. It’s from that same difficult year as TNOTW, but I was happier then, and had grown stronger and braver. [genre: classic]
8. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (read 2018)
I had to include a Bronte, how could I not… the moors sing in my blood! I’ve visited Haworth countless times, mostly with my Grandma, but once with my friend Amy. TTOWH wasn’t the first Bronte I read, nor was it the last, but I so fully fell in love with Anne, and her love of the coast, and her beautiful story, that it’s the Bronte novel that has impacted me the most over this last ten years (sorry Jane Eyre…) Anne writes a story that is about defying your lot in life, about being independent, fighting for what’s right, and carving your own path. This year I joined a book club, something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time, and it was my suggestion that we’re reading for December, so I’m looking forward to picking it up again! I read it as I ventured into the world of work, as my relationship grew and changed, and as I was becoming more independent than I’d ever been before. [genre: classic]
9. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (read 2016)
I can’t remember when, or why I picked up OAC but Atwood played a big role in my final year of University – I studied her in three of my modules, I went to see her with Anna who through that became one of my nearest and dearest, and OAC was one of the first books I lent to my boyfriend. Not only is this book part of a beautifully complex series, it introduced me to the joys of speculative fiction, and the idea of the posthuman. Although I didn’t ultimate focus on it in my Master’s, it informed my reading and helped kindle my love of science fiction which still grows strong. It asks big questions about the world, and feels hauntingly close in terms of an imagined future. What’s more, it illustrates the beauty of storytelling and drives home the sheer power of stories. [genre: speculative fiction]
10. Saltwater by Jessica Andrews (read 2019)
The book fills me with hope. Hope for greater recognition for northern stories, for working class stories, for raw and poetic stories. Although my writing is nothing like the wonderful Jessica Andrews, Saltwater inspires me to write, and to keep at it. I truly believe one of the reasons I completed Nanowrimo this year was because I read this book and heard Andrews speak. Her book is a slice of home (though it’s based more North than where I’m originally from) and the way she writes about motherhood and growing up as a young woman who is trying to figure things out is so spot on. I’ve recommended (and gifted) this book so much this year, and I can’t wait to see what Andrews does next. [genre: literary]
Let the books you read shape and enrich you, read about people who’s lives aren’t even on your radar, actively seek out books by people you disagree with, or books by people whose experience is so different from your own. Find comfort in words that could be written from your memories, or books that take you back to that hot summer when everything felt so new and exciting. Share books that mould your mind and leave your brain humming. Love the books that make you a better person, and never stop reading.
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