My Life in Books

By Sopho1991, 17th Feb 2012 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/rh9lzpz2/
Posted in Wikinut>Reviews>Books>Dramatic Fiction

Books that have inspired me throughout my life so far...

My Life in Books

Literature is an interest that was obvious in me from a very young age. Whether it was my dad reading Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ to my brother and I before we went to sleep, or my insatiable appetite for anything Jacqueline Wilson from the age of 7 onwards, I have never been able to devour enough of the written word. This is something that has served me well throughout my life and in turn helped me along the road of education; I now study literature and hope it to be the basis of my future career. Everybody has a definitive list of the books that have affected them, inspired them or helped to shape a section of their life. The books I’ve read over the last twenty years have helped me through some of my toughest moments, provided some escapism and above all inspired me to do everything in my power to become the writer that I’ve always yearned to be. This isn’t intended as a life-changing piece of writing, but if I can inspire someone to read something from this list and get half of what I did from it then my work here is done!

‘Vicky Angel’ - Jacqueline Wilson
This arguably is a book that helped me to overcome an absolutely awful period of my life. My then 7-year-old brother passed away in 2001 of cancer. Being only nine at the time this was obviously an utterly earth shattering event that led me to completely disappear within my own shell. This book is the story of a young girl coming to terms with the death of her best friend who is hit by a car and killed. This book helped me more than I could ever describe, it helped an impressionable nine year old realise that her world wasn’t ending and that it was ok to move on without feeling guilty that she was doing it without her brother.

‘The Dancing Bear’ – Michael Morpurgo
This is possibly one of the most beautifully written children’s books I could imagine. The story of an orphaned girl from a mountain village who takes in an abandoned bear cub who eventually brings fame and fortune to the village when a film company decide to use the bear in a film. The story is so simple but Morpurgo has a style that conveys so much, the characters are so real and the bond between the girl and the bear is so obviously unbreakable, the whole story is stunning. I had this story on audio-book and listened to it so many times that the tape eventually wore out!

‘Noughts and Crosses’ – Malorie Blackman
We read this book in English at school and it was something that once picked up could absolutely not be put down. I’ve never seen an entire class of otherwise stroppy and uninterested fourteen year olds become so emotionally involved in a book that was being read for study, to the point where we were begging our teacher to let us keep reading instead of carrying on with lessons! The story revolves around the social divides between two racial groups, the socially superior Crosses (the black community) and the Noughts (the white community) and the romance and eventual downfall of two young people from opposing races (you’d be right in thinking it’s a modern Romeo and Juliet!). For a book aimed at young people, Malorie Blackman manages to address really relevant issues in a way that makes you think about not the issues of racism and segregation but family and relationship issues also. This is the first book in a series and I’d urge absolutely anyone to read them, they really are amazing.

‘The Great Gatsby’ – F.Scott Fitzgerald
This was another choice from one of my brilliant English teachers and a book that made me absolutely obsessed with anything 1920’s. The whole style of the book is so amazingly glamorous, and it’s got a gorgeous vintage quality to it which has probably only fuelled my love for anything old. The book takes place in the prosperous American Jazz Age, taking the reader to the parties and mysterious lives of the glamorous characters transporting you into a world entirely different from anything we could ever wish to experience. The story has a few sub-plots and is in some places fairly multi-layered, but it’s an absolute literary classic and something that will always be on my bookshelf.

‘Poems by Emily Dickinson’ – Emily Dickinson
This, you may be thinking, is a slightly odd choice. Not a novel but it’s still a work that has really inspired me. I chose to study Emily Dickinson for my final A-Level English Literature essay, something that at the beginning I deeply regretted but I soon became a bit of a Dickinson geek! Dickinson really isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, she was an arguably odd character, a total recluse in her later years, but her lifelong fight against the male publishers of her time to actually be a published in her own right is something that I can only admire. The majority of her poems weren’t actually published until after her death, saddening because her genius was never celebrated in her lifetime. Her poems are beautifully haunting, and in terms of structure were incredibly modern for the time in which they were written. She was a literary innovator, a strong woman and a beautiful poet, completely inspiring.

‘The Bell Jar’ – Sylvia Plath
This book helped me through possibly the most difficult phase of my life. I was diagnosed with depression last summer, something that has very nearly consumed my entire life, absolutely terrifying but I’m slowly getting better. I came across Plath in my first year at University when we studied some of her poetry. I still have the first Plath poem that I ever studied Blu-Tacked to my wall nearly 2 years later. I was recommended to read The Bell Jar by a few people, it follows the descent of the protagonist into her own battle with depression, attempted suicide and her journey into recovery, the plot is based upon Plath’s own experiences under the guise of the fictional main character. The similarities between the book and my own symptoms was not only slightly bizarre, but, in so many ways helped to ease the crushing feeling that I was completely on my own and the feeling of utter hopelessness, it made me realise that I wasn’t a lost cause, a lunatic getting in everyone’s way, but that depression is a condition and is something that can be treated and solved. This book helped me more than anyone could ever imagine and it’s clichéd but to Plath I will be eternally grateful.

‘Rebecca’ – Daphne Du Maurier
This is a book I studied for the first time in my first year at university. I started reading it on the train to my boyfriends and became so engrossed that I don’t think I managed a proper conversation with anyone for the entire weekend because I had my head stuck in the book! This has always been one of those books that I’ve meant to read but never quite got around to. The plot revolves around an unnamed narrator, a young girl who is swept off of her feet by a seemingly perfect older man, whom she marries after a whirlwind romance, he whisks her away from her mundane life as a lady’s companion in Monte Carlo to a stunningly enviable manor house in England. She is constantly overshadowed however by the constant reminders of her husbands seemingly perfect first wife who was killed in a boating accident. As the story unravels you discover that in fact the first wife was not the perfect, beautiful woman that she was perceived to be, but in fact inherently evil and she was actually killed by the husband in an attempt to keep the honour of his ancestral home. The story is absolutely consuming and you becoming entirely wrapped up in the events within. I literally could not put the book down, I’ve been lucky enough to study this again for my second year and I loved it even more the second time and it’s made me want to read the entire Du Maurier collection!

Meet the author

Sopho1991
I'm currently in the middle of a BA Degree in English Literature and have always loved writing, no matter what the subject. I'm interested in fashion, art and obviously literature!