"There is no friend as loyal as a book"

Reading has been a massive part of my life for as long as I can remember.  Some of my most vivid childhood memories are of my Nanna helping me read and throughout my life I can pin point certain moments because of what book I was reading.  Books can offer us guidance or answers when we are feeling lost or broken, they comfort us, they pass the hours in a more engaging manner than just passively watching the television (although I do enjoy this too...) and what better feeling is there than seeing that it's 1.30 or 2am but you are so engrossed in a book that you don't want to put it down or go to sleep.  Just one more chapter...!

In this blog, I'm going to talk a little bit about 5 books that have made an impact on me or have further flamed my love for reading.

1. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."

When people ask me what my favourite book is, I always go straight to The Catcher in the Rye.  I first read this as part of my English Literature class during my A Levels and I was going through a rough time, I was 16/17 years old, feeling a bit lost and hopeless in the world, unhappy with things that I wasn't really sure why or even how to make them right, and having to make big decisions like university.  Then we read this book in class and to be honest, and, at fear of sounding cheesy, it spoke to me.  Holden was my age, feeling a lot of the same emotions that I was and the themes are so perfect for an adolescent  (and to some extent, grown up me!): loneliness, the pains of growing up, how fake the adult world is, Holden's protective 'barrier' from the rest of the world that only serves to cause him more pain.  Holden Caulfield has become a literary hero for the thousands of people that call The Catcher in the Rye their favourite book.  Although, Holden isn't my hero as such, the vividness of the writing and the fact that the themes hit home so much caused me to think about myself and even now, reading some of the passages from the book break my heart a little that we can hurt so much and not realise or choose to ignore it.

This book heavily influenced another one of my favourite reads and coming-of-age novels, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.


2. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am."

The Bell Jar was introduced to me by another keen reader who probably knows me better than I know myself.  It is a book that I will always remember as one that was there for me during an extremely difficult part of my life.  Plath's life was sad and so tragic and The Bell Jar almost autobiographical.  The Bell Jar is also a coming-of-age story but as Esther, the protagonist, gets older, she falls into depression and madness.  The book is very critical of psychiatric care and the 'treatment' they used during the 1950s is shocking.  Plath describes honestly and accurately the thoughts that run through a depressed mind, however she does it in a hauntingly beautiful and sometimes funny way.  The Bell Jar remained in mind for a long time after I read and I think that she has put down in words what you feel when you are so despairingly sad, the twisted logic,emptiness and disappointed and hurt by the world.  A beautiful, heart-wrenching emotional book.


3. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

"Because the world does not deserve them."

The Book Thief is one that I read recently and I have never been through such a rollercoaster of emotions with one book. Set in Nazi Germany and narrated by Death, it is not a read that you get through in an evening.  It's not necessarily happy.  It broke my heart, the first book to make me cry since Marley & Me.  Books written about the First or the Second World War always drive a knife into my heart, I, like so many people, find them so harrowing.  I was really drawn to the character or narrator of Death, he struggles to understand humans, how they can be so kind and so evil at the same time.  I ask myself if we don't all struggle to understand that aspect of being a human being at some point in our lives.  The Book Thief made me laugh, cry, disgust at the actions of some humans at all the same time.  It was one of those books that I could not put down and would stay up late at night, devouring all the words in the same way the Liesel learns to read.  A sparkling story, written with so much human emotion, and one that challenges you and also for me, the way I act and how I treat people.


4.  Stardust - Neil Gaimen

"There is something about riding a unicorn, for those people who still can, which is unlike any other experience: exhilarating, and intoxicating, and fine."

I enjoy reading fantasy but I usually use it as a go-to genre for relaxing, unwinding and switching off from the rest of the world.  I read Stardust because I saw the film adaptation, and it generally goes for me, if I loved the film, I am more than likely going to love the book.  Stardust is a relatively short novel but it's magic and love story whisks me away to another realm and I would say that it was the book that got me into reading other fantasy novels.  Stardust is an entertaining modern fairytale, and is a book that I think I will go back to time and time again.



5.  The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick

"There will always be a part of me that is dirty and sloppy, but I like that, just like all the other parts of myself." 

Another book that deals with mental illness as a theme.  For me, it's important to deal with mental illness because, as I have mentioned in previous blogs, it's something that has affected my life a great deal.  I love this book because it shows life with a mental illness from the viewpoint someone who is still suffering and someone who has technically 'recovered' but still has to deal with the shadow that depression casts over you, constantly threatening you.  The Silver Linings Playbook was full of passages that made me shout: "YES!  I FEEL THAT TOO!"  or put into words that disjointed thoughts that run through my head.  It also inspired me; that, like the quote above says, you can like the parts of you that are less than perfect, it's okay to be messy, sloppy, or a little bit of a fuck up. I'm not there yet but it gives me hope.  The film adaptation differs quite a lot, but boils down to pretty much the same message.  I'm all for books, films, whatever bring mental illnesses into the forefront of our mind.  It's not something to be ashamed of, we need to talk about it, we need to address it.  All in all, I love this book because it reflects real life, we don't all have happy endings, sometimes things are a lot less than perfect, but if we look for something, anything positive, it will help us survive.

Also, massive kudos to Matthew Quick, I tweeted to say how much I enjoyed the book and he replied, showing his thanks.  Kindness makes everyone smile :-)