Books That Have Shaped Me

Happy World Book Day!

Today, in honour of World Book Day, I wanted to talk about a few of the books that I think have shaped me as a reader. These books I have spoken about before, particularly in my 24 Books I Love post that I did last year for my birthday. But, I wanted to talk about them again today in a little bit of a different context and explain why I feel like they have shaped me as a reader but also personally too.

Girls by Jacqueline Wilson

There were so many books that I could have picked to put on this list by Jacqueline Wilson. I have spoken about My Sister Jodie a lot on this blog, so instead I wanted to talk about the Girls series. I remember that this was the first boxset that I ever bought with money that I had saved with my pocket money, and I had no idea what I was about to get into. I love this series for so many reasons, but the main reason it has stuck with me is because it dealt with a lot of mental health issues including anxiety and eating disorders. It was the first time that I had really read about this in a book, and took note of it, and truly felt seen within the pages of a novel.

Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen

For the longest time, I considered Water for Elephants to be my favourite novel. In fact I spoke about this on Tuesday: Books I Want to Reread This Year, when I discussed wanting to reread this novel to see if it still holds up in my mind. For me this book introduced me to historical fiction, but for me it was the first book that I had to read for school that I really loved. It sparked an interest, and later fuelled it, in English Literature and I later went on and did English Literature at University.

Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

The first book in this series was gifted to me by my mum when I was thirteen and it was the first fantasy/paranormal book that I properly read and enjoyed. As you might know, fantasy is one of my favourite genres now, and it all sort of started with Dead Beautiful. It also was the first series that I read as it came out, and I had to wait for the new release. And if I am remembering correctly there was years and years between each release in this series. I have previously put this book series on my list for Books I Won’t Reread, but lately, I have been wanting to reread the series and do an entry in the Reread Diaries for it! I think it would be fun to return to the series for the first time since 2014.

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

I know I have spoken about The Mortal Instruments a lot on my blog, but I think it deserves a place on this list too. In my reading journey, I always consider reading The Mortal Instruments to be the pivotal point. Before reading the series, I always considered myself a reader, but I never branched out of what I knew or read anything that had been hyped. I wasn’t really aware of anything that was hyped up. I would walk into a bookshop, with no book in mind, and walk out with something I was vaguely interested in.

The Mortal Instruments, for me was when I started to join the book community. I read the first five books multiple times leading up to the release of the sixth book. And whilst I was waiting for the release of the sixth, I had to know what other people felt. This was when I joined BookTwitter and Tumblr and even some Facebook groups back then. I had a little community at the time in real life, where all of my friends were reading the same books, so it was a great time to be talking books to me.

Aside form that, The Mortal Instruments has become my go to reread. It has become a comfort read for me and I love the story and the characters so much. I also like that the Shadowhunter world is ever growing and expanding. I know this is a drawback for a lot of people, and they think it has gotten out of hand, but I think it is wonderful, and I cannot wait for the rest of the books set in this world.

Okay, I am done rambling about books I love for now. What are some of the books that you considered to have shaped you?

Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Bookshop Affiliate Link ~ Goodreads