Ultimate | Books.

As John Green once wrote:

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”

I live to read. I have always read from the moment I could understand words and I will continue to always read until my dying day when someone will have to undoubtedly prise a book from my cold hands. I have floor to ceiling bookshelves that strain under the weight of new worlds and exciting possibilities. 
Years of pocket money and pay slips are invested into small rectangular stacks of paper that are now well worn and loved. I often will read a book and feel so deeply connected to it that I feel like I’ve discovered a treasure that everyone else managed to skip over.

I can remember clearly the first book I read that when I put the book down, the story didn’t stay between the pages, it stayed with me. In the crooks and crevices of my being it wormed its way into my person. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman was the first book I read that I carried around with me and still do to this day. It was the first time I couldn’t shake the characters, Calum and Sephy, and they became people to me that were no longer trapped in ink.

I have to stress, these books are rare. I will often be touched by a story, relate to a character and adore a book but it is rare to know when a book has changed you.

So, here’s a list of ultimate books that undoubtedly changed me, impacted me and made me the person I am today. Not all of them are literary classics, not all of them are groundbreaking or even ‘good’ and many of them are probably cliché but that’s okay, some books last centuries for a reason. Some of these stories are surprising me that I’m including them on this list, maybe that was what I needed at the time and in other circumstances maybe they wouldn’t even make the cut, who knows. 

I know I will always carry these stories with me for they are no longer just stories; they are a fundamental part of me.

Malorie Blackman- Noughts and Crosses

John Green- Looking For Alaska

David Nicholls- One Day

Ned Vizzini- It’s Kind Of A Funny Story

Stephen Chbosky- The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

J. K. Rowling- The Harry Potter Series
The House at Riverton- Kate Morton 

Lewis Carroll- Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland

Dave Eggers- The Circle

Marina Keegan- The Opposite Of Loneliness
Neil Hilborn- Our Numbered Days 
Rupi Kaur- Milk and Honey
James Wallman- Stuffocation