books that changed me
a list of incredibly impactful reads
One of the things I love most about reading is its ability to change you - whether that’s a book completely shifting your worldview, or one that just stays with you a little longer than others.
Every once in a while, you finish a book and realise you’re not quite the same person you were when you started. That feeling of transformation, even if it’s just a subtle shift, has been with me since childhood. Just experiencing that feeling of closing a book that’s had a profound impact on you is one of the reasons I fell in love with reading in the first place.
Over time, certain books have left a deeper impression on me than others. Some have changed the way I think and move through the world, while others appeared in my life just when I needed them most. Below is a list of those books — works that have shaped me or had a some kind of meaningful impact on me.
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Amid the slew of classical literature we’re required to read in school, Jane Eyre was one of the first to make an impression on me, and one of the few I actually enjoyed reading.
As a shy, introverted schoolgirl, I immediately admired Jane as a character: her strong-will, her courage, and her strive for justice and equality. It was also probably the first non-YA ‘romance’ novel I had read, and I remember regularly succeeding our assigned chapter target because I simply had to know what would happen between Jane and Mr Rochester. It’s one of those books that you love even more after digging into some analysis, and it encouraged me to read more classics. (I also still have my original school copy that I ‘forgot’ to return, along with Lord of The Flies).
Favourite quote:
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
If you’ve followed me on either Tiktok or Instagram for a while, this will come as no surprise. I bought a copy of The Secret History sometime in 2019 during my first year of university, but I didn’t actually read it until October 2020. I believe the phase of life you’re in when you read a certain book can have a significant impact on your experience with it - and that was certainly the case with me and this book.
When I first read The Secret History I was a university student in a global pandemic, logging onto online lectures and writing essays in my childhood bedroom. Retrospectively, I think reading a campus novel at this time was probably an attempt to fill a hole of unfulfilled expectation, to read about a fictional version of an experience I was essentially robbed of (although obviously I wouldn’t want to experience what the characters in this book do). It is my favourite book, and from the first time I read it to when I revisit it now, I am completely enthralled every single time. It’s a book that masterfully demonstrates the art of the novel, and always reminds me why I love to read.
Favourite quote:
“Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones that I did not.”
The White Book - Han Kang
This is a more recent read, but I had to include it because of the emotional impact this book had on me. Without getting too much into my personal lore, it depicts an experience that I connect with very deeply.
Through meditations on the colour white, Kang imagines the life of her mother’s first child who died within 2 hours of being born, along with reflections on grief and the fragility of life. The book just scrapes 150 pages, but yet it’s full of such poignancy and heart. It’s a beautiful tribute to an older sister Kang never got to have, a life not given the chance to be lived. It’s one of those books that slips into my mind often, unprompted, as great books are wont to do.
Favourite quote:
“This life needed only one of us to live. If you had lived beyond those first few hours, I would not be living now. My life means yours is impossible. Only in the gap between darkness and light, only in that blue-tinged breach, do we manage to make out each other’s faces.”
Conversations With Friends - Sally Rooney
This novel is one of the first I read as an adult where I felt like the author had plucked the thoughts straight out of my head and written them on the page. Personality-wise, Frances is one of the fictional characters I relate the most to (although this is potentially a big red flag, but alas). Through Frances, Rooney gives language to a range of internal feelings and experiences I’ve had, but have found difficult to express myself.
Relatability aside, it’s an incredibly well-crafted novel which examines the mechanics of power in human relationships - between lovers, friends, and even with your own sense of self.
Favourite quote:
“Everyone’s always going through something, aren’t they? That’s life, basically. It’s just more and more things to go through.”
The Girls - Emma Cline
This one doesn’t have as much sentiment attached compared to other books on this list, but it was one of the first books I picked up when I got back into reading. It was one of the motivations for me to create my BookTok and Bookstagram accounts, purely because I wanted to talk about it with other people. So, in a way, it’s one of the reasons why I’m even writing this post, if you believe in the whole domino effect thing. It also perfectly captures the complex, tumultuous coming of age of a teenage girl and the toxicity of female friendships. Plus, I just love a book about cults.
Favourite quote:
“Poor girls. The world fattens them on the promise of love. How badly they need it, and how little most of them will ever get. The treacled pop songs, the dresses described in the catalogs with words like ‘sunset’ and ‘Paris.’ Then the dreams are taken away with such violent force; the hand wrenching the buttons of the jeans, nobody looking at the man shouting at his girlfriend on the bus.”
The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion
The first time I read this, I held it somewhat at a distance, because I hadn’t yet experienced the grief of losing anyone close to me. Fast forward 2 years, and I had experienced two losses, navigating two different types of grief. Although the book is specific to Didion‘s own life and loss, it’s still possible to find relatability within its pages, which I think just speaks to the universality of the human experience.
The book chronicles Didion’s desperate attempt to understand grief itself, and in so doing, she allows the reader to understand it a little better too. I find comfort in knowing that I can revisit this book over the years, whenever I need it.
Favourite quote:
“We are not idealized wild things. We are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. As we were. As we are no longer. As we will one day not be at all.”
Know My Name - Chanel Miller
This is one of the most powerful and beautifully-written books I’ve ever read. I followed the Stanford sexual assault case as it unfolded, and I vividly remember reading Chanel Miller’s viral victim impact statement when she decided to waive her anonymity. Watching on as a young teenage girl, it marked a real turning point in the conversation around sexual violence, and it really opened my eyes to the injustices of the legal system and the systemic violence enacted upon women and girls.
Miller details her story of sexual assault and healing with unflinching honesty, delving into the common struggle of victims having to constantly relive their trauma and be revictimized all over again in order to seek justice. It’s incredibly sad and haunting, while simultaneously full of hope for a safer, better future. I was in awe of Miller when I read it, and still am today. I personally think it should be required reading for everyone.
Favourite quote:
“I survived because I remained soft, because I listened, because I wrote. Because I huddled close to my truth, protected it like a tiny flame in a terrible storm. Hold up your head when the tears come, when you are mocked, insulted, questioned, threatened, when they tell you you are nothing, when your body is reduced to openings. The journey will be longer than you imagined, trauma will find you again and again. Do not become the ones who hurt you. Stay tender with your power.”
Let me know what books have changed you / had a significant impact on you, I’d love to hear about them 💌
Hey Leah, I'm new to your page. Have you read Human Acts by Han Kang? I found it profoundly moving and definitely recommend it if you liked The White Book (which I haven't read yet but do plan to).
The book that impacted me the most is The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin. I went into it with no expectations and it completely blew me away. I had no idea that fiction could talk about concepts that are so wide-reaching and expansive, such as how the economic and social systems we live in impact us. Reading it felt like my brain was being unlocked; it inspired me to become a writer and it reminds me of the importance of making sacrifices for the greater good.
Toni Morrison and James Baldwin's oeuvres have also been greatly influential for how honestly they confront social injustice.
Wifedom by Anna Funder. Systematically - and imaginatively - demonstrating how Orwell and all his male biographers ignored or diminished his first wife’s intelligence, commitment, empathy and hard work.