My life in books

I saw Amy from Read with Amy do this My Life in Books post and loved it. So I copied! Thanks for the inspiration Amy.

My favourite book as a child

There are so many I could pick for this, but I think it's going to have to be a Judy Blume, and the one that immediately jumps out is Just as Long as We're Together. I would read this over and over, I was obsessed with the characters, their friendship and the American lifestyle they lived. I wanted to go to homeroom and the school dance and have a school lunch period and eat an oatmeal and raisin cookie. 

The Book That Got Me Back Into Reading

When I first moved to London, for reasons I cannot fathom I would read The Metro on the way to work and The Evening Standard on the way home. The amount of good reading time I wasted pains me. I can never get that time back! I finally got a clue and started reading on my Kindle, and I whilst I can't pinpoint the exact book, I vividly remember reading the bee scene from the first Hunger Games novel and being completely absorbed in the story. That first book was so good! 

A Book That Got Me Through A Hard Time

This is going to sound stupid, because it wasn't really a hard time, but I went travelling with my friend in my early 20s and whilst it was mega fun there were times when I felt horribly homesick. I found David Nicholl's book One Day at a used book shop along the way and it just resonated with me so much - it was like finding a little bit of home and the comfort it provided on long, hot bus journeys was immense. One Day (and especially Emma) will always have a special place in my heart and I think that when you read a book is often just as important as the actual story or content. I think if I was to read it now I would enjoy it but have nowhere near as emotional a reaction. 

A Book You Always Recommend

I get asked for book recommendations quite a lot, and whilst I know different people can have different tastes, I will always recommend The Namesake or An Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Characters are so important to me in a book and she writes such perfect ones - good or bad. 

My Favourite Quote From A Book

I'm cheating and picking two.

"On the flight home, I daydreamed of Tottenham Court Road and ordering shit off Amazon. I thought of Farly's laugh and the sound of my flatmates getting ready for work in the morning and the smell of my mum's perfume in her hair when I hug her. I thought of the blissful mundanity of life; of what a privilege it was to live it"

Dolly Alderton, Everything I know about Love

"One's just supposed to conform. I know what they'd like, they'd like a blank they could fill in. A person already filled in disturbs them terribly"

Claire Morgan, Carol.

All Time Favourite Book

This is impossible. Do I choose a nostalgia hit from my childhood? Or my favourite from last year? So many books mean so much to me for lots of different reasons. I just cannot chose! I am the worst. 

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