BOOKS THAT HAVE SHAPED ME | NOVEMBER 2018

Books are books. Sometimes you get nothing from them. Others you get a whole new ideology, a whole new way of thinking about everything. It's different for everyone but the power of words, the power of language creates that shift, and that's why I think people love to read. It creates a new world for them to live, and it creates a new set of morals and rules for themselves, that don't feel reachable in the real world.

The first book I read, or remember reading that created that change was 'Sapiens' by Yuval Noah Harari. If you read any other posts on this blog about books, there's a very good chance that I've mentioned this on there. The book is non-fiction and basically goes through the history of mankind, mentioning symbols that are important in modern society, to how our ancestors lived. The one thing that sticks out with this books is the passage that states 'money is a social construction'. Since we live in a capitalist society, it's expanding every second of the day. Everything is driven by consumerism and profit, quite frankly it makes me have a headache. When I read this passage in Sapiens, it really shifted my thinking about society. I've always had questions about how and why society works in a specific way, maybe that's why I finally decided to do a combined Sociology degree, so this book is entirely of interest to everything that I think about. It made me think, what is money? Why do we really need it? Of course society can't survive without money, the economy and the markets, but do we really need that top or that pair of sunglasses. It really brought home to me the impact of consumerism on us, it's like we've been indoctrinated by buying things that we definitely don't need. Anyway, that's not all what the book is about, you learn lessons from your past, you don't expect to because society makes you focus on the future. If you're anything like me and are as anxious about the future then give this a read. Harari also has two other books as a sort of follow up to this one; Homo Deus and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.

Coming to fictional books, the classic that I adore is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I've re-read the book many a time and it still fills me with warmth at the thought of it. I would say it is a coming of age book, that anybody should read. The message I got from it was the power of kindness and young women. For the most part of the novel you're following a mother and her four daughters, they each have their own personalities and quirks which any reader can relate to. It's set during the American Civil War, which their father is fighting in. It's just an inspiring read, their family have their ups and downs, I think in the most part it's just very real. Each character brings some sort of inspiration and light to the story. Jo, the tomboy daughter in the novel, I can definitely relate to, she thinks differently, and she does what she wants with the thought of her family, she's very thoughtful. Little Women is an American classic that everyone should read; kindness over everything, and family over everything is overwhelming message that seeps out of its pages. 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is set in World War II. It was the first war fiction novel I had read that was set entirely in Nazi Germany. It follows a little orphaned girl, as she's fostered by an older couple in a small German town. The Nazi ideology and the strict dictatorship that led the indoctrination of Nazism is shocking throughout, also the innocence that marks the story. The girl steals books from fires, as books that opposed Nazi ideology were banned. Her sweet innocence carries her through the cruel, evil that enveloped Nazism. It doesn't help that once she's moved in to a foster home, her foster mother is horrible to her, but she leans towards her foster father's kindness. This is where I get the true message of this book; whatever surrounds the protagonist, whatever harsh reality there is, there's always kindness somewhere. Her foster family hide a Jewish man in their basement, and an unexpected friendship is formed between them. This is a heartbreaking book, but it really changed my view of how we perceive people and World War II in general. In the UK, there's a lot of literature about the British point of view or the 'allies', and there isn't much literature that offers the view of the country on the other side. We obviously know the historical element of Nazi Germany, but I personally have never read anything that presents the other side. Everyone should read this, the writing style in that the narrative perspective is of the fictional Grim Reaper. It's unusual, and I've never read something so out of the ordinary, except of course high-fantasy. Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres, and even if you don't particularly like it this book will, I think at least open your eyes a little wider to the history that has lead us to where we are. But more than that, it leads us to the privilege that we hold now, and the brutality that has happened to humans before.

So, there you go, there is the small amount of books that have significantly changed my attitude towards reading and the world around me.

Happy Reading!
Rose x