Read Me: 5 Books that changed my life
I am an avid reader, at least I was before I had kids and my reading list consisted of The Very Cranky Bear and Llama, Llama, Red Pajama.
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Thankfully, I had a solid 30 years of reading before that and lots of traveling, so I managed to get through hundreds of books, many that were life changing.
Catch up with Read Me: Books I grew up Reading.
Here are the top five books that changed my life. I won’t go into great detail about something you can google, rather, I’ll tell you how the books impacted on me.
I hate spoilers, so you won’t find any, I want you to read these books!
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
I’ll wait for the laughter to die down before I continue. Are you done? Ok, let’s do it.
There’s no great philosophical reason that I love Twilight but I can’t pretend that this isn’t the book series (4 books in total) I have read at least three times through. And the movies I have watched countless times. That rainy town of Forks is exactly what one needs to cleanse the brain of needless cells.
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Anyway, laugh all you want, but that teenage romance, the struggle, the depth of characters (shut up), was just so engaging, I couldn’t put the books down. If you’ve never read them and you’re laughing, I need you to shut the hell up and read them so you can at least insult me in the right lingo.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Is this a bit more serious for you? Oh, good, I’m so glad!
But for real, I read The Alchemist while I was an Au Pair in Italy. I vividly remember my heart being so broken, the pain was physical. I was looking for any kind of distractions from the seemingly endless pain, and I found this book, one of the only English books that I came across in the library of my Italian family.
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I had never heard of it, I didn’t know what it was about, but The Alchemist turned out to be one of the most poignant books I’ve ever read. It’s basically a story of how whatever sets you back can be overcome to reach the goal you set out to achieve. And that message was never more needed than at that time of my life.
I recommend reading this book every 10 years or so to remind you that the path may have steered you in the wrong direction, except there is no wrong direction and you are exactly where you need to be.
The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini
This book – this shit messed me up. It was such a difficult story to read. I won’t pretend I remember the exact details but essentially, The Kite Runner is a story about a boy, Amir, growing up in Afganistan, who had a best friend, Hassan. The story tells you of events before the war and talks about a beautiful land and a peaceful life. And then you go on to read about the horrors of the war and how both their lives were impacted.
But the hardest part to read was the bit about Hassan finding the kite after he made a run for it. That will stay with me forever, because that was the measure of a true friend and I feel like Amir should have done more.
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The whole book had me feeling like there’s so much that Amir owed Hassan and without giving too much away, the ending doesn’t really give you the promise of a happily ever after, which is both comforting, because Amir deserves to atone, and frustrating because happy endings are awesome!
Anyway, a must read book, but it’s some very confronting content.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Book Thief is a book that was written by an Australian author, which is surprising. It’s set in Germany in World War II and it starts with a narration from Death personified, which is intriguing from the word go.
This book made me cry harder than I cried when I watched Bridge to Tarabithia, and I can tell you right now, I have never cried like that over any piece of fictional or non fictional work – ever.
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There was a moment when reading the book, when Rosa was holding Hans’ accordion whilst crying, that I had to put the book down because I couldn’t read through my tears. And that was one of many times I had to put the book down to do the same thing. It was so powerful and so emotional and I loved every second of reading it.
Another book I HIGHLY recommend reading. Do it. Get it. Read it!
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
Are you laughing again? Well, laugh all you want my friend, because I always get the good parking spot and whatever I want for, I wish into existence, BOOM!
The Secret is described as a self-help book, but really, it’s actually telling us about the biggest secret in the universe – worst kept secret, really – the law of attraction!
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Essentially, whatever you’re focusing your energy on, will appear before you.
Now, I know you’re thinking to yourself that this is all bullshit but whenever I drive into car parks, I say “I will get the spot that’s perfect for me,” and the Secret delivers by getting me the best car spot in the place. I have proven this theory time and time again.
Currently I’m working on waking up in the morning and finding a circus in my back yard, just to see what happens…
The End
So those are the five books that have made me who I am today. Vampiry, weepy, secrety… And books I will definitely read more than once because the stories are so worth revisiting and remembering.
Let me know your thoughts on any of the books mentioned and of course, I love recommendations, so hit meee…..
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