What books have influenced you?

I have lots and lots of books. Hundreds, even. I've been in the book industry for the past 10 years so I'd better have a few books to speak of, shouldn't I? And they're all special to me in different ways. Not only do I remember the story of each of my well-paged books, but I remember where I was in my life when I read each one. In some I found words of wisdom, in others, a good laugh.

It was a cold winter night in 2002, the house was freezing, I had a pot of thick veg soup on the stove and I was tucked up in a blanket reading Anne Michael's Fugitive Pieces. It's incredibly multi-layered and poetically written, but at it's core is a story of love as redemption, love as a gateway to something better. And that concept found me and I held on to it. It spoke to me - I was in a loveless relationship and desperately trying to convince myself otherwise and this "love concept thing" as it was realised in the book, made me realise that above all else, love feels good. Great, in fact. Love doesn't hurt. It can redeem and free. (Duh!) But at the time, it was a quiet suggestion that made a big impact. It lead me, over time, to free myself from a situation which wasn't serving my heart. Powerful stuff, I tell you!

Another book that jumps to mind unasked is Chris Cleaves' The Other Hand. I read it over a few weeks of a balmy Cape Town Summer, everyday lying in the shade of the tree outside my bedroom window, head propped up with massive pillows, drinking countless cups of tea and enjoying the long days. I'd come home from work straight away and dive straight into the book. It deals with tough subject matter - that of a young Nigerian refugee named Little Bee, who finds herself in England, unable to speak the language and desperately looking for an English couple she met on a beach in Nigeria. What follows is a heartfelt, gut-wrenching yet somehow thoroughly enjoyable read which transports the reader to uncomforable spaces, where we explore what it means to be a refugee, what it means to fail, and to find courage to try again. You wouldn't think that all that "heavy" stuff would make for a positively remembered experience, but it does. It's an absolute gem by an author fairly unknown in SA.

I just love picking up a book and drifting into a different world, and all the better if it's such a brilliantly clever and moving story. So what books have influenced you? Its a pretty huge topic and perhaps best dealt with over a few posts, so I leave it to you - tell me about the books you've loved / hated, and why.

Yours in ferociously good books

AG