One of the questions I often get asked as a former literature student and bookseller is, ‘how do you choose what you want to read?’. I both love and dread this question because I never quite know how to answer it. Over the years, though, I have come to realise that there are three factors which influence my TBRs:

1. Social media. Ubiquitous, ineluctable (thank you, James Joyce, for this glorious word), and (if used responsibly) a wonderfully insightful tool. From Instagram to book blogs to YouTube, social media is often where I turn when I want a contemporary recommendation.
2. ‘Classic’. A word that is synonymous with the topic of books. Studying literature has taught me one thing. There will always be a ‘classic’ that I have not read. It shows that there is always more to explore. But that is also why I love the word. While there will always be debates over which books are considered ‘true’ classics and which are not. As it stands, there are plenty out there for me to read. Enough to last me a lifetime.
3. The books themselves. More often than not, it is the books that choose to be read by me, not the other way around. I don’t quite know how to explain this one. Have you ever stood in front of a bookcase and found that certain books glowed more than others? Those books will usually find their way onto my TBR list, one way or another.

I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy

How did I hear about IGMMD?

Social media and word of mouth.

Why I am excited to read IGMMD:

I was an avid iCarly fan growing up. I sort of felt like I grew up with Carly, Sam, and Freddy. Before the book’s release date, I watched many press interviews of Jennette. She talked about the book and her experiences growing up as a child star in Hollywood. She is an exceptionally articulate, poised, and honest young woman. I am confident that these qualities will show through in her writing.

‘So without Mom, who am I supposed to be now?’ Jennette asks in the prologue. I, and the world, could not be more ready to find out.

In the Margins, Elena Ferrante

How did I hear about ITM?

This was a ‘the book chose me’ situation. I was browsing the corners of Knutsford’s quaint Waterstones branch and was instantly drawn to the cover. A girl, standing in isolation, overlooking a dark abyss. I couldn’t leave this book on the shelf. Correction. I couldn’t leave this girl on the shelf.

Why I am excited to read ITM:

With all this free time, post master’s, I am finally getting down to writing my own book. But as many of us writers will know, inspiration does not come easy. I am hoping that by reading why Ferrante loves reading and writing, it will nurture my wish to read and write. This will be especially helpful on those days when inspiration is almost nonexistent. If nothing else, I will hopefully get to find out who the mysterious girl on the cover is…

‘What we call “inner life” is a permanent flashing in the brain that wants to take shape as voice, as writing’ (41).

Dead Souls, Nikolai Gogol

How did I hear about DS?

I guess you could say I heard about DS from word of mouth. If I was really being honest, I first heard about this book on an episode of Gilmore Girls. Thank you, Rory Gilmore, for your voracious reading habits.

Why I am excited to read DS:

This one I have actually already started reading. It felt instantly Dickensian. Imagine Hard Times but set in small town Imperial Russia. Gogol writes with incredible attention to detail. I always make sure to keep a pen close at hand whenever I read DS. To watch Chichikov conspire against the townspeople makes the perpetually furrowed brow and sore hand worth it.

‘”I don’t quite mean peasants,” said Chichikov. “I would like to have the dead ones…”‘ (34). Literal chills.

Soldiers’ Pay, William Faulkner

How did I hear about SP?

Again, this was a book that kind of chose me. Browsing the perfectly crammed shelves of Edinburgh Books, I was surprised to see only a small Faulkner collection. Thankfully, SP happened to be among this collection.

Why I am excited to read SP:

Having read Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Sanctuary, and some of his short stories, I sort of felt like I was cheating this great author. I had neglected to read his first novel. Until last week, I didn’t even know SP existed. I can’t wait to read the first major work from one of the early 20th century’s greatest authors.

‘The light passing through her fine hair gave her a halo and lent her frail dress a fainting nimbus about her crumpling body like a stricken poplar’ (78). That language, my goodness.

Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge

How did I hear about WINLTTWPAR?

If you work in Waterstones, you are guaranteed to see this book on the shelf. You will also see it in any other bookshop that sells commercial fiction. I picked up this book at a literary event at the end of October.

Why I am excited to read WINLTTWPAR:

Eddo-Lodge’s book speaks to our contemporary moment. It speaks to the history and politics that have led us to this point. Its message has and will always be, relevant.

‘I just can’t engage with the bewilderment and the defensiveness as they try to grapple with the fact that not everyone experiences the world in the way that they do’ (ix-x).

Memoirs From the House of the Dead, Fyodor Dostoevsky

How did I hear about MFTHOTD?

Again, this was a book that chose me. This was another Edinburgh Books find. I knew that Dostoevsky had spent time in prison. But I did not know he had written a memoir about it. It also doesn’t hurt that Dostoevsky’s contemporary, Leo Tolstoy, claimed that he knew ‘no better book in all modern literature’…

Why I am excited to read MFTHOTD:

I can’t believe I am writing this but this will be my first Dostoevsky! That said, what better way to prepare for Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov than through the author’s semi-autobiographical account of pain, suffering, and Siberian exile? I have heard from several people that Dostoevsky does darkness well. I imagine MFTHOTD is no exception.

‘It was in one of these cheerful and contended little towns, full of the nicest and kindest people, the memory of whom will never be erased from my heart, that I met Alexander Petrovich Goryanchikov, a convict settler’ (2).

Happy reading, folks; may the dark and magical November days make you pensive and inspired…🌲☔️