Tell me a story

I love to read. Fiction, biographies, comics, a variety of things really.

I find books very comforting. I can get lost in them and don't want to come out.

I won't get rid of ones I've enjoyed reading, no matter how much space they take up.

Here's a few titles I would highly recommend. Go raid your local library, or check out the charity shops for amazing bargains.

Battle Royale is my all time favorite film. The book is even better. 

Not an easy read. Amis is surely quite insane. 

I'm glad I read this before I found out more about the author. Otherwise I may never have read it. 

Heavy going but worth it.

Quite different to the film, but don't let that put you off.

A Level literature put me off the classics for life. But Grahame-Smith manages to make Pride and Prejudice not only bearable, but also quite riveting. 

I read the full book all in one sitting. 

Every single one of Palahniuk's books are necessary reads. 

I phoned in sick to work so I could finish this one.

Harrowing.

The only book on my degree reading list that I actually read. 

Auto Fiction

I've just finished reading Hitomi Kanehara's Auto Fiction. The story follows the ramblings of a young Japanese woman, starting in her early 20s and tracing her life back into her teens.

It's an enjoyable and easy read, even though nothing in particular happens throughout.

It struck me like lightening how incredibly similar my un-medicated mind and the disturbed, paranoid mind of Rin are. Is Kanehara stealing delusions directly from my obsessive, neurotic mind, using them to create "22nd Winter"? (Read my previous entry Mentally Ill? for a little background.)

Reading on there are similarities still. Does Kanehara draw upon her own experiences to create the book? Or has she done her research on the subject? Or perhaps it's just simple to create a neurotic character?

Quite scary really to look back and think about how I used to perceive the world. And how far that self seems from who I am now.