31 books that made me who I am

In celebration of my 31st birthday, here are 31 books I've loved over the years that have left a lasting impression and turned me into the reader and person that I currently am.

I’m turning 31 this month! (August 27, if anyone cares to know—and I’m sure it comes as absolutely no surprise to those of you who didn’t know, yes, I am a Virgo). I read this post from Jam over at her Substack

Books Worth Sharing

where she marked her 33rd birthday by writing about 33 books that shaped her. (Check out her post by the way, there’s a ton of really great titles on there that got added to my TBR.)

I thought this was such a cute idea, and it got me thinking about the books that have fundamentally changed my life. These aren’t just books that I enjoyed (if I wrote a letter about every book I’ve read throughout my life that I enjoyed, we’d be here all the way up to my 40th birthday). Rather, these are books that left such an impact on me that they shaped my personality, my taste, and my outlook on life. And to be honest, there are a few books here that I no longer like, but I’d still like to acknowledge the part they played in the formation of my personality.

So to celebrate my 31st birthday, here are 31 books that made me who I am!

Books that made my childhood

• The Horse and His Boy and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. Although I read through the entire Chronicles of Narnia series as a kid, my favorites were The Horse and His Boy and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The latter because of the bickering-as-flirting vibes between Cor and Aravis, and the former because I’ve always loved the trope of sailing beyond the horizon to lands unknown.

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. When I was in elementary, every classroom in our school had a bookshelf filled with children’s classics like Tom Sawyer, Little Women, etc. When I was in fourth grade, I made it my personal mission to read all the books that were in our classroom. I succeeded, but my absolute favorite in the bunch was The Secret Garden. The idea of a hidden garden is just so magical, and none of that magic has faded for me.

• Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. When I was ten years old, my mom got me Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron on VHS as a birthday gift, kick-starting a short-lived love affair with horses. But even though I never really became Horse Girl, Black Beauty’s message of sensitivity, love, kindness, and compassion to animals stayed with me forever.

• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. The last line of this iconic tale of a pig and the spider who became his friend still sends me into tears. “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.” This book was my first real exposure to the finite nature of life. I remember my mom being really bothered by how quiet and contemplative I was after finishing this book. She should be grateful to E.B. White though—he spared her the long, arduous process of talking to a child about death.

• The Giver by Lois Lowry. Baby’s first dystopia! I read this for my Literature class in fifth grade and absolutely fell in love with it, which started me on the path toward YA dystopia (although only one of those books really remained in my memory—as you’ll see later on). The themes of the individual versus the collective, generational memory, and freedom of choice are crucial and relevant to any reader of any age.

• The Bungalow Mystery by Carolyn Keene. Ah, Nancy Drew. Mother of entire generations of plucky, curious girls. One of the first of the iconic teen sleuths. The Bungalow Mystery was the first Nancy Drew book I ever read and it started an obsession that went all the way to the Nancy Drew CD-ROM video games. Also, were you really a Nancy Drew fan if you didn’t inevitably get drawn into an argument with a boy whose favorite was The Hardy Boys?

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. Another book that I took up in fifth grade Literature class that ended up becoming a personal favorite. I know there are some people who don’t like this book because of the Christian references, but I personally think the themes of courage, love and family, and the sense of wonder and discovery inherent in children are pretty universal. (Which incidentally is an opinion I also have about the Chronicles of Narnia.)

• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Man alive, a lot of my favorite books from my childhood had religious undertones, huh? But The Golden Compass was the first one book I read as a child that really criticized the concept of organized religion. I won’t say that this book turned me into a deep religious thinker or philosopher (mostly because I was, what, 8 or 9 when I read this) but it did make me think. And that’s always good in a child, isn’t it?

• The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I am exactly the same age as Percy Jackson. Isn’t that wild? I was 12 when the first book came out—the exact same age as the titular character. And so I felt like I was really growing up alongside Percy and Annabeth, discovering the trials and tribulations with them (minus the monsters and the fate of the world resting on my shoulders, of course).

Books that made my teenhood

• Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Was this Star Wars but make it Lord of the Rings? Was it highly derivative and lacking in anything resembling creativity? Sure. But Eragon was my first brush with coming of age fantasy, wherein a teen protagonist grows up and becomes older, stronger, and wiser as he goes on his adventures. I was 11 years old when I first read this, and while I eventually found my way to better offerings from the genre of high fantasy, I do still think fondly of Eragon, Saphira, Brom, Murtagh, and all my old friends from Alagaësia.

• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Let me be clear: I absolutely despise Dan Brown and his formulaic, eye-wateringly boring writing style that I once heard someone describe as “airport thriller”. I also think The Da Vinci Code is shoddily written, with weak characters, lazy dialogue, and an overall sanctimonious, self-serving air to it. However, it was the first “adult book” I read (a.k.a. one with “many pages and tiny words”, as I described it to my mother) and finishing—and understanding it—made me confident in my ability to move beyond books geared specifically toward young readers. (Of course, the fact that a 12-year-old understood and followed The Da Vinci Code doesn’t speak well of Dan Brown’s writing abilities.)

• Dune by Frank Herbert. My dad was an old school sci-fi fan (he was an Atenean in the 80s, of course he was). He had all the old classics, from Starship Troopers to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? He, of course, had all the Dune books that Frank Herbert wrote, and got 12-year-old me to ride along the spice train. I still have all those dusty old copies with the vintage 80s-style covers! Perhaps it’s time to do a reread since I finally got to watch the Timothée Chalamet movies.

• Dracula by Bram Stoker. I was 13 when I first watched the Dracula movie with Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and Anthony Hopkins. I instantly fell in love. (Nobody come at me with other versions of Dracula. This is the one for me.) So of course I had to immediately get my hands on the book. It introduced me to my favorite horror vibe ever—supernatural horror set in the late 1800s to the early 1900s, when there was just enough science and technological advancement to give humans a fighting chance, but superstition and folklore still hold their sway.

• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Most people’s first Austen love is Pride & Prejudice. And while I too worship at the altar of Elizabeth Bennet and her ability to make men better themselves for the opportunity to be with her, my first Austen book—and still my favorite—is Sense and Sensibility. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m an eldest daughter myself, but I’ve always felt that Elinor Dashwood was one of the most enduring icons of literature.

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Remember when I said that The Giver was baby’s first dystopia? The Hunger Games was what really solidified the themes of a dystopia for me. Whereas The Giver was a lot more subtle, The Hunger Games pulled no punches in showing authoritarianism, oppression, and its effects on the collective human psyche. It also had a lot to say about the role the media plays in perpetuating authoritarian rule. (To this day, I genuinely don’t get how people who are fans of either book can side with known dictators and occupiers in the contemporary context, but that’s neither here nor there.)

• Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I have a friend who is almost exactly like Elphaba—in manner and personality at least, not the complexion. She was the one who introduced me to the novel Wicked, and then eventually we found out about the musical and watched it when it came to Manila. We particularly enjoyed the book’s themes of the effects of radical religion and were deeply disappointed by the musical failing to embody that message. The songs slapped, though.

• The Light Between Oceans by M.L Stedman. I picked this book up randomly because the cover was so pretty and it utterly broke my heart. Without spoiling too much of it, let me just say that I think this may have been one of the first books I’ve read where there really was no clear-cut “bad guy”, and what’s right and what’s wrong are all shades of gray.

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. This book is the reason why I love whimsical purple prose, and why sometimes “no plot, just vibes” works for me. One of the weirdest, most magical books I’ve ever read, with some major “pinagtagpo pero hindi tinadhana” tragedy vibes that I’ve been chasing in romantasy books ever since.

• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. This book was a gift from one of my godfathers, a writer who strongly believed in the power and relevance of philosophy in everyday life. He pointed to this book as an example of how one can understand philosophy through literature, and life through philosophy. It also has an added theme of class consciousness which influenced a lot of my opinions and political leanings as an adult.

Books that made my adulthood

• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Given that Dracula is one of my absolute favorite books ever, of course I would read any and all Dracula-inspired fiction I could get my hands on. The best one for me is The Historian, which is somehow simultaneously gothic fiction, adventure fiction, a detective mystery, and a travelogue—much like the original Dracula! Kostova herself has said that Dracula is a metaphor for the evil present in history that is hard to undo in modern times, much as Dracula’s influence still lives even in the modern times in which The Historian takes place.

• Pet Sematary by Stephen King. This is probably the scariest novel I’ve ever read (and Stephen King concurs—he’s been quoted as saying that this is the scariest book he’s written). I first read this one night when I was doing overtime at my then-job. I didn’t have a car and I didn’t want to take the bus so late at night so I asked my mom to pick me up, and I was reading this while waiting for her. Let me reiterate: I was alone in the building’s entire fourth floor (the death floor, if you’re familiar with Asian culture), late at night, reading Pet Sematary. Not the smartest decision I’ve ever made.

• Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan. The first crime thriller published and set in the Philippines! Like the best crime thrillers, this one was also a commentary on the ineptitude, ignorance, and outright lack of care from the police and other institutions that are supposed to uphold law and protect citizens.

• A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This book literally changed how I perceive history and the concept of fate and inevitability as it tells the story of multiple generations of the Buendía Family in the town of Macondo. I know the term “magical realism” gets thrown around a lot in genre discussions and there’s a lot of disagreement about what exactly magical realism is. But allow me a moment of firmness here when I say that this book is the very definition of magical realism.

• Jade City by Fonda Lee. This is one of the first books I read on the recommendation of Shealea (who just started her own Substack—go subscribe to

  The Peridot Archive
  !) and discovering that we had the same taste in books pretty much cemented our friendship. Jade City reads like one of those classic old Hong Kong gangster movies, like the kind that made Michelle Yeoh famous. The series explores so many things unique to the Asian experience: filial piety, neocolonialism, the effect of World War II. It’s also one of the first fantasy novels I read that was set in a more modern time instead of a sword-and-sorcery setting!

• Foundation by Isaac Asimov. This one’s a more recent addition to this list (I only started reading the Foundation series a few months ago) but it left such a big impact on me. This book contains no epic space battles, no lengthy descriptions of fancy ships, no black holes or terrifying landscapes or alien skies. But it stands the test of time not just by being the driving force behind numerous sci-fi tropes, but also because of how it more or less predicted the rise of concepts such as AI, big data and its analysis, rational psychology, trend forecasting, and so much more.

• The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by K.S. Villoso. There are seriously not enough words to describe how much I love this book—the whole Bitch Queen trilogy, to be honest. I love it so much that in the pilot episode of Booklatan (go listen to me and Antonette’s bookish podcast, if you haven’t yet!) I mentioned The Wolf of Oren-Yaro as my answer to the question, “If you could introduce yourself to people with a book, what would it be?” This is Filipino fantasy that explores the concept of regionalism and Filipino motherhood. It’s a must-read for any Filipino fantasy fan.

• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. This is another more recent read that really left a huge impact on me. Never Let Me Go takes place in a simultaneously utopic and dystopic future where all illnesses, even cancer, have been eradicated and humans regularly live to 100, thanks to clones from whom organs are harvested to keep people alive. It asks some really hard-hitting questions about the futility of life, and the arrogance inherent in humans thinking that anything at all sets them apart and above the certainty of death. Genuinely, I feel like a drastically different person from who I was before reading this.

• Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa. This book holds a special place in my heart because it helped me form and solidify my stance on Palestine. Too often, one can forget that the death and injury counts mentioned in news articles are real people. It’s a natural consequence of frequently seeing such large numbers. But literature can bring almost anything closer to home. Experiences that are so vastly different from your own suddenly feel a lot more real. As Abulhawa says, “Although the characters in this book are fictitious, Palestine is not, no are the historical events and figures in this story.” Knowing that the state of Israel was formed in 1948 through the violent expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians is one thing. Seeing it through the eyes of the Abulheja family—a family just like any other, with loving parents and devoted children—is another.

• Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista. Required reading for every Filipino. Patricia Evangelista is a journalist from Rappler who covered Duterte’s war on drugs, and this book is the story of her six years chronicling the deaths that followed—mostly from underprivileged urban poor communities—as the police and other vigilantes carried out wholesale murder in the name of law and order.

• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I looooove gothic fiction and I’ve been reading it since I was very young (hello, Dracula?). But this is the book that made me realize that stories from cultures and ethnicities that have been colonized are uniquely poised to offer an incomparable gothic fiction experience. Gothic fiction is characterized by the aesthetic of fear and haunting, especially from the past. And that lens is made doubly interesting by zooming in on explorations of colonization in a country’s history. Also, this is the first Silvia Moreno-Garcia book I’ve ever read and everything I’ve ever had from her has been just top-tier. She’s absolutely an auto-buy author for me now.

---

A small plea for help

If you’ve made it this far, please stay a little while longer and allow me to ask for some help on behalf of a little boy who’s become very close to my heart.

My dear friend Gladys and her partner Ricky recently welcomed their baby boy Sean to this world. She was originally due to deliver in November 2024 but was admitted to the hospital last week due to ruptured amniotic sac. Baby Sean is currently undergoing monitoring in the NICU of Providence Hospital in QC and is one heck of a fighter.

Although Glads and Ricky have prepared financially for Sean’s arrival, NICU costs are something else entirely. They are seeking financial assistance, as well as boosts and shares to get their request for help out to more people, and of course fervent prayers for their family.

You may course donations through the following ways:

Non-PH international friends may also check out Gladys’s GoGetFunding campaign or send any amount to her PayPal yuson.gladys@gmail.com.

Of course, boosts and shares of Gladys and Ricky’s fundraisers are also welcome. Please check out the links below:

• My Instagram post

• My Facebook post

• Gladys’s 1st Facebook post

• Gladys’s 2nd Facebook post

Prayers and well-wishes for the new family are also very much appreciated.

Please also note that while Glads and Ricky would love to share pictures of Baby Sean, Providence Hospital strictly forbids photos of NICU patients.

Thank you for reading!

---

Please share this post with a friend if anything resonated with you! And please let me know what you think in the comments. I love hearing thoughts, feelings, and musings, from all of you!

This letter contains affiliate links. If you purchase any of the books using links from this letter, I will receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you!

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe now to get my semi-weekly letters directly in your inbox or see the rest of my publication archive. Stay tuned for more from the Oat Milk Latte Boutique!