This is actually a really straight-forward question to answer. Wonders never cease! My answer is…
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. I’d had it on my Kindle for ages but always assumed it would just be one of those books that I’d never get round to.
Part of my reticence was thanks to the film. Prior to reading the book, I’d never watched Danny Boyle’s adaptation but I was aware of that iconic scene where Ewan McGregor is swimming around in the toilet bowl. Taken out of context it is shocking, slightly surreal and not particularly palatable. That is the scene that is always mentioned or shown whenever the film is referred to and I guess that gave me a preconceived idea of what the book might be like. In all honesty, it wasn’t a hugely appetizing thought.
However, I got into a reading rut. I couldn’t decide what to read next and nothing particularly appealed to me. *Confession time*: my TBR list is so big that it actually makes it hard to select books to get stuck into. Glancing at my bookshelves and Kindle, I randomly picked three books and thought I’d leave it up to Twitter to decide. (The options were Trainspotting, Death Comes to Pemberley and The Casual Vacancy, in case you’re wondering). Trainspotting won and I’m SO glad it did. Sometimes you just need a little push or coercion into giving something a chance. Trainspotting proved to me that you should always keep an open mind and be willing to try any kind of literature because you never know what you’ll discover.
Admittedly, right at the start of my reading journey, I wasn’t convinced that it would be a happy ending. I read the first page of Scottish dialect and immediately felt sick at the prospect of going through an entire book in a terrible attempt at a Scottish accent, reading the words slowlyyyy inside my head. I could have easily given up after that first page but thankfully, I’m no quitter.
Trainspotting kept me hooked. It was challenging, rewarding and genuinely a genius bit of writing. I loved it. I finished it and was equal parts baffled, wowed and thinking ‘what the fuck have I just read?’ It’s one of the most confusing, depressing, funny, inspired and utterly brilliant books I’ve ever come across. So clever and so original.
FYI, I’ve since watched the film and I adored that in equal measure too. To complete my geeking out over Trainspotting, I’ve even bought an original 1993 paperback copy because I wanted it to sit proudly on my bookcase. Don’t you just love it when books surprise you?