Some books don’t just make you feel something, they make you want to create something. They awaken this pull inside you to put your own voice on the page. These books didn’t just inspire me, but stirred something in every reader who found them. The Bombay Circle Press has gathered a few such books that will make you write again.
Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth
This was the first book that made me stop and think: I want to write something this honest. This is the story of Lucy, growing up in a small Irish town in the ’90s, falling in love with her best friend Susannah. It’s quiet and slow in that teenage way where everything feels like it could break you. Howarth captures longing and shame and sweetness so delicately that it made me realise how powerful softness on a page can be. I didn’t want to copy her. I just wanted to feel what she made me feel, from the other side of the pen.
Eternally Single by Rosa Álvarez and Neerja Pawar
I picked this up thinking it would be a light rom-com read. And it is, in the best way, funny, charming, and perfectly messy. But beneath the banter and bad dates is something deeply relatable. Rosa is flawed, self-aware, and so tired of trying to fix herself for other people. I saw myself in her. Her awkwardness. Her sharp tongue. Her fear. This book gave me the permission to write characters who don’t have it all figured out, who are lovable not in spite of that, but because of it. It made me feel like even my most chaotic thoughts deserved a place on the page.
A Brief History of Love by Dr. Liat Yakir
This one surprised me. It’s part memoir, part science, part raw honesty. Dr. Liat Yakir weaves biology, psychology, and her own heartbreak into a book that feels deeply human. It made me wanted to write about feelings, not just in a romantic way, but in a way that asks why we are the way we are. Why do we attach? Why do we leave? Why do we hurt? Her vulnerability cracked something open in me. If she could write about love like this, with both precision and tenderness, maybe I could too.
The Second Chance Convenience Store by Kim Ho-Yeon
A story about a man drifting through life, until a small convenience store and its quirky customers begin to anchor him. It’s gentle and slow and full of quiet hope. Reading this reminded me that even stillness can be moving, that writing doesn’t have to be loud to be powerful. Sometimes, softer stories leave the deepest impact. It showed me how ordinary lives, written with care, can feel extraordinary. It also reminded me that redemption doesn’t always come through drama, sometimes it comes through simple, human connection.
The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes
This book made me want to write about women who endure. Two women, two timelines, one painting, and a refusal to be forgotten. It’s part romance, part historical drama, but at its core it’s about agency. Jojo Moyes made me believe that love stories can also be stories about power, survival, and the right to be remembered. It pushed me to explore how our stories are shaped by the times we live in, and how women carry history in ways that are both deeply personal and universal.
These books won’t give you a writing formula. But they’ll remind you how good it feels to be moved. And in that feeling, you might just find the desire to write again, to make someone else feel seen, the way these stories once saw you. If you’re stuck, unsure, or still searching for your own voice, go back to the books that cracked something open in you. That’s where the real writing begins. At The Bombay Circle Press, we believe those moments of quiet inspiration are what truly bring words to life.