When I was still new in the beautiful world of the entertainment industry, I realized that knowing more about printed literature gives you an edge because you get more insights about culture and other trends that used to be only possible if you physically go different countries and immerse yourself in their daily way of life.

These ten books are the ones that provided great insights that influenced mainstream entertainment industry by leaps and bounce.

10. Bridget Jones Diary

Author: Helen Fielding

Written in the form of a personal diary, the novel chronicles a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a thirty-something single working woman living in London. She humorously writes about her career, self-image, vices, family, friends, and romantic relationships.

This novel evolved from Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary columns in The Independent and The Daily Telegraph. Fielding wrote the novel with the help of Independent journalist Charles Leadbeater. As a columnist, Fielding often lampooned society’s obsession with women’s magazines such as Cosmopolitan and criticised wider societal trends in Britain at the time.

The novel was first published in 1996 by the U.K. publisher and turned into an international success. As of 2006, the book has sold over two million copies worldwide. A sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, was published in 1999. The novel won the 1998 British Book of the Year, and Tracie Bennett won the 2000 Audie Award for “Solo Female Narration” for her audio book narration.

9. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Author: Ann Brashares

It is a series of four novels following the lifelong friendship of Lena Kaligaris, Tibby Rollins, Bridget Vreeland, and Carmen Lowell.

The novels tell the continuing story of four young girls who acquire a pair of magical jeans that fit all four of them perfectly, even though they’re all different shapes and sizes. The book was successfully able to traverse down the bond that women share and how it plays a part in their growth as individuals.

8. Confessions of a Shopaholic

Author: Sophie Kinsella/Madeleine Wickham

It’s a series of six novels. It is the first attempt to fully explore the complicated and mysterious obsession of women to shopping.

7. The Notebook

Author: Nicholas Sparks

It was written over a period of six months in 1994. Literary agent Theresa Park discovered Sparks after picking the book out of her agency’s slush pile. Park liked it and offered to represent him. In October 1995, Park secured a $1 million advance for it from Time Warner Book Group, and the novel was published in October 1996. It was on the New York Times best-seller list in its first week of release. The Notebook spent over a year as a hardcover best seller.

Often hailed as one of the most romantic novels of all time.

6. Forrest Gump

Author: Winston Groom

The first book that successfully showed the genius of a stupid person.

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