The Books That Changed My Life with Sofia Andersen

culture

The Books That Changed My Life with Sofia Andersen

21/10/26

Author: RIISE Team

DOCUMENTED BY: ELIZA GIBBS

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RIISE presents, The Books That Changed My Life, an editorial series where we explore the ideas, art and cultural influences that shape who we are and how we view the world. In each instalment, we invite creative voices from our community to share personal literary touchstones that have profoundly shaped or moved them.

For Sofia Andersen, the right book can change the way you see the world – or simply teach you to look a little closer. The founder and creative director of Mavis & Noah reads across personal growth, compelling fiction and the practical intricacies of fashion and textiles. In this edition of The Books That Changed My Life, she reflects on the stories and ideas that have stayed with her, from learning to approach herself with greater kindness to discovering the beauty in the smallest details. Together, her selections speak to the value of patience, curiosity and openness to what we have yet to learn.

01. Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It, Kamal Ravikant

This book was recommended to me before I knew I needed it, and it’s one I’ve since recommended to so many people around me. It might sit in the self-help category, but I don’t really think of it that way. To me, it can be whatever you need it to be. There are ideas for how to approach life, but equally, it’s the story of someone who navigated a very difficult period of his own.

What has stayed with me most are the metaphors and questions throughout the book. They’re incredibly simple, but they gave me a different way of understanding our patterns of thought – and, more importantly, the idea that those patterns aren’t necessarily fixed.

Ravikant compares our thoughts to grooves in rock created by water. The more a thought travels down the same path, particularly when there’s emotion attached to it, the deeper that groove becomes until it starts to feel automatic. Rather than trying to erase those old grooves, the idea is to consciously create new ones. I love that image because it makes changing the way you think feel less like flicking a switch and more like a practice. It takes repetition and patience.

Another is the image of a dirty window in a dark room. Rather than fighting the darkness, you clean the window and allow the light to come in. I found it such a beautiful way of thinking about difficult thoughts or periods in life: not necessarily fighting what you’re feeling, but putting your energy towards the things that allow some light back in.

Then there’s the question, “If I loved myself truly and deeply, what would I do? Would I let myself experience what I’m experiencing?” I think that might be the idea I’ve carried with me most. When someone we love is struggling, we instinctively want to protect them, speak kindly to them and help them make choices that are good for them. We’re not always as generous with ourselves. The book made me think much more about the importance of being your own friend.

These ideas helped me through challenging times, but they’ve also given me language for helping people I love through theirs. I think that’s why I still return to the book – it gave me a few very simple ways of looking at things that have ended up applying to far more of life than I expected.

02. The Lost Art of Handwriting, Brenna Jordan

I have to admit, I’ve only just started this one, so perhaps it’s cheating slightly. But I’m hoping it will change my life – or at the very least, my handwriting.

It explores handwriting as an art form, a means of communication and even an expression of character, before moving into the practical side with exercises and practice sheets. My handwriting isn’t particularly bad, but I’ve always admired people whose writing looks like a piece of art in itself.

There’s something I find really beautiful about the handwriting of previous generations, particularly cursive. It feels personal in a way that typed communication can’t quite replicate. In a world where we write less and less by hand, I like the idea of deliberately holding on to that skill – and hopefully making mine a little more beautiful in the process.

03. Girl With a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier

This is one of those books that made me appreciate how little actually needs to happen for a story to completely hold your attention. It’s quiet, restrained and beautifully written, but I found it incredibly captivating.

I loved the way Tracy Chevalier takes something as still as a painting and imagines an entire world around it. There’s so much observation in the book – of colour, light, fabric, domestic life and tiny interactions between people. I think it reminded me that storytelling doesn’t always have to be dramatic to be powerful. Sometimes the smallest details are what make something feel alive.

04. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

This one changed my life in a slightly different way: it became my favourite book, but it also taught me to be more patient with books.

I bought it in 2018 when it first came out, started reading it and eventually put it down. Then, over the next few years, I watched it become this enormous success and thought, there must be something I’m missing here. So I picked it up again – and, honestly, after the first 100 pages I nearly put it down for a second time.

I’m so glad I didn’t. At some point, almost without noticing, I became completely consumed by it. By the end I was literally reading it while walking to work because I couldn’t put it down.

It made me realise that not everything has to capture you immediately to be worth your time. Some stories – and probably quite a few things in life – need to be given the chance to unfold.

05. Normal People, Sally Rooney

What I love about Normal People is how much Sally Rooney manages to say through what people don’t say. The story itself is relatively ordinary – two people moving in and out of each other’s lives – but the emotional detail makes it feel anything but.

It made me think about how differently two people can experience the exact same relationship or interaction, and how much of our lives can be shaped by assumptions, timing, pride and things left unsaid. I think that’s what makes it so affecting: the characters don’t always behave in the way you want them to, but they behave like people.

It’s one of those books that made me pay more attention to the complexity in seemingly ordinary relationships.

06. Fashionpedia & Textilepedia

These are probably the least romantic choices on my list, but some of the most used. They’re essentially visual encyclopaedias of fashion and textiles, breaking down everything from silhouettes and garment construction to fibres, fabrics and manufacturing in a really accessible way.

I started reaching for them more as I built my own label, Mavis & Noah. I didn’t come from a traditional fashion-design background, so there has been a lot I’ve had to teach myself along the way. I love having something physical that I can open when I want to understand why a garment falls a certain way, what distinguishes one construction technique from another, or the properties of a particular fibre.

I think they’re just as interesting from a consumer perspective, too. The more you understand about how clothes are made and what they’re made from, the more considered you become about what you buy. For me, they represent that ongoing process of learning – and the fact that you don’t necessarily need to know everything before you begin something. Sometimes you learn because you began.