The 36-year-old actress related to the main character of Frances Hodgson Burnett`s `The Secret Garden` - which her mother gave her a copy of before she started college - and claims the novel helped her learn not to be so unhappy with life. She said: "This book changed me the most, for the best. I was kind of a depressed teenager. My mother would introduce my sisters and say, `Ok, this is the athlete, this is the overachiever, and then this is Selma, the manic depressive.` "It`s strange that such a childish book had such an effect on me, but it did. I felt so like sour Mary, and the book transformed me the way the garden transformed her - teaching her not to let sad, bad thoughts stay in her head." The `Hellboy II` star loves being given new books to read and carries the copy of J.D. Salinger`s `Nine Stories` given to her by Jake Gyllenhaal everywhere. Speaking about the book, she told Britain`s Elle magazine: "Jake Gyllenhaal gave it to me many years ago because it`s one his favourites, and in exchange I gave him a copy of `Till We Have Faces`. "I got this book maybe nine years ago, but I still carry it in whatever bag I have. It reminds me of the friendship I once had with Jake and these amazing stories by this author that I love."