What to read for personal statements??

Hi! I'm in Y12 and I have decided I need to start looking at books to read this year for my personal statement (it takes me ages to read and I don't want to rush it). I am planning on hopefully doing English Literature and History at a nice Russel Group University...any recommendations? Anyway, I understand that a personal statement should have some kind of focus so you are able to show you are interested in an area, so I need to pick that focus so the books I read aren't random - is that right?? I actually have no idea, so if anyone is able to give me examples of which books they read, why, and what they wrote about them I would be really grateful. I am interested in quite modern British history, and I really like fluffy jane austen-esque classics (Elizabeth Bennet over Catherine Earnshaw), autobiographies and Shakespeare lol. Is it better to have a lot of different interests or to hone them and focus on books that explore similar things??

THIS IS COMPLETE WAFFLE AND DOES NOT MAKE MUCH SENSE READING IT BACK SO IF YOU REPLY JUST KNOW HOW GRATEFUL I AM!! I AM SO LOST!!

I would recommend losing any preconceptions you may have about the Russell Group - the label means nothing.
What is your favourite period of history? (Ideally not something on your A Level syllabus)
Do you prefer poetry, prose or plays? (Not a set text at GCSE or A Level)

Hey!! Thanks for responding, it means a lot to me lol. When I say russel group (sorry for misleading you) i just meant the universities that rank highest for my subjects (durham, ucl etc). I don't really have a favourite period in history, I like doing the 20th century political stuff, but I also love Renaissance Europe - especially looking at art and culture. Recently I have been interested in the troubles in northern ireland and also 1950/60s suburban america (i have been reading the feminist mystique). I loved GCSE history because our course covered such a broad time period (superficially though) and I found everything interesting. I love plays, especially Shakespeare (studying Othello, but I love measure for measure) and the rsc is my favourite place in the world. i like modern poetry (free verse, i find rhythm and meter lowkey constricting which is a shame because our alevel anthology is pre 1900). idk, what would you suggest looking at??

I know and I'm telling you to ignore rankings - they mean nothing.
Okay so a few options then:
A - you could start with the feminine mystique, then compare to gender themes in a social context (Educating Rita by Willy Russell comes to mind there, if you'd like to overlap class with that). Then see where your interest takes you down that route.
B - you could read up on Renaissance Europe and then bring in some poets of the same period - perhaps look at how their travels in Europe influenced the likes of Byron and Shelley.
C - you could do some research into the troubles and then look at some free verse poetry coming out of Northern Ireland since the 1990s and what you can surmise about representation from this.