"What is your Bookprint?" At the Scholastic offices, this is the most common get-to-know-you question. No new team member can avoid it and one of the things I love about working here is that we take it seriously. Each of the five books that we consider the most important to shaping our love of reading or ourselves is carefully picked before we reveal them to the group. Brionne Ram-Singh, our current corporate communications intern, recently shared his thoughts with us. Enjoy!
Some say you can tell what a person is thinking just by looking into their eyes. I say you should just take a look at what they're reading. Books have a way of spilling our little secret thoughts in the most delightful ways. They can make us happy or sad, and even invite conversation into our lives. There's nothing better than reading a book on the subway, during lunch, or before bed. And the best part? When returning to your favorites you will always find something more, something you missed that has revealed itself over time. The details may change, even though the pages remain the same.
5 Books That Have Made Their Mark on Me:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. No Bookprint would be truly complete without HP. The dark and shocking sixth book of the series is my favorite as the world of Harry Potter that I had grown up with changed so much, as did I. One thing I have learned about being a young adult, along with Harry, is that you have to make a lot of choices. The quote that encourages me to make the best decisions: “It is not our abilities that show what we truly are, it is our choices.”
Crime and Punishment. The controversial classic that you just can’t put down, and even feel sorry for the main character because he’s searching for himself, just like we all are. Regardless if the path taken is wrong or right, you have to forge your own road sometimes, and this quote inspires me to do just that: “To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.”
Perks of Being a Wallflower. The twenty-something-year-old’s mantra to growing up is a perfect blend of finding yourself and then losing yourself, and doing it all over again. The quote I think of every time I’m lost (figuratively speaking): “I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to be who I really am. And I'm going to figure out what that is.” Because if you don’t lose yourself every once in a while, how can you find yourself?
The Birth-mark, from Mosses from an Old Manse is the obligatory high school short-story that you did not want to read, but then you read it and something magical happened. It’s about human obsession and how far we will go to achieve perfection. My favorite quote that reminds me that perfection is imaginary, and staying in the moment is what counts: "he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time, and, living once for all in eternity, to find the perfect future in the present."
If You Have To Cry Go Outside. This one is a keeper, because it forces me out of bed and motivates me to go after what I want – every single day. It is chock full of encouragement, and the quote that gets me moving: "And suddenly I realized that I hadn’t maximized my moment." And remember, if you don’t make the most of every moment, someone else will.
Thank you, Brionne! Fellow book lovers, what are your favorite quotes or books that left a mark on you?
