Our summer intern Catherine Wang is here, talking about the five books that most influenced her life! Do you share any with her? Check out You Are What You Read to create your own Bookprint!

Deciding what to write your college application essay on can be a stressful task. But for me it was a no-brainer. The prompt on the common application allows students to write about a topic of their choice—so of course I chose to write about my love for reading.

Since I was a little girl I was obsessed with reading, and when I wasn’t running around the soccer field I had a book in my hand. As I divulged in my college application, reading became much more to me than a hobby. And after completing my essay I realized how much of an impact it had on shaping the person I am today. My application essay took the admissions committee through many of my adventures in reading and although my list of favorite and influential books could go on for pages and pages, I chose five of my ABSOLUTE favorites to share with you:

Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree was one of the first books my parents read to me, as well as one of the first books I learned to read to them (probably because I heard it so many times I had it memorized)! To this day, almost two decades later, it is still one my favorite books. Not only because of the memories the book is part of, but because of the message it sends—one that I only realized after re-reading the book later in life. The Giving Tree taught me that the relationships we build with people, places and things shouldn’t be taken for granted and to appreciate the things around us.

Strega Nona by Tomie dePaula is another favorite that I enjoyed as kid. It was the book I asked my babysitter to read to me every night she was at my house. The little cardstock book still rests on my nightstand and every so often I will open it up to read once more.

Another one of my favorite books is Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. After receiving my required reading list for the 9th grade, I was excited to find out that the book made the list and couldn’t wait to read the novel my older sister frequently gushed about (she wasn’t as fond of reading as me so I thought, WOW this book MUST be amazing!). And it was. Filled with many memorable characters, To Kill A Mockingbird is a must-read.

Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter is definitely intimidating—but I didn’t have a choice, I had to learn to understand the form when my 10th grade teacher assigned the class to create a scene from Macbeth. At first, I will admit that the assignment seemed like a drag—even for an avid reader like me. But, after reading the play over and over again, each time I fell more in love with the story and form. By the third time I read it I was more than excited to take on the challenge of writing an additional scene to the play.

My last favorite is a book series. There are seven novels in the series and it is way too hard to choose just one from the group. Yes, you guessed it—it’s Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. And yes it is true that I am an intern at Scholastic so my feelings about the series may seem biased…but I promise I read the books and loved the series way before applying to Scholastic was even an option! The series is amazing and it isn’t until after I completed all the books that I realized the extent of J.K Rowling’s artistic abilities. Everything in the series fits together like a puzzle. After I read the series a second time (yes I am a nerd) I noticed even more details than the first time and once again wished everyday that floo powder or apparating existed so I could get to Hogwarts.

I still read every day and enjoy books more than I ever imagined I would. I recently finished Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill and am currently reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Thanks for letting me share my Bookprint! What are your favorite books of all time?