Delphine inspired me to do my own version of this post! Thanks, Delphine! If you haven’t already, check out her awesome blog, Delphine’s Babble on Some Good Reads.
Here’s the link to her original post:
Here are some quotes from several of my favorite books. Let me know if you’ve read them!
Image Credit: Complex
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans. Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and I’d known Tom in college. And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago.”
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I absolutely fell in love with The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald, and the 1920s when I was in high school. It was assigned reading, but I went on to do an extensive research project on Fitzgerald, his life, and the culture of the American expatriates in Europe during that time period.
I know I identified with the book because of the setting, since I was born in New York City. This is one book that I re-read every single year. I can’t truly explain why it’s one of my favorite books, but it just is.
Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
“There are all kinds of courage,” said Dumbledore, smiling. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”  –The Philosopher’s Stone Â
“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  –Chamber of SecretsÂ
“Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.”  –The Goblet of Fire Â
“Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.” –The Order of the Phoenix
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As a kid, I was definitely late to the party when I starting reading Harry Potter. However, once I started, I couldn’t stop. I plowed through all the books that were available at the time, eagerly watched the movies, and waited for the rest to be released. I was lucky enough to be in London, England, when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released in July 2005. So, I have an American version and British version of that one. It’s definitely a series that has had a years-long effect on my life.
The Hunger Games series, Suzanne Collins
“May the odds be ever in your favor!” –The Hunger Games
“For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first.” –The Hunger Games
“So it’s you and a syringe against the Capitol? See, this is why no one lets you make the plans.” –Catching Fire
“I always channel my emotions into my work. That way, I don’t hurt anyone but myself.” –Catching Fire
“The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol’s plans. The symbol of the rebellion.” –Catching Fire
“Aim higher in case you fall short.” –Catching Fire
“It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.” –Mockingjay
“Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!” –Mockingjay
“Some walks you have to take alone.” –Mockingjay
“Are you, are you coming to the tree?
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.
Strange things did happen here.
No stranger would let it be if we met up
At midnight in the hanging tree.” –Mockingjay
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The Hunger Games series deeply affected my life as a young adult, like Harry Potter affected my childhood and teenage years. I fell in love with Katniss Everdeen, and her fight throughout all three books to end The Hunger Games and spark a revolution, literally. Although The Hunger Games series is fictional, it’s based on the author watching news coverage of the war in Iraq, and a reality show where kids were competing in a survivalist atmosphere.
And, now, with the revolutions taking place in this country and around the world – Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, immigration, refugees, the chaos in the White House, the outpouring of response to the Parkland shooting – The list seems endless – these books seem more “real” to me more than ever. Time to re-read them, I think.
Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Patterson
“It’s like the smarter you are, the more things can scare you.”
“It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength. ”
“Sometimes it seemed to him that his life was delicate as a dandelion. One little puff from any direction, and it was blown to bits.”
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This book gives me all the feels. I don’t re-read it often, but when I do, I always cry. It’s such a wonderful story, full of imagination, but also some lessons that everyone can benefit from learning. This isn’t your ordinary kids’ book.
Image Credit: Scholastic
Dear Mr. Henshaw, Beverly Cleary
“I don’t want to be a nuisance to you, but I wish you could tell me how.”
“The best thing about sixth grade in my new school is that if I hang in, I’ll get out.”
“I wish someone would ask me over sometime.”
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This was one of the first of Cleary’s books that I read – I think it was in elementary school. I’ve read all of them since then! She’s one of those authors who left a big impression on me. I think reading this book in particular helped spark my life-long interest in pen pals, writing letters, diaries, and journals.
The Bible
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
“For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV)
“Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Philippians 4:13 (NIV)
“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-13 (NIV)
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
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I was raised in the United Methodist Church. I started reading the Bible in elementary school, through my Sunday School classes. Over the years, I’ve found certain verses that stick with me. For example, I found Jeremiah 29:11 while reading my Bible on a youth retreat in sixth grade. That was the first time I highlighted or underlined something in my Bible. I don’t read the Bible as often anymore, but I read daily devotionals and reflect on different verses.
What about you? Do you have any book quotes that symbolize you or a part of your life? Let me know!
Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂
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