We're celebrating Reading Month, One Dog-Eared Page at a Time (no wait –we have bookmarks!)
At Allport Editions, we’re big believers in the power of the written word, whether it’s stamped on a greeting card, scribbled in a notebook, or pressed between the pages of a well-loved book. To celebrate National Reading Month, we asked the readers on our team to share their favorite books (they were all sad to find out they could only pick 3). True to form, our answers ranged from the poetic to the absurd, the classic to the cozy. Basically, if our office were a library, it would have its own wing for emotional devastation and another just for misfit geniuses.
Based on their bookshelves, here’s a lovingly unscientific analysis of some of my brilliant co-workers. Get to know them the best way I know how: through the stories they return to, recommend, and pretend they don’t quietly build their personalities around.
At Allport: Amy works across design, marketing, and production, helping shape card layouts, typography, and art choices with a thoughtful eye and a strong sense of balance. She bridges the gap between artists and final product, making sure everything looks just right before it goes to print.
Bookshelf Analysis: Someone who loves a slow burn, a tragic twist, and a heroine who refuses to fall apart quietly. Her shelves are full of big feelings, complicated choices, and just enough drama to keep things interesting. Think moody classics, moral tension, and the kind of stories where someone stares out a window for a long time before finally saying what they mean. Probably has great taste in art.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – Our girl Jane gets orphaned, emotionally neglected, gaslit, and tossed into one of the most romantic train wrecks in English literature... and still somehow walks away with her moral backbone and bangs intact. She’s quiet, stubborn, secretly hilarious, and falls in love with a man whose ex-wife is literally locked in the attic. And she still doesn’t settle for less than respect. It's the kind of book that whispers, “Yes, you can be deeply principled and kiss a dramatic man in a waistcoat…you just have to make him earn it.”
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky – If you’ve ever had an ethical crisis at 2 a.m. and thought, “What if I’m not a good person, but like, in a philosophical way?” Meet Raskolnikov, a man who is entirely too in his head and still manages to be wildly compelling. He murders someone to prove a philosophical point (as one does), then spends the rest of the book unspooling in real time. Somehow, despite all the self-important monologuing, the book ends up being about redemption, the unbearable awkwardness of being perceived, and how even the most insufferable people are still, occasionally, worth saving. This isn’t just a story about guilt. It’s about grace, too. About what it means to live with your choices, and maybe even crawl your way back to being human again.
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett – A book where literal terrorists take an opera singer and some diplomats hostage, and instead of descending into chaos, everyone just... bonds. Over music. And chess. And delicate, emotionally repressed glances. Time stretches, loyalties blur, and the whole thing turns into this strange, glittering snow globe of human connection. It’s beautiful in the way very few things about hostage crises tend to be. And yes, it will destroy you gently. You’ll thank it.
What I’ve realized while putting this together is that our reading lives are just as different and beautiful as the cards we sell. We love books that ask hard questions, make us laugh unexpectedly, or just remind us that connection is what we’re all here for, whether through words, worlds, or wildly specific lore.
This month, grab something from your shelf… or better yet, someone else’s (support your local library & independent bookstores), and sink into a story. Revisit a favorite, get haunted by footnotes, cry about marshes, spiral over moral philosophy, or finally figure out what’s actually happening in Flatland (if you do, please report back). You could also check out our Book Lover's Collection ;)
So, Happy World Book Day from some of the bookish weirdos at Allport Editions, including myself, who is currently reading the 3rd installment of The Library Trilogy: The Book The Held Her Heart by Mark Lawrence (a tightly plotted fantasy about a timeless library, and time itself) and using this post as an excuse to sneak in one last book recommendation. You’re welcome.
Stay tuned, where you’ll get to know more of the fabulous Team that makes up Allport Editions! I might be biased, but I think they’re pretty awesome
Until next time,
Sam