15 Things About Me & Books

I am ripping off Steve Lawson's post, "15 Things About Me & Books, his own riff off of John Scalzi's post of the same name, because I found it interesting and delightful. I hope nobody minds, and I hope a whole bunch of folks pick this meme up!



1. I became a librarian because I love books. Yes, I know this is the answer we are no longer supposed to give on why we became librarians. I do not give a hoot. It has worked out well.


2. My parents thought I was able to read at age 3. It turns out I had just memorized Dr. Seuss's One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. When they gave me another book, I continued to recite the Dr. Seuss book. To this day, I remember great chunks of it, and am still disturbed by the scary illustration of the Clark-creature the kids found in the park after dark.


3. I have always had a large personal library, and it stresses me out when people borrow my books. To the point that I used to keep an Excel file with names and "checkout" dates so I could remind friends to bring me back my books.


4. I abhor the idea of writing in books, but sometimes they're so good, I can't help it. When this happens, I find I have to buy multiple copies in order to always assure I have one "clean" copy. In the case of Machiavelli's Prince, I own a clean copy, a copy filled with my personal notes, and a copy filled with class notes.


5. I threatened to burn my microeconomics textbook in college, but I couldn't bring myself to toss it on the grill with everyone else's. I finally sold the hateful thing to a used bookstore - 7 years after I had taken the class.


6. I collect books on poetry and (as a holdover from my polisci nerd days) war, game theory and battle strategy. I think "Von Clausewitz" sounds sexy if you say it out loud.


7. I loved it so much that I re-read Stephen King's The Stand every year at least once. The unabridged version. And I like it :)


8. I am a sucker for well written urban fantasy books. Yes, the vampire romance ones.


9. It pains me to no end that libraries allow food and drink in the building and stacks. Yes, I know I'm a regressive. But coffee rings and crumbs make me shudder for the books. THINK OF THE BOOKS, PEOPLE!


10. I have always believed that getting your own ISBN is probably the closest humans will ever get to immortality.


11. In college, after buying textbooks for my classes, I would roam the aisles and then buy the ones from other classes that looked interesting.


12. At my first full-time library job at the University of Kentucky, I used to take all the "discards" on the Free Book Truck home with me (including old law books). They looked like orphans. I couldn't help myself. Weeding - while necessary - still makes me feel guilty.


13. Until this year, I had a personal policy that if I started a book, I finished it. No exceptions. (I've only just come to the realization that there are too many books and too little time for this to be useful.)


14. I have a tendency to buy books that I love as gifts for other people, even if our tastes differ. My apologies!


15. Whenever I travel by air, I pack at least four books - two for the trip there, two for the trip back. It has happened that this has not been enough reading material.

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