A Life in Books

This post arises from a simple premise: a reading life ought to have a reading blog. Of course, this small sliver of cyberspace differs from most blogs in fairly fundamental ways. While I would welcome an audience, I'm neither courting one nor seeking one; I'm not overly interested in traffic, advertising, or the rhizomatic multi-connections that exist between one social media platform and all of the others. If there's such a thing as introverted blogging, this is probably it. (This does, of course, raise the specter of crazy, little me talking to myself in a corner somewhere, but I've been haunted by worse).
                                                                               

It's hard for me to locate an opening narrative for this introduction because I can't remember a time when I wasn't surrounded by books. Even as I type, I could be walled in with the piles I see around me (a better fate than that recorded in "Cask of Amontillado;" at least I would have something to read until I expired). Family legend has it that I owned a full bookshelf by the age of two and I remember weekly trips to Bellaire Public Library (http://www.bellaire.lib.oh.us/) until I turned 13 and the family moved. I spent my high school lunch hours in the library and worked as a library assistant through college. In graduate school, I argued about the connection between the museum and Victorian literature. Today, I teach literature and composition, ensuring that beloved books return to my life, blooming as annually as any flower.

Because of the nature of my work, my reading life breaks down into three sorts of books:

1. books read for class or for research
2. books read to learn something new (curiosity is the best blessing!)
3. fun reads

These major categories can then be broken into subcategories. I'll list the major ones below, with hopes that new ones will appear!

History
- Native American History
- American History: Revolution and Beginnings
- American History: Civil War
- American History: Post-Civil War
- American History: Post WWII
- Ancient History
-- European History: Britain, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales
-- European History: France
-- European History: Germany
-- European History: Italy
-- European History: Russia and the Ukraine
--- World History: Canada
--- World History: Japan, China, and Korea
--- World History: etc. (too few titles to merit a full category of each)
--- World History: the World Wars

Literature
- Drama and Poetry
- Literary Criticism

Fiction
- Genre Fiction: Fantasy
- Genre Fiction: Science Fiction
- Genre Fiction: Horror and Mystery
- Genre Fiction: Romance

The Hard Sciences
- Medicine
- Astronomy
- Geography
- Chemistry
- Physics

Natural History
- Big Cats
- Birds
- Climate
- Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Beasts
- Domestic Animals
- Flora
- Wildlife (general)
- Hunting and Conservation
- Insects
- Mammals
-- Ungulates
-- Predators
- Oceans and their creatures
- Reptiles and Amphibians

Social Sciences
- Philosophy
- Religion
- Education
- Gender
- Immigration
- Law and Crime
- Politics
- Psychology
- Race

Culture and Popular Culture
- Museums and archaeology
- Music
- Comics
- Film and Television
- Sports
- Art

These categories and the books that live in them will make up the content of forthcoming posts - so on with the show!