I was always an avid reader as a child, and have remained so on and off in my adult life, with wanes in my reading activity whenever I've taken on more work or academic hours. Currently, my pleasure reading has been scarce, as I hold a full-time position in a public library, attend graduate school full-time in pursuit of a Master's degree, and function as a single parent to a three-year-old. This means my reading pursuits of late center mainly around bedtime stories and early learning activities for my son. However, my job does require a monthly book review on the library's blog, so I strive to at least read enough to meet that requirement. I generally prefer reading literature, fantasy, and nonfiction. I'm a sucker for a well-crafted sentence - anything that you have to take a deep breath after reading, and then read again to fully process or take in. I have enjoyed reading books from other genres, of course, but when I'm looking for something in a hurry, those a
I'm not ashamed to admit that I was a huge fan of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events in my middle school years. I still own all thirteen books, and the author's Unauthorized Autobiography . Having been around the same age the two elder Baudelaire orphans when I first read this series, I found everything about it oddly comforting. The children were intelligent, and interested in things mainstream culture told us were "odd" or "nerdy." It showed children who were perceptive, resourceful, bright, witty, and who even had a good relationship with their parents (before being orphaned). It also had a very dark side, and the author wasn't afraid to write to the young adolescents the series was marketed toward as emotionally intelligent equals - a courtesy many adults don't afford youth of that age group and which, as a reader, made me feel a certain debt to the author and the characters to prove I was worthy of that respect. This is wh