The Obligatory Intro

I feel like this whole endeavor, should it turn into an endeavor at all, should probably begin with a little "here's me, and this is why I'm blogging to the world about books." Otherwise, you'll never know if I'm a librarian crouched behind my desk, reading in secret while my patrons wonder where I've gone, or if I'm a teenager who is in love with the written word, or if I'm a superhero whose major power is to verbally beat down any foe in her way. The truth? I'm a teacher, so in a way, I'm all those other things rolled together...but definitely the superhero.

I teach English to some of the greatest kids in the world, and more than anything else, while they're in my presence, I want them to fall head over heels in love with reading. I want them to read books they enjoy, books they find unputdownable, and books they mourn for when they turn the last page. Why? Because that's the type of reader I've always been.

I was fortunate to grow up in a family that valued reading. I remember my mom telling me to clean my room "right now," but I also remember "I've just got one more chapter, Momma" being a perfectly acceptable reason to hold off on that cleaning...indefinitely. On car trips, everyone took books. My knees were usually in my chest the whole way because my feet rested on the mound of books that was stacked in my floorboard. I am a reader, through and through.

Often, my students ask me what my hobbies are. I say "reading." They lift those adolescent eyebrows, raising one as though to say, "You are so lame," and then they ask me what I read. In my first year teaching, I'm convinced my students thought I read four pieces of literature: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, and The Crucible. Why on earth would they think I only read those things? Because, you see, those were the pieces of literature we read in class, and those were all I talked about with my students. Somewhere along the way, I realized that they had no idea why anyone would read for pleasure, and I vowed to help them understand exactly why I did.

So I read, and read, and read, and along the way, I try to help others fall in love with it, too.