Thursday, August 30, 2012

(Re)Introducing Lori

Hi, I'm Lori.  I was with The Broke and the Bookish in the beginning, then I took a lengthy leave-of-absence due to the craziness that is getting a Master's in History.  But life has finally calmed down enough for me to be able to return and the old regulars were gracious enough to let me.

What is your dream bookish job?
My dream bookish job would be to organize the papers of some of my favorite authors.  I would love to be a Hemingway scholar or a Faulkner scholar.  This more or less combines all of my training and loves--books, History, and the MLIS degree I'm currently working on.  But now that I'm getting into the swing of things...being a free-lance writer sounds really appealing--variety, the ability to choose my own projects, working from home.  We'll see.

Do you have any authors whose books you'd put on an "auto-read" list...no matter what they wrote?
I would definitely auto-read Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, and Plath if they were still contributing.  For an author who is still contributing (I think, I hope) I would say Rebecca Wells because I love the four books she's written and I hope more are forthcoming.  I'm sure there are others, but those five quickly come to mind.

Favorite place to shop for books?
I generally order books from Amazon or off of my Nook because Stillwater, Oklahoma doesn't have a very good bookstore.  I have Amazon Prime, so I get books really quickly.  And (I discovered yesterday) our UPS man is awesome!  He delivered a book to me at the beginning of his route because Zach and I are such good customers (his words).  But I love when Zach and I make a trip to the city and go to Barnes and Noble.  We browse for quite a while, usually one of us buys a book we don't need and don't have room for, then we sit in the cafe and have coffee and read.  It's one of the most special things we do.  In my hometown there is a fantastic used bookstore that has just about everything.  You really have to dig because literary fiction can be found in about three different sections.

How do you organize your bookshelves?
I would show you all of my shelves if I could but they're scattered between two locations.  I have just a few books at the apartment I'm sharing with Zach, so I don't have much to organize there and most of my books are at my parents' house.  All of my books are split between fiction and non-fiction.  At the apartment, the organizing ends with alphabetizing.  At my parents' house, the non-fiction is categorized chronologically (Revolutionary War, then Civil War, then late 19th century, and so on).  I have a couple of subcategories--bookish reads, sports history, and Hollywood-related books--that are separated out.  Fiction is separated into contemporary fiction and the Classics, which are divided by country (with a few categorized by continent because outside of France and Britain, I don't have much European lit)  Within each group, everything is alphabetized.

How do you balance reading and school/work?
I just do it.  Once I'm done with work, I try to read on the couch when I'm not making supper or cleaning or doing something with Zach.  Now that I've started up school again, I'm striving to get all of my schoolwork done during the week so the weekends are largely open to reading.  I'm also going to make a point to read for a bit each night.

Are there any types of books you WON'T read?
I traditionally have not been a reader of YA, but I am trying to be more open-minded and less judgmental about it.  However, I will not read Twilight or The Hunger Games.  I just don't want to get into it.  I am Harry Potter all the way as far as series go.

Do any of your friends, family or significant other share your passion?
My dad and papa will read anything I hand them and tell them to read.  Zach reads a lot as well.  Right now he's mostly reading history books because of his comp exams and then his dissertation.  But he has a pretty impressive fiction collection as well.  And he's actually read the books he owns (show off).  So, I guess you could say that the three men in my life share my bookish passion.

And for a few facts about me…
The basic: I graduated from Oklahoma State University with BAs in English and History and a French minor in 2010.  I finished an MA in History - Public History in 2012.  My thesis was a literary history piece that I would consider working on again in the future.  I will finish my online MLIS degree in 2014.  I live with Zach in Stillwater.  After we both graduate we'll get married and move wherever he gets a teaching job, then I'll find something because my options are a bit more diverse (whereas he can only teach at a university/college; not wanting anyone to think I'm being negative about his opportunities).

The bookish: I have always loved reading.  I credit my parents with this love.  They read to me each night.  Once I could read on my own, they never really monitored what I read, so I started reading grown-up books when I was about 8 and it kind of went from there.  I fell in love with Gilmore Girls when it came out because it was so literary (other reasons too, but that helped).  One of my goals is to read all of the classics on the Rory Gilmore list.  I am horrible about buying books.  My bank account will be so low that I have to transfer money over to cover my Amazon bill, but I keep buying.  It's like the Erasmus quote:  "When I get a little money, I buy books.  If there is any left over, I buy food and clothes."

The random: I have two other passions aside from reading.  I love cooking.  So much.  I usually cook Southern or Italian food, but Zach and I are shifting to a Mediterranean type diet, so I'll start cooking those dishes as well.  I wish I could spend my entire day cooking and reading because you can do one of my favorite activities with those--drinking wine.  My other passion is baseball.  I have a team, but I also just love having it on in the background while I read.  I have a few close friends who love baseball as much as I do, so we always talk baseball.  I'm afraid of birds and sponges.  I love coffee.  I am on Pinterest pinning things all the time, but I hardly ever make any of them.  

I guess that's about it.  Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

5 comments:

  1. Gilmore Girls! I was never a huge reader throughout my life until about 4 years ago, which I think is around the time I discovered Gilmore Girls -- Rory is such an inspiration to read! I have quite a few books that she read during the series on my shelf, though I've been leaning forward YA and Paranormal Romances lately ...

    Birds AND sponges? LOVE IT! I don't think I've ever heard of anyone being scared of a sponge, but there's a first time for everything!

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    1. Ugh. Yeah. Sponges feel like death--cold, wet, and just icky. Plus they're full of germs. So I won't touch one bare-handed.

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  2. I'm liking the uber-organization of your books! Glad to know I'm not the only one :)

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  3. :) Welcome back.

    I'd love to go back for my Master's (double major in college: history & English). My studies were focused more on the Civil War, but I'm a total nerd for so many other periods.

    A Hemingway scholar? That would be awesome. I'll admit I'm not very well-verse in Faulkner or Plath (shock, I know), but Hemingway & Steinbeck are great! Ahaha, in college I had to take a general theater/arts class and The Grapes of Wrath was doing a trial run in Pittsburgh to see if the opera would do well. Opera. Grapes of Wrath. Bad Southern accents. ..yeah. As much as I enjoy going to shows, I have to say that one was not one of my favorites. :)

    I'm awful about buying books too. Luckily for me (..or possibly it's worse), I'm a bookseller at a local used bookstore. I get a pretty amazing discount so while it seems like I'm saving tons, I tend to buy more than I should.

    Cooking, reading, wine? Sounds like we'll get along wonderfully.

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  4. Lovely to meet you (since I didn't really meet you the first time around). I loved all of your answers and look forward to seeing more of you around the blog. :)

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