My Reading Profile

I've always loved reading! I still remember the very first book I read on my own—Hot Dog by Molly Coxe—and the excitement I felt every time I picked up a new book. I collected as many books in the Junie B. Jones and Magic Tree House series as I could, and soon my bookshelf was overflowing. In middle school, I was obsessed with Twilight (the movies are still my favorites and one of my reading goals for this year is to reread the entire series) and The Hunger Games. In high school and college, my personal reading was overshadowed by my school reading, which ultimately left me feeling unmotivated to read for fun because my brain equated reading with homework and productivity. But in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had all the time in the world to rediscover my love of reading. A year later, I started working as a Teen Library Assistant and read so many YA books in different genres so I could recommend them to our teen patrons. I'm now working as a Cataloging Assistant at the same library, and I love being one of the first people to get their hands on new books!

Honestly, I'm still in the process of figuring out the kinds of books I like to read. Last year, I read 23 books which included 1 cozy mystery, 1 sapphic romance, 1 short story, 2 gothic horror books, 6 fantasies, 5 children's books, 3 middle grade books, and 4 YA books (I took Materials for Youth last semester which is why I read so many children's/YA books). So as you can see, I'm kind of all over the place! A majority of the books sitting on my shelves and in my TBR list fall into the fantasy and gothic horror genres. I'm such a sucker for a dark, moody atmosphere. I'm not much of a romance gal, but if it's a queer romance, I'm going to read it! I'm definitely a mood reader, which means I have to fast-track my reading when the opportunity strikes or risk leaving a book only a few chapters in because the mood has disappeared.

Here are some of my most-loved books:

• Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott (this author is coming out with a book of short stories in February and I simply cannot wait!!)
  
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
  
• Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura
• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
• Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

I'm on Goodreads but very rarely write actual reviews, so feel free to follow me if you want to see all the books I keep adding to my Want to Read list!

One piece of advice from "At Leisure: The Rule of Three" that I found especially helpful is to "add these [appeal] terms as special tags" wherever you keep track of your reading, as they "can become the cues that start the conversation as we share books with readers" (Saricks, 2009, p. 25). Although I don't usually write reviews on Goodreads, I am going to start adding tags to the books I've read so I can look back at them when I provide RA services. 

Reference:

Saricks, J. (2009). At leisure: The rule of three. Booklist, 106(3), 25.