readers advisory for all discussion

why should you trust me and my recommendations if you don't know anything about me? or anyone here?? here is where you can introduce yourself! it is the internet, so i understand if you don't want to give out your address or social security number (party pooper!!) but if you want to give a little bit of information about your book-background, feel free to do so here.

i am karen. i work in a giant bookstore in manhattan, i go to library school, i just finished volunteering at a library because of time constraints, but on my days off, i go to bookstores and bookfairs, and i am just kind of book-obsessed. i used to have a great deal of contempt for adults reading teen fiction, but something happened, and now that seems to make up the bulk of what i read. i am trying to ease back into the grown world, but there are too many teen-dystopia novels, and they know where i live!

that's me.

Hi! This is a great idea for a group! I am also very interested in RA, professionally, since my stunted career themes include Literature, Education, possibly Library Services, or just annoyingly trying to get people to read more books and talk about them with me.

But, I was hesitant to join it because I already have seven million books on my to-read list. What if you start giving me amazing recommendations, and my to-read list grows and grows, making me feel anxiety-ridden and inadequate!

then you would be in good company.
things have gotten...out of hand here at my apartment. the books - they have taken over.

I'm Colby, I'm sixteen, I am a Junior in high school. I run the Teen Reader's Book Club and www.teensreads.blogspot.com is my review blog.

I'm Pat. I've been an avid reader since I can remember. The highlight of each month was receiving my Nancy Drew double book in the mail, which I devoured the day it arrived. Next came my parents Reader's Digest versions of popular books like Jaws and Ordinary People. I'm sad now that I read the condensed versions, but maybe that was a good thing since I was only in grade school. I actually wanted to be a librarian growing up but let my brother talk me into engineering (I still entertain thoughts of earning a degree in library science or comparative lit). I remember reading Silas Marner in the back of the room during a boring thermodynamics lecture. At one point I went through a Thomas Hardy phase but after college, for some inane reason, my reading material didn't vary much and was limited to mystery and suspense novels. I even got rid of all my old books because I was sick of carting them around as I moved from place to place. (What was I thinking?!) I joined a book club through church a few years ago and was "forced" to read books I wouldn't have picked up otherwise. Then I saw an article about Newsweek's Top 100 Books and decided to read them all (I've got a few of the dry non-fiction left). I'm also working through the 100 Greatest Novels (greatestnovels.com) and Australian Authors lists between all the other fun and interesting books that come my way. I stop in every bookshop I see and spend inordinate amounts of time in my local library and on goodreads.

I'm Kaethe. I got the same Nancy Drew book club books as Pat. I earned an English degree and have worked in bookstores at various times, have been a manuscript reader for two different publishers, and serve as RA for my family and friends these days, working in cancer research.

I have always been a fan of a good story, so my preferences tend more to genre and now YA than toward literary fiction. With two daughters to advise, I'm reading a lot of MG as well.

dumb alert: (i don't know what MG is!)

oh, wait!! middle grade??

My name is Greg. I have a Masters in library stuff but I continue working in a bookstore. I used to read 'good' books but now I just seem to read a lot of crime novels and books about fighting. I once tried to read the 100 best books of the last century, from that list that came out, but I gave up with about fifteen books left. I've read some YA books, but not too many and I only mention this because everyone else seems to be mentioning it.

Hi! I'm Flannery and I live in the Seattle area. I don't have any book-related advanced degrees but I am totally addicted to reading. I can't pinpoint the onset of my addiction but I'd place bets on it having something to do with Babysitter's Club Super Specials. My favorite genres to read are YA, science fiction, crime thriller, horror, and fantasy. I spent the last three years in law school and I think the number of cases I had to read made my mind crave candyreads more than usual so I'm trying to make my way back to adultland...but I'm not really trying very hard. I'm also in the process of starting up a book blog--we'll see how that goes.

I have a PhD in English and teach writing and literature courses at a large state university. My research is currently focused on science fiction, but I love lots of other types of books as well. This summer I am devoted to reading all the fun stuff I normally don't have time for.

Hey everybody. I saw the group invite pop up and winced because I've gotten so many lame ones--but then I saw that Karen and Flann were heading up this thing and I signed up without a second thought! Um, I'm still not really sure what goes on here, but I'm sure it will be awesome.

I worked at a secondhand bookstore throughout college and then I did PR for a big book chain for a few years, so I've always loved the challenge of matching book to reader. I still blow through books pretty quickly and I read something from almost every genre, although these days I'm pretty focused on YA. My teetering TBR pile has steadily grown even more frightening since I started chatting with my GoodReads friends, but the sad truth of the matter is that I'm always looking for more books. It's an addiction, I tell you! One I don't intend to cure!

It's all karen's baby:) At the onset, I helped a few people learn how to add links to their recommendations. But I do love it here!

In college (2003?) two guys from the CIA came to the U of Washington history department lookin' for a few good recruits. Both of them said they were minding their own business a few years after college when they got cryptic emails from the Company asking them if they wanted jobs.

For some reason I was reminded of that when I got an email invite for this group. I live in Seattle and have always been a hungry reader. I skew toward littry fickchin but I'm open to most anything. I use Goodreads mainly as a catalog for what I have read, but I have been interacting more recently. I follow the reviews of a few of the group members here and am jealous of their (your?) reading lists and wit. Looks fun.

Hello! I'm happy I got a group invite, form my initial browsing this seems like a nifty corner of Goodreads. I'm Maggy, I'm 21 years old, originally from The Netherlands but I'll be doing an MA in writing for stage and broadcast media in London this October. Like a lot of you I'm hooked on books. I spent a lot of my childhood moving from place to place, different countries, different schools and well...BOOKS ARE MY FRIENDS. Stories were the only things that remained constant and I'm still an avid page turner to this day. I don't really have a favourite genre, I'm a fan of mixing it up so I'll be grateful for any recommendations! Nice to meet you all, looking forward to getting stuck into this group xxx Maggy

oh, man - i wish i was CIA.
but i'm not.
or am i??

Let me guess, Karen, you'd tell us, but then you'd have to kill us. And erase every trace of the thread.

Hi, thank you for your invitation, Karen. I am Lita, living in Jakarta, Indonesia. I graduated from Department of Library Science at a university in my city. I used to work at library, but I quit the job six years ago. Now I work as a translator and producer, as well as announcer, of a book review program on a streaming radio. Nice to meet you all :)

Kaethe wrote: "Let me guess, Karen, you'd tell us, but then you'd have to kill us. And erase every trace of the thread."

twice.

Wow I feel very uneducated! I am Nikkie and I am a stay at home mom in N.C. Chasing after my 7 month old typically leaves me exhausted and with very little brain power at the end of the day so lately I have found myself reading YA. Pretty much every spare moment I have is spent reading or searching for new books to read. My husband who never reads finds it extremely strange that I read while waiting in line at the grocery store or while waiting for water to boil. I love the satisfaction that only a good book can bring and I constantly search out this high.

hahahaha!

hi, i'm tuck. i work in a library and buy about $80,000 worth a books a year, about 60% of that is fiction. I like noir, literary type fic, history, natural science, some politics, and social science books. My goal is to reduce james patterson to a non-writing mass in the gutter.

I've loved reading as long as I can remember and I love getting book recommendations and sifting through them until I am rewarded with a pearl. I have already found a good one through this group!
I wasn't actually invited to join this group; I saw that a GR friend was a member and thought it would be worth checking out. I am a math teacher that has always preferred the company of English teachers. Now I work part time for the school system and do private tutoring for math. I spend a lot of time working in the garden listening to audio books. I like fictional books that tell about a period in history or a culture. I like to see how the characters grow and develop. I do not trust books that have to be numbered. As much as I like math, I do not like to feel my books are written by formula. Maybe I just like books that are written by a formula I like so much that I don't recognize. I like fiction for YA also. I like nonfiction especially gardening, parenting, education, and political.

welcome, welcome!! now who wants a book?? i'm full of RA energy right now!

karen wrote: "welcome, welcome!! now who wants a book?? i'm full of RA energy right now!"

I'm still looking for books which mention the game of Go. If that excess RA energy happens to lead you down any paths which wind up involving Japanese board games.....

Brian R. wrote: I'm still looking for books which mention the game of Go. If that excess RA energy happens to lead you d..."

David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet has Go. It isn't really integral to the novel but it's described with some technical detail and a it figures into the climatic confrontation.

It's not integral in the sense that the climax, and the other go-related scenes could have worked with another game as well, but its role is certainly important.

Hi all,

I teach high school mathematics and I'm also a fiction writer (The Little Sleep, No Sleep till Wonderland, In the Mean Time) and editor (Phantom, and forthcoming Creatures). But first and foremost, I'm a reader.

What else? I once hit 27 three pointers in a row and I have no uvula: you know, the punching bag in the back of your throat. It was removed, and shortly thereafter I raffled off a facsimile uvula to an unsuspecting student.

Wow! 27 three pointers in a row! I have noticed that many math teachers are good at basketball--maybe it is a feel for the angles and arcs. I have love basketball and also used to play a lot of pool.

Oddly enough, two of the other math teachers at my school either are now or were once the Varsity basketball coaches.

And I do think it's my secret knowledge of geometry that helps my shooting. ;-)

well done!

I'm a library student at San Jose State University and I volunteered for two semesters at a school library. I saw a post from this group in my friends' feed and it sounded like it could be useful to me.

hi, i'm mark, live in san francisco, work in social services & public policy. have insomnia so i read a lot! my book background is distant...creative writing major at ucsd, edited a couple literary zines, then proceeded to do zip around writing, post-graduation...in college i had the full range of nerdiness covered by working in both a/v and in the school library (interlibrary loan: the best!)

uninteresting fact: the bizarre ucsd library is featured in one or more star trek movies.

Hey, I'm Pulkit, 15 and a high school student, from India. Amidst the stark reality of school life, I love to read and encourage others to read, since almost no one cares about books here in India and those who do are mocked at or considered boring(?). Well, I don't really care what anyone thinks about my reading since they're missing out a whole world; actually a lot of worlds. It's only been two years since I started reading and I can't imagine how I managed to live on before that. Other things I find interesting are psychology, cosmology, and languages (I only know three and am working on the fourth) So that's about it. And oh, I'd do anything to live in USA.

I am the husband of one of the strongest woman in the world. she survived more than most of us will will ever have to face. She had to lay pinned in her car for eight days, waiting for help. With no food and no water she clung to life for eight days and a few hours before the police would find her. Her book Missing Without a Trace is an astonishing look at how love and will can overcome adversity. I have read it many times and come away with somthing new each time. My life is in debt to hers she worked with open wounds long enough to get insurence coverage that saved me. I didn't know i was diabetic, my blood sugar was 626 and with an A1C count of 26 I was told I should have been dead or in a coma. And would have never gone to the doctor without the insurence. My hero My wife Tanya Rider

i suppose this is relevant to the group dynamic and not just a book-plug, right?? right??

karen wrote: "i suppose this is relevant to the group dynamic and not just a book-plug, right?? right??"

You asked who I was or should I say for me to introduce my self this is what my life has become. My wife is my hero and it would seem odd to say that without context

absolutely.

Howdy. Eric here. I used to own a record store but I sold it at the end of last year, and now I'm currently pursuing an MA in English. I guess my tastes skew towards "literary" contemporary fiction with some noir occasionally. Trying to read more sci-fi too. And I'm playing catch-up with the canon.

um I'm jasmine. I work in the bookstore with greg and karen sometimes but I have a for reals job too, I have a BA in "pluralism and tolerance in psychology" which basically means philosophy, and an MA in psychology substance abuse counseling, so I am not at all qualified to recommend anyone books. I use to be snotty and only read postmodern literature and philosophy books, but now I'm in a phase where I'm always reading a crime book with whatever real novel I'm "reading".

bump

Hi I am Tom.
I am 45 years old and have been with the same tire wholesale company for just over 19 years. I have been a avid reader since my mid thiries to where in 2009 I read over one hundred thirty full size real books about anything. I got divorced in 2002, after 13 years. In 2003 I met my soul mate and got married again in 2004.
The ladies of my book club inspired me to work on one of my story ideas and in 2010 I finished the rough drafts of my first two novels.
With a twenty year old daughter in college, two new additions to the family Hayden age 3 and Garth age 1, and with the love of my life I finally found my true calling and gift from God at the age of 45.
I AM A WRITER! I have two published E-books, both are available through Createspace as paperbacks. No Marketing, I don't push them, word of mouth and time will do what I need.
I am writing, have a new passion that is carrying over into every area of my life. Still discovering who I am but I know I am and always will be a writer. Amen.

I'm Aerin. I have no real credentials for advising anyone to read anything, but that's not gonna stop me.

hahahaahaha... you read like crazy!! and your reviews are proof that you are a thoughtful, reflective reader. that's good enough for me.

Hello everyone!!!!

First time poster, long tome lurker :D

My name is Ivana, I live in Split, Croatia.


(sorry about me flashing the picture but I had people asking me if this is a real place since it has a weird name....so, ha!!!! It's very real, I have pictures to prove it).

I am a law school graduate looking to meet my requirements for taking the bar exam (which means finding a job/internship first. In this economy? Yeah, well, what can I say: I'm a "glass half full" kind of a girl....so happy thoughts!!!!)

I loved to read when I was in middle school and high school, but when I started college I only read a hand full of books (I'm not counting law school books, if I counted those my number would probably be at least 3-4 times higher that it currently is). Now I'm finally back on track and I'm reading again. Yay!!!! So goodreads is the perfect place to get inspired.

When I was younger I only had access to classics. There was no YA, no romance books, no thrillers, no horror books, nothing written after 1980 that I could get here. This is a eastern European country and we had a socialist system for a very long time. Publishers where mostly focused on eastern European literature (people read books, but IMHO the options where limited). When the war started the publishing companies went out of business and you were lucky if a library was working.
But now I'm discovering there's more (not that I don't like classics, I love them), you could say I'm caching up with the literary storm, and the only way to expand my literary circles is to meet new people on goodreads, since none of my real life friends actually read (can you believe that?!).

I used to suffer from the "I can't not finish a book I started" condition, but now I'm over it....don't have the time nor the patience to read books that piss me off.
I don't rate or review books I didn't finish, I just delete them from my shelves. So if I feel that the recommendation someone's asking for matches the book I didn't finish, and I recommend it to someone, please don't think that just because it's not on any of my shelves that I didn't give it a try. I'll make sure to explain why I didn't finish it.
I can't really say I'm qualified to recommend books to anyone, but I'll try my best.

EDIT: Everyone says that I'm a bit too talkative for my own good, so now I'm wondering if my post is too big and to detailed? Others posts where smaller. Should I cut it?

Aw, thanks karen!

Hi Ivana! Nice reading about your background. Try doing It longer. Don´t You ever let them take You down on the lenght of your posts.

i would never tell anyone to cut anything. this isn't school for anyone but me, so the rules are pretty few. i am thrilled when people participate, and thrilled when they do it enthusiastically. this is supposed to be a fun place!! have fun!!

woo-hoo!! i love participation.

Carlos wrote: "Hi Ivana! Nice reading about your background. Try doing It longer. Don´t You ever let them take You down on the lenght of your posts."

karen wrote: "i would never tell anyone to cut anything. this isn't school for anyone but me, so the rules are pretty few. i am thrilled when people participate, and thrilled when they do it enthusiastically. th..."

Awww, you guys are so nice, thanks. I won't be cutting anything, as a matter a fact I'll try to participate more in this group. I'm done with the lurking ;)