The Obligatory Introductory Post!

And so, it begins! I'm Alice, I'm 25, I'm a Scorpio, and I've been meaning to start a book blog for years and am just now finally getting around to trying it. I luuuuurve books and read them incessantly, with occasional breaks for unavoidable life responsibilities (like sleeping) and activities (like watching Star Trek). I've lived on the east coast of the US for most of my life, but moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico last summer because I wanted an adventure, and it's sure been one! It's almost a different country from the rest of the US culturally, and it takes a new perception of beauty to appreciate it here. There's no sky like the Southwestern sky.

I earned a master's degree in psychology a year or two ago, realizing as I was earning it that I didn't really want to be, so though I stuck it out to the end, I'm pretty certain I want to do something else. I've been eying jobs related to literariness for a while now, and am thinking that within a short amount of time I'll be heading after something. At the moment I'm undecided between my top choices of getting another master's in library science, or trying to work for a publishing firm. We'll see where the wind blows.

I'm new to all this - book blogging, that is, though not the blogging part; I've had a personal journal online since high school. I hadn't planned on starting it now, only I seem to be on something of a reading spurt (three 400-pagers in a week...), and I really don't want to lose all the things I thought about them. And hey, if not now, when? I'm still figuring out my reviewing format and the website design, and hopefully I'll get in my groove before too long. By the way, if anyone has any tips on how to make Blogger do nifty things, I'd greatly appreciate the advice. My skill level with computers roughly corresponds to the "black thumb" label among plant owners.

As far as The Books go: growing up I was a devoted Austenite and Brontean, and while Jane Eyre is still my favorite book, recently I've been branching out into trying lots of different types of things. I credit living with a wonderful black woman for a year as my inspiration for trying Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison, and like them all tremendously. I've also just recently turned into more of a book-borrower than a book-buyer, for reasons of both quantity (you can get SO MUCH MORE out of the library without feeling guilty!) and thrift (though used bookstores are still my friends), although I still have quite the TBR piles on my shelves. I suppose one of my resolutions for this year should be to read the books I've bought. But libraries are just so much fun.

What else? Um... I love comics and graphic novels and think everyone in the world should read Maus. I really like sci-fi in both books and on film, but the muse-on-the-nature-of-humanity kind, not the space crusader kind (yawn). I do tend toward snobbiness with books, and though I'm trying to correct that impulse (I read my very first romance novel last year!), I'm certain it'll sneak out here and there. Please forgive.

For the rest - read on!