So here goes...
My name is Sarah Livingston, and I am a senior (yay!) English major/British Studies minor from Watauga, Texas (a small suburb of Fort Worth). In case my blog title didn't give a big enough hint as to my plans after TCU, I can tell you that as of August I will be starting at Grad school for Library Science -Youth Librarianship at UNT. I worked at the Watauga Public Library for about five years, then quit last semester to go study abroad in London (Side note: if you have any desire/possible excuse to study abroad, do it, do it, do it!!). After I got back I somehow ended up working back at the WPL--the name all the cool/lazy people call it.
Working in a setting where I am surrounded by books, I get a lot of different types of readers asking me questions about books on certain subjects, books for certain ages, and books "I recommend." I've always found that no matter how old I get, I am still best at finding books for children and teens, because quite honestly, I never "got over" my love of that literature. Sure, books for adults are nice, but I rarely find ones as engaging, unique, and well, as magical as the books in the Children's Section.
So, this abundance of children's books in my life makes choosing just one difficult...and actually, I'm going to choose the whole Harry Potter series. I should say here, that if we were supposed to be talking about our favorite adult books, I would also choose Harry Potter, because honestly, I grew up reading them as they came out, straight through from middle school to adulthood, and thus, I have no line of distinction. If someone asks me for a book to read at work, I always double check to make sure they have read Harry before moving on to other suggestions. In addition, listening to the books on audio makes my commutes to and from school a time of day I actually look forward to, thanks to Jim Dale, who is in my opinion, a black belt at reading out loud. Those audio books are like those wonderful nights I was fortunate enough to have with my mom, who read out loud to me before bed every night until I was old enough to read to her. I won't talk too much about how much I love Harry and the gang, as I'm sure all that will come up when we read Azkaban, but the series is just as great with every reading, and has something for readers of all ages.
Also, to save time I just posted pictures of some of my other favorite books from when I was a kid at the bottom of my page. I wonder if anyone else read them too...
Although I did not grow up reading Harry Potter, my boys did, and I don't know how my eldest would have survived the fear and loneliness of living in London just after the 2001 attacks. Every time we traveled to the UK since that fall, we had our many copies of HP -- and anticipated the next release -- with fellow English muggles. And some of my warmest memories of summers in the Scottish highlands or spending a lazy afternoon in St James Park in London were of spreading out with the family, taking turns reading the latest copy to one another. Once, a cranky British gentleman told our family, while we were riding a long train ride in Scotland and reading out loud, "I've had quite enough of Harry Potter, thank you very much." Well, we clearly hadn't!
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ReplyDeleteI just though I'd let you know that I've read most of the books at the bottom of your page (good choices!!)-- in fact, Johnny Tremain is what sparked my long-standing interesting in the American Revolution. I'm not going to lie, I had a pretty big crush on Johnny when I was in 6th grade...
ReplyDeleteDr. Steele, how long did you live in London/for what reason? You started talking about the Scottish Highlands, and I got really excited because I took a tour of them when I studied abroad, and it was literally one of the best weeks of my life! Ironically, I listened to Harry Potter on audio on the way to Scotland myself, since supposedly Hogwarts is located somewhere around there, and since a lot of the scenery in the movie is shot there. It seemed only fitting to listen to Harry while on a train through that fantastic countryside!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I loved going to the park in London! Sunday afternoons were super busy, but I loved the community of people all there together, especially in Hampstead Heath, which was close to my dorm. My friend would go to jog, and I would happily read on a park bench!