Ten Facts About Me

This week's Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by the Broke and the Bookish) asks bloggers to list ten facts about themselves, so here are ten facts about me, my blog, and some of my eccentricities!

1. I started blogging here at A Myriad of Books when I was fifteen (that's six years ago including a long hiatus or two!)  When I reached high school, my fellow book geeks in "real life" seemed to become fewer and fewer.  (I think most of them transformed into band geeks.)  So, I started blogging so that I could share my opinions about books with other people who appreciate books.  

2. I am a first-year doctoral student in the field of women's and gender history.  Historical writing involves lots of agonizing and footnotes, but I love the historiography and research aspects of it. To me, reading through people's old diaries is extraordinarily cool.  When one writes about forgotten people in particular, it is as though one conjures them up from the dead and convince readers to pay attention to them, perhaps for the first time in centuries.  I think that is a kind of magic.   

3. I'm a very picky eater.  My absolute favorite food is peanut butter, and that is also my sister's favorite.  We have about ten jars of peanut butter in our pantry right now.

4. I loove watching "ghost hunter" television shows where paranormal investigators spend the night locked up in a spooky basement or wandering around dark rooms with flashlights, saying, "Ohmygod, did you hear that?"

I have never seen a ghost, and I don't particularly believe in ghosts.  I just like the idea of ghosts and the jump scares--especially the jump scares! My favorite show from this genre is called Paranormal Witness.  

5. I worked for three years as a grocery store cashier.  

6. I am fluent in French as well as English (obviously), so bilingual.  Supposedly Charlemagne said, "Avoir une autre langue, c'est posséder une deuxième âme."  Speaking another language is like possessing a second soul.  

7. I have lived my entire life in the southern United States.  I like fried chicken and sweet tea, and I do have an inescapably strong Southern accent.  I'm terrified of the very idea of driving in the snow and I wave at strangers.  It is pretty humid here in the South right now!    

8. I recently student-taught high school English.  The texts I taught were Oedipus Rex, Julius Caesar, Night, and All Quiet on the Western Front.  I probably would have chosen different books if the choices had been up to me, but I do like All Quiet on the Western Front.    

9. Bookish fact... So far this year, I have read 147 books and 42, 992 pages.  Last year I only read 164 books and 51,123 pages.  

10. Another bookish fact...I really like Penguin classics, the ones with the black spines.  I cannot resist buying a Penguin edition, even if I have already the book.  It's a problem... it's just that they look so darn nice on my bookshelf and I love the images that Penguin chooses for their covers.        

Thanks so much for stopping by my Top Ten Tuesday.  Please leave me a link to your post when you comment and I will return each and every visit!