Miembromoneybeets

I only add books that I actually own, and my library is fairly small because, well, I don't have room! It's hard to reconcile my book-hoarding tendency with the reality of my boyfriend's multiple, unwieldy, space-consuming guitars. But that's what I get for dating a musician, I suppose. So I visit the library once every few weeks and donate books periodically. My new Kindle is helping to keep my collection manageable, too--I initially hated the idea of digital books, but it really is a good space-saver.
My brother and I grew up having books read to us often, but aside from infatuations with LotR, the Harry Potter series, and trashy true crime, I didn't read much in my teen years. I re-discovered my repressed love of books in college, so I have a lot of time to make up for! LT is practically a godsend, because I have no one in my family or circle of friends with whom to discuss books. I'm still a tiny bit intimidated by the long-term LTers--if I come off a bit distant or cold, it's just shyness! I'm really very friendly.

I'm a 25-year-old paralegal at a small Midwestern foreclosure/bankruptcy firm. Before becoming "certificated" as a paralegal, I spent 5 long years as a barista while getting a history degree from Purdue University. (Still miss it sometimes!) My interests outside reading include researching (yes, really!,) coffee, dancing (I'm terrible,) and cooking (much less terrible). My friends and I have a yearly Pokemon competition, so I'm currently working on that... oh, and training for my first quarter marathon in May!

I'll read anything that sounds good, but generally stay well away from chick lit, YA, and science fiction. Some particular areas of interest are Indian lit, magical realism, historical fiction, family sagas, and history of all kinds. Some favorite books, in no order:

The Jungle, Upton Sinclair; Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami; The Secret History, Donna Tartt; The Shining, Stephen King; Quo Vadis, Henryk Sienkiewicz; I, Claudius, Robert Graves; The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner; A Place of Greater Safety, Hilary Mantel.