Laina A's Shelf of exploration of languague, mothers and daughters Books

Laina A

I hold a degree in science and am currently work in the field of education. I tend to be an avid reader, but I go through spurts of reading obsession, followed by brief droughts of non-reading. I was so busy during most of 2012, I hardly read anything. Then towards the end of the year, I began a book binge. Now it is Spring of 2013, and I have read nearly 50 books in the last 5 months. I'm starting to get a little restless with reading and am wanting to do something more active; so a drought might be coming on.

As a young person, I read mostly non-fiction and science fiction. I didn't really discover the value of the category called "literature and fiction" until my late 20s, when I became a stay at home mom and started reading along with Oprah's Book Club. I really enjoyed some of Oprah's picks at the time. Now I read almost exclusively "literary fiction." I enjoy writing my reviews here at Shelfari to remind me of what I have read over the years. The only physical books I keep are my favorites, which have at least a 4 out of 5 star rating. All other books I release through Bookcrossing, where my screenname is choclaholic.

As a teenager, my favorite authors were Roberth Heinlien, Piers Anthony, Stephen King, and Kurt Vonnegut. In my 20s, my favorite authors became Amy Tan, John Irving and Chaim Potok. In my 30s, I added Richard Matheson and Philip Roth to my favorite authors list. Just recently, I added Margaret Atwood to this list, though Philip Roth is probably still my all-time favorite. I don't do romance novels or most murder mysteries.

I am currently on a mission to read as many of the titles from "The 100 Best Novels of All Time" and the "1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" lists as I can. I've found some great reads from those sources, and some other stuff that's really over my head. Some authors I have tried and can't really seem to get into include James Joyce, William Faulkner, Joseph Conrad, Saul Bellow, Virginia Woolf and (most of) Ernest Hemingway.

"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes."
-Whitman « less

Murray, KY, USA

member since August 27, 2010




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