I always like to know if there's anyone on the worldwideweb around my area. It makes it a little more personal.
Anyhow, I'm from the Rolla area if anyone happens to know where we're at (pretty much right in the middle). I've grown up here all my life and still find it hard to find people who enjoy talking about reading. (most people hear the 'r' word and cringe, so it's hard to find anyone who would even want to talk about it).
So I'll start it off....I enjoy a wide variety of books, which includes young adult (I'm going to school for elementary education). However, my biggest indulgence is Stephen King.
I hope to hear from more people!

Hey there!

I live in Columbia. I go to Mizzou, but I'm taking some time off. Even in a college town like CoMo, it's pretty hard to find people who are excited about books.

I read mostly literary fiction and I feel like I've started reading a lot of memoirs, but I'll read pretty much anything that interests me. Anyway, the great thing about Librarything is that a bunch of awesome readers are right at your fingertips.

I love Columbia! I have a friend that just graduated from there who I used to go up and see. Don't you just hate that you can't find anyone to talk to about books?!?! It drives me crazy, I'm going to school to be a teacher and I always encourage my students to talk about books.... in fact I will sometimes read kid chapter books just to have someone to talk about books with...sad but true.
Literary fiction huh? What all does that include and who do you read? I'm the same as you, I'll pick up pretty much any kind of book (with the exception of a Harlequine Romance), especially if some one recommends it.

Hello. I'm from a tiny town in rural Missouri. It's right down the road from Hannibal if you ever heard of that.... think Mark Twain. :) I have been to both Rolla and Columbia though.

I do wish there were people around that were interested in talking about books. People tend to look at me puzzled when I tell them my favorite hobby is reading! LOL I'm suprised there aren't more people to share discussions on books in Rolla and Columbia though. I tend to think of them both as "college towns."

But anyway..... I'm new here at LibraryThing so I haven't hardly begun imputing my whole library. I'll read just about anything but favorite genre is modern and epic fantasy. I'm currently reading When Darkness Falls by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory.

Well, it's not that Columbia is devoid of readers-most of my friends are readers. It's that I read so much more than anyone else. Basically, when one of my friends finishes a book, they'll come talk to me about it because chances are I've read it or am otherwise familiar with it. But that means there are a ton of books I read and never get to talk about and that's where librarything fills the gap.

Yeah, I know what you mean. People I know do read, but not with the same zealous that I do (and it's certainly not thier favorite hobby- hence the puzzled looks). I'm able to discuss, with friends, some of the "big" books like Harry Potter for instance. When it comes to less mainstream works I am (most likely) the only one to have read them.

I know where Hannibal is....never been there though. I'm like you I'm not from Rolla, but close by, a small town called St. James (wine country). So thus the difficultly in finding people who read and want to actually talk about it. Rolla has UMR...sorry name change MS&T (I think)..but I go to a smaller college there so it's hard to find students who have the same intrests (books). twomoredays...I'm sorry but I didn't catch if you have always lived in Columbia or are there just for school? If your there for education what's your major?

No, I'm from Denver actually and New Orleans before that. I am here for school, but I live here year-round and have for about three years now.

I'm taking some time off from school but I came out here for Mizzou's journalism school and my degree is supposed to be in News-Editorial journalism with a double major in Political Science.

I think when I go back I may turn that into an Interdisciplinary Studies degree and take some more creative writing classes and try to get into a MFA program for creative writing. Or I may just finish the journalism degree. Not sure yet.

Are you going to UMR for school? My dad actually got his degree there. (Randomly. He's from California, actually.)

Hello to all the Missouri readers. I consider myself one of you by virtue of living in Missouri since 1984 when I moved here from Arkansas. I am both a Missouri reader and writer. I have a degree in secondary education, art and work for the State of Missouri. I'm a former secondary English teacher and a voracious reader. I am also the literary agent for a former professor of mine, Dan Skelton. He's written three books that I've read and love for different reasons: Boojum, The Human Element, and Out of Innocence.

I am the author of a book of poetry called One Blue Star: Poems about the Military, Families, War and Peace and co-author of The Complete Writer: Tapping Your Full Potential.

I welcome conversations from all Missouri readers in any genre. Reading is exciting. I also read some Stephen King but lean toward literary fiction.

I live in Springfield, Missouri, having recently moved here from Farmington.

~ Mindy

Message edited by its author, Jun 1, 2008, 9:59pm.

Hi, I just found this group. I live near Kansas City where I am an accountant. Like twomoredays and mplcreative, I'm not native-born, but have lived here since 1994 and don't have any plans to leave. However, I do still consider myself a "Kansan". My oldest son lives in Rolla - he moved there intending to go to school, then changed his mind about being an engineer. He's hanging out there while he decides what to do next. (I think he's leaning towards Biology at MSU, so a move to Springfield may be coming soon.)

I like most books - even the romances - but typically avoid most SciFi and fantasy. I admit that I've never read a Stephen King novel in my life. My current favorites are mystery/thrillers and romantic suspense, but I'm trying to encourage myself to get back into reading more literary fiction and non-fiction. I've been trying out some of the other groups here on LT to support that effort, like the non-fiction, global reading, and literature group read groups. They are pretty big groups, and some of those people are a little intimidating. I would love to have another, smaller group close to home to encourage me to keep going.

Hello there, sjmc.

If you're looking for reading group support LT has no shortage of groups. My favorite is actually the Dewey Decimal challenge, where the members are trying to read books that cover the scope of the Dewey Decimal system. It's resulted in a lot of interesting book finds for me, though I've been a little lax in actually reading them.

Of course, a lot of groups that aren't even made specifically for reading challenges have occasional them reads. Is there any particular literary fiction you're interested in? Maybe we can get a sort of round robin thing going where we read each others favorites.

Plus, the more lively discussion a group has, the more likely it is to attract more people.

Twomoredays - I'm going to check out that Dewey Decimal group you mentioned. One of my favorite ways to spend a couple of hours is to stroll up and down the rows at the library looking at books in every section, and wishing I could read them all. I don't have any specific goals in mind for reading. I've just noticed that lately my books have become pretty insubstantial - which is OK when life gets hairy, but as a steady diet I think it's a bad idea. I just want to get back in the habit of actually THINKING while I read. I like your idea of a round robin - will you explain more how it would work?

I'm pretty new to LT, and have loved it from the first day. I'd pretty much gotten used to keeping my reading habit quiet, as most people simply don't read for pleasure, and I felt weird talking about the books I'd read while they just stared blankly (although that doesn't stop them from talking about TV shows I've never seen!). Getting to come here and "talk" to people who read even more than I do is great fun. It's also emboldened me to speak up when someone does say something about a book. The other day I had a nice long chat with my teenage daughter's best friend who loves reading but none of her friends do (including my daughter).

LT is such a perfect example of what the internet is good at. There are plenty of devoted readers but it's not often that we cross each other's paths in day to day life, but we can all sneak on here and talk about books to our heart's content.

Most of my friends read but not nearly as much. So that when someone does finish a book, they know I'll be eager to discuss it even if I haven't read it but the chances of them having read the same book before me is pretty slim.

As for the round robin, I was thinking that someone could pick a book that maybe they love but others haven't quite gotten around to reading, but always meant to or something. For example, I mostly read literary fiction so I'd have no trouble suggesting a book from there while maybe if the original poster comes back around she could suggest a Stephen King novel that others might not have read.

We could start out with just a few people and stick with a book until we're done with it and move on.
If that sounds tempting to anyone at all, I'll start a new thread and see if we can't stir up a little life in this group.

I'm game.

Since we're talking about where we're from.. I grew up in a suburb of St. Louis, moved to Kirksville for college, then lived in the city of St. Louis for a year. Last year I moved to Austin, TX so my husband could work on a PhD and I'll be in Austin for at least the next 5 years. However with family in Missour we still make trips back to Kirksville and St. Louis.

That is a wonderful idea. I am always looking for list to read. I made one of all of the Pulitzers from the year of my birth. Do you have a link for the Dewey one or is everyone doing it on there own. What fun.

Btw way I am from Lebanon MO. Luckily I am in a long running book club and my family loves to read. It is hard to find men that like to though.

I had no idea there was a MO readers group until twomoredays posted it on What Are You Reading Now (thank you twomoredays!) I'm living in St. Louis, and have been for 6 years, although I'm originally from the Chicagoland area. I'm in on the Finn read (although that doesn't really belong in this thread, does it?)

#16 melissajoy - if you like lists of things to read, you should head over to "1001 books to read before you die"

found here

edited to fix touchstones

Message edited by its author, Jun 25, 2008, 12:36am.

Hey there!

Glad you found us and are joining in on the read.

I noticed from your profile that you're a grad student, where are you doing your studies?

I have been following this new group with interest. I live in Springfield, MO so definitely qualify as a member. :-) I think Finn looks like a very interesting choice, and I'm off to reserve it at the library.

I'm at Wash U. I've been reading through everyone's posts above - such diversity of reading taste! I agree w/ just about every single post that this is really the best part of LT, especially since I'm in a field not known for readers. Myself, I tend toward literary fiction, the classics, and funny British people, but I'll admit that Stephen King is my guilty pleasure.

I like the round robin idea (for in the future) of reading each other's favorites. That sounds like a great way to try new genres and keep me from becoming a lit snob!

ETA: I just noticed something interesting (to me, anyway.) sjmccreary, you are the only person whose profile I've ever clicked on with whom I do not share one single book. Not one! Wow. Although you do have several in your library that I want to read.

Message edited by its author, Jun 25, 2008, 10:31pm.

jfetting, I just took a quick browse through your library. I've actually read several of the books you've got. My library consists of books only since I joined LT. I read almost exclusively from the public library, and so don't own very many books. I decided it would be too difficult to try to reconstruct my reading past here. Your library looks like what I wish mine was. I've gotten lazy in my reading lately, passing by classics, literary fiction, and non-fiction in favor of popular fiction almost exclusively. LT has inspired me to make an effort to get back to more substantial reading.

I'm looking forward to reading with this small group - I got the e-mail today that Finn is waiting for me at the library, and I'm anxious to get started on it.

MelissaJoy, you're not too far down the road from me (that road being I-44). I actually attend Drury in St. Robert, so I'm up around that area frequently. I always think it's neat to find people on the web that are so close to you!

BTW-so glad this group is taking off!!

I like the map - thanks to who ever put it up! I thought it was interesting that Raytown, near Kansas City is showing up, but Branson is nowhere to be seen. Raytown is a rather nondescript, working class suburb. I don't like Branson much, but it is growing fast and lots of people have at least heard of it.

I thought it was kind of boring, so decided to spice it up a little. Let me know if there are any suggestions you'd like to see :)