Member JalenV

About My Library

We didn't have much money when I was little, but used books were cheap and just as good for reading. Because used girls' and boys' books published during the first five decades of the 20th century were so cheap back then, I grew up with old Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton, Hardy Boys, Honey Bunch, etc. books. (I wanted Nancy Drew's snappy blue roadster!) See the 2nd picture here: http://www.lib.umd.edu/RARE/SpecialCollection/nancy/celebrating.html

Of course there were libraries, too, public and school. Also, Mom's family looked on our visits as an opportunity to clear out some old books.

The problem with being a natural speed reader is that one goes through a lot of books. I read and reread mine and had my library books finished well before our next visit.

If Mom passed on her love of Victorian novels, history, cozy & classic mysteries, and Regency Romances; Dad passed on his love of science fiction, Edgar Rice Burroughs, manly mysteries [though not mean streets], ghost stories, and horror. (Fantasy for readers older than children I kept on with on my own.)

Even though our house already has a heavy book infestation, we still get more! (I dream of adding on a room with mobile shelving such as my medical library had. Those shelves held so much and I could roll them back and forth with just one finger.)

About Me

I was born in October. 1954. I'm a disabled former Army medical librarian. I'm also a former Air Force brat, born at Fort Dix, New Jersey, because my late father was the NCO sent to help open McGuire Air Force Base. (It was still the Army Air Force when he first joined up in World War II.) My late mother became a Department of the Army Civilian (DAC) when her youngest child entered school. Dad was stationed at Andrews A.F.B., fewer than 12 miles/19.312 128 kilometers from Washington, DC, so it was easy to work for a different branch of the military.

Dad had a massive heart attack while he was on Alert, which led to him becoming the first patient to have cardiac bypass surgery at Walter Reed. That enabled him to live another 12 years, but he was still retired as a 100% disabled veteran. My parents bought their first house -- and the Army moved Mom's job upstate a year later. (She may have started out as a GS-1 part-time clerk typist, but she retired as a GS-12 or -13 assistant branch chief.) Four years later her job was moved almost completely across the country. After moving so much when I was young, I've stayed put.

That medical library job was the first one I could get after library school. I'd studied to be a children's librarian, but I discovered I really LIKED medical librarianship. Got to learn interesting things, got to help staff, patients, and students (which I loved), and I got paid for it. How great was that?

My mother wanted to be a librarian and never got to be one, although she did volunteer for the local Friends of the Library. She was doing volunteer work there the last day of her life.

My father wanted to be a doctor and never got to be one. He was going to study to be a medical technician after he retired, but his heart forced him to drop out in his first semester. Perhaps in becoming a medical librarian, I combined my parents' unrealized dreams.

I learned to read from my mother reading aloud to me. She thought I'd just memorized the books we had, but my first grade teacher proved to her that I could read by having me read from Green Eggs and Ham, a book we didn't own. I've been an avid reader ever since.

I'm still cataloging my personal library and the library books I check out (painful hands and feet limit how long I can type or sit up with my legs down). I add so many details in my book descriptions because of the frustration I've had trying to catalog my older books. When I'm up to it, I add a detailed cast list because that's the sort of thing I like to know.

Location

Arizona

Memberships

LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Favorite Authors

Donna Andrews, John Bellairs, Patricia Briggs, Lois McMaster Bujold, Jim Butcher, Dorothy Cannell, Madye Lee Chastain, MaryJanice Davidson, Lindsey Davis, Elizabeth Enright, Laurell K. Hamilton, Kim Harrison, Joan Hess, Georgette Heyer, Diana Wynne Jones, Charlotte MacLeod, Barbara Michaels, Tamora Pierce, Terry Pratchett, Rex Stout

Member Connections

Friends

edlynskey, librisalexandria