A Bookish Life
Confessions of a Biblioholic
by Mary-JoeAugust 23, 2005
I could blame it on my mother who started reading to me as soon as I emerged from the dark warmth of her womb. Books surrounded us in our home, with bookshelves even in the basement! I was introduced to the local library when I was about 4 years old and
became the proud possessor of my first library card when I was 5.
I spent my childhood reading wonderful picture books, my pre-teen years devouring Nancy Drew and my high school years reading mysteries, the classics of American literature and all the books required in our English courses. Reading has been such a part of my life that I can’t imagine myself ever without a book in my hand. I’m quite certain my dedication to good grammar and correct spelling (along with my talent for proof-reading) are due to the number of hours I’ve logged with my head in a book.
I helped out in our high school library shelving books and learning the Dewey Decimal system. Then I worked my way through college in the Acquisitions Department of the college library and served on the Student/Faculty Library Board. It probably wasn’t a surprise to anyone that, a couple of years after graduation, I decided to go to Grad School to earn a degree in, of all things, Library Science! I should have seen that coming, though if anyone had told me in my teens that I’d end up being a librarian, I would have laughed! But that’s only the beginning of the saga.
A few years after earning my Master's in Library Science, I joined a monastery and became a nun. Now that definitely hadn’t been on my “to do list”, but God’s ways are strange, as they say. Soon after I entered the monastery, our community decided to start a publishing company. Since I had worked for McGraw-Hill after college, I was selected to be a part of the kick-off team of this new venture. Typesetting and lay-out, proof-reading, copy-editing, book design -- I did it all. Took a raw manuscript and turned it into a book…and from there, moved the books into the monastic library. It was a page out of monastic history, only instead of copying and illuminating manuscripts, we were using computers, scanners and clip art! Shortly after that, I became marketing and sales director of our little publishing company, so now I could add “selling them” to my resume.
I have to laugh that when I look back on my life, books were always there. I started out reading them, moved on to buying them, then cataloging them, and now was producing them. Along the way, as well, I did some free-lance writing as well and am currently working on what I hope will be my first book!
In the Jubilee Year 2000, I unexpectedly found myself in Rome, working in another monastic library, helping the community catalog and revamp their collection that had never been touched by a professional librarian. When this task was completed, I was hired by one of the many college libraries in Rome, only this time, to completely manage the library and bring it up to 21st-century standards by computerizing the catalog.
A couple of years ago I was introduced to BookCrossing and, as a typical librarian who cannot, under any circumstances, throw away a book, was thrilled that someone had finally put into practice an idea that had been running through my brain for years. There are so many books in the world, we can’t afford to buy them all, or even find out what’s out there, unless you visit a bookstore or surf the 'net on a daily basis. What a great way to share books with people, advertise books you’ve really enjoyed, and spread the word that reading opens up worlds of adventure. I’ve put books out in the wild on both sides of the Atlantic now, left them on airplanes or on trains when I travel and even picked up new titles here and there, which I’ve gone on to leave in other countries. BookCrossing is such a great way to share books and it’s fun to watch a title travel the globe. It’s a pleasant surprise to run into a BookCrossing book in some unexpected place, and especially for someone like me who has had such a varied experience with books throughout my life.
Thanks, BookCrossing, for such a great international community! Maybe if there were more BookCrossers in the world, we could spread peace, and not war!
I spent my childhood reading wonderful picture books, my pre-teen years devouring Nancy Drew and my high school years reading mysteries, the classics of American literature and all the books required in our English courses. Reading has been such a part of my life that I can’t imagine myself ever without a book in my hand. I’m quite certain my dedication to good grammar and correct spelling (along with my talent for proof-reading) are due to the number of hours I’ve logged with my head in a book.
I helped out in our high school library shelving books and learning the Dewey Decimal system. Then I worked my way through college in the Acquisitions Department of the college library and served on the Student/Faculty Library Board. It probably wasn’t a surprise to anyone that, a couple of years after graduation, I decided to go to Grad School to earn a degree in, of all things, Library Science! I should have seen that coming, though if anyone had told me in my teens that I’d end up being a librarian, I would have laughed! But that’s only the beginning of the saga.
A few years after earning my Master's in Library Science, I joined a monastery and became a nun. Now that definitely hadn’t been on my “to do list”, but God’s ways are strange, as they say. Soon after I entered the monastery, our community decided to start a publishing company. Since I had worked for McGraw-Hill after college, I was selected to be a part of the kick-off team of this new venture. Typesetting and lay-out, proof-reading, copy-editing, book design -- I did it all. Took a raw manuscript and turned it into a book…and from there, moved the books into the monastic library. It was a page out of monastic history, only instead of copying and illuminating manuscripts, we were using computers, scanners and clip art! Shortly after that, I became marketing and sales director of our little publishing company, so now I could add “selling them” to my resume.
I have to laugh that when I look back on my life, books were always there. I started out reading them, moved on to buying them, then cataloging them, and now was producing them. Along the way, as well, I did some free-lance writing as well and am currently working on what I hope will be my first book!
In the Jubilee Year 2000, I unexpectedly found myself in Rome, working in another monastic library, helping the community catalog and revamp their collection that had never been touched by a professional librarian. When this task was completed, I was hired by one of the many college libraries in Rome, only this time, to completely manage the library and bring it up to 21st-century standards by computerizing the catalog.
A couple of years ago I was introduced to BookCrossing and, as a typical librarian who cannot, under any circumstances, throw away a book, was thrilled that someone had finally put into practice an idea that had been running through my brain for years. There are so many books in the world, we can’t afford to buy them all, or even find out what’s out there, unless you visit a bookstore or surf the 'net on a daily basis. What a great way to share books with people, advertise books you’ve really enjoyed, and spread the word that reading opens up worlds of adventure. I’ve put books out in the wild on both sides of the Atlantic now, left them on airplanes or on trains when I travel and even picked up new titles here and there, which I’ve gone on to leave in other countries. BookCrossing is such a great way to share books and it’s fun to watch a title travel the globe. It’s a pleasant surprise to run into a BookCrossing book in some unexpected place, and especially for someone like me who has had such a varied experience with books throughout my life.
Thanks, BookCrossing, for such a great international community! Maybe if there were more BookCrossers in the world, we could spread peace, and not war!
