2-About Eisha (Co-Founder & Former Blogger)
Hey. Here’s what you need to know about me:
First, I know you’re wondering: it’s pronounced “EYE-shuh” - the “ei” makes a long “I” sound, like in Einstein.
I have a BA in English Lit. and an MS in Library and Information Science. I’ve worked in libraries, mostly public, often in children’s and young adult services, since 1994. At the moment, I work in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at Cornell University. Yeah, it really is as cool as it sounds.
I’ve been friends with Julie (a.k.a. Jules) since 1992. We met as undergrads, when we both thought we wanted to teach deaf children. I soon figured out what a bad idea that was (for me, anyway), changed majors, and decided to be a librarian somewhere around my junior year. Jules took a little longer to come around.
Oh, and I read. All the time. Always have. It’s not that I just like to, it’s that I have to. It may be a compulsion. Possibly a sickness. I can’t help myself. I crave fiction like some people crave heroin. I neglect important things, like housekeeping, homework, and personal hygiene, because I’d rather read. And when I find a book that really blows me away, I want to talk about it. Which is why Jules and I are still such good friends, despite living a thousand miles apart. She is my book soulmate. We have very similar taste, and we both have equal enthusiasm for all age-levels of literature. And so when I’m gushing to her about a fantastic picture book I just saw, or a gorgeous new novel I just devoured, she doesn’t just tolerate my raving (like, say, my husband does), she actually gets it, and often she even reads the book herself to see why I’m so excited. And I do the same when she tells me about what she’s reading, because she’s led me to some of my favorite books that way.
So that’s why, when Jules suggested I start a blog about books, I insisted that, no, WE needed to start a blog about books. And I’m so happy she agreed.
Just for fun, and to give you a sense of my taste, here’s a list of the books that I think have shaped me - you know, those books that, once you read them, totally change you forever - in roughly chronological order, according to when I first read them:
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander
The Girl With the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (her poetry too)
all the Hitchhiker and Dirk Gently books by Douglas Adams
everything J.D. Salinger ever wrote
a bunch of T.S. Eliot’s poetry
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
“Light” (a short story) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Underworld by Don Delillo
Fight Club and Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
everything so far by Haven Kimmel
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor
Yeah, I should probably stop there. Anyway, thanks for visiting, and I hope you read something that shapes you very soon.
Live happily ever after,
~eisha
