https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidorban/
I work in Information Technology at a university. I acquired this position shortly after finishing a Master’s degree in Information Science with an emphasis on human computer interaction. From about 1995 until 2009, I leveraged technological skills in a variety of forms. It was in the capacity of web developer for a different university that in 1998 I met my husband who also was web programming.
What is not immediately obvious from this career history is that I studied literature, creative writing and oral interpretation at university. My bookshelves brimmed with American, English, German, and Russian literature. My husband studied history before becoming a programmer, so his own shelves were stacked with World War II non-fiction.
Amusingly, we both brought to our combined collection stacks and stacks of well worn, series fiction, paperbacks: his science fiction and fantasy, mine mystery and comic books. The first major furniture purchase we made upon moving in together? a set of three seven foot tall bookshelves. When we purchased our house, we commissioned an additional set of floor to ceiling, shelves for the wall of the room we dubbed ‘the library.’
I relished our similarities: our shared love of serious insight into human nature through literature or historical analysis, as well as our abilities to inexhaustibly re-read fantastical series fiction from the first book to the latest book again and again.
Today, Sandy may only consume the occasional, highly recommended non-fiction book, but his interest in world matters is evident in his weekly consumption of the Economist. His collections of science fiction and fantasy series have expanded beyond the capacity of our additional shelfs, fortunately in electronic format.
My interests have shifted in a series of quakes. My interest in comics dropped first around when I moved in with Sandy. New purchases of thought-provoking literature and poetry plummeted by the time we bought our first home, and the volumes that remained stiff from underuse were touched again only when we moved the collection from the first house to the second. My inability to passionately consume police procedurals and detective fiction correlates directly with the birth of my first son. Now they provoke anxiety-inducing, mind torments. Fortunately, I found solace in the emerging genre of urban fantasy. In its initial stages it was largely about detective work in a contemporary urban setting but where magic and all its assorted creatures existed: Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Illona Andrews, etc. Series fiction consumption at its best. With each new issue, I’d go back and re-read the entire series. All of this was tempered with a fair amount of shared television consumption with Sandy: Aaron Sorkin comedies and dramas, Joss Whedon and Chris Carter sci fi, etc. With the advent of Tivo, we began recording shows of our own interests. By the time we were trying for our second child, we were only watching a few shows together and watching the others apart. I maintained a steady diet of magic detective fiction, digesting a few books a month. Just before we finally got pregnant with Auden, I read the Twilight series. Young paranormal romance. Embarrassing, but I enjoyed it. After his birth, my television consumption waned considerably, and with the purchase of a Kindle, I spent more and more of my time reading. I continued to read urban fantasy, but the tide shifted to predominately paranormal romance by mid-2014. The Kindle allowed me to read romance secretly. By the end of 2014, I was addicted. Television and movies stood no chance.
This morning I thought I would check, and what I counted is astounding. From January 1, 2015 until September 1, 2015, on my Kindle I have read 121 paranormal romance novels or collections of romance novellas. Escapism at its very best.