An Introduction

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." 
Wait, hang on.

"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since."
Nope, that's still not mine.

"Once upon a time..."

Okay, it's not completely original, but at least that's as close to an opening line for "me" as I'm likely to get. So here it goes.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Rhianna. She wasn't a particularly a remarkable girl, although some (e.g. mom) would argue otherwise. She achieved relatively high grades in school, but not high enough to be extraordinary. Making friends was not the easiest or the most pleasant of endeavors; something she would later attribute to the fact that she simply found her own imagination to be more entertaining than actual human beings. The process of self-deduction has come up with two possible reasons for this: 1) undiagnosed ADD or 2) the fervent early love of reading. 

I read everything growing up. I devoured series like The Babysitter's Club, Babysitter's Little Sister (which in hindsight sounds like it should be a rather lewd film franchise), The Boxcar Children, Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark (thank you, older brother); you know, the usual for a kid in an early 90's elementary school. Basically any series discovered at the Scholastic Book Fair was fair game and by the time that time rolled around, every chore would be done to the letter to insure maximum allowance funds. Buckingham Palace didn't have a more thorough worker than I come Book Fair.

I've never related to a tweet so much in my life.

I will never forget the Autumn of 1997. Ah yes, I remember it well. Of course, I couldn't tell you want I was wearing, what I had for breakfast, or the way the sun shone through the leaves from my view from my school bus window, but I can tell you this: This was the day I purchased, with my very own hard-earned money, my copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which was entirely new to me. I can say, in all honesty, that is when my life was forever changed. No, there was not a Horcrux hidden between the pages, ready to devour my soul, oh but there was magic; genuine, heartwarming, whimsical magic.  

Still have my original, beaten to hell but intact.

And that was basically it for me. I now live in a hovel, surrounded by towers of tomes and precariously stacked books yet to be read and no one has seen me in decades. I've even managed to grow a beard and Ian McKellan-esque eyebrows. 

Okay, not really. But I do live, quite literally, surrounded by books. I work in a library now, after three years of working in an independent bookstore (something that is nowhere near as glamorous as it sounds, but that's a story for another time). Not to mention the over-stuffed, poorly organized shelves I have throughout my house. This (finally) leads to the reason I'm creating this blog in the first place.

Actual photograph of my workplace. (No, seriously. I swear this is it.)

I've come to realize that while I am vehement about my opinions on the things I chose to read/watch/play, I very rarely share these thoughts in a constructive, actually organized manner. So, being the New Year, I've decided to not only up the number on my Goodreads challenge from 30 books to 100, but also actively document my reviews of the books I've chosen to read. I will likely not write out lengthy posts for each book (considering I'm already down three weeks out of our 52 week year), I'll at least write a sentence or two on my Goodreads account, and spotlight the ones on this blog that I feel need the extra attention. 

Now, these will not be professionally constructed theses on the themes and symbolism worthy of my AP Lit classes in high school; these will simply be my thoughts and feelings on the story as a whole and the experience while reading. I haven't blogged since my livejournal/Xanga days (does that even count as blogging?), so be prepared for some mess and continuity errors along the way. I, myself, am a work in progress and this blog will likely reflect that. The books themselves will have no specific genre or type, they will simply be books I haven't read before and I'll gladly accept recommendations during this journey of what to try out next.

Okay, assuming at least a few of you have stuck around, let's start this journey down the rabbit hole. (Alright, that's not mine either but come on.)