first post. first post!

I come from the family of voracious heavily educated readers, who'd probably stab me in the eye should they have ever caught me using the word 'voracious'.

My grandfather, an academic, had an extensive collection of books on political science, history, a large library of classics, including some first editions, and many periodicals. I only retained a very small selection from these shelves, everything else went away to other people after his divorce from my grandmother.

My grandmother was a doctor with a penchant for Chekhov, science fiction, and cosy mysteries. So aside from various books related to medicine -- mostly pediatrics and oncology statistics -- I now have a nicely sized selection of beach reads.

My mother, a doctor in political science, really loved everything to do with archaeology and anything prehistoric. She also loved Shakespeare and Pushkin, and accumulated a nice selection of their works, including some rare editions and various translations, during her life. Unfortunately, most of these were either stolen when she was young, or left at her father's place. The grandfather I mentioned above, yes. Apparently, divorces hurt everyone.

My grandfather on father's side, a talented mathematician and chess player and an even more talented drunkard, bless his soul, lost most of his rare books to the bottle. Some of them were retained in the library of my paternal grandmother.

My paternal grandmother, whose library is mostly in the custody of my cousin and her mother, my aunt, was an outright book collector. A bibliophile (and during the manic stages of her illness -- bipolar disorder -- an outright bibliomaniac), she was a trained librarian and a museum archivist. Her collection is very extensive, the main focus being on WWII, the performing arts, and linguistics, although these subjects by no means cover even half of the books she's accumulated during her life time. I mean, her personal book catalogues alone read beautifully.

My father, a man of law and an economist, delegated the major part of his collecting bug towards music. But books get a fair share of attention too. A lot of them are music related, yet more are focussed on early modern and modern period history, intelligence (like, the secret service and stuff), and select best sellers.

My brother, in the trenches of getting his business administration degree with a focus on logistics-- Well, truth be told, he doesn't read much. I think he maybe read five books in his life so far.

Enter me.

I have no education beyond high school. I work odd jobs when I can get them. I have no credentials. Except that of a failed English major -- and many other failed majors, psychology, anthropology, computer science, and marketing amongst them -- but failed English major just drives the boot to the teeth, don't you think?

I'm not a book collector, never mistake me for one. I'm a book hoarder. Sight or smell of a book shop or a library entice a decidedly Pavlovian reaction in me. I have long stopped trying to fight it. Books make me giddy. I can spend hours just looking at them, without reading. I can spend hours organising endless lists of them, without reading. I can spend hours fingering pages, ogling illustrations, sniffing spines, judging covers, comparing translations.

Essentially, this place is an extension of that.

These are my inane uneducated ramblings about books.