Reading has saved my life over and over again. From the first astonishing awakenings of work recognition, to spending hours at the local library as a homeschooled elementary student (and having the time and freedom to read most of the day, and at night for that matter), to hiding in the stacks during terrifying middle school lunch hours, to finding both solace and inspiration in the turbulent adolescent years, as a balm through the difficulties of being a young single mother, to the invigorating explosion of learning and awareness throughout my college journey, to coping with twenty-five years of recurrent depression, to sharing the joys of literature and reading aloud with my children, to building a new life for myself as a librarian and pursuing graduate school, — books have been the most reliable guiding force throughout my entire life. Words have healed me in so many ways.

Books are meat and medicine and flame and flight and flower

Gwendolyn Brooks

Even though I’ve always been an avid reader, I don’t have the best memory. To remedy this, I’ve kept commonplace books for many years–writing down the snippets of poetry or prose that have most affected me. This work is constructed, in part, of selections of writers who have been essential to my survival and who continue to drive my endless exploration of riveting women’s work. After over thirty years of serious reading, this is a beginning.

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began

Mary Oliver

As a librarian, there is nothing I love more, besides reading, than organizing information, so it is a real joy to work on this web content, which I am building concurrently with writing an actual book. In both my professional and personal life, I love talking about and recommending books. I would describe my readings tastes as literary, feminist, weird, artsy, thoughtful, on the edge of something I can’t quite grasp and yet am always searching for.

The thread connecting myself with all of these beautiful and poignant words is survival. Like many, I’ve endured and persevered through years of trauma, abuse, depression, and addiction. I’ve also lived through many years of just plain hardship. To survive is a difficult task. It may be even harder to find peace with living, which is why I continually rely upon words as both succor and stimulation.

One last thing — use your public library. Please. And bring your local library workers chocolate once in a while. Support those who fight daily for our First Amendment rights, freedom, and democracy. This may involve attending a board meeting and speaking in support of intellectual freedom and against censorship in all forms. We must protect everyone’s freedom to read and access information. Don’t make it easy for the oppressors. Speak out, use your voice, and vote to advocate for libraries. Donate if you can. Or just check out some books, attend a library program, stop by and see what’s new. We need each other.

A library is a focal point, a sacred place to a community; and its sacredness is its publicness. It’s everybody’s place…A public library is a public trust. And that freedom must not be compromised. It must be available to all who need it, and that’s everyone, when they need it, and that’s always.

Ursula K. LeGuin