Greetings from Toronto

[AlysonofBathe]

Hello everyone,

I'm Alyson - avid reader, writer, blogger, coffee enthusiast, Trekkie, and crazy cat lady. I'm a graduate student, former English major with a specialization in middle English, and a part-time archivist. I read a lot, and I tend to switch up the genre, but I have a particular love for science fiction.

I'm currently working on the 1001 books challenge. Anyone else here partake?

Cheers,
Alyson

[tailor STATELY]

Welcome to litnet.

Wow, a lot of similar interests. Sci-Fi is prolly my fave genre (I'm a sucker for the short-story form and any Sci-Fi movie gets my attention); followed by fantasy (I'm a J. R. R. Tolkien fan). My wife and I are down to 10 cats: Taffy-Doodles, Odie, Snoball, Tiger (Tai-Tai), Scooter, Geri, Spooky, Smoke (Moke), Animal (think Def Leppard), and Friskie. I don't do the coffee thing (LDS), but I love a good hot chocolate (or any chocolate for that matter. I write a bit (poetry) http://tailor-stately.110mb.com/ and used to blog; and even have friends from church (retired couple) going to Toronto for a two-year mission very soon!

Not sure of the 1001 challenge (will have to research). Currently reading Final Harvest by Thomas H. Johnson which is a selection of Emily Dickinson's poems (I go back often to dear Emily to re-energize); and perusing a selection of poems from Poetry on Record, Rebekah Presson Mosby, which is includes a book and CD's.

Hope to see you posting in the Games and Poetry and Poetry contests forums ??

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY

[AlysonofBathe]

Hey there,

Thanks for the warm welcome! I too love SF short stories - Ken Liu and Ted Chiang are among my favorite contemporaries, but of course good old Ray Bradbury is always excellent.

That is a lot of cats! I have one Persian, Simone - named for Simone de Beauvoir, because I nerd out like that. Lovely poems :)

1001 books - a massive compiled list of works thought to be the most influential, historical and contemporary. It's a bit of a beast.

Unfortunately, my poetry is nonexistent - I tend to stick to prose, specifically of the literary theory variety.

Cheers,
Alyson

[Charles Darnay]

Welcome fellow Torontonian, I must say I find it interesting that your focus of study is Middle English and yet you're an avid SF reader: you don't see the two blending that often (or do you, you probably know better than I do on this?)

I looked at the 1001 book challenge and there are some great stuff on the list...I just couldn't commit myself to something like that - my reading habits are too sporadic.

[AlysonofBathe]

Hi Charles,

Yay for the TDot. :p

Middle English and SF are definitely very different genres, although once you get past the secular Chaucer, a lot of medieval anchorite writing is pretty damn spacey.

I read constantly, so I figured I may as well start reading towards a certain goal. Some of the books are going to be pretty challenging, but we'll see how it goes.

Cheers,
Alyson

[Maria Bonita]

Hello Alyson, my name is Maria. Welcome to the forums! Very interesting introduction of yours.

I consider myself an amateur in literature because the first 20 years of my life were spent in a very different matter (I'm 24 now), but I'm on my way to learn and read as much as I can, I like to believe is never too late.

Also I have a cat, his name is Chaucer (hah!)

Currently I'm reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 100 years of solitude (in Spanish, of course, oh! I'm Mexican), not SF but Magical Realism which I find genius and fun.

Anyway, would be amazing to hear more from you and get to know you better.

Welcome again.

[AlysonofBathe]

Hi Maria,

Thanks for the welcome - everyone on here has been so nice :)

At 24? Of course it's not too late! I'm 23, and while I'm educated in literature, it's such a HUGE topic, we're all beginners I think.

That's so funny - I wanted to name my cat Chaucer! But I settled on Simone because she's a girl.

Cheers,
Alyson