Why Books?
I wasn’t just born a book lover. I was bred to be one.
My mom is an elementary-school librarian. As a kid, my world was books. This was partially my own choosing, and partially a result of my upbringing. From the time we were little, my parents governed my brothers and me according to three rules: (1) No TV or video games, except for the occasional pre-approved PBS program, (2) No uttering the words “bored” or “sucks,” or any other word that smacked of dullness or bellyaching, and (3) No snacks after 5 PM, at which point my dad returned home from work and started cooking dinner.
Although at the time we considered these to be unjust rules that prevented us from fitting in with our friends and classmates (who could be both bored, and up to date on every Nickelodeon show) they gave us the freedom to pursue our own interests uninhibited and undistracted.
Because I couldn’t do what these other kids did, I read every children’s book under the sun. That is a slight exaggeration, but not by much. I went systematically through my elementary school’s library, pulling books off the shelf with the letter ‘A,’ and working my way through to Paul Zindel, with time to revisit old favorites.
So I come to publishing a passionate lover of everything that goes into books.
The interest runs deep. Because of my parents’ curious rules, I’ve become a sort of walking encyclopedia of young adult and middle grade literature. Its characters are the people I grew up with, my role models and my friends. I soaked up the wisdom offered by Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, who taught me how to be polite and proper but still have fun. I fell hard for Bingo Brown, that red-headed boy in love with all the wrong girls. I traveled to Hogwarts and Oz and the Kingdom of Wisdom, and still made it home in time for dinner every night.
What draws me to publishing is also the power I’ve seen these books have firsthand. In my life, it was Homer Price who gave me courage at school, and Encyclopedia Brown who got me into college.
I got over my stage fright, won my elementary school’s talent show, and wowed my friends with a rap-rendition of the “Donut Song” found in one of the Homer Price stories. And Encyclopedia Brown was more than just a boy detective for me. He was my first hero and ideal. That literature taught me, and continues to teach children, to look for the small details that most people overlook. It also showed me how to fit in without really fitting in, and how to outsmart bullies. As a result, I wrote about my respect for Encyclopedia Brown in my college application, which brought me to Kenyon.
My interests are not only in pre-adult fiction, of course. I read widely in college—from Buddhist philosophy to Chinese poetry. And I have a variety of work and artistic experience that feeds my interest not only in books, but also in the craft of making books.
After pursuing every one of my interests, I’ve always come back to my obsession: books, how to make them, and how to save them. I am absolutely committed to printed books, but I’m also comfortable with the technology that’s rapidly changing the publishing world. I am the proud owner of an iPad, and I am willing to explore new options when it comes to publishing new books, as long as the printed page is not lost altogether.
Of course, there is something so sublimely satisfying about holding a book in your hands. Perhaps I am uniquely powerless to books. Since childhood, they’ve shaped who I am, and kept me enraptured. It’s that power to open a young person’s eyes that draws me to publishing, and makes me want to bring everything I have to change a few minds amid a world of distraction.
