My name is Kaelyn and I love. To. Read.
There is nothing that has so wholly shaped my life and the way I think as the books that I have read. One of my first memories is of holding Go, Dogs, Go! in my hands, upside down, trying to reconstruct the story from memory, forming the strange symbols on the page into words I recognized. As an adult, my passion for reading has not lessened. You will almost never find me without a book concealed somewhere on my person. My only criteria for handbags is that they will be able to contain my wallet, phone, and a book. The written word is, has been, and will always be my greatest passion.
When I started this blog in 2012, I initially thought that I would read the list of 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die, and for each book I would write a review, for lack of a better word, and then do a food portion. This usually involved me cooking meals I’d never made before or buying food that I felt imitated what was described in the text. Once, memorably, I was even able to go to Kenya while reading a book about the country, thereby taking my experience of the novel Petals of Blood to a whole new level. The journey so far has been amazing. I’ve come to understand the novels I’ve read on a new dimension, feeling myself closer to the story in ways I’d never imagined.
However, I am now going to mix it up a little, thereby freeing myself from some anxieties that have been making this work (or play) more difficult than necessary. I will no longer adhere strictly to the list above mentioned. Recently I realized that I will be 65 years old before I finish at the rate I’m going. In 40 years, will there even be blogging? That seems too big a risk to take. Instead, I will continue in the same vein, but with whatever book I choose. I will especially be focusing on books by women, people of color, queer authors, authors writing in languages other than English, and other marginalized groups, although I might slip in a man every so often.
If you have a book that you would like to see me feature on this blog, please let me know. Or perhaps, you’d like to do it yourself and submit it to me as a guest feature? Or do you have a blog with a different focus on literature that might complement mine? I would be open to any such suggestions. For now, thank you for reading and I hope you’re enjoying this literary journey as much as I am. Happy reading!
For Love and Allegory 