Most avid readers I know fell in love with reading at an early age. I, however, fell in love with reading a bit later.

For me, learning to love reading took being placed in a remedial English class in grade school to improve my comprehension. Before that, when I read a book like The Saddle Club I didn’t remember anything that happened in it other than “it has horses.”

After my experience learning how to read slowly and comprehend what was going on in a book, I was hooked! It was around this time I found Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories, which gave me a lifelong love of spooky, dark, and out-of-the-norm topics. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is my favorite book to this day.

These days, I love reading just about anywhere and in just about any format—while waiting in a long line, on vacation, eating lunch, or riding my bike (audiobooks only!).

My preferred genres are general nonfiction bending toward feminism, graphic novels, LGTBQIA+ fiction and nonfiction, and the occasional memoir. I’m not a fan of dense historical nonfiction, gory horror fiction, or true crime.

While I love escaping into science fiction and fantasy, I can talk for hours about the books that leave a lasting impression on me and make me think about the world around me.