Ten Tens About Me

these lists are not by rank and are subject to change

updated August 2024

ten bookish facts about me:

• devourer of books since I taught myself to read at the age of three
• while tastes have changed over the years, mystery has remained my favorite genre since pre-teen days
• joint-owner of a wall of nonfiction shelves, a wall of fiction shelves, and more scattered fiction shelves all over the house
• despite being a voracious reader, tsundoku is a word that might have been coined for me
• have ruined more books in the bath than I should care to admit
• once fell out of a very tall tree while reading
• my husband and I often read in bed while sharing a bowl of popcorn
• lover of nonfiction, especially biography and history
• love paperbacks, hardbacks, ebooks, and audiobooks
• keep my fiction shelves in alphabetical order by author's last name

ten non-bookish facts about me:

• Christian
• happily married to my best friend
• cat momma
• native of Western North Carolina, living in East Tennessee
• cross stitcher (click here for my Instagram, full of progress photos)
• long-time gamer  
• enthusiastic fan of Indian Cinema (click here for my movie review blog)
• holder of a B.A. in History
• passionately interested in World War I, Edwardian England, and England's Regency Period
• supremely uninterested in American history

ten things that make me smile:

• the double u's in the word "vacuum"
• seeing 12:34 on the clock
• mountains in the distance
• pleasing colors
• iced sugar cookies
• snow
• sharpened pencils
• alphabetical order
• notebooks
• polka dots

ten things I dislike:

• being late
• raisins
• wasting food
• losing something
• folded down corners in books
• driving in the rain
• the interstate
• hot weather
• ants
• the sight of blood

ten things I do well:

• make lists
• type
• write essays
• alphabetize
• read out loud
• connect with children
• time management games
• compose photos
• cross stitch
• keep a  journal

ten things I don't do well:

• spell
• cook
• give blood
• remember
• tell time
• math
• parallel park
• spatial awareness
• keep to "regular hours"
• stay organized

ten authors I love

• Margery Allingham
• Jane Austen
• Agatha Christie
• Wilkie Collins
• John Donne
• H. Rider Haggard
• Georgette Heyer
• C.S. Lewis
• Terry Pratchett
• Angela Thirkell

ten books I regularly revisit

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
• Jane Austen's novels
• Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
• I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
• Agatha Christie's mysteries (especially on audio, read by Hugh Fraser)
• Room with a View by E.M. Forster
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
• Phantastes by George MacDonald

ten movies I've watched again and again

• Bachelor Mother
• The Court Jester
• Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (my review)
• Disney's Robin Hood
• Dumm Dumm Dumm (my review)
• Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (my review)
• The Princess Bride
• Raavan (my review) and Raavanan (my review)
• While You Were Sleeping
• White Christmas

ten people I wish I could meet

• Bix Beiderbecke: American jazz cornetist, pianist and composer (1903-1931)
• Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: British explorer, scholar, soldier, and author (1821-1890)
• James Burke: British science historian (b. 1936)
• Hoagy Carmichael: American singer/songwriter (1899-1981)
• Dame Agatha Christie: English author (1890-1976) 
• John Donne: English poet, scholar, soldier, secretary, and cleric  (1572-1631)
• C.S. Lewis: British author, Christian apologist, scholar (1898-1963)
• George MacDonald: Scottish author and minister (1824-1905)
• Teresa of Kolkatta: Albanian-Indian Catholic nun, foundress, and saint (1910-1997)
• Thérèse of Lisieux: French Catholic Discalced Carmelite nun and saint (1873-1897)