About Me

My name is Amanda and I'm eighteen years old. This is my first year of college, but after graduating early and being away from school for so long I'm eager to get back into classes. I'm originally from a very small town in South Dakota but recently moved to Ashland, and I absolutely love it so far. For a few years I've wanted to major in psychology, but now that I'm actually in college I'm questioning whether or not I want to do something more creative. Some of my interests are reading (obviously), graphic and interior design, drawing, traveling, and learning foreign languages. I've studied Spanish and Finnish but am rusty in both; I'm currently taking German and would love to learn Russian or Romanian.

I have two brothers, Nathan and Caleb. Caleb is currently living in Gillette, WY and works as a welder/fabricator. Nathan is in the Navy and is stationed in Newport News, VA. He got married last year and now has a five month old baby, Emalie Machelle.

I've always loved reading. As soon as I learned how, I would read Berenstain Bear books to my mom and even wanted to go as far as reading encyclopedias; needless to say that took a while. Through elementary school I loved Goosebumps books and once I got to middle school my teachers constantly recommended books to me and even let me borrow their own personal ones. I read my first Stephen King book in sixth grade when my science teacher let me borrow 'Dreamcatcher'. I loved 'The DaVinci Code' and 'Angels & Demons' by Dan Brown, but haven't got a chance to read 'The Lost Symbol' yet. My favorite authors are Charles Bukowski and Chuck Palahniuk, but I'm also a huge Poe fan. Right now I'm reading 'The Witch of Portobello' by Paulo Coehlo and 'The Memory Keeper's Daughter' by Kim Edwards.

The first person I interviewed for this blog was a friend of mine, Nick. I chose him because he's a science fiction writer who is majoring in business and economics- I thought that, between those two different passions, it would be interesting seeing what he enjoyed reading. His favorite authors are Cormac McCarthy, Jim Cramer, and Orson Scott Card. His favorite books don't differ from the main genre of the authors: "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card; "The Foundation Series" by Isaac Asimov; and "Starship Troopers" by Robert Heinlein. However, he says that his favorite genre is history. Aside from the curve ball of the favorite genre, I was disappointed, yet not surprised, that his favorite authors and books were slightly predictable. Our reading habits really aren't similar, but I will be reading his first novel soon.

The second person I interviewed was my older cousin, Christy. We have a mutual favorite book, “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls. She’s also wanted to do volunteer missions in Africa and currently works fulltime housing and taking care of a disabled woman and an elderly man, so I was curious to see if her interest in books followed her passion for helping others. She also always recommends books to me and is one of the main reasons I continued reading and still have a passion for it. Her favorite author is one of non-fiction, Thomas Friedman, who wrote “The World is Flat and Hot and Crowded”. She also owns all of the “Post Secret” books by Frank Warren. She loves memoirs and autobiographies, which is the genre of our mutual favorite. Her favorite book is a western by Larry McMurtry, “Lonesome Dove”. Although she’s a fan of westerns and books about presidents, her favorite genre is poverty. Her favorite things to read are non-fiction current event books on economical solutions in developing countries, and histories of genocides.

Lastly I chose my boyfriend's mother, Linda. I chose her because I realized that I actually don't know a lot about her interests and thought it would be beneficial to learn about the kinds of things she likes to read. Her favorite authors are Lauren Sanders and Elizabeth Peters. She loves Archie McNally's myster books and the Harry Potter series as she's read it four times, but her favorite genres are mystery and nonfiction history, specifically about the Civil War. She also loves the "Catered" series (A Catered Christmas, A Catered Wedding, and A Catered Halloween) by Isis Crawford. When her sons were younger they always read the Goosebump books together. She hates science fiction and fantasy. Overall, aside from the Harry Potter series, we don't have very much in common as far as reading goes.