On not doing anything

Before I go on, yes, I know I have not posted here in a while. There are a couple of reasons for that, and I would rather not go into them now or anytime soon. However, I drafted the following post on an early morning journaling session, and I figured I would post it more so I would have a record on my blog. If this does not interest you, you are welcome to skip it. These days I am more involved with my other blog, The Itinerant Librarian, doing book reviews and some other things that interest me more. Anyhow, here goes.

A while back, one of coworkers who so happens to be a bit of a biddy decided to do some trash talk about me, telling the student workers in the biddy's department that I just sit around and do nothing all day. The thing is one of the nothings I happen to not do is work a lot with students during class sessions and individual consultations. I am fairly good at that, and so when someone talks trash about me, they come and tell me. And then we have a good laugh about it because we both know better. While that person is not worth giving the time of day, the person got me thinking I  should do one of those "what is it I do" kind  of posts. So here is a not so short list of what I do in my current workplace. It is not necessarily in any particular order; I just wrote it as I was thinking.

Things I do: 

• Head of the reference and instruction program for my library. I run the program, make decisions, provide direction and vision for it. I also plan and coordinate our information literacy assessment efforts. 
• I supervise two professional librarians who make up the instruction team. I am able to run our information literacy program thanks to them and with  them. 
• I work hours at the reference desk. This semester is four hours, which is not much, but we do have a bit of a surplus of student labor in the reference unit (keep in mind, we are a labor college). I also work one evening shift a week, and I rotate Sundays with  other reference librarians. I often also cover when other reference librarians are out, and they cover for me. We are good about watching out for each other. 
• I teach classes and workshops. This also includes the preparation time to teach. 
• I do research consultations, mainly with students. Again, this also includes the preparation time for those consults. 
• When I get a break from all of the above, I do, or try to do, some collection development. I am faculty liaison for our Division 5, which includes Art and Art History, Asian Studies, History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion. Not to brag or commiserate, but this division is probably the most demanding and "prickly" one of the divisions, especially a couple of departments that I will not name, but can get time consuming when they get an itch (I could go on, but I will stop in the interest of grace). Anyhow, this task also includes any specialized library instruction for them. 
• I coordinate library outreach. This includes making sure we have displays, planning for them, putting them up or delegating that part, planning and implementing other events when I can. 
• I oversee our social media. This semester I have a great student worker who keeps it running, so I just oversee it. When I get a moment, I write for the library's blog. 

Other things I do:

• I have faculty status in this campus. So I serve on committees. This year, I am on the last year of a three-year term in Student Life Council. 
• Meetings: staff meetings, library management team meetings, collection development meetings, and a few others I cannot remember now. Like other libraries, our director is quite fond of meetings, including the ones that can probably just be an e-mail. Oh, then there are faculty senate meetings, and some others I am not remembering. 
• What I call now "my other hat." I am Coordinator of Latino Services for the campus. This includes, but it is not limited to: 
• Services for families of incoming Latino students. A lot of this is translation services (English to Spanish to English), but also point of contact for them and campus offices to answer questions as needed. 
• Coordinate and make sure we have translators during summer orientation events and  the fall term Move-In Day. Again, I note, this is for families, not the students per se. 
• I translate and get other volunteers to translate various campus documents as needed.
• I am on-call if a department needs my services. Admissions, for  instance, calls once in a while when they have a visiting family needing a translator. 
• My newest endeavor is to provide some library and academic support as needed for a General Studies course on  Latino Males in Higher Education. This has not been called for much (but that is another story).
• Whatever the heck else the dean and/or the college president may need in relation to our campus' recent initiative to attract and retain more Latinos on campus. This is one  of those "other duties as assigned" tasks. 
• Oh, and somewhere in all of the above, I also try to: 
• Keep up with library literature. I've blogged less on  the library literature these days, but I still read it where I can. 
• Do some professional development. I do not do enough, and I certainly wish I had the time to do more, especially related to "my other hat."
• Did I also mention  I often represent the library at selected campus events? For instance, I was a speaker at last year's Carter G. Woodson Center's retreat for students. 
• Also under professional development, I do a presentation when I can. These days, I  have done one or two in collaboration with another colleague of mine, a nice lady who could write a whole post on "not doing anything" that would be very substantial. 
• And, finally for now, I work with students who pop into my office for help. If the door is open to my office, they know it is fair game. 

I am not telling my four readers all this to brag or so they feel bad for me. Mainly, as I think about it while writing, I realize I never really sat down and did this little exercise until now. It is quite a bit. Anyhow, keep in mind I do not do every single thing above everyday, but this is what keeps me off the streets during the year, and I mean the full year. Unlike "real faculty" who take summers off to write (allegedly) and travel, I actually work year round as the library is open year round.

In the end, I look at it as my wise father would say, "don't worry if you have too much to do. Worry when they do not give you enough to do." So there you have it, the "nothing" that I do. In my personal journal, this post took me about four handwritten pages. As I look it over, one of the  things I have wanted to write about more is precisely "my other hat" work. There is a  lot in there that can be explored about it being a new position, how the position has evolved, issues like tokenism and cultural taxation, and other things I think maybe a reader or two may find of interest. But those are ideas for another day.

My Reading List for 2015

Welcome to my reading list and report for 2015. I fell a bit behind on this in part because I took some time choosing my reading challenges for 2016. I read a bit less this year in terms of books, but it was in part because I had a busy year at work, and that was a good thing. I am entering my fourth year working here at Berea, and things are still going well. Overall, it was a good year for reading overall.

I continue to read and write about what I read on my personal blog. The Itinerant Librarian continues to grow slowly but surely into a good books and reading blog. It is something that I definitely enjoy both personally and as a librarian. I've even gotten to know, online, a few authors and editors in the process. I am always thrilled when I write a review, and an author or publisher notices and writes back an encouraging word or two. Thanks to them for writing and editing good books so I can keep reading. Keeps The Itinerant Librarian off the streets.

In addition, while I have blogged less here on my professional blog, it is not because of lack of content or ideas. A large reason is I am enjoying my book blogging. Also, to be honest, a lot of LIS blogging out there often boils down to the same few issues and dramas, and I would rather do without that stuff. So I keep up with the LIS literature, but I may not blog here as often, and I am at peace with that. I keep posting the annual reading list here mostly out of tradition. In time, I may or not move it to my personal blog. We'll see.

Here then is the list of books I read during 2015. Books marked with an asterisk (*) are re-reads. Most books were reviewed at The Itinerant Librarian. Feel free to go over there and check some of the reviews out. Simply click on the "books and reading" label in the sidebar of The Itinerant Librarian to get to the reviews.


January:

• Cornel West, with Christa Buschendorf, Black Prophetic Fire. 
• Diane Muldrow, Everything I Need To Know About Christmas I Learned from a Little Golden Book. 
• Carl Critchlow, Judge Dredd: Anderson, Psi-Division. 
• Lawrence Osborne, The Wet and the Dry. 
• Chris Metzen, Transformers: Primacy. 
• Vic Malhotra, X-Files: Year Zero. 
• Scott Snyder, American Vampire, Volume 5. 
• Andrew Bohrer, The Best Shots You've Never Tried. 
• Ian Doescher, William Shakerspeare's The Jedi Doth Return. 
• Juzo Tokoro, Spawn: Shadows of Spawn, Vol. 2. 

February:

• Kennedy Xu, Daomu. 
• Juzo Tokoro, Spawn: Shadows of Spawn, Vol. 3. 
• Kevin L. Nadal, That's So Gay!
• Jane Stern and Michael Stern, Two for the Road. 
• James Kuhoric, The Six-Million Dollar Man, Season 6.
• Scott Snyder, American Vampire, Volume 7. 
• Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays, Being Dead Is No Excuse. 
• Henrik Lange, 90 Classic Books for People in a Hurry. 

March:

• Caitlin Doughty, Smoke Gets in your Eyes. 
• Bob Budiansky, et. al., Transformers Classics, Volume 4.
• Michael R. Veach, Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: an American Heritage.
• Erik Burnham, et.al., Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters. 
• Ryan Burton, et.al., Dark Engine, Volume 1.
• Paco Ignacio II Taibo, Pancho Villa Takes Zacatecas. 
• John Arcudi, The Mask. 
• Mitzi Szereto, ed., Dark Edge of Desire. 
• Kevin Smith, Batman '66 Meets the Green Hornet. 
• James Luceno, Star Wars: Tarkin.

April:

• W. Haden Blackman, Darth Vader and the Lost Command.
• Various authors, Predator Omnibus, Volume 1.
• Seth Holmes, Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies.
• Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, The China Collectors.
• Fred W. Sauceman, Buttermilk and Bible Burgers.
• Todd McFarlane, Spawn: Volume 1: Endgame. 
• Carlton Mellick III, ClownFellas: Tales of the Bozo Family.

May:

• Martin Luther King Jr., The Radical King. 
• Nick Kyme and Lindsey Priestly, eds., Tales of Heresy (The Horus Heresy, Book 10).
• Geoff Johns, Batman: Earth One, Volume 2.
• Paul S. Kemp, Star Wars: Lords of the Sith. 
• Steve McNiven and Charles Soule, Death of Wolverine. 
• Jennifer S. Baker, The Reader's Advisory Guide to Historical Fiction. 
• Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou, Deadman Wonderland, Volume 2.
• Vassilis Gogtzilas, The Bigger Bang. 
• Max Dunbar, Dungeons & Dragons: Legends of Baldur's Gate Volume 1.
• Jim Davis, My Laughable Life with Garfield: The Jon Arbuckle Chronicles.

June:

• Jimmy Palmiotti, Harley Quinn Vol. 2: Power Outage (The New 52).
• Shawn Kittelsen. Mortal Kombat X.
• Jim Davis, 30 Years of Laughs & Lasagna: The Life & Times of a Fat, Furry Legend!
• David Solmonson and Lesley Jacobs Solmonson, The 12 Bottle Bar. 
• Paul Kingsbury, Vinyl Hayride: Country Music Album Covers 1947-1989.
• Nick Roche and Brian Lynch, Monster Motors. 
• Rob Anderson, et.al., Creature Cops: Special Varmint Unit. 
• Shane McCarthy, Transformers: Drift-Empire of Stone. 
• Mark Millar, Jupiter's Legacy, Vol. 1.
• Scott Snyder, Batman, Volume 6: Graveyard Shift (The New 52). 
• Adrian Brooks, The Right Side of History. 
• Bayard Rustin, The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin. 

July:

• Guy Lawson, Arms and the Dudes.
• Becky Cloonan, et.al., Gotham Academy, Volume 1.
• John Lewis, March: Book Two. 
• Si Spencer, Bodies. 
• Robert Lazaro, Robert Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy. 
• Thomas Hodge, VHS Video Cover Art: 1980s to Early 1990s.
• Brian Michael Bendis, Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3: Guardians Disassembled. 
• Steve Niles, October Faction Volume 1.
• Mitch Broder, Discovering Vintage New York.
• Various authors, Flash Gordon Omnibus. 
• Tim Seeley, Grayson, Vol. 1: Agents of Spyral.
• Tony Daniel, Deathstroke Vol. 1: Gods of Wars (The New 52).
• Corinna Sara Bechko, Heathentown.
• Michael Uslan, Justice, Inc., Volume 1.
• Cameron Stewart, Batgirl, Volume 1: The Batgirl of Burnside (The New 52). 
• Robert Kirkman, Battle Pope, Volume 1: Genesis. 
• Bathroom Readers' Institute, Uncle John's Beer-Topia.
• Alan Moore, Nemo: River of Ghosts.
• Jon Pressick, ed., Best Sex Writing of the Year, Volume 1: On Consent, BDSM, Porn, Race, Sex Work and More.

August:

• Rebecca Winters, Plucked: A History of Hair Removal.
• Jim Davis, Garfield the Big Cheese: His 59th Book.
• Brian Michael Bendis, Age of Ultron. 
• Nelson A. Denis, War Against All Puerto Ricans.
• Boaz Lavie, The Divine. 
• Z. Rider, Insylum.

September:

• Peter J. Tomasi, Batman: Arkham Knight. 
• Gerry Duggan, Arkham Manor. 
• Sean Ryan, New Suicide Squad, Volume 1. 
• Scott Snyder, Batman Eternal, Volume 2. 
• F. Leonora Solomon, ed., Tie Me Up: a Binding Collection of Erotic Tales. 
• Matthew Algeo, Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure.
• Mairghread Scott, Transformers: Combiner Wars. 
• Louise Baxter Harmon, Happiness A to Z. 
• Editors of Penthouse Variations, Penthouse Variations on Oral: Erotic Stories of Going Down.
• Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection Volume 2. 
• Kyle Higgins, et.al., C.O.W.L. Volume 1: Principles of Power. 
• Cullen Bunn, et.al., Lobo Volume 1: Targets (The New 52). 
• Sparky Sweets, PhD., Thug Notes: a Street-Smart Guide to Classic Literature. 
• Robert Kirkman, Battle Pope, Volume 2: Mayhem.
• Derf Backderf, Punk Rock and Trailer Parks. 
• Peter Milligan, et.al., The Names. 

October:

• Henry N. Beard and Christopher Cerf, Spinglish: The Definitive Dictionary of Deliberately Deceptive Language.
• Jim Davis, Garfield Left Speechless. 
• Jim Davis, Garfield Takes his Licks: His 24th Book.*
• Lee Papa, The Rude Pundit's Almanack. 
• Jeremy Barlow, Star Wars, The Clone Wars: the Colossus of Destiny. 
• Jim Davis, Garfield Will Eat for Food. 
• Wayne A. Wiegand, Part of our Lives: A People's History of the American Public Library.
• Joey Esposito, Pawn Shop. 
• Mike W. Barr, Star Wars, The Clone Wars: The Starcrusher Trap. 
• Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, Batman: The Long Halloween.*
• Jim Davis, Garfield Souped Up: his 57th Book. 

November:

• Scott Snyder, Batman, Volume 7: Endgame. 
• Jim Davis, Garfield Goes to his Happy Place; his 58th Book.
• Tom Krattenmaker, The Evangelicals You Don't Know. 
• Jim Davis, Garfield Tips the Scales, his 8th Book. 
• Diane Muldrow, Everything I Need to Know About Love I Learned from a Little Golden Book.
• Zeb Wells, Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One. 
• Derf Backderf, Trashed. 
• Vanessa Williamson and Theda Skocpol, The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism.
• Charles M. Schultz, The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 10: 1969-1970.
• Ben Khan, Shaman. 
• Jim Davis, Garfield Lard of the Jungle: His 52nd Book.

December:

• Various authors, Star Trek: Alien Spotlight, Volume 1. 
• Various authors, The Star Wars. 
• Elaine Lee, Vamps. 

Here are the numbers:

I read a total of 123 books this year with 2 re-reads.

Number of books read in 2014: 152, including 2 re-reads (the 2014 list).
Number of books read in 2013: 173, including 2 re-reads (the 2013 list).
Number of books read in 2012: 117, with 6 re-reads (the 2012 list).
Number of books read in 2011: 119, with 3 re-reads (the 2011 list). 
Number of books read in 2010:  119, with 6 rereads (the 2010 list).
Number of books read in 2009: 98, with 5 rereads. I believe this is the first time I started to actively track rereads. (the 2009 list).
Number of books read in 2008: 111 (the 2008 list).
Number of books read in 2007: 85 (the 2007 list).
Number of books read in 2006: 106 (the 2006 list).
Number of books read in 2005: 73

Let's look at a few other numbers and add some commentary and thoughts:

• I read a bit less this year, though I think I read a few things a more mindful way. It was interesting working to choose books for some of the reading challenges I did in 2015.  I still read actively from NetGalley, less so from Edelweiss. 
• Best month: July with 19 books read.
• Worst month: December with 3 books read.
• 68 print books read.
• 55 e-books read. The majority of books this year was still in print, but as you can see, e-books number is close. Though my preference remains print, as long as I read via NetGalley, I will keep reading e-books as well. Plus I may read the odd book here or there as e-book due to other sources, say my public library's Overdrive system. 
• I read 9 books in fiction. This for me  usually means novels and short fiction. It can include erotica. Generally, I count graphic novels and manga together as separate categories regardless of whether some are fiction or nonfiction.
• I read 34 books in nonfiction. That the majority of books other than graphic novels and manga are nonfiction is pretty consistent for me. I tend to prefer nonfiction overall. This category can include erotica in the sense that it would include sex manuals and other sex writing not fiction.
• I read 77 graphic novels this year. Many of these I read via NetGalley, but I also read a good amount of them via the library. I also had two graphic novels challenges, which do allow for manga as well, running last year. Plus, this is a favorite genre of mine.
• I read 3 mangas this year. One reason is that good mangas are not easy to get around here, but when I find them, I read them.
• I read 7 books via my work library, Hutchins Library. This was kind of low considering I had a good number of books checked out from Hutchins Library. I just did not get to them right away. Those longer loan periods do kind of encourage me to keep things longer. I will try to do better in this regard in 2016. In addition, I got three books via Interlibrary Loan (ILL) through Hutchins Library:
• Tales of Heresy is probably the furthest out ILL I have ever received so far. It came from Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library System in Alaska.
•  The Rude Pundit's Almanack came from King County Library System in Issaquah, Washington.
• Tarkin came from Rowan County Public Library in Morehead, Kentucky.
  
• 34 books came from my local library public, the Berea branch of the Madison County (KY) Public Library.
• I read 23 books that I own, including 12 that qualified for the 2015 Mount TBR Reading Challenge.
• I read 52 books via NetGalley. I read 2 via Edelweiss.
• Other numbers: 
• LIS books read: 2
• Erotica: 4.
• Books provided for review, not via NetGalley nor Edelweiss: 6. These are books provided by an author, publisher, or editor for review, either by invitation or because I requested them.
• I completed 10 Reading Challenges for 2015 (see the link above, where you can see the challenge summaries and additional details). Some of these I did because they went with the flow of my reading. Others I did to try new things. Overall, things worked out OK, and I already have 2016 Reading Challenges going (see link above to see those). I am trying some new things this year, including an audiobook challenge. Overall, I am attempting 12 Reading Challenges this year: 5 repeating from last year, and 7 new ones to me.

What I am currently reading (as of this post):

• James Swallow, The Blood Angels Omnibus (Warhammer 40,000).
• Rachel Kramer Bussel, ed., Dirty Dates: Erotic Fantasies for Couples. 
• Margie Lapanja, Food Men Love.
• Elizabeth Warren, A Fighting Chance (audiobook edition). 
• Julio Patán, Cocteles con Historia: Guía definitiva para el borracho ilustrado.

And as I often do to finalize, if you are interested, here are a few others who did end of year reading reports too:

• C.W.'s 2015 Reading List. 
• Bobbi Newman's end of year review. 
• Mark Lindner's "Books Read in 2015."
• Walt Crawford let us know that yes, he still reads books.
• The Librarian Shipwreck's favorites of 2015.  
• Jessamyn's 2015 Reading List. 
• Meredith Farkas' year in reading. 
• The Academic Librarian's list for 2015.
• PhiloBiblos' end of year reading report.
• The Introverted Reader's 2015 reading post and his list of top ten books for 2015. 

Have a happy 2016 year of reading.


(Update Note 5/10/16: For some reason, this post has become a spam magnet, especially for Indian and other Asian spam assholes peddling their online scams. I have literally had to remove or deal with I'd say a comment or two a week from those bottom feeders. So, I am closing the comments here. You want to comment on this, shoot me an e-mail).