Po(sey) Sessions

I have not made much reading progress over the past week. I have been jumping from book to book working on various research projects and chasing quotes. I managed to finish one more book for my yearly total. 14. Liar and Spy - Rebecca Stead Another great middle grade selection by Stead. I loved it and I was worried it could not compare to When You Reach Me. I am happy I had a few years between the two titles so I was less inclined to compare them. Currently Reading: I am still working on Omnivore's Dilemma the most because it has been assigned for school. The Ultimate Gullah Cookbook - I read this for my Festival of Excellence presentation. I have hauled it across the county a few times with the hopes of reading it. I am shocked at how much my own knowledge has transformed the experience of reading it. I restarted it from the first page.  I realized that I am in the middle of a bunch of cookbooks and pushing through them might bolster up my reading numbers so far this ...

Four semesters ago I returned to Souther Utah University to finish my undergraduate degree. I started on a new major. This time around I am a Sociology major and I am focusing on the topic of food whenever possible. Annually the school holds a conference where students can present the academic experience they have participated in. This year I had the opportunity to present on my work connected to a  series of trips I took to South Carolina. I chose to do a PechaKucha presentation to take advantage of the photos I took throughout my travels. What is a PechaKucha? It is a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each (6 minutes and 40 seconds in total). PechaKucha is a Japanese word that means chit-chat. The focus of this type of presentation is to simultaneously be less formal and present concise information. The hope is that a presentation like this can start a conversation. The following are the slides I used and the notes I wrote to accompany them....

My reading goals for 2017 were extremely lofty and somewhat unrealized so far. My goal: 100 Currently finished: 13 While 13 is not a shabby number, it is half of what I am expected to have done to meet my goal this year. Despite a number of changes in my life this year, one of which going back to school fully time, I am stubbornly hoping I will find the time to make up the numbers of books read. Perhaps over the summer? Books completed in 2017: 1. Sugar - Jewell Parker Rhodes 2. Sweetbitter - Stephanie Danler 3. Food, Genes, and Culture - Gary Nabhan 4. Chew, Vol. 5: Major League - John Layman 5. Ink - Amanda Sun 6. Underground Airlines - Ben Winters 7. The American Way of Eating - Tracie McMillan 8. Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer 9. Authority - Jeff VanderMeer 10. Saving Seeds, Preserving Taste - Bill Best 11. Farmacology - Daphne Miller 12. Sleep Donation - Karen Russell 13. High on the Hog - Jessica Harris Currently reading: My Southern Journey - Rick Bragg V...

I want to tell you a story. Hi, my name is Megan. I am mildly willing to admit I may have a problem with books. Problem is probably not the best term for it. I have an obsession, a mania, a philia. Some might call it a Gentle Madness. In my home I have over 5,000 books. Books that I have never read. Waiting in piles for me to find time and energy for consumption. These piles around me used to be piles of guilt, but it was fairly recently that I discovered, even on the day I die, I want plenty of books to choose from. There is a certain sadness in thinking about only having one book left to enjoy in this mortal world. But these piles of books are not my story. Or not the story of today. Once, in my dark past, I used to be a person with lots of piles of books and a blog. These things were the entirety of my book passion. I was silent in my love for books until I was able to start describing them with poorly chosen sparse words. It was through my blog and twitter that I was able t...

I realize the irony in the matter, I own a bookstore but I rarely read books in paper. I love my paper books, but there are times they just don't fit into my life. As I get older the words get smaller and the pages get dimer and finding a comfortable position that doesn't cause me to fall asleep is a challenge. Some days I have accepted it. I am old. Scaleable font and backlit screens help me read in any position and not just when the lighting is right. To me, reading is reading. I want everyone to be doing more of it. Recently that especially includes myself. I find myself with the time to read, but not the desire to invest in the storylines I am currently presented with. I think it is both common and interesting that as one gets older there is less room for books that aren't exactly what we are looking for. I used to never give up on a book I was reading, and I am still not eager to admit that I will never pick up a book again. But I am working on guilt free reading a...

In my Food and Culture class we were challenged to find our food identity. For most students we had a deep desire to connect with our childhood. This video is a representation of my childhood food identity.

I am thinking about coming back to blogging. I flirt with the idea often, I even flirt with actions of blogging. Writing and posting a piece thinking it is the beginning of my triumphant return but my resolve fizzles quickly. For many years I was the same thing. A book lover, a mother, and a basic writer. I talked about my life and my limited number of passions. But in the past five years I have become many more things. I have become a business owner, a foodie, a student, and a better friend. The internet has the unique ability to create community. It was this feeling of community that I could never find in the town where I live, or even the town where I grew up. Family and community have always been a kind of mystery to me. Growing up I struggled with friendships. The solitude of my youth was echoed by my inability to effectively interact and communicate in a group setting. Owning my dream business let me realize the opportunity for community in my own town and beyond the scope...