About
About the Header Image on this Blog
It is a picture of my bookshelf.
About Dr. Poppy
I hold a PhD in literature, and I direct the writing center at a university in the Northeast. The name “Poppy” is taken from the flower from which opium is derived, as opium played a large part in my dissertation, which focused on Victorian literature. Sometimes I pretend like I’m going to turn my dissertation into a book, but I doubt it. My favorite novel is Jane Eyre, and my favorite novels of the 21st century are Fingersmith and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The book I have the most copies of is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (I believe it’s also the book I’ve seen the most adaptations of). I often do not enjoy novels that are shorter than 400 pages, unless it was written by Jamaica Kincaid or Margaret Atwood. I believe in the power of punctuation and the beauty of an extraordinarily long sentence. I also believe in splitting infinitives and ending sentences with prepositions.
About this Blog
The title of this blog mashes together the Greek word “biblio,” meaning “book,” and the word “curio,” 19th-century shortened version of the word “curiosity.” “Curio” means an object of interest or art or value, and although, as a voracious reader, I’m primarily interested in the content of books, I’ve been interested for some time in the idea of books as objects in and of themselves. For the blog, I chose the word “curio” rather than some related word because it simultaneously invokes the object, the 19th century (another primary interest), and the word “curiosity” itself, one of my very favorite human traits.
I am a bit of an amateur book collector, and by amateur, I mean I have no idea what I’m doing. I do not own any first editions or (to my knowledge) any books of much value. I’m pretty sure I’ve never paid more than $30 for any of my antique books, and I have to be really moved to pay more than $10. Primarily I chose the books I collect based either on sentimental value or what the book looks like. Often I don’t know the copyright date of the book or when the first edition was published. But I believe I love my old books as much as any collector who accumulates books based on their value.
In this blog, I will show you pictures of and discuss the various books I have collected. I will also discuss bookstores I come across. And I will, possibly, discuss such related topics as depictions of book-collecting in literature, film adaptions of novels I’ve read, and reviews of new books I read. And yes, I’m well aware that a blog about books is about the last thing the world needs.
My “Official” Website
BIBLIO CURIO 