There are certain times of year when books seem to be in the air. I don’t mean new releases necessarily, not even big best sellers. Now is a time when non-readers and readers alike are picking up books by the armload, digging in voraciously, and there is no sign of slowing. You may have guessed what I am stabbing at: back to school days. Or, if you are a teacher or student the back-to-school “daze.”

Since moving from North Carolina to Texas in early July, I have taken on the new role of online instructor for the delightful college I worked for back east. The role is an odd one. I have classes stuffed with students with whom I will probably never speak in person. I give them a block of tasks every week, and they either do them or they fail to do them. In that way it’s not so different from traditional instruction, but I am unable to move the students with my personal enthusiasm from the front of the room or even make eye contact. Instead, it is our books that bind us. Essentially, I serve as a facilitator, pointing them toward information they must master, and supplementing it with written lectures and probing questions.

I am only teaching one traditional course this semester for a school here in Texas with which I was employed for three years prior to moving off to the east coast. I have a ridiculously full plate this semester, but they lured me in with literature. When the head of the English department phoned me in a panic after an administrative oversight four days before the first class meeting, she had me at “short stories.” The course is one of those typical introductory writing sections that covers short fiction, poetry, drama, and culminates in a research paper. How could I say no to the chance to teach some of my old favorites?

The class met for the first time last week, and it was glorious to find myself in a chatty class made up of both readers and non-readers. I was delighted to find that even the non-readers seemed willing to look back over what they read in high school and talk it over a bit. Always a good sign. Once again, as would certainly be expected in a literature class, the book is our center. A big, meaty anthology of stories, poetry, and plays old and new—the kind you could throw at an intruder in your house and probably knock him out cold.

Books as Deadly Weapons? Maybe that should be the next course I teach.

In my personal life, books always take center stage, but in addition to their usual role as pleasure reading I am back in the student saddle myself this semester. Having been accepted to the School of Library and Information Sciences at the University of North Texas, I am well on my way to yet another degree. Another one full of books, that is. Admittedly, librarianship is about far more than books. I realize this fact more every day, and it certainly is not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. In 2008 we juggle information of myriad types: video, digital texts, web sites, text messages, and podcasts. The sky is no limit these days. I must say, though, when I attended an all-day course preparation recently for one of my core classes, it gave me a warm, tingly feeling to see nearly a third of the 150 students in attendance whip out their books while waiting for the day’s events to start.

Books will be a conduit to channel me into this new world of librarians. I have a gargantuan book to introduce me to information access and retrieval. At this juncture, it is still difficult for me to wrap my brain around the science and philosophy of librarianship. Literature was easy—MLA format, literary terms, the language and philosophy of literary study. The science of libraries, on the other hand, beyond the databases and digital collections, is a bit vague. How does one make what seems on the surface such a steadfast and practical profession philosophical? I know it is coming, but I haven’t the foggiest idea what I am looking for. But through it all, I will have books to guide me through my own school daze. I suppose, too, it is a wonderful thing to be on this side of the confusion again. I can honestly say that I know how my students feel, unsure of what is in store and how to navigate it.


Andi is a recovering university academic employed by the North Carolina community college system as an English instructor. While she decided to forego a Ph.D. and career as a professor, she fills in all the free time her current position affords her with editing literary publications, reviewing, freelancing, and blogging at Tripping Toward Lucidity: Estella’s Revenge. Her work can be found in the journal, Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS), and Altar magazine as well as online in various venues such as PopMatters.com. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), and writes fiction. Her turn-ons include new books and gelato, while her turn-offs are reality television and washing dishes. Contact Andi.