Hello hello! My name is Kayla – reader, writer, and recently, an MSLIS graduate. Over the years, I have been involved with book community in various ways. Beginning with a “bookstagram” account in 2013, I quickly realized my love for reviewing and recommending books. I established my first review blog, Literary Obsessions, and began working with authors and publishers to write reviews, host interviews with authors, assist with promotion before book releases, and more. I maintained Literary Obsessions faithfully throughout high school and truly loved the work that I was doing.
As it has the tendency to do, life got busy, and my passion project fell to the wayside. I attended the University of Virginia, becoming heavily involved in my campus (“Grounds”) community and graduating in 2020 with a BA in Sociology and Foreign Affairs. Both majors were reading and writing intensive, leaving me little time to read and review for fun. I returned a few times to Literary Obsessions following graduation, hoping it could be something I rekindled during the COVID-19 pandemic, but again found myself overwhelmed by the new way of the world and often uninspired to write even though I was devouring books.
After working for several years in social services, I acknowledged that while I loved the public service aspect of my job, I wanted more face-to-face interaction with the people I was serving. So, after years of family and friends telling me that I would make a great librarian, I finally decided to stop being stubborn and applied for graduate programs to earn a Master’s of Science in Library and Information Science. Five short months later, I resigned from my position, packed up my books (all 3,000 of them, which in hindsight was a little insane), and moved to Syracuse, New York to attend Syracuse University.
The two years I spent at Syracuse University were utterly transformative. Ironically, although I have always been a massive bibliophile, I had fought against the notion of becoming a librarian for years. Call me stubborn, a contrarian, a nonconformist – I have never liked doing things simply because others told me I should, which has saved me just as much as it has led to lost opportunities. Finally giving in and pursuing this degree allowed me to recognize a calling that felt like it had been sitting just below the surface, just waiting for me to peel back the layers and accept it.
And so, here we are again. A new path, a new blog, but the same love of books as always. More than a decade later, I understandably feel like a different person than I was when I began Literary Obsessions as a high schooler. While that page and those reviews still exist, a new start here at The Left-Handed Librarian seems like a necessary shift. Here, my main goal is to get back to the basics – reviewing and recommending books that I’ve loved. Whether they’re upcoming novels, recent releases, or older stories that are finally escaping my endless To Be Read pile, I hope to provide you with my honest opinion to help inspire your next great read. Let’s get on with it!
As before and as always, happy reading!
Kayla
The Left-Handed Librarian 