Meet the Bloggers

We are back again with our Meet the Bloggers series. Today I want to introduce you to Griffin Taylor.

Griffin is a jack of all trades in the bookstore world. He's worked at our Bellevue branch, in our events department and he currently is the master of shelving and information for most of our general non-fiction books. A proud English major, avid video gamer and enthusiast for Japanese culture, Griffin is super smart and funny. I'd recommend jumping at a chance to pick his brain.

What are 3 books that will always be on your bookshelf and why?

The Great Gatsby, because I was an English major, Breakfast of Champions, because it was my first taste of Vonnegut, and A Jello Horse, because it's an important reminder to chase after that dream.

What book blogs or websites do you frequently check in on?

Since I'm kind of a video game nerd, I'm frequently perusing IGN and Kotaku, sometimes Destructoid to keep up to date. In terms of more literary stuff, I used to check HTMLGiant rather obsessively (like, every 20 minutes, maybe), as well as the Stranger's book column.

Every reader has their favorite spot, where do you read and what do you need to have around you when you read?

You know, I'm not much of a ritualized reader. This is something that surprises me about myself, but it's true. Being a commuter of the bus riding variety, I find that I get a lot of my reading done in transit on one of those beasts. My personal favorite is the 540 to the U-District. Especially in the morning. It's usually pretty quiet, and quite empty if you ride at the right time.

If you could play one video game with one literary fiction author, who would it be and what game?

This is a difficult question for me, and I think you knew that it would be when you came up with it. I'm kind of split, and so I'll just share both answers. Tom Bissell is an awesome author, though I am only familiar with his personal essays about video games. Needless to say, as a fellow gamer, he's a prime candidate. As far as games go, I'm thinking something with implications and underlying themes that I wouldn't necessarily be aware of. I think I'd want to hear his take on Ico. So, with that said, the other scenario would involve Joshua Ferris. I know, I know, the guy's just blowin' up now that he's on the Top 20 Under 40 list The New Yorker put out, but he's one of my favorite literary figures. Why? The guy is an amazing speaker in addition to an amazing writer. The speaking part really blew me away at the author event we had with him last year. I'd want to play Red Dead Redemption with him. I wonder what he'd have to say about life and morality in the old west. Insightful and hilarious, this guy can do it all. Truly the sun and the moon existing as one!

What is your favorite section to shelve? 

My favorite section for shelving is history. Any kind of history. I think part of it is because I like all of the numbers (639, 678, 636.1), but it's also just a particularly interesting area in terms of what you can glean from covers. Such as the book Young Stalin. What did I learn from the cover? Young Stalin rocked the bohemian look, and seemed like kind of a pretty boy. I didn't see that comin'. 

You can see all of Griffin's posts here.