Welcome to the Bookshelf.

I know what you're thinking. Another book blog? Really? There are a gazillion of them out there on a variety of different genres and topics. What makes this one so special?

Doubt is to be expected, so allow me to introduce myself. My internet handle is Lady Lioness. You may know me from such fandoms as Sailor Moon, Roswell, Wolf Lake, and, recently, the Big Bang Theory. My foray into the Internet began in the early '90s on the very first incarnation of the bulletin boards at the Bronze, in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom. I was the original keeper of the Codex. The Lioness's Den sprang to life shortly after than during my college years. It was a meta-link site. It expanded after 2000 as I added an archive for my fanfiction. After I graduated from college, I kept renewing the domain name, but I no longer maintained any of the sites.

I started work at a chain bookstore nine days after graduating in 2002. I am still employed by the company and it was eight years last May. I started as a bookseller, got promoted to Merchandising Supervisor, and then dropped back down to a part-time bookseller when I got a full-time job working in an academic library. In 2005, when I became a supervisor, I also became a Romance Expert for the chain.

As a Romance Expert, I get advanced reader's copies (ARCs) from various publishers and from NetGalley. I read them and then send my opinions to our Romance buyer in our corporate headquarters. If I really enjoyed it, I would write up reviews to be posted on the website. However, due to recent changes in the legalese with regards to posting reviews on the site, I'm no longer keen on that idea. In addition, I occupy an unique place in the book world, straddling the boundaries between the general public, the retail conglomerates, and the publishing industry.

I am a profligate reader. I don't have the exact number handy at the moment, but I read well over 200 books a year, spanning genres from picture books to science. Obviously, I tend to read more romance than anything else, but any title that looks interesting goes into my TBR journal.  However, I have three firm DNWs. I will not read anything involving adultery or cannibalism, and a fiction title must have a happy ending. I have enough drama and angst in my real life.

My goal for the Bookshelf is simple: Update a couple of times a week with book-related posts. Bear with me as I get the details sorted out and perhaps prettify the place a bit. It's rather dusty in here.