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Some people believe that librarians spend all day reading books at their desks. Unfortunately, that's just a myth. The truth of the matter is that while librarians get to see all kinds of wonderful volumes coming in and going out again, they don't always get a chance to interrupt the flow and snag one or two of those books for themselves. So Corinne spends nights and weekends catching up with her reading. Mysteries are her favorite kind of fiction. She's an environmentalist, so nature and geography books are high on her list. So are American history, American literature, writing and even some business advice and self-help topics. Sometimes good children's picture books catch her eye. She'll never run out of potential reading material, that's for sure. The stack next to the bed keeps getting higher. Music has always been in her life. Piano lessons began in kindergarten. Picking up the flute and piccolo -- her father's instruments -- led her to participate in high school & college bands and choirs as well as with a few community groups. When a talented classmate named Karen Sloat taught her how to manage the G-progression chords on an acoustic guitar, that turned out to be the most fun of all. During her lifetime, Corinne has performed on stages; in orchestra pits; on football fields; in churches; in parades; around campfires; in a bar in Galena, Illinois; and on a street corner in Aspen, Colorado. By now, she's decided that being in the audience is a less stressful and more enjoyable experience. As for her musical tastes -- well, she's never left the 1970s. Because she wasn't allowed to go to rock concerts when she was a teenager ("Honestly, Mom, Philly's not that far away!"), she's been spending the past two decades making up for lost time. She might see anyone from James Taylor or Neil Diamond to Lynryd Skynryd or Rush. Tickets to see Crosby, Stills & Nash probably outnumber all the rest of the stubs in her growing collection, but the Eagles, Elton John, Billy Joel, Sammy Hagar and Bruce Springsteen aren't far behind. While she was living in the Midwest, Corinne was in the audience for Farm Aid '98 in Tinley Park, Ill. She dubs that day "the most aromatic" of all the shows she's yet experienced. Now that she's found Rambles.NET as a venue for concert reviews, she'll take good notes at all of her upcoming outings. Corinne's been writing reviews for professional library magazines since 1990, and she has posted book reviews on Amazon.com since 1999. After compiling information about the Carnegie libraries of New England for an American Libraries article in 2006, she launched a website detailing all 85 buildings. A literary agent is searching for a publisher for her first novel, Watching Henry. Corinne is currently writing a nonfiction book about Henry David Thoreau's 1861 trip to Minnesota. She serves on the board of directors of the Thoreau Society and lives just an hour west of Walden Pond. She has spent only a few short months on this planet without a cat by her side. Her current companion is Squeaks, a long-haired calico with an attitude as big as a football stadium. And speaking of football, both Squeaks and her owner are big fans of several AFC teams: the Steelers, the Bills and the Patriots. On fall and winter Sundays, you'll find them both perched in front of the television, cheering at least one of those teams on to victory. Occasionally Corinne will sneak off to Roggie's Bar & Grill, the Steelers bar in Brighton, just west of Boston, to associate with other folks wearing the Black & Gold. Once a season, she might even make a road trip to Orchard Park, NY, to experience a game in person. Corinne is proud to say that she was at both of the ceremonies in Canton, Ohio, when Lynn Swann and Jim Kelly were inducted into the Football Hall of Fame. (She'd also been in Cooperstown to see Johnny Bench inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989, but that was back when the Big Red Machine was winding down and baseball, alas, was a much better game.) When not reading, writing, working or attending football games or rock concerts, Corinne likes to travel and see interesting places. She's driven through 38 states and one Canadian province since 1993. Her apartment is littered with glass jars full of sand, shells and rocks picked up at beaches all over the eastern half of the United States. She can be reached at chsmith@berkshire.net. |
Reviews by Corinne include:
CDs: Diane Arkenstone & Misha Segal
Jeff Black
David Cortello
Dorothy Doring
Thea Hopkins
Lori McKenna
Bruce Piephoff
Pure Prairie League
Lee Penn Sky
The Staple Singers
various artists
Books: Barbara Blossom Ashmun
Michael D. Eisner
Shelly Fredman
Jonathan Gould
John L. Herman Jr.
Beverly Lewis
Jonna L. Miller
Paula Morin
Mitch Myers
D.V. Pasupuleti
Ann Rinaldi
Dwight Rounds
John Ralston Saul
Larry G. Straub
Beckah Tolley, Raven Duclos & Katie Boyd
Concerts: Bob Seger with the Silver Bullet Band & Steve Azar |
Corinne H. Smith is a native of Lancaster, Pa. She has been a librarian since 1979 and has worked in a variety of school, public and academic libraries over the years. She spent the first 37 of those years in her home state, then lived for eight years in Illinois before deciding to return to the East Coast in 2003. She now lives, works and writes in the hills of central Massachusetts.
