A Little About Me
Hi everybody,
my name is Claire Burke and this is my second year in the MLIS program. I am leaning towards the Children’s Librarian route of the program.
Since 2009, I have been working as an ABA tutor for children with special needs and love incorporating books, visuals, and various literacy skills to help nurture their love for reading and imaginative play. In my spare time, I like to read, especially horror, mystery, and fantasy novels; I just finished reading Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones and am currently into Homeland by R.A. Salvatore.
Halloween is my absolute FAVORITE holiday, as seen from various costumes over the years shown below:
I also really enjoy listening to music and going to concerts. The last two concerts I went to were The Outlaw Music Tour featuring John Mellencamp, Bob Dylan, and Willie Nelson and The Pop 2000 Tour hosted by Chris Kirkpatrick from NSYNC featuring The Calling, O-Town, and LFO.
Thanks for taking the time to look through my blog and here’s to a great semester!
Cheers,
Claire
6 Comments
Michael Stephens
@claireburke. Great pics! 🧛♀️ I am enjoying a run on horror films right now… Monday night was Longlegs and last night I started Oddity. Boith are very well done. Thanks for your sharing here. Welcome to #hyperlib!
Claire Burke
@michael. I have seen Longlegs, but haven’t heard of Oddity, will definitely check it out! During late September through October my friends and I watch, mostly, so bad they’re good scary movies (Fright Night being the exception to one of the bad ones).
Cheers!
Michael Stephens
@claireburke I am giving The Blackcoat’s Daughter a try — from the director of Longlegs (which I can’t get out of my head).
Louis Waters
I also love Halloween. My wife and I have been sneaking out the decorations earlier and earlier every year. She’s was more of a horror kid than I was, I was too scared, but I’ve come to really love the genre. Mostly movies, mostly older moodier ones. I’m currently finishing up a set of folk horror movies. I have started trying to read at least one or two horror novels or collections during the Halloween season too though. Last year I got through some Thomas Ligotti and finally read some Clive Barker. I’d love to read more contemprary or lesser known writers too though, but it’s hard to know where to start So, if you have any recommedations!
Your work also sounds really interesting. Thought it can be challenging at times, for a variety of reasons often unrelated to the individuals or groups you’re direclty assisting, I’ve found working with special needs communities to be the most rewarding and interesting.
Claire Burke
Hey @louis
what folk horror movies have you been watching? That’s one of my fave genres, I really enjoy the original Wicker Man with Christopher Lee and The Witch. I’ve never read Thomas Ligotti and have only seen Hellraiser by Clive Barker, but liked it a lot.
The main horror writer I enjoy is Stephen King, but if you dabble in manga, Junji Ito creates some amazing stories and visuals. The book Hell House by Richard Matheson had me keeping the lights on at night when I’d read it.
Yeah, for sure I enjoy my job and have seen the kids I work with grow so much over the years I’ve known them; I definitely am clocked out by the end of the day, but in a good way, if that makes sense.
Louis Waters
Oh I love the original Wicker Man. I’m a little more mixed on The Witch and Robert Eggers in genereal, though I’ve seen most of his films and am looking forward to his upcoming Nosferatu. Thomas Ligotti is great. He’s a weird fiction guy, I guess. Very strange, disturbing, and dryly funny stories.
For folk horror I’ve been finishing up the films in the first volume of a folk horror series of box sets from Severin films, called All the Haunts Be Ours. Some of the recent highlights have been Penda’s Fen, Witchhammer, Robin Redbreast. They’ve all been great though, even if some stretch the definition of horror. I’ve been saving the documentary about folk horror, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, for last.
I’ve read some King and was thinking about picking up an Ito for this Halloween season. i’m going to add Richard Matheson to my list! Thanks!