By the Book: Emily Higgs Kopin
Emily Higgs Kopin (she/her) is the Head of Digital Collections Strategy at the Swarthmore College Libraries, where she maintains digital infrastructures professionally and borrows a ton of books and movies personally. She has a BA in Religious Studies and an MS in Information Studies, and is often tempted to collect additional degrees. In her free time she also makes music, fiber art, and trouble. She is aided in such endeavors by her husband, cat (Ganon, named for the Legend of Zelda villain), and dog (Agnes, a retired racing greyhound).
What are you reading these days? My honest answer is that I'm reading the Legends of Thezmarr series by Helen Scheuerer, which is a medium-smutty "romantasy" series typical of the trends that have exploded outward from the popularity of similar books (A Court of Thorns and Roses, Fourth Wing, etc. etc). For what it's worth, I've read a ton of bad versions of this formula and I think Scheuerer does it pretty well.
Describe your favorite place to read on campus: Parrish Beach, but also pretty much any spot outdoors. Scenery helps to layer my own experience of escapism.
Is there a book you've read multiple times? Many, many books. Two I've perhaps re-read the most: Middlemarch by George Eliot and The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel. I contain multitudes.
Is there a book you pretend to have read? Again, many. I think I've pretended to read Moby-Dick to the extent that I actually forget I've never read it.
Who is your favorite author? This is a thoroughly impossible question for a librarian, so I'm going to further scope it to authors currently alive and publishing fiction: I think Samantha Shannon is one of my favorites of late (I ADORED The Priory of the Orange Tree), and I've been on a Paul Tremblay kick lately (please check content warnings before you read any of his books on my recommendation).
What's the latest book you could not finish even though you thought you should? Well, I don't feel shame about not finishing books that just don't hold my attention. Life is too short, and there's so much out there to read! I often struggle with finishing popular nonfiction, as I prefer primary sources to be cited and presented in a way that the general audience just doesn't care about as much.
What literary character would you most like to be friends with? I have always felt a strong personal resonance with Middlemarch's Dorothea Brooke, who some readers find insufferable. Maybe I'm insufferable too. There are worse things I could be.
Do you have a literary nemesis? Charles Dickens. Mostly just a grudge because he fills the slot on a lot of English syllabi that I think would be better filled by George Eliot.
What is your favorite reading genre? Fantasy, horror, and romance - and all the permutations of the three combined!
What book do you recommend most often? I often recommend The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, which I think is just a stunning novel. (Again, please check content warnings before taking my recommendations.)
What's the best movie adaptation of a book you've read? I'm torn between Hellraiser (1987) and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Watching either with me involves a lot of pausing and sharing of fun facts.
What author would you like to meet and what would you ask them? Since I mentioned Tolkien, I would love to ask him what he has against women having spoken dialogue in Middle Earth. Not a particularly sophisticated criticism, but one that always bothered me nonetheless.
What book made an early impact on you and why? I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a kid (8? 9?) and it just totally opened up new worlds for me and made me into a voracious reader of fantasy, as well as a gamer and movie lover. It also introduced me to the world of online fanfiction, which has certainly also shaped my reading habits.
What is one lesson you learned from a book that you think everyone should know? Don't get tattoos of intellectual property from authors/creators who can still turn out to be horrible people. Cover-ups hurt and removal is worse.
