NL: Can you share a bio with us?
BC: I grew up in a village in the south of England, with cows, horses, chickens, dogs and five older brothers. I’ve worked in pubs, kennels, art galleries, sandwich shops and a few libraries, including on and off at the Nyack Library since 1993. I started at Nyack as a page and one of my tasks was to file the catalog cards. Each new book coming into the library had three cards (one each for title, author, subject), which had to be filed in each of three card cabinets. That card filing was excruciatingly boring, and thankfully a job soon opened on the checkout desk. Things were very different back then, and as I recall, I just stepped into that new job without an interview! Beyond work, I like to eat, read, draw, knit, garden, take photographs and visit family (all in the UK, except for my two children who are both in Colorado). My ongoing passion is to create wildlife habitat in my own backyard.

​NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
BC: The Humans by Matt Haig. It’s a slight departure for me, because it involves an alien from a distant planet. I’m liking it very much and the alien’s take on the humans is clever and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny.

NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
BC: I would love to hear the Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi speak at the Nyack Library. I am often drawn to novels by or about people who straddle two cultures. As an immigrant, I suppose it helps me sort out my own life, and my own notions of “home.” Gyasi’s writing and storytelling are superb, and I highly recommend her two novels, Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom.

NL: Which character in a book do you most identify with?
BC: I think the character I identify with the most would be Fern from Charlotte’s Web. She’s the little girl who grows up on a farm, loves all animals and ultimately saves Wilbur the pig.

NL: What books are on your night stand?
BC: The books on my bedside table right now are: Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of our Planet by Ben Goldfarb; The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy; Fox by Joyce Carol Oates; Little Beasts: Art, Wonder and the Natural World (National Gallery Exhibition Catalog); Caterpillars in the Field and Garden by Thomas J. Allen.

NL: Are there any books that you feel are overrated?
BC: Perhaps old religious texts (e.g. the bible). In my worldview, we’d be better off paying less attention to them.

NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
BC: Not really! Except maybe my very nerdy books about insects and the environment.

NL: Are you a re-reader?
BC: Essentially, I’m not a re-reader. However, I do keep a running list of books I’ve particularly loved. If I’m lucky enough to reach a ripe old age, I might re-read some of them then.

NL: How do you get out of a reading rut? 
BC: ​I don’t really get into reading ruts.

NL: Thoughts on prologues? Epilogues?
BC: Prologues and epilogues are written to be part of the experience of the book, so yes, I always read them.

NL: What’s your least favorite book?
BC: Probably those poetry books that they made me read in school – Gerard Manley Hopkins, Rainer Maria Rilke and others. I never could wrap my head around those poems.

NL: If you were to own a bookstore, what would it be like? How would you arrange the books? Would you serve coffee and food? Play music? Where would it be? 
BC: Above all, my bookstore would be warm and welcoming. It would have a comfortable knitting corner with a fireplace, and dogs would be allowed. Having people eat and drink while reading books that they haven’t yet paid for would make me a little crazy, so that would be a “No” on food and drink. Music would be an important feature, and there might be a section of second-hand albums and CDs. There would be regular programs and local author readings. It would most likely be in a river town in the Hudson Valley.

NL: Are you a one-book-at-a-time reader? Or do you like reading multiple books at the same time?  
BC: I’m almost always just reading one book at a time.

NL: Do you DNF (do not finish) books or always read until the end?
BC: Definitely DNF is fine! As often as needed.