Introducing... Me!

Greetings and salutations, people of the interwebs.

My name is Brian. I'm a book addict. I admit it's a problem, but I'm not ready to do anything about it. Mostly because I don't actually admit it's a problem. Books are awesome, and as far as I'm concerned there are far worse vices to have.

How do I love books? Let me count the ways:

1. I'm one of those extremely anal readers/book collectors. I don't like loaning out books, especially to people I know dog ear pages or break the spines. 
2. One way I've gotten around this issue is by buying multiple copies of the same book. For books I like, I almost always wind up buying the hardcover of it, if it was ever published in hardcover.
3. The fact that the hardcover version(s) might be out of print and maybe even collectible doesn't stop me. The most I've spent on a single book is $300 on this hardcover of Patrick Rothfuss' Name of the Wind. First, because it's one of my favourite books ever, and second because it's an absolutely gorgeous cover. I also have this edition of Name of the Wind, one of the two first edition covers for it, and also this edition that is the current edition being published. All three are signed by the jolly ol' gnome himself.
4. I was a member on an author's forum throughout university, and was even an admin for a period.
5. I read Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings, a 1000 page hardcover book, from start to finish in one day. I read it twice before it's official release date (it was not a strict on sale book, and my store received it more than a week before the official release date).
6. It is my yearly goal to read at least 50 books. This current year I'm around 70.
7. I work at a bookstore, and have been since 2009. 
8. I've written a full length novel that was 170,000 words in length while I was in university. It was awful terrible rubbish that will never again see the light of day, but I can say I've done it. I am currently working on another novel/series, this at a much more careful and deliberate pace. It's more of a hobby than something I ever expect to have published, but I still want to do it right.
9. I went to college for editing and publishing, and finished it this month actually. I hope I can work up to editing full novels, but in truth I've found I like grammar and editing enough that I'd be happy with any kind of editing job.

That should be enough to give you an idea of who I am and how I think about books. There are other ways, but the list would be too long for any sane human being to be genuinely interested in reading through. 

Why do I like books so much? Some people read for an escape, some read because they appreciate the creativity involved in the writing of a book, its prose, the characters, the setting, and so on. I love books for all of those reasons. My mind is more "creative" than it is logical or scientific or anything else. But as I am someone who has experienced depression for most of my life, I can easily appreciate the escapism involved as well.

What sort of content will I be writing for this blog? Mostly reviews, and mostly about fantasy books. But I can anticipate that I'll occasionally want to write about all kinds of topics and genres related to books, literature, publishing, editing, language, and so on.