Tag: Alexandra Bautista

Project Bookshelf: Alexandra Bautista

Since I was a baby, I’ve had the same bookshelf. It’s a bit of a mess. 

I’ve had to stack some books on top of the vertical ones because I can’t fit them in properly, and it takes me a good five minutes to find a book that is not in the first rows of my shelves. Finding a book often entails taking out the entire first row to see what’s in the back, only to put the books back because what I’m looking for isn’t there after all. My books spill out of the shelf itself, climbing like ivy to sit on top of the shelf. More can be found in a metal cart and in the bottom two shelves of a shelf in the living room because, as many books as my shelf can hold, I simply own too many.

So let’s take a tour of my bookshelf, for if the eyes are the windows to the soul, then my bookshelf is the window to my heart. 

The best place to start is actually not the shelf itself, I think. It’s hard to show the full thing, but I have a Google Spreadsheet titled “Alex’s Library” that holds an alphabetized list of all the books I own (333, to be exact). Above is a bit of that spreadsheet, but I do admit that I chose a section that had more “Completed” books than “Not Started,” just for the sake of portraying myself mildly positively on the internet.

The sections that I track are the status of the book (completed, in-progress, not started, DNF), the title and author of the book, as well as whether it belongs to a certain series, two genres that I feel best encompass the book, the book format (paperback, hardcover, Book of the Month, collector’s edition, movie tie-in, and manga), and the amount of pages in the book. Additionally, I also note the dates that I started and ended reading a book, my rating out of 5 stars, a link to a review that I’ve posted online, and a section for notes about the book. 

This spreadsheet is how I maintain a sense of control over the chaos of my books, and it makes it really easy to share with my friends when we want to buddy read a book. I take a lot of pride in my spreadsheet organization, honestly, so let me know if you’re also a spreadsheet fiend.

The books that are in the front are usually books that I have yet to read so that I can see them clearly and decide more quickly when I want to start a new book. A lot of these books are ones that have been published a bit more recently and thus were recently acquired. You might notice that some of those books have Goodwill stickers on the spine! A lot of my books (except for the Book of the Month editions) are found in Little Free Libraries, thrift stores, or used bookstores. A few books are bought from local bookstores around me and have been gathered throughout the years (I’m chronically late, and that includes reading popular books). 

It’s so hard to try to speak about my bookshelf since if I showed you every individual shelf (all two rows) and the books in other places, you’d be here reading for a very long time. So lastly, I’ll just show you my favorites collection.

This top shelf holds a bit of a collection of Casey McQuiston’s books. Red, White & Royal Blue is one of my favorite books ever. It holds a character that I see a lot of myself in and makes me believe that I, too, can one day live openly and happily. All of McQuiston’s books are the epitome of queer joy. Of course, that’s not to say that their characters don’t face challenges, but seeing these characters that are well-characterized enough to feel like real people receive happy endings in their stories makes me feel like real life can have happy moments as well. Some of my books are tabbed and annotated, and those I’ve turned around to show off to the world.

I also have Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou, a book that was assigned for me to read in my first year at UCLA. It’s a biting satire of academia, particularly concerning the studies of Eastern cultures in Western settings. It grapples with the power dynamics of various interracial relationships between the main character and her partner, the Chinese poet who turns out to actually be white, as well as the lasting effects of Western colonization on modern cultures of the colonized.

Lastly, for my favorite books, I have three copies of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The 1818 text was also required for me to read for a different UCLA English course, and I immediately fell in love with the story. I don’t often cry when reading books, but I sure did while reading this one. The essay I wrote for this book is one of my favorites from my degree, and I was so lucky to meet one of my best friends, Emma, in that class. The colorful spine of Frankenstein was a gift from her when she was visiting Denmark, and I cherish it as a symbol of where our friendship started.

Speaking of my English degree, I would be remiss not to mention the stack of bricks called Norton anthologies that I have. Despite the late nights those books gave me, I can’t bring myself to try to get rid of them. They’re filled with notes from when I first started out as an English major and remind me of where I started. Even when I moved, I took them with me. They’re not particularly my favorite, but I wouldn’t be where I am without them.

Photo of a Southeast Asian woman wearing glasses looking past the camera, smiling. In her hands are two books. She is wearing a white dress with a blue ribbon, a pearl necklace, and a blue and gold graduation sash. In the background are blurry bookshelves.

Alexandra Bautista (she/her) is an intern at Sundress Publications who hails from sunny California. Armed with an expensive piece of cardstock (her UCLA English degree) and way too much anxiety for one human body to hold, she approaches her lifelong love of reading with a perspective that is both analytical and emotional. Due to her background in tutoring high-school-aged and college-level students in writing, she believes that inside of everyone is a writer waiting to share their inner voice. Hopefully someday that will include her… whenever she gets over her writer’s block, that is. Which, likely, very possibly, maybe, might be never. 

Meet Our New Intern: Alexandra Bautista

Photo of a Southeast Asian woman with glasses smiling as she looks at the camera while completing a spin, her hand hiding part of her face. She is wearing a white dress with blue flowers and a blue graduation sash with gold trim that reads, "Class of 2025" on one side and "UCLA" on the other. In the background is a brick arch that shows trees in the distance.

When I tell people about my degree in English Literature, I’m often met with confusion. 

It shows itself in different ways: the more subtle knitting of eyebrows or an incredulous look. But it often shows itself verbally, for it seems that people have an immense capacity for curiosity that includes, “Do you want to be a teacher?”

I think I wouldn’t mind being a teacher, actually, if it came down to it. I have so much respect for the teachers that helped to shape me into the person, reader, and learner that I am today, from the math teachers who helped me during lunch breaks to the English teachers that encouraged me to dig deeper into our reading materials, but it does not escape me how loaded the question of teaching is.

It’s inextricably connected to the fact that 1.) it is in the humanities and 2.) that I am a woman. Teaching has largely been a field dominated by women, and the fact that it has to do with nurturing an aspect of children is also an aspect that tells me how people view Literature, and by extension, the humanities itself. 

It’s not like I don’t have experience with teaching. My first job ever was as a writing tutor at Los Angeles City College, my community college at the time. I continued tutoring high-school students after I graduated from university because I found the act of helping them express themselves fulfilling. But I think that it’s quite telling that everyone thinks that I’ll be a teacher (but never a professor) when I tell them about my forever love. They become even more confused when I tell them about how I’m more interested in publishing literature than teaching it. They don’t quite understand the work that happens in the background before a piece of writing is shared with an audience. They don’t understand why I would rather help a writer than write myself. 

I don’t really have to explain myself, but I have an intense and pathological need to do so, so I point them to the back of any book.

People often skip the acknowledgements at the end of books, but I always like to read them. The book feels incomplete if I don’t. While the author wrote the book, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the book would not exist in its current form without people who help behind the scenes, such as agents, editors, sensitivity readers, even just people from the author’s personal lives who supported them throughout their writing journey.

Writing is not the isolating journey people imagine it to be; I think these acknowledgements are proof of that. And while it would be wonderful to somehow gather the courage and commitment to write something substantial myself, I’ve also always wanted to be so helpful, so supportive, so necessary that someone felt they had to thank me in such a lasting way.

I believe that Sundress does that very important task of supporting people that the publishing industry often overlooks in favor of good business. What drew me to this press was not just that it supported marginalized communities, but that it actively does its part to uplift and platform those voices. For publishing to truly be diverse and for people like future students reading assigned materials and walking away with a new perspective on literature, it is essential to continue this task. 

So, I wouldn’t mind being a teacher. But I think my path lies elsewhere.

Alexandra Bautista (she/her) is an intern at Sundress Publications who hails from sunny California. Armed with an expensive piece of cardstock (her UCLA English degree) and way too much anxiety for one human body to hold, she approaches her lifelong love of reading with a perspective that is both analytical and emotional. Due to her background in tutoring high-school-aged and college-level students in writing, she believes that inside of everyone is a writer waiting to share their inner voice. Hopefully someday that will include her… whenever she gets over her writer’s block, that is. Which, likely, very possibly, maybe, might be never.