About Colin I am an Enterprise Architect at Clarke University, which is fancy for
guy who does a little bit of everything. In addition to app development
and implementing strategic IT initiatives in relation educational
technology, I also manage the Audiovisual Department, being the chief AV
nerd on campus. My hobbies include reading, writing, theatre, home
“improvement” projects, online gaming with my buddies, and spending
time with my family. I have worked a variety of jobs here in Dubuque,
from overnight security guard, English & Theatre teacher, bookseller
(River Lights), waiter (L.May), and freelance graphic design artist. I
have been hired to play a clown, and been paid money under the table to
DJ at weddings. I have a blog with some bad poetry, essays, and
pictures of my daughters doing cute things.
(See the past Reader of the Month posts here)
Q&A with Colin
Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year (or ever)?
A. Since I really view them as a single book, I would say it would be the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer.
Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?
A. Cramped on a too small couch with a thick, dark beer.
Q. What book are you most excited about reading next, and what about it is most exciting?
I am excited to read Borne by Jeff Vandermeer. Honestly, I loved the SR Trilogy so much, and am completely enamored with his writing style that I can’t wait to immerse myself in words again.
Q. What book do you think more people should read, and why do you think they should read it?
A. Perhaps not a specific book, per se, but an alternative literary canon – dramatic literature. What a play or a musical can do is distill a narrative to its most essential components and lay bare a character in ways a novel often cannot. It forces the reader to use their psychoanalytical skills that a novel often makes easier for you. This is especially true in terms of character development and motivation. A play also has an artistry in and of itself that is magnificent to behold and legion in variety. While a play is incomplete until being viewed on the stage, the simple act of reading can offer a sometimes more rewarding experience than a piece of fiction. That being said, here is my short-list based on my current mood: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, J.B. by Archibald MacLeish, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, and God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza.
Q. What book has been the most challenging for you to read? How did it challenge you?
A. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. It took me so long to finally put my head in a place to really understand the menagerie of language Faulkner employs in crafting this book. Having to retrain myself to understand the narrative as constructed by Faulkner was a grueling process and took the better part of year to achieve, but once it clicked, a light emanated from the novel that left me in awe of how one can paint with the artistry of words.
Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book? In other words, do you read every book to the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?
A. I like to read challenging books in the same way runners may challenge themselves with longer or more difficult courses. They payoff in that challenge once it is completed is for me one of the greatest joys of reading, although ironically, I never really wish for a good book to ever end, delaying my sought after catharsis. That being said, the thing that usually forces me to put a book down is boredom coupled with a busy schedule.
Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?
A. I don’t remember its title or how old I was, although I know for sure I was a child in elementary school. I had, for the first time, finished a chapter book, and that sense of achievement and satisfaction hit me in a way nothing ever had up to that point. I sought every opportunity to recreate that feeling ever since.
Q. Can you tell us about your reading life in general?
A. What is odd, I feel, about my reading life is that if you were to ask any of my teachers growing up, I think you’d find that very few of them saw me as someone who loved to read. They would be right, as I did hate to read….what they told me to read, mostly because they told me to read it. I read on my own, and rarely did I take the time to pick up the assigned reading, which, as you may imagine, led to some less-than-stellar grades. I was a closeted reader, rarely discussing books with ANYONE, because some part of me felt a certain shame in the act of loving something I so openly detested in an academic setting. It wasn’t until college, when surrounded by people with passions ranging and intermingling in the fields of art, literature, and music did I truly begin to openly, and with renewed ferocity, express my love for the written word. I found the world far more complex, beautiful (or by contrast exasperatingly ugly) than I had ever dreamt. It is why, when I was hired to work at River Lights Bookstore after graduating from college, I felt as I had truly struck gold (which is still true for anyone who is bestowed the opportunity to work at River Lights, a place as close to heaven as you can reach while on earth). To this day, I rarely travel anywhere without something to read just in case the opportunity arises. With three kids in tow nowadays, those opportunities are a little less frequent, but old habits die hard. In a supreme cosmical feat of karma, my passion for literature led me to go back to school to become a High School English and Theatre teacher where I was able to couple my love of theatre and literature into something I was so fortunate to do on a daily basis for five years of my life. I could go on, really, but you weren’t expecting a novel, or a novel written by me that is.
Check out Colin Muenster's book list! Apply to be the next C-SPL Reader of the Month!
Updated: January 2, 2025
