Quite a while ago I wrote a post about things that I loved, this is kind of the same thing, but nerdier.

1. Shakespeare, especially the “boring” histories. I actually have coached a competitive high school Shakespeare team for nine years and I just can’t get enough of The Bard. Favorites include Henry V, Henry VI (parts 1, 2, and 3), Cymbeline, and Richard III. If you aren’t watching The Hollow Crown series, you probably should: Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeremy Irons, and Tom Hiddleston, ’nuff said.

2. I prefer Velociraptors to all other dinosaurs, and would like you to know that April is Velociraptor Appreciation Month. (Really.) Put it on your calendar for next year.

3. Fairytales. There’s just something so delightful about life with a little bit of magic in it, isn’t there? I mean, Frozen and Tangled were okay-ish, but Disney’s version of events is absolutely not what I’m talking about here. Fairytales are really morality lessons and teaching stories, right? So the basic concepts of love, hate, danger, death, family, and the unknown weave through all of them. Once while digging around in a University bookstore (which yes, I sometimes do for fun), I found a book that contained different versions of five or six universal fairytales: Cinderella according to the French, English, and Russians; Beauty and the Beast according to Native American tradition, Belgians, and Italians; Hansel and Gretel according to the Germans, and a tribe in Africa; The Three Little Pigs as told by Roald Dahl. I loved reading the same basic story with so many different variations, and since then I have made a habit of collecting fairy tale books. Of course I have the complete Brothers Grimm stories, and Hans Christian Andersen’s stories, and a few hilarious versions of familiar-but-fractured fairy tales, but I also have a book of Icelandic fairy tales, bedtime tales from Africa, The Arabian Nights, a couple of different versions of the most fantastical stories, legends and myths from China, India, and South-East Asia. And did you know John Steinbeck wrote down all the legends and stories surrounding King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table? Also, Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Cymbeline are both fantastic fairy tales. The more you know.

4. Sloths. I’m kind of like Kristen Bell, you guys, with the notable exception being that Blue Eyes has never brought me home a sloth to snuggle. A sloth necklace, yes, with the cute little guy hanging off the chain, but no live sloth. (Note: something to consider.)

5. Maps, maps, and more maps. I had an enormous map of the world on the wall of my bedroom for over a decade, and if I had my way (and more wall space) I’d have maps in every room of the house.

6. Race cars. Not like Indy 500 race cars, or a nitro-engine souped-up Honda, but the long, sleek cars that make and break land speed records at Bonneville

7. Volcanoes!! I became particularly obsessed with the Pompeii and Krakatoa when I was a kid and have since read a handful of thick, non-fiction books about volcanoes, how they work, how they explode, history of eruptions, etc, etc, etc. I have gone SCUBA diving in a dormant crater filled with hot spring water 65 feet deep, I have explored unmarked lava tubes in Hawaii and spent a couple of hours completely transfixed watching lava roll down the side of an active (but not spewing) volcano while smoke filled the sky.

8. Trains. I love trains, my Dad love trains, my older brother loves trains, my nephews love trains. I have my own stripey conductor hat (it says Sr. Engineer on it, btw), and a few years ago I finally got my dream train  for Christmas. It’s a big, G scale, German-made LGB with indoor-outdoor all-weather track, a Santa Fe engine and is in desperate need for a couple more loops of railroad. I like “real” trains too, freight trains and passenger trains and tanker trains, but it’s a lot harder to fit them in a neat little circle of track in my living room. My LGB train has been set up since the day I brought it home, my nieces and nephews and stepkids play with it every time they come visit. I even have two Jr. Engineer stripey hats for such occasions.

9. Narwhals (i.e. swimming unicorns).

10. Lists that have an acceptable number of items.

What nerdy things do you love?