Val's philosophy of being a wonder wanderer and getting lost is the epitome of what happens in our relationship with books. In her youth, Val was an avid reader and as adulthood bears more responsibilities reading sometimes has more purposes than pure entertainment while her choices of material evolved. As a graphic designer, Val is obsessed with book covers and good design in general so wandering into bookstores to look at all the delights is always fun and inspiring. She's admittedly a bibliophile.

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At the University where she was teaching prior to starting this retreat center and workshops, the general education program was asking faculty to submit course proposals for seniors in any major to take a seminar that covered the 5 subjects – history, literature and philosophy, aesthetics, science, and human behavior - in some capacity with an overarching theme. After much contemplation and brainstorming, Val had an a-ha moment - BOOKS! You see as she became immersed in design education and teaching graphic design history, books not only became something to read, but artifacts of culture, evidence of historical changes in design, and more. Her passion for books grew enormously and she developed a list which has expanded beyond the initial 24 books about books for her students to read and she read them too. Her proposal was met with rave reviews by all of her colleagues and teaching it brought much joy in seeing students who admittedly never read a book (and graduating from college) or those who didn't think they were creative able to present their reading in an innovative way, or those learning about literacy, Malala's story or book censorship for the first time.

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Val is passionate about everything BOOKS: book culture, book design, reading, visiting libraries and bookstores, discovering historic archives, teaching about the history of the book and history of writing, and making her own visual narrative books. She wants to share her knowledge and passion for this material with you!