Variety is a necessity for avid reader and writer Scott Hatch: Variety in the books he reads — he's currently reading three books of different genres — and variety in the writing projects he tackles.

Hatch, 45, is an English and literature professor at Utah Valley State College. This year, Signature Books published Hatch's book of poetry, "Mapping the Bones of the World."

Prior to coming to UVSC, Hatch was a technical writer. He was editor and publisher of Network Professional Journal.

"I read just about everything," Hatch said.

"I grew up in a small town in the Tooele Valley in Grantsville." Hatch remembers checking out books at the library that were so seldom read that the previous person to check the books out was his father when he was a child.

Hatch read Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway, who is "not too popular because he was not a nice person overall but a superb stylist."

He also loved science fiction.

Currently in his backpack are Joan Didion's creative nonfiction, "The Year of Magical Thinking"; Billy Collins' poetry, "Sailing Alone Around the Room"; and Jared M. Diamond's historical "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies."

"It is illustrative that I tend to spin in a lot of circles," Hatch said.

He read his children "Treasure Island" and "Beowulf," which his children liked, a happy surprise for Hatch.