Charleen from Cheap Thrills

Today please welcome Charleen, who blogs at Cheap Thrills.  Charleen is known for her reviews of thrillers, in a broad sense!

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What's the meaning behind the name of your book blog?

I decided I wanted my book blog to focus mainly on thrillers, as that's a genre that I particularly enjoy and one that seems to be underrepresented in the book blogosphere. And since I rarely purchase new books and get almost all of my reading from the library... Cheap Thrills seemed to fit.

How long have you been blogging?

I've been blogging in some form or another for years, but I started Cheap Thrills in March of this year, so I'll be coming up on my six-month blogiversary soon!

What genres do you write about most, and why?

I take "thriller" as a pretty liberal descriptor. You've got your action-movie-in-book-form kind of novels, which seems to be what most people think of when they think thriller... but really anything that has some suspense to it is fair game on my blog. I read other genres as well, but I wanted my blog to have a focus, and thriller is my go-to genre, the books I keep coming back to after I've spent some time branching out.

What's your earliest memory of reading?

Reading Are You My Mother? out loud to my little brother. I know I was reading before then -- he's five years younger than me so I was probably about seven or eight at this point -- but it's the first thing I remember. (He loved the SNORT!)

What's your favorite place to read?

A comfy chair in a quiet room.

Finish the sentence: My bookshelves are...

... woefully inadequate considering how few books I actually own.

My TBR pile is...

... an ever-evolving stack from the library.

One book you like that no one else seems to, or vice versa?

I'll give you one of each. One I like: Lost, by Gregory Maguire... it's his most unpopular book, but for me it's second only to Wicked. One I don't like: Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn... it's a well-written, well-crafted story, but it's just not for me (and I haven't even read Gone Girl because I suspect it will be more of the same).

To DNF or not to DNF?

I used to HAVE to finish every book I started, but gradually I got myself used to DNFing. I'm such a happier reader for it.

What's one book that intimidates you?

This may be cheating since it's not one book, but... the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I really like King on the whole, even though I haven't read a ton of his work, but there've been some of his books I haven't cared for as much, and I'm scared of this series falling into that category.

If you could go to any literary destination, where would you go?

The Library of Alexandria. To visit one of the first and greatest centers of learning would be incredible, even if the original library was lost. (I don't suppose anyone has a spare time machine I could borrow...)

What are 3 of your must-read blogs?

Insatiable Booksluts
Snobbery
Words for Worms

What is your reading personality? (via quiz at http://www.bookbrowse.com/quiz/)

"Your responses show that you are both a serial reader and an eclectic reader, which indicates that you both read widely and frequently. As a serial reader you're loyal to your favorite authors, but as an eclectic reader you're also open to new ideas and new writers, and are not wedded to a particular genre."

Yup, that pretty much sums it up.

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Thank you for joining us today, Charleen! Remember to check out Charleen's blog, Cheap Thrills, and leave a comment or question.