Monique from Write Note Reviews

Please welcome Monique, who blogs at Write Note Reviews.

Questions:


What is the name of your book blog?

Write Note Reviews http://writenotereviews.wordpress.com/

How long have you been blogging?

I started blogging seriously about January 2012 after I left my job as a newspaper editor. I’d been fortunate enough to review books while working in media, so I just made a few calls to my contacts and went from there. Now I review regularly for about 10 publishers in Australia.

What genres do you write about most, and why?

I review across a number of genres, but most books probably fall into the contemporary fiction, historical fiction, crime/thriller/suspense and romance categories.

What's your earliest memory of reading?

I don’t really remember not reading. I’ve always had my nose in a book. Well, nearly always! I think I inhaled books.

What was the first book you read over and over?

Probably The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Still love it!

What book have you re-read the most?

That’s hard. It’s a toss-up between Jane Eyre and Anne of Green Gables.

What's your favorite place to read?

In my new reading chair. It’s gorgeous! I picked it up at a garage sale last week and it is a beautiful French-style chair with walnut carving around the legs and arms. Other than that, anywhere I can be uninterrupted.

Do you have any reading accessories you can't do without?

A blanket in winter. I can read without munchies … but I am partial to them, especially popcorn.

Finish the sentence:

My bookshelves are...

groaning under the weight of all my books.

My TBR pile is...

overwhelming and exciting at the same time. Is that possible?

What's a book that's changed your life?

I don’t think I can limit myself to one. Different books have met different needs at different times. Reading books about living in Italy have affirmed my outlook on the way I cook and live (sadly, without the actual living in Italy bit); the Bible has met spiritual needs at different times; cookbooks never fail to inspire me. All books have changed my life because they have enhanced it and allowed me to embrace my imagination and the thoughts of others.

One book you like that no one else seems to? How about a book that you dislike and everyone else seems to love?

I’ll answer these together. No specific titles are coming to mind, but the way I see it, we’re born with different tastes, desires and needs. Sometimes a book will meet a certain need for you, but doesn’t for others. Does that make it no good? No. It’s all subjective. Like a good wine, books are bound to taste different for every consumer.

What's one book that intimidates you?

Les Miserables. I have tried to read it, but have not yet succeeded.

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

Also a hard question … as a child I wanted to see the Lake of Shining Waters with Anne (Anne of Green Gables), as well as Mary’s secret garden (The Secret Garden) with Dickon and Mary. These days, I’m easily swayed by all the wonderful places I read about, but the Tuscany and Umbria regions of Italy as described by Marlena de Blasi would probably be at the top of the list.

How about non-book related hobbies?

What do you do when you don't feel like reading? Cook. I love cooking feasts and treats for my family. I also enjoy writing, photography, walking and going to op shops.

What's your favorite book to movie adaptation?

Can I choose two? Chocolat and Lord of the Rings.

Tell us a bit about your book blog. What makes it unique?

Funny that … when I started book blogging, I thought it was a pretty original idea. Not, as it turned out. Mine is ‘unique’ in that it’s my voice … other than that, I add a bookish treat idea to the end of each review – a book and a treat all in one.

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

I’m an eclectic reader, or as I say, a bit of a licorice allsorts.

Thank you for joining us today, Monique! Remember to check out 's blog, Write Note Reviews, and leave a comment or question.

Kelly from Reading with Analysis

Please welcome Kelly, who blogs at Reading with Analysis. Kelly's blog is know for romance reviews.

Questions:


1.      NAME OF MY BOOK BLOG(S): Reading with Analysis

2.      I HAVE BEEN BLOGGING SINCE: February 2012

3.      GENRES COVERED MOST ON MY BLOG: Romance

4.      THE BOOK I HAVE RE-READ THE MOST TIMES:  Pride and Prejudice definitely wins with the most re-reads, followed closely by Persuasion, but I have a list of books that I re-read on a semi-regular basis: Far from the Madding Crowd, In Search of Lost Time, Cry, the Beloved Country, and The Winter of Our Discontent.  I haven’t done as much re-reading in romance since I started my blog, but I’ve got a soft spot for Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens, England’s Perfect Hero by Suzanne Enoch, and The Duke and I by Julia Quinn.  Those three books welcomed me back to the genre after my decade of snobby reading.

5.      MY FAVORITE PLACE TO READ:  My favorite thing in the world to do is to lollygag in bed with a book.  I naturally wake up at about 7 a.m., but on Saturdays I usually don’t need to get out of bed before 9.  I love to spend that two-hour period reading and annoying my husband with my lazy ways.

6.      MY BOOKSHELVES ARE: organized by subject, generally, but Dewey would cry if he saw them.  He’d say, “What kind of madwoman forces Greek and Roman literature to share a shelf and sandwiches them between a shelf of ‘British literature’ and ‘20th Century European literature’?  She knows nothing!”  He’s right, honestly.  And anyway, I actually read 100 e-book romance novels to every 1 paper book have on my interestingly organized bookshelves, sooo…..

7.   A BOOK THAT INTIMIDATES ME: James Joyce’s Ulysses (and, I suppose, Finnegan’s Wake, but I wonder sometimes if anyone actually reads that book or if folk just pretend they have for the dubious benefit of passing themselves as well-read) is the most memorable example of a book I tried to read but could not finish.  The book itself is not all that intimidating… I’m not saying I really understood any of it when I was reading it, but I got through three quarters of the book with no real problem.  Unfortunately, during my reading of the book, I suffered a trauma, and I’ve never been able to pick it back up again.  I’ll never get to the glory of Molly Bloom.  Perhaps it’s for the best.

8.   MY FAVORITE NON-BOOKISH ACTIVITY:  I love to entertain guests in my home. My husband and I host a weekly dinner party at our house, and my job is generally to keep the conversation going and, occasionally, to be unbearably awkward.  I’m fairly decent at both.

9.   MY BOOK BLOG STANDS OUT FROM THE CROWD BECAUSE:  Honestly, I can’t imagine that it does.  I suspect my reading approach to romance novels is a trifle unusual, both because I take them seriously and I have expectations of quality when I approach the genre.  On the blog, I try to approach books in a thematic way, when there are sufficient themes within a book to discuss, or a specific way, to explain what I did (and often didn’t) like about a book.  In other words, I’m shooting for constructive criticism.  Also, just about everything in the world reminds me of an Eddie Izzard reference or a clip from Veggie Tales or a comedy from the 80s, etc., and I like to share those references to keep things fun (or awkward). Oh, and I’m kind of a feminist (like Pol Pot was kind of a mass-murdering fuckhead), and I tend to discuss romance novels through a feminist perspective.  Not sure if all of that makes for a stand-out blog, but there it is.

10.   MY READING PERSONALITY (http://www.bookbrowse.com/quiz/) IS: “All Rounder” – It would seem that I fit equally into all four reading personality categories.  Books and reading comprise a huge part of my life, and I’m forever thinking and talking about them, often to people who really don’t care.  Even though I spend a lot of time reading, I don’t read for reading’s sake, and I hate to waste my time on books that are bad or that are just not to my taste.  I do my best to protect myself from starting books that I won’t like, and I’m getting better about not finishing books that will only continue to enrage me.  Once I’ve found an author whose voice and storytelling I enjoy, I tend to buy up and read everything that author has available.  Finally, although I do tend to stick to the romance genre for my everyday reading, I like to broaden my horizons occasionally by participating in a book club at my workplace and taking recommendations from friends and family.  (Can I just nitpick for a bit, though, about some of the weird homophone issues going on in that quiz? Even the name of my reading type, “All Rounder,” is not quite right...)

Alice from ofBooks

Please welcome Alice, who blogs at ofBooks!

Questions:


NAME OF MY BOOK BLOG(S):
ofBooks – http://ofbooks.org

I HAVE BEEN BLOGGING SINCE:
January 2012.


GENRES COVERED MOST ON MY BLOG:
Literary Fiction/Classics, Non-Fiction, Historical Fiction,  Poetry, General Fiction, Fantasy and Dystopians.


MY EARLIEST MEMORY OF READING:
I didn't read much as a child, most of my memories are of me in my early twenties guzzling book after book rather than anything specific.
I do remember a period in my early teens when I loved Louisa May Alcott books – Little Women and Eight Cousins – I really craved that sort of upbringing, no idea why.


THE BOOK I HAVE RE-READ THE MOST TIMES:
I tend not to re-read books, I have never felt the desire; I am always after the next adventure, always wanting to crawl into the next world. I would say that Harry Potter series is probably the only occasion where I have re-read anything – my sister and I used to re-read the series before each book came out to remind ourselves of the plot. Once we devoured the newest book in a matter of days, the prospect of years ahead of us before we could revisit Harry, Hermione and Ron again was devastating.

MY MUST-HAVE READING ACCESSORIES:
A bookmark, a pen and my laptop.

This may horrify the majority of you, but I am a book scribbler. I should invest in some post-it notes  to jot on, but currently I will write notes all over a book. You should see my copy of 1984, angry and 'huzzah!' scribbles all over it.

My laptop is always at hand too, so I can get down thoughts which surpass scribbling length.

MY BOOKSHELVES ARE:
Overflowing! They are split into three sections; books to read, favourite books read, and  everything else. I do not organise by any method; author, alphabetically, colour, height – for convenience sake I probably should.

MY TBR LIST/PILE IS:
Huge! I recently did an internship with a publishing house in London and came away with two boxes of books, all of which have been piled op top of an already towering TBR pile – the three I have out at the moment are:

Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai
The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
Soldaten by Sonke Neitzel and Harald Welzer


A BOOK THAT HAS CHANGED MY LIFE IN SOME WAY:
The Reader by Bernard Schlink
It taught me to think outside the box – it is easy to herd a population under the title of 'extremist', 'fascist' or 'Nazi', when life is more complicated. Should blame be placed on people who have little understanding of what they have done? Can we punish the individual for a group's crime?
It blew my mind; now I consider all factors of an event, not just the winner's.


A BOOK I LIKE THAT NO ONE ELSE SEEMS TO:
I can't really think of one. Not to say that I have marvellous taste; I find it tends to be a friend or two that disagrees with my opinion, as opposed to a group of people – I have never been in a situation where I appear to be the only advocate.


A BOOK I DON’T LIKE THAT EVERYONE ELSE SEEMS TO LOVE:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak– it was okay, but did not move me in the same way it did for anyone else I have spoken to about it.

A BOOK THAT INTIMIDATES ME:
Most of Shakespeare – I feel like there is constantly something I am not understanding, and the language, though beautiful, is lost on me.


IF I COULD GO TO ANY LITERARY DESTINATION I WOULD CHOOSE:
Any location Poirot visits, Agatha Christie gave her sleuths the best adventures. I would particularly love to travel down the Nile in the 20s/30s, oh the glamour!

MY FAVORITE NON-BOOKISH ACTIVITY:
I really would love to list something here that would imply that I am in some way active, but really, aside from reading I just enjoy seeing friends and having a natter. Books are my introvert tool of joy, however, on occasion I need human interaction. Seeing, or speaking to, some of my favourite people occupies my spare time and keeps me happy.


MY MUST-READ BLOGS (PLEASE LIMIT TO 3):
Charlie @ The Worm Hole [http://wormhole.carnelianvalley.com/]; because we have similar tastes in books, and sometimes I think she can read my mind.
Emily @ Emily Books [https://emilybooks.wordpress.com/]; because we have utterly different tastes in books, and her blog introduces me to books I would never find on my own.
Manda @ Break the Sky [http://breakthesky.net/]; because she is one of the most interesting 'life' bloggers I know.


Thank you for joining us today, Alice! Remember to check out Alices's blog, ofBooks, and leave a comment or question.

Bridget from Portable Pieces of Thoughts

Please welcome Bridget, who blogs at Portable Pieces of Thoughts. Bridget's blog is known for great essays and eclectic, creative reviews.

Questions:


NAME OF MY BOOK BLOG(S): Portable Pieces of Thoughts

I HAVE BEEN BLOGGING SINCE: 2010

GENRES COVERED MOST ON MY BLOG: I am omnivorous, I read almost everything: urban fantasy, paranormal romance, those freaking romance, non fiction, historical fiction, thrillers, sci-fi, space operas, crime mysteries, you name it...

MY EARLIEST MEMORY OF READING: ???

FIRST BOOK I READ OVER AND OVER: LOTR by Tolkien. I couldn't get enough of it. And then I discovered Silmarillion ;).

MY FAVORITE PLACE TO READ: where nobody can disturb me.

MY MUST-HAVE READING ACCESSORIES: a pencil - I am a doodle addict

MY BOOKSHELVES ARE: I don't believe in shelves. I believe in glass bookcases.

MY TBR LIST/PILE IS: too full? too long?

A BOOK THAT INTIMIDATES ME: there is no such a book.

IF I COULD GO TO ANY LITERARY DESTINATION I WOULD CHOOSE: Egypt

MY FAVORITE NON-BOOKISH ACTIVITY: shopping for shoes, drinking coffee, creating jewellery

MY FAVORITE BOOK TO MOVIE ADAPTATION: there is no such thing as a good book to movie adaptation. Nuh-huh

MY BOOK BLOG STANDS OUT FROM THE CROWD BECAUSE: it doesn't stand out from the crowd. Not really. No fireworsks just reviews and essays.

MY MUST-READ BLOGS (PLEASE LIMIT TO 3): Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Books, TYWKIWDBI, Dear Author,

MY READING PERSONALITY (http://www.bookbrowse.com/quiz/) IS: OK I actually went there and did that quiz. Here is the result: "You read for entertainment but also to expand your mind. You're open to new ideas and new writers, and are not wedded to a particular genre or limited range of authors." I quite agree.


Thank you for joining us today, Bridget! Remember to check out Bridget's blog, Portable Pieces of Thoughts, and leave a comment or question.