ALL OF MY GUEST BLOGGERS WERE GIVEN THE OPTION OF DOING A BOOK BLOGGER INTERVIEW AND I THOUGHT IT ONLY FAIR IF I FILL ONE OUT MYSELF. THAT WAY YOU CAN GET A LITTLE BIT OF INFORMATION ABOUT ME.
1) First of all, tell us a little about yourself.
I'm Patricia. I've run the Lady with Books blog for two years now. I'm 30 years old and I live in a one bedroom apartment. I work as a clerk in an engineering office. I take care of a colony of stray cats that last year we trapped and had fixed before releasing again. I like plants. A morning glory plant is trying to eat my balcony and my living room resembles a small jungle. I'm an amateur author. I regularly participate in National Novel Writing Month in November. I like to sleep. I'm an introvert and hate crowds and large groups. I'd much rather stay home and read.
2) What inspired you to start blogging about books?
I'd always wanted to write a blog. I'm fascinated by the idea of worldwide community without actually having to deal with people face to face. I had a personal blog but, really, nothing happened in my life worth writing about. I posted the things I wrote on story archives but what I really wanted was a blog. I began to think about which of my hobbies I could make into a blog, something I would have a snowball's chance in hell of keeping up with. I didn't even know that book blogging was such a big thing until I had set my blog up and started looking around.
3) What have you learned since you started blogging? (Like things that surprised you about the process or just how bloody hard it can be sometimes etc.)
Blogging takes time and creativity and I don't always have an abundance of both sitting around. It's hard to come up with fresh content and it takes work to get people to visit your blog. There are days where I just don't feel like blogging and times where I feel like nobody is listening. It takes perseverance to maintain a blog. It's really like having a second job. Blogging is not easy.
4) What attracts you to a book? (The blurb? The cover? Other reviews?)
Before I started blogging and reading so many other blogs, I would have said the cover was what attracts me to a book the most. Now, it's what other bloggers I trust are reading and what they say in their reviews that decides what I pick up next. A pretty cover can still turn my head, don't get me wrong, but I listen to other book bloggers first.
5) What is your favorite book and why?
Gosh, it's hard to pick one. I have a favorite but it's less of a single book and more of a trilogy. The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is THE fantasy story. It is the fantasy story from which all other fantasy stories were born.
6) What is your favorite genre and why?
Fantasy, hands down. I read to escape and the farther I can escape the better I like the book. Fantasy can get me to other worlds. I call that pretty far.
7) Who is your favorite author and why?
Neil Gaiman. I adore all of his books because he has this witty, tongue in cheek style of writing and because his stories are always deeply magical but somehow still rooted in our world. As if the magical in his books could be right next to us, if only we were looking correctly.
8) Any advice for the beginner blogger you wish somebody had told you?
It's not going to happen overnight. It will take work. You're going to have to get out there and comment on other blogs and use Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic to your blog. It just doesn't happen by itself.
9) Any thoughts on ebooks versus paper books?
Paper books will always be my favorite way to read but ebooks are easier to deal with and cost less. I don't think paper books will ever completely go away but we'll be dealing more and more with ebooks as the years go on. I use both and both have pros and cons.
10) Tell us a little bit about your reading habits. Do you follow a schedule or are you a mood reader?
I read in fits and starts. I can read several books a week or I can read nothing. My slumps, I call them. I wish I could follow a steady schedule but that's just not going to happen. I read when I feel like reading and trying to force myself to read when I'm not feeling it is just going to skew my review unfairly negative. I've learned to go with the flow.
11) How do you use and handle social media as a blogger? Do you use Twitter? Do you have a Facebook page? How helpful do you find these things?
Social media is the best way to drive traffic to your blog, I know that. But Twitter mystifies me and all those tiny little posts overwhelm me. I try to post more to Twitter, get in on some other conversations, but to me Twitter is so unwieldy that I just get annoyed. I do have a Facebook account I created after I dropped my Google + page but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot going on there compared to Twitter.
12) If you were shipwrecked on a desert island, what 3 books would you want with you?
-War and Peace by Tolstoy. This is an inside joke with me. I always said that if I was trapped somewhere I would like to have the longest, most complicated book I could think of because then I'd have time to actually read it.
-Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival by Tom Brown. Because I would be dead in like a day. I don't have any idea how to survive on my own! I don't even go camping!
-The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. A series counts as one, right?
13) Is there a particular movie or TV series that you preferred over the book version? Or the book version over the movie or TV series?
I rarely enjoy the movie more than I do the book. The Lord of the Rings movies are on par with the books, in my opinion. Otherwise, I'm mostly disappointed by what a movie leaves out. The Harry Potter movies are great but they are so limiting and miss so much from the books. I usually prefer the book over the movie or TV version. Then I end up with casting issues a lot.
14) Any other hobbies besides reading and blogging?
A bit of writing. I, well, not garden because I live in an apartment but I take care of as many plants as I can cram in my apartment and on my balcony. I enjoy cooking but I'm only okay at it. Most of my stuff is edible but not great. The cooking gene didn't get passed down from my Grandmother, I think. My mother can't cook either. I do crafts. Mostly paper crafts and scrapbooking. A tiny bit of painting. I like to go antiquing and second-hand shopping. I like to shop and I like old things, which gets me in trouble moneywise sometimes.
15) Do you have a favorite memory associated with books?
My Grandmother taught me to read and my favorite memory is of us sitting in the white chair by the window in the bedroom with the orange shag carpet (her whole house was carpeted in shag carpet in wild colors), me in her lap and the book in front of us. Her finger would move under the words as she read and I remember how her chin rested on the top of my head. I got my love of books from her.
THIS OR THAT?
Paper or Ebooks? -Paper
Fantasy or Sci-fi? -Fantasy
Romance or Thriller? -Thriller
Comedy or Horror? -Comedy
Mountains or Beach? -Mountains
Rain or Snow? -Rain
Summer or Winter? -Winter
Batman or Superman? -Batman
Train or Airplane? -Train
Texting or Calling? -Texting
Cat or Dogs? -Cat
Tea or Coffee? -Both. Either. With lots of sugar.
Chocolate or Vanilla? -Vanilla
Pancakes or Waffles? -Pancakes
Cake or Pie? -Cake
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