Bibliofreakblog

We Be Interviewing

So, you live in NYC and your interview partner lives in Australia?  Sucks for you.  Both my interview swap parter and I live in Seattle and sort of did our interviews in person.

I say sort of because really, we hung out at the PNW flagship Barnes & Noble for two hours and then did the actually interview via e-mail like everyone else.

Who is this totally cool blogger I got to sit around and chat with about ravens and books and other random things?

It’s Kristen M. from We Be Reading!

Here’s a random thing about Kristen: She must have some awesome self-control, because while I picked up three books in the discount section, she didn’t buy a thing.  The whole time I was thinking, how does she DO that?

Also, a note to Seattle bloggers: Did you know that next weekend Half Price Books is having a HUGE sale where everything is $1 or less?  It’s somewhere in Greenwood in Seattle and starts at 9AM.  Books will be replenished the next day, but I’m thinking of getting there early on Saturday and then possibly going again on Sunday at the end.  IDK, my in-laws are coming to visit, but they can come if they want.  :) 

Oh, right, the interview.  Here it is!  And be sure to check out Kristen’s interview with me over at We Be Reading!

J.T.: When you enter a bookstore, what section do you visit first?

Kristen: If Z is with me then I usually head to the kids section to get him distracted and busy reading something while I browse. If it’s just me then the new fiction or new mystery shelves … I don’t like being out of the know. The first section I usually start buying from though is the discount section. At Half Price Books I walk straight to the clearance carts.

J.T.: Do you give books as gifts? Is there one in particular you like to give?

Kristen: I love giving books as gifts. I am pretty picky in choosing something specific for each person that I think they will like. I usually try not to buy recent bestsellers though — except for my dad who gets a new hardcover Clive Cussler book most every year because it’s what he wants and he waits for me to get them for him. For kids I like to buy the classics — Madeline, Corduroy, Curious George.

J.T.: What genre would you like to read more of?

Kristen: Hmm … I pretty much touch on most of the genres that I’m interested in but I want to read more international fiction, especially in countries that are not my standard locales. Recently I’ve been purposefully looking for more books set in Australia and Iceland. Rebecca at Lost in Books does a great “Take Me Away to …” feature which I love using as a reference.

J.T.: What has been the hardest book for you to describe, summarize, or review?

Kristen: Probably The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde or anything by Douglas Adams. They just have plots that move non-stop and through so many twists and turns that you can’t give a quick summary. Plus, it’s really hard to describe how truly funny they are.

J.T.: If you could go out for drinks with three fictional characters, who would they be and what would you order?

Kristen: Wow! Hmm … okay … I tend to read a lot about murderers so there are a lot of characters I can think of that I would avoid having a drink with! How about a cup of tea with Amelia Peabody (from the Elizabeth Peters series), tequila shots with Thursday Next (The Eyre Affair) or a creme de menthe with Poirot. If I’m being honest, though, the first thought that came to mind was a butterbeer with Oliver Wood (as long as he looks just like Sean Biggerstaff played him in the movies and we can have a snog afterwards!).

J.T.: How many books do you own (estimate)

Kristen: About 500 of my own and another 150 or so kid books. T has maybe 150 of his own and we also have tons of old textbooks so basically we have far more books than we can shelve right now.

J.T.: If you could have any book, what would it be?

Kristen: When we were at the county library in Portland, the rare books curator brought out a set of the serially released sections of David Copperfield. I really, really wanted that set.

J.T.: Did you start blogging first or did you discover book blogs first?

Kristen: I think they both happened right about the same time. I was reading mom blogs and tech and science blogs and decided that I wanted to blog what I knew best which was books. So, I went looking for other book blogs to get an idea of how other people were doing it but I mostly started doing my own thing right away as well.

J.T.: You do a Poe Friday meme each week. Which of his works is your favorite?

Kristen: The Raven. I know quite a bit of it by heart and would love to learn the entire thing. I love the cadence and the subject matter and the sheer madness of it all. I also really enjoy the different things that have spawned from it — especially The Simpsons Treehouse of Horrors episode with a version of it!

J.T.: Do you review books as soon as you are done reading them or do you wait a while?

Kristen: I try to review them as soon as possible just because I have a short memory. If I leave a book for too long or read too many other books after it, I start forgetting some of the specifics about it and what I wanted to say. I also put the books I need to review on the coffee table where I sit with my laptop and so I like to do them sooner than later so that I can put them away.

One little note from me to a mega-corporation: Dear 20th Century Fox, you suck. I wanted to put a clip of “The Raven” from the original Treehouse of Horrors episode of your esteemed animated series, the Simpsons, but evidently you have removed every single said clip from the internet not in German due to copy-right laws. True, I could have used the one version out there, which is audio-only, but I think that we both know that this is no way to enjoy this medium.  Your decision to remove said clip from YouTube hurts both my blog and the spirit of Halloween more than it hurts you and I hope I have caused to you to be just a wee bit introspective about what your YouTube policies really mean to you having brought this to your attention. Best, J.T. Oldfield