Armchair BEA: Introductions!

Yay! It's time for Armchair BEA this week! That's where those of us not getting to go to New York for the real event (BEA) get to party together at our computers. Thanks to those of you that make it happen. Hard work for sure!

Normally we start out this week interviewing each other, but instead of doing that, this year we've been asked to "interview" ourselves! That's always fun, right? Ten questions have been provided and we are to answer five. Here are the five I've chosen:

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

I figure I may as well start out with the generic intro question, though I feel like everyone knows the answers. BUT, the hope is there's someone new out there coming to visit this week, right? So maybe you don't know all the answers already after all.

Who am I? I'm a mom, a reader, a library clerk, a Nerdfighter, a sister, a wife, a teacher of 12-13 year old girls at church, an author stalker, a Utah Book Blogger, a TV addict, a fan of all sorts of music, a food lover, a quiet observer, an 80s kid, a sort of quilter, a Grobanite, a book club hostess, and.... so many other things!

I've been blogging about books for a little over five years now. I started this particular blog after I realized no one on my other (personal) blog cared about talking books with me. Also, I saw there were these things called reading challenges that I thought looked fun and everyone kept track of them on book blogs. Also, I wanted a place to gush/talk/complain/moan/ponder about all the books I was reading and I found that worked much better online than in real life. Plus, I wanted to make lists and keep track of them!

Here's what my header looked like for a long time, years ago.

Which is your favorite post that you have written that you want everyone to read?

Well, I think my favorite post of all time is the silly one I wrote a couple of years ago about going to author signings. If you haven't read it and you go to lots of author signings, do give it a look and tell me is that NOT how it is? :) 

Now that you've read it I have some updates on the issue: I've improved a little (I hope) on my author signing approach. I'm not so nervous about promoting the blog, mostly because I'm usually with a bunch of other bloggers and we we play off each other, also because it's (blogging I mean) more "known" now and authors actually almost seem excited about meeting bloggers these days. And they actually know what a blog is. Also, I've firmly decided to be known in the book world as Suey, because it's weird enough to remember, and much easier to say, however, I do find myself explaining the nickname quite often. Oh, and when this post was written, I had yet to meet my Markus Zusak! And at the time I couldn't even imagine it! But it happened less than a year later and I'm happy to report that I did NOT faint and there was no need to pick me off of the floor, though I probably did need a little help with the drooling issue.

If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?

Um okay, so I just mentioned Markus Zusak... nice segue, yes? I would LOVE to eat dinner with him, just like the lucky ducks at the library were able to do a year ago when he came. I would be very nervous, I would be pretty much be tongue tied, but I would try my best to get over it and carry on a really intelligent conversation. I would hope that we (because I won't be alone... hello) can get him talking about writing, or his life, or his loves and passions... and then we'll just sit back and listen. Yeah, that would be fun.

What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?

Wow, there's so many! I mean, how am I to pick? I think I'll simply go with a visit to the fictional Avonlea which is located on the very real Prince Edward Island, and which, though I know it exists and that real people actually LIVE there, I still think of as a fairy tale, idyllic place in my mind. It would be good to go there and experience the beauty of this place in person. Besides, I just need to see more of Canada generally (because my little afternoon in Victoria hardly counts, I mean it COUNTS, but was not NEAR long enough) So, if I do go there some day, it would be part of an extended Canadian trip for sure.

PEI

Have your reading tastes changed since you started blogging? How?

Not sure that my actual TASTE has changed, but habits definitely. Before blogging I read mostly classics, and some current fiction and few YA. After blogging, I can hardly manage to fit in the classics anymore for trying to keep up with all the popular YA! While I still like the classics, I find that they are harder to read now that I know there are so many quick and easy things I'm also dying to read. It's been an interesting flip of reading habits, that's for sure.

There's my five! Hopefully you enjoyed me interviewing myself! :)

Now, I'm off to see what you all have to say about yourselves!