It's Time for Armchair BEA!

So, I've never participated in Armchair BEA, and I wasn't going to this year.  But I am in desperate need of something distracting right now.  I miss my dog like crazy and it's almost Father's Day.  So.  Like I said.  Distractions.

Armchair BEA is the perfect way to think about other things!!  Like books!!  So I'll be participating all week :)  I even have a giveaway coming up because I want to give away some of my favorite books of the year to my readers.

Today is all about introductions.  We were given a list of 10 questions and could answer any 5.  So here are mine:

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

-My name is Kelly and I am a 23 year old college grad with a French degree. I have a job where I am actually kind of sometimes using that degree, which is pretty awesome. I have been blogging since 2009, but back then the blog was about my time living in France, as a way to keep my family and friends up to date on what I was up to. In 2010 I switched over to reviewing books when I got home from France and missed blogging. I got into book blogging because I needed an outlet to gush/rant/rave about the books I was reading. My family is all big into reading, but if they haven't read a book, they don't want me talking about a book. So I started the book blog.

2. Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you.
-I have a twin sister who looks pretty much just like me?  I actually think most of my readers know that though. I love visiting Naval Parks. Especially when there are submarines involved. When I was growing up, I wanted nothing more than to join the Navy and live on a submarine. The only problem with that is that I wanted it to be a WWII sub, not a nuclear sub :) Now I still am pretty much obsessed with submarines, but I get my fix by visiting naval parks and reading about them. And watching my favorite movie, U-571.
 
3. If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?


-Hands down that would be Dustfinger from Cornelia Funke's Inkheart trilogy. I LOVE DUSTFINGER!! He was such an interesting character. He seemed to only care about himself, but proves that that is completely not true. Author wise, I would ADORE to have dinner with Cornelia Funke. She is my favorite writer. I don't usually read middle grade or YA books, but there is just something about her stories that gets to me.

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


-Once again I'll have to go with Inkheart. The world that Cornelia Funke was able to bring to life in that trilogy enchanted me. When I read those books, it was like I had actually entered the story and was in the Inkworld. I would walk around in a daze for weeks daydreaming about that place. I would LOVE to visit it. As long as I had Dustfinger by my side.

5. What is your favorite part about the book blogging community? Is there anything that you would like to see change in the coming years?


-What I love most about our fun book blogging community is that everyone reads! And no one is ashamed of it! You find a place where you really fit in. And it's so easy to find others with similar tastes. If you like literary fiction, you will find a lot of bloggers with the same tastes. If you read YA, there is a community for that. If you read scifi or fantasy, there are other bloggers who read that. It is a big community, but within it are smaller communities. And it's been so much fun finding other people who have similar reading tastes as me. As for changes, really I would just like to see more blogger interactions online and offline. The community as a whole I think is very friendly and open, but sometimes it seems like some bloggers are only commenting etc to get more traffic to their blogs. I love commenting on blogs because I love getting to know the other bloggers. I would also love to see more "offline" things. There is of course the whole book blogger thing at BEA, but we can't all get there. That of course is something that has to happen more locally. But it would be so much fun to have more real-life book blogger interactions :)

And that is that!  I can't wait to get home from work later and read what you all have to say on your blogs :)