Tuesday, September 14, 2010

BBAW: Meet Her Book Self


In honor of Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW), I am once again participating in the blogger interview swap. And, I have once again discovered another blog to add to my Google Reader, to follow and to influence by TBR.  I am very excited to introduce Lisa from Her Book Self, a reader who loves "a lot of different books!"

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Tell us a little bit about yourself, both in Her Book Self and outside of the blogging world.

I've loved books and reading for as long as I can remember - which is a quasi-long time since I just turned thirty.  Somehow though my academic interests led me to the science world which is a bit of an odd place for a bookworm.  I currently work as a research scientist studying pediatric oncology, but I travel to work by train so my enjoyment of books has been fostered by lots of commuting time, even if most people in my line of work don't possess my same obsessive reading pursuits.  I've been blogging since 2002, but my personal blog had sort of fizzled out so in May of this year I decided to merge my love of reading with blogging and start Her Book Self.  I chose the name not only as a play off bookshelf, but because I think the books a person reads can tell you a little about that person.  For me, I'm a really eclectic reader and outside of books my interests are quite varied as well.  I love hiking, video games, crocheting, swimming, scrapbooking, cooking, roller skating, stamp collecting, Chicago Cubs baseball... well, the list goes on and on...


What brought you to the book blogging world?  What have you enjoyed the most about it? 

Back in 2006, I joined the site LibraryThing.com mostly as a way to keep track of the books I read and wanted to read.  They have a review feature on there and I started writing reviews of my books so I remembered them better.  From reviewing, it was a natural transition from my personal blog to a book blog.  I've really liked taking my reviews and using them as conversation starters to talk to others about books.  Very few people close to me read as many books as I do so it's been a fun experience to use the internet to reach readers all over the world that share my voracious appetite for books!


You have noted that your favorite book is Homeland by R.A. Salvatore.  I have never read this book or author.  Can you sell this book to me in five words or less?!?

Action-packed emotional character-driven well-written fantasy  
(A hyphen means it counts as one word, right??)


This month you are hosting Series in September, a feature where you chat about series books.  If you could choose any series that you would recommend the book blogging community read together, which would it be? 

There are so many good ones out there!  Can I pick a top three?  I adore J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, but I don't often recommend it because most people that are even remotely interested in it, have read it.  I also love Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.  He writes very classic detective stories set in Botswana and his characters are wonderfully endearing.  If I really had to pick a massive blog-wide group read though, I would probably choose The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.  I think they are really entertaining books from a fantasy standpoint, but there are deeper levels of meaning to them.  Personally, I love them as stories of faith, but even for those of different religious or non-religious backgrounds, I think they can be read, discussed, and analyzed from a storytelling perspective too.  


As I was perusing your site, I discovered that you share a lot of literary quotes.  Which is your favorite and why?

"Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them! I'll have a long beard by the time I read them."
~ Arnold Lobel 

That one might be my favorite because of how accurately it describes my typical books-to-read situation (besides the beard part).  I also shared a quote about bookmarks that sparked some wonderful discussion about people's reading and bookmarking habits.


If you could be any literary character, who would you be?

Such a great question!  I think I'd have to choose Thursday Next, from Jasper Fforde's series that starts withThe Eyre Affair. Actually that would be another series I would love to read alongside other book bloggers...  If you're not familiar with the books, Thursday is the heroine and she has the task of preventing literary crime by traveling into the plots of well known novels and stopping criminals from altering well-loved stories.  Fforde's hilarious fantasy version of England where literature is taken very seriously would be a wonderful place to visit and I would love to have Thursday's ability to travel into all my favorite books!


I heard a rumor that it is your birthday this month!  When blowing out those candles, what will you be wishing for? 

My birthday was last week and along with plenty of wonderful surprises I received a Kindle digital reader!  I'm really excited to add digital books to my reading repertoire and the convenience of carrying multiple 500 page tomes in my purse is simply amazing.


Any famous last lines you would like to leave us with?

Well, Tif, I want to thank you for participating in Book Blogger Appreciation Week.  I'm really glad that this interview exchange introduced me to Tif Talks Books and I hope some of my readers will check out this blog and vice versa! This has been a really fun experience but since that's not really famous words to end on, I'll borrow from another wonderful book, "Tomorrow is another day."


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Wow Lisa!  Such great answers!!!  I have never heard your favorite quote before and I absolutely love it!  You definitely have me sold on Homeland, too!  I'm adding it to my TBR right now!!  And, last but not least, 
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!

What was your favorite answer by Her Book Self?

6 comments:

  1. Great interview! I'm headed over to check out the other side now!

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  2. It was so much fun swapping interviews with you, Tif! I'm really glad to have found your blog and look forward to sharing memes with you in the future!

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  3. Hi Tif, nice interview with Lisa! I'm one of the many people who have been reading Lisa's blogs since 2002 and I learned some new things here.

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  4. TexasRed . . . Thanks! I hope the other side was just as great!! :)

    lisa :) . . . I completely agree!!! Once again, BBAW has proven that the blogger swap is the best part of the week! :)

    Greg McConnell . . . That's GREAT!! Even after 8 years, Lisa has some surprises up her sleeve!! :)

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  5. Great interview! I also like quotes, especially literary ones, and the one Lisa shared here is perfect!

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  6. Valerie . . . I loved that quote too!! I'm so excited I discovered Lisa!!

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