2015 Book Blogger Love-a-Thon Interview

Thanks Alexa Loves Books for hosting the 2015 Book Blogger Love-a-Thon!

1. What’s your name?  Amanda and Holly
2. Where in the world are you blogging from?  The frigid midwest. Complete with neverending snow and ice.
3. How did you get into blogging in the first place?

Amanda: Our fairy blogmother is my friend Christina who was blogging at Allodoxaphobia at the  time.  Those ladies have moved on to other endeavors but thankfully Christina continues to answer all my blogging questions and always is willing to talk books with me!

Holly: Amanda made me do it!

       4. How did you come up with your blog name?

Amanda: The name is in homage to our amazing high school English teacher.  He taught us “If there’s a gun on the wall in Act One, its going to go off by Act Five.”  RIP Bro Ruhl!   If he could, Brother Ruhl would come back from beyond the grave to beat me with my inappropriate comma usage as well as my inability to correctly use “it’s” vs. “its”.  Sorry sister.

    5. What genre do you read and review the most on your blog?

Amanda: That’s a good question-I don’t think I can answer.  I think both of us will try nearly anything.  I admit to reading much more smut and YA than my sister.  But I don’t think that’s all of what I read.

    6.  What other types of posts do you do on your blog, apart from reviews?

 Profound Ones.  Completely profound discussions.  And TTT when we’re in the mood!

     7.  Best blogging experience so far?

Holly: Getting a comment from a Pulitzer Prize winning author here

     8 .  Favorite thing about the blogging community?

Amanda:  That there is always someone willing to listen to me rapture about my latest read. And then chances are good they’ll point me to my next best read!

     9.  Name the 5 6 books you’re most excited for this 2015!

Amanda:  The Wrath & the Dawn; Re Jane; The Invasion of the Tearling; A God in Ruins; Pocket Apocalypse

 Which should I read first?  The first 4 are all on my floor staring at me.

   10.  What’s an underrated book or series that you think everyone should read?

 Amanda: Ultraviolet by RJ Anderson.  Totally shocked me.

   11.  Which book boy or girl would be your book BFF?

 Holly: I really hate questions about book friends or boyfriends. Books are not people and that is okay.

Amanda: Books are not people I know sister. But it’s still fun to think about sometimes!  I will avoid picking a boyfriend lest my husband ever read this and feel offended.  But I can think of 2 BFF’s I take- 1. Elisa from Girl of Fire and Thorns.  2. Robin from The Cuckoo’s Calling.  Clearly those are very different books – but two chicks that are smart, self aware and can kick booty!

   12.  Apart from reading, what are your other hobbies or interests?

 Holly: Cooking, tennis, annoying my sister

Amanda: Chasing my 4 year-old. Daydreaming fantasy vacations. Going anywhere in Chicago I can walk-when its not freaking snowing.  Texting my sister.  Also currently obsessed with the Americans and Orphan Black.  Debating trying the 100 after the twitter obsession I see.

     13.  Apart from book shopping, what else do you like shopping for?

 Holly: Plane tickets.

 Amanda: Shoes.  All the shoes.

     14.  At a party, the DJ suddenly changes the song – and it’s your song. What song would be playing?

 Holly:  Who goes to parties with DJs?

Amanda:  How do I follow that up?

    15.  Pick out either a book you want turned into a film/TV show, or a film/TV show you want turned into a book.

Holly: The Lumatere Chronicles. Obviously.
Amanda: Obviously, I agree with my sister 100%.  On a totally different note, I think The Pink Carnation series would be totally fun.

Thanks for stopping by our Love-a-Thon post!! Please link us back to visit you!

Interview with Lauren of Lose Time Reading!

So, we signed up for this Book Blogger Love-A-Thon deal, and, even though I’m still not sure exactly what that means, the best part was that we got paired up with another blogger to interview. It gave us a good reason to check out another blog that we might not have discovered otherwise, and it was super fun coming up with questions for Lauren. We totally enjoyed getting to know her, and you should go check out her blog too – after you read her awesome answers below!

We won’t ask why you started book blogging, because that’s right on your “about me” page. So, we’ll ask this – how has book blogging changed how you read?

The main thing it’s changed was how MUCH I read. I was still a big reader before blogging but I would read probably between 4 to 6 books a month, now I read between 10 and 15 a month! I also have much more broader tastes. I wouldn’t have considered about 95% of the books I read now prior to blogging!

So, you mention that you love organizing AND you clearly love books. Do you keep an organized TBR list? Track your book stats by different categories? (No pressure…we don’t judge either way!

Oh, I definitely love organizing! I do keep an organized TBR although lately I have been deviating from it quite a bit based on my mood. As far as my review books go I do have a TBR to follow with those otherwise it would be a disaster for me. I do track my book stats by different categories… I have Excel spreadsheets for practically anything you can think of(I would be lost without them!). I enjoy keeping track of which genre I read the most of, last year it was contemporary which was a HUGE shock to me! I also keep a bazillion shelves on Goodreads 😛

Okay, we see Divergent on your fave series list! We are not in agreement on the series (our joint review is here). What’s your take on the progression from the beginning to that end?

It’s so funny that you asked this question because lately I’ve found myself really questioning that series. I LOVED the first book, and if I read it again I probably still would. Insurgent I enjoyed as well but Tris really grated on my nerves and honestly, I think if I was to push myself through it again… both Insurgent and Allegiant would be lower ratings. I’m not sure it gave a proper ending to a series that I loved so much initially. I wouldn’t even list it as one of my favorites anymore 😦

E-reader or hard copy?

Hardcopy 100%! I do love my Kindle, it’s light and so easy to take to work but if I had to choose one for the rest of my life, I would always pick the hardcopy.

Favorite place to read?

This is boring… it’s actually my bed. I just want to be comfy when I read and curling up with a ton of pillows, my cat and a book is the perfect way!

Hey, we are terrible at WordPress and doing fancy blog things. Your blog is so pretty! What tips can you tell us to make an eye-catching blog

Thank you ❤ I don’t really have many tips honestly, except do what you love. You look at your blog more than anyone so make sure that YOU love it! Everyone has different tastes so you can’t appeal to everyone! I did a lot of Googling and looking up tutorials and design techniques. I’m constantly adding and changing things and I think that’s the funnest part. I started out on Blogger, but after a few months switched to WordPress because I wanted a bit more freedom. Well… It was terrifying once I started, I had no idea that it was a completely different than Blogger (research would have been helpful!) so I spent a good week learning how to fix things and making a layout to fit a theme. It kind of worked out in my favor though because now I can use WordPress enough to manage and I learned quite a lot! Google really is your best friend!

Favorite book-turned-movie? Least favorite?

I am definitely not someone who likes book-turned-movies but I do have a few favorites (that of course I can’t narrow down!): Anne of Green Gables, The Devil Wears Prada, The Harry Potter series, The Narnia movies, and The Notebook. I think The Hunger Games and Beautiful Creatures are probably my least favorites, at least my most recent least favorites. I didn’t dislike THG but I was just disappointed overall. I also liked a lot of Beautiful Creatures but it was much too different from the book for me to love it the same way. 

You start reading something that you’re just not digging. Put it down, or forge on?

Oh, the question of the year it seems! I’ve only recently been more open to DNFing a book. I have done it in the past but more often than not I will forge on, I just feel like it may get better and THEN what? Code Name Verity bored me to tears for the first 40% of the book but I pushed through and it’s now one of my all time favorites. Recently I have put several books aside though and I realized that I haven’t even thought about them. There are just SO many books, why waste time on something that you are not enjoying? 

Oh we see you mention a requesting/accepting review copies problem! One of us might be developing that problem! What’s the best thing about review copies – besides the obvious free books!?

I like getting the change to read books before they are in stores! I’m not really sure why, it’s just something that I always thought was interesting since I started blogging. I really enjoy being about to rave about a book on release day, tweet about how awesome it is and support different authors as well. I have also had a chance to try books I normally never would have picked up because of it! It’s a neverending cycle though… It really can become an addiction because there are just SO many eyecatching titles!

Favorite book is too hard of a question so, how’s this – what book comes to mind when you think about how much you love reading? 

This is going to be a very random answer but The Baby Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin. I have read a lot since I was a little girl and my absolute favorite books were BSC. Whenever I was able to go shopping with my Mom I would make a list of titles that I still needed and then carefully pick out which ones I wanted at the bookstore. She would also take me to secondhand bookstores and I would find a lot of the ones I needed there. I cherished these books, and one of my favorite reading memories was when I was home sick from school with a head cold. I curled up in my bed and read several Super Specials. Despite being sick, I had a ton of fun that day!

^ This answer killed me! I (Holly) could totally relate! Those books were definitely the jam. Leave us a comment with your answer to that last question! (But I bet you can’t top Lauren’s!)