Book Blogger Love-A-Thon Interview!

Hey ya'll!! Welcome back for an interview with the lovely Jen from Almost Grown-Up!! She is a blogger as well as an author, too! As you'll read about below! Another fun fact, we both LOVE Disney! We actually were in Disney World at Magic Kingdom the same weekend but alas, as fate would have it we were there on different days...drat. Anyways here is her interview and I hope you enjoy getting to know her as much as I did!

1. First and foremost,what made you fall in love with reading? Was it a certain book? Childhood memory? Did you love to write first and then got into reading?

I honestly can't remember a time when I DIDN'T love to read. I remember jokingly "tiling" my bedroom floor with my books when I was about 6, and staying up past my bedtime, sneak-reading under the covers with a flashlight. Books have been my constant companions since then!

2. SPEAKING of writing, it looks like on your blog you are a writer as well! What do you like to write about and what do you love MOST about writing? What do you like least?

I'm currently working on a YA fantasy novel! Magic is really fun for me to write and so fantasy was a natural choice (plus swoony times are fun to write too-- and I have a little of that goin' on ^_~).

What I love most-- revision, even if it feels like a drag AS I'm doing it. Sometimes, I think I'm more of a reader than a writer, and I love when I can piece a draft together enough that I feel like I enjoy it as a reader. What I like LEAST-- plotting (aka first drafting for me as I'm a "pantser"). Sometimes it is just hard to pry the words out on that first exploratory draft when I'm still figuring out the story.

3. Who are your favorite writers and why?

We would be here a while if I tried to list all of my favorite authors, but some of my favorite authors have excellent world-building, quirky characters and humor, and use language in a way that makes me marvel.

4. Back to reading, what made you decide to start a blog? And how long have you been blogging?

I started my blog as a non-book blog in my senior year of college somewhere around 2009 or 2010. More and more of my content started being about what I was reading, and when I discovered the Forever Young Adult blog and realized people actually have blogs devoted almost ENTIRELY to books, I officially made the switch! I think that was April of 2011.

5. What has been your favorite moment of blogging thus far?

Definitely attending Book Expo America! I got to be surrounded by people who feel as much love for books as I do, meet some of my best bloggy friends, and visit New York City!

6. Now onto the meat of the interview...the books. What is the genre you generally gravitate towards/what kind of books interest you the most and why?

I definitely gravitate towards high/epic fantasy. I love the alternate worlds, the tendency of those books to include nobility, and magic, and I honestly think it stems from the amount of Sailor Moon fanfiction I read through high school and college. There's this past life that they have and... well if I told you how much I love that fandom and how much it's shaped me, we would be here for a while.

7. I won't make you choose one, but what are some of your all-time favorite books? (*So excited to read your answers!!*)

It's not YA, but I have read Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie more times than I can count. It is an amazing rom com and always makes me feel better if I've had a bad day. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine is another old favorite. Anything by Tamora Pierce. All of the Harry Potter books, and Anna and the French Kiss in more recent years. I'd love to feel like I had time to reread all of these right now, actually...

LOVE HARRY POTTER!!! <3

8. What book (or books, let's be honest) do you recommend the most to people?

Cinder and Anna and the French Kiss are my go tos. I think they're both REALLY well-crafted and don't fall into annoying cliches.

9. If you had to pick 5-10 books that you believe every single person should read, what would they be?

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, Every Day by David Levithan, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and Anna and the French Kiss-- The first four because I think they teach us about being human and because after the others you may need ANNA to cheer you up. I think that it will make anyone believe in love.

Yes, Yes, and Yes!! Haven't read Anna yet but its on my TBR :)

10. Now onto the juicy stuff...WHO are your favorite book boyfriends?! Legit, you can name 10 if you want to, I know I would need that many :)

Oh, I only need one. ETIENNE ST. CLAIR from Anna and the French Kiss. 110% I swoon a lot over book boys, but he is just my FAVORITE.

(HOWEVER, if we count manga as books, I will promptly exchange Etienne for Tuxedo Kamen from Sailor Moon ^_~)

11. I LOVE that you say on your blog that you live and breath words because I feel exactly the same way, what are some of your favorite literary quotes, feel free to add as many as you'd like :)

YESSSS, I LOVE QUOTES. I am about to go crazy:

“If you say a word, it leaps out and becomes the truth. I love you. I believe it. I believe I am loveable. How can something as fragile as a word build a whole world?” -Chime by Franny Billingsley

“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.” ― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief 

"Love is a luxury."

"No. Love is an element." -Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone

"I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once." -The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

"It's like being in love, discovering your best friend." -Elizabeth Wein, Code Name Verity

"Girl scouts didn't teach me what to do with emotionally unstable drunk boys." -Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss

OMG LOVE all these quotes and some are my favorites too!

Thanks for such fun questions, Kelly!