Being A Book Blogger | Interview With Rob & Kate From Adventures With Words
BB: Rob & Kate, welcome to Blogger's Bookshelf! Tell us a little bit about the team behind Adventures With Words
Rob works as a senior bookseller at a university branch of Waterstones. He’s also the web wizard and editor of our weekly podcast. He’s a big fan of James Bond and thrillers as well as American literature, which he studied at UEA and the University of Kent.
Kate is a secondary school teacher, who reads like her life depends on it, as long as she’s awake enough. She’ll read almost anything, but loves cold crime, good quality sci-fi and fantasy and young adult fiction. She studied English Lit at Durham, where she wrote her dissertation on girls and women in Children’s Fiction. When she’s not reading, she loves Japanese anime and cult series like Buffy and Smallville.
BB: Where does your love of books come from, and how did you get into reviewing?
We have both been avid readers since we were young. Kate was read The Hobbit and loved adventure stories such as Robin Hood and King Arthur, while Rob enjoyed The Chronicles of Narnia and Sherlock Holmes. Rob began reviewing when he started working for Waterstones, discovering new books that he wanted to talk about on a daily basis. After starting Adventures With Words as a way of sharing book reviews, Rob was joined by Kate and between us we cover a wide range of genres.
BB: As well as written reviews you also have your own podcast - what made you want to use this particular media?
Podcasts allow us to create an immediate and conversational response to what we are reading. We have been told that people feel a part of what we are doing and get to know us as individuals. People always like to talk about what they are reading; we are doing this but just happen to record it!
BB: Something we think a lot of our readers will be interested in is your new YA-based podcast. Could you tell us a little bit more about your future plans for the series?
The YA-podcast was originally inspired by a conversation with a listener who thought that her children would enjoy something similar to our normal podcast. It is Kate's special interest so she is producing it and hopes to include interviews and short stories from some of the well known British YA writers currently out there.
BB: We’re now coming to the end of 2013, what have been your favourite new releases of the year?
Kate has really enjoyed Tall Tales from Pitch End by Nigel McDowell. She thought it was an exciting and moving story but also that it was written in a unusual, lyrical style which makes it stand out from the current crop of YA. Rob has enjoyed Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, a wonderful Gothic story with beautifully written prose that makes him long to return to Barcelona.
BB: If you could swap lives for the day with any fictional character who would you choose and why?
A fantastic question! Rob would slip on a tuxedo and sip a vodka Martini, becoming James Bond for the day. Who wouldn't want to live like 007, except perhaps with fewer cigarettes! Kate would like to be Beth Bradley, from The City's Son by Tom Pollock. It would be a privilege to see the true magic and excitement hidden behind everyday London. Although she would never be able to walk past a crane again without a shiver...
BB: Finally, which other book blogs, websites, YouTube channels or podcasts would you recommend to our readers?
We'd love you to listen to Hear... Read This!, a monthly book club podcast that we take part in alongside Simon and Gav of The Readers. Gav is taking a sabbatical from The Readers while he launches No Cloaks Allowed, a new blog for readers of fantasy, meanwhile Simon interviews authors every fortnight on You Wrote the Book.
Rob really enjoys the Book Riot podcast, for his weekly fix of book news and reviews while Kate enjoys Adam Roberts' book blog Sibilant Fricative, a mixture of opinion on science fiction and fantasy with some young adult thrown in.
You can find Adventures With Words by clicking the links below:
- Blog
- Podcast
- Goodreads
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I'd like to say a huge thank you from all of us here at BB to Rob & Kate for taking part in this interview. If you are a booktuber or book blogger
and would like to be featured in a similar post we'd love to hear from
you - just email us at bloggersbookshelf@gmail.com for information!
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