Meet The Team | Part Three

Meet The Team | Part Three

• Saturday, 2 November 2013

Welcome to the third part of our interview mini series. Today's post features Laura and Lucy who have both been part of the Blogger's Bookshelf team from the beginning. Here's what they had to say about being part of team BB...


Lucy
I am a twenty year old book lover with more than sixty books on my shelf! I could spend all day reading but most of the time I am dragged off to go to my job in a nearby grocery shop! I live in Northern Ireland and enjoy zooming up to Belfast on the train to go shopping as well as the odd bit of writing in cafes! Also a major Disney fan and my favourite Disney movie at the moment has to be Tangled.

How did you initially get into blogging and what was it about joining team BB that appealed to you?

For a time I was a BookTuber and after making a decision to stop making videos, I was determined to talk about books in some way. So I found Tumblr and fell in love, as you do. Now I don't do book reviews as much as I'm now part of this brilliant team that is the Blogger's Bookshelf. I thought at the time that it was a brilliant way to write about books and be a part of the online reading community and now one year on, I still feel the same!

Which of your published reviews are you most proud of? And any favourite group posts?

The reviews which I am most proud of are definitely The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak and The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly because they are two of my top favourite books I've read in my life. I also really enjoyed doing the post where I did World Book Night in April this year! It's hard to pick a favourite group post because the topics are always really good and there's lots of things to talk about. However, I did really enjoy February's group post where we got to talk about our favourite literary couples and I also enjoyed talking about my favourite villains in October's group post.

As someone who loves writing and has taken part in NaNoWriMo in the past, what your favourite thing about the creative writing process?

My favourite thing about the creative writing process is definitely when you're in the planning stages when you have all of these ideas. For me as well I could be thinking of an idea and my mind wanders and sure enough, it finds an even more brilliant idea which provides so much more motivation and inspiration in writing the book.

On the same note, if you were to publish your own novel what genre would it be?

It would definitely be a fantasy book to start me off with. For this year's Nanowrimo, I am writing a novel about pirates and mermaids so there's lots of adventure to be had!

If you could invite 5 fictional characters to a dinner party who would you choose and why?

I would definitely choose Emma Morley from One Day as she is one of the most real characters I have ever read and she would give me excellent writing tips. Hermione Granger from Harry Potter because I think we'd be able to have a lot of conversations about books. We must have boys in this dinner party too so I would choose Peeta Mellark because of his adorableness and he'd be able to bring beautifully decorated cookies with him. I would have Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones at the dinner party because he would provide us with amazing stories of the land of Westeros and make us all laugh. Finally I would get Liesel Memminger from The Book Thief because she is just a brilliant character from a brilliant book and it would be such a thrill to meet her and I'd be able to give her so many book recommendations.

Finally, which books are top of your TBR list right now?

Right now I am reading The Hunger Games series and I plan to finish the series before the Catching Fire movie comes out. I also plan to continue reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series. The next book I will be reading in that series will be A Storm of Swords which is the third book. After that I hope to read a Classical book for a change maybe Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens!


Laura
Yikes, I'm never sure what to say when someone says introduce yourself, I feel like I should say something along the lines 'hi I'm Laura and I'm a bookaholic'. Aside from that I'm also a primary school teacher, gamer, chocoholic and marmite lover.  Reading is my favourite hobbies especially when I'm travelling, all that downtime at airports and on planes provides perfect reading time.

How did you initially get into blogging?

I started blogging back in 2010, I had just finished uni and was heading for a gap year so I guess it was partially to fill some time and partially because I already read heaps of blogs and wanted to get more involved in the community.  I had my own blog for around two years before unfortunately my job took over my life an I had to stop.

Which of your published reviews are you most proud of? & any favourite group posts?

I think I'd say I'm probably most proud of my first review as I always found reviewing things a little tricky and I probably proof read it 6 times before publishing it but that has led to all the rest which in some cases almost write themselves.
My favourite group post was the book covers one, as I'm such a sucker for a good book cover it was nice to see lots of different designs.

As you had to step away from blogging because of your job, what made you want to join Blogger's Bookshelf?

Oh that's easy, 2 reasons: 1) I loved and missed blogging. 2) I LOVE books. Bloggers Bookshelf is the perfect place to feed my need for blogging and vent my opinions about books.

Are there any books you loved as a child, that you're now getting to share with your students?

All of the Roald Dahl books - I especially loved The BFG and it's always the first book I read to my new class. They're as much of a hit now as they were when I was a child.

If you could swap lives for the day with any fictional character who would it be and why?

Oh to be Elizabeth Bennett! Why? Well there could only be one reason! Oh Mr Darcy! 

Finally, which books are top of your TBR list right now?

Well it's actually my birthday this month and I've literally sent out an Amazon wish list full of books for family to get me! So I have lots. However Cecelia Ahern (my favourite author) has a new book out later this month - so that'll jump straight to the top! 

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A big thank you to both Laura & Lucy for taking part in this post.