Meet Our Team | Part Two
Ria
Heya! I'm Ria and I'm a 21 year old business studies undergrad, with ambitions to work in the big scary world of Advertising, publish a full length novel, or work full time in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (whichever comes first I'll take it!). I drink too much coffee, would love to live in New York one day and am a part of far too many fandoms. I started blogging in 2010 at Wishing For Chanel before getting the itch to start a book blog and the rest as they say is history...
How did you initially get into blogging and what was it about book blogging that appealed to you?
I'd been toying around with the idea of blogging since I was 17, at college I looked at the way women were represented in fashion and got my first encounters with the blogsphere through that. It took another year-ish, when I was at University, to take the plunge and set up Wishing For Chanel! My first lot of posts about The Clothes Show live and X Factor fashion (oh how times have changed).
Wishing For Chanel really taught me that I could write about whatever I loved, but books never really fit into the 'theme' of my blog (again something that's majorly changed!). I wanted a place to vent about my feels about books and a separate book blog just seemed like the most natural step to do that!
Which of your published reviews are you most proud of? & any favourite group posts?
I think it's between 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' or 'Dash & Lily's Book of Dares'. 'Perks...' because it's my all time favourite novel and I had to try really hard not to just let my feelings about the book just spill out all over a blog post :P and 'Dash & Lily...' because it was the book that set my brain thinking I really wanted to start a book blog!
My favourite group post was definitely our Team paper vs Team Plastic debate! We got so many great arguments for both sides, I wasn't sure I even picked a side at the end of reading it!
If you were to create your own 'Lizzie Bennet Diaries' style webseries which book would you choose to adapt?
This is pretty tough...maybe The Great Gatsby? Can you imagine what juicy gossip could seep into vlogs or a mini webseries?! Short videos on each of the characters perspectives would be quite cool.
Or - and I'm being majorly predictable here - The Fault In Our Stars. I'd love to see Hazel's story played out as a vlog, or it could even be from Augustus' point of view...in fact someone get John Green to get his brother Hank onto producing this!!
Which two fictional characters, from different books/series, would you like to see appear together in a new story?
I'd love to see Hermione Granger and Eugenia Phelan aka Skeeter from The Help together in a story. They're two wonderfully progressive, intelligent women in their respective books and it would be cool to see their minds crossed paths. I can imagine it would only take about 5 minutes before the two of them organise some sort of passive protest for a good cause or would have a heated discussion about their favourite books!
Finally, which books are at the top of your TBR list right now?
This was horrible to narrow down! But top 5 for the minute are...
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
Cruel Summer by James Dawson
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
and Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.
Erin
I’m Erin, I’m 24 and when I’m not writing reviews here I run Sawyer & Scout - an online jewellery and gift shop which includes pieces inspired by the books that I read. The shop is named after my two bunnies, who themselves are named after fictional characters.
How did you initially get into blogging and what was it about book blogging that appealed to you?
At the time I created my first blog I had graduated earlier in the year and I think I saw it as a way to continue sharing some of my lomography photographs after University. That didn’t end up lasting very long but I stuck around in the blogging community and soon started writing about a variety of things including films and crafts.
At the beginning of 2012, after reading mostly non-ficiton for years, I had just gotten back into reading fiction on a regular basis thanks to The Hunger Games trilogy. I knew there must be lots of other bloggers who loved to read and wanted to talk about books, and was thinking about starting up my own book blog. When I saw Ria’s blog post which casually mentioned starting a collaborative one I knew I should take the opportunity to ask if she would be interested in working together. Obviously, I’m very glad that I did!
Which of your published reviews are you most proud of? & any favourite group posts?
I think I am probably most proud of my Ready Player One review as not only did it instantly become my favourite book, I also found it easy to write about. Usually I make review notes during the time that I am reading a book as otherwise I tend to forget things I want to include, however in this case I wrote the review several months after I finished the book and still managed to remember the details – definitely a sign of how much I enjoyed it.
I’d have to say my favourite group post was July’s ‘Wish You Were Where?!’. I loved the subject idea Ria came up with and was pleased with how my postcard graphics turned out in the end, even if they did cause me hours of Photoshop stress at the time!
As well as managing TWO blogs, you're also a awesomely talent crafter! What's been your favourite book related piece that you've made?
The first book related pieces I created were the Harry Potter inspired Potions Necklaces so I think they’ll always be a favourite. Getting covered in glitter when I make them on the other hand…
Another one I really love is the Finnick Charm Necklaces inspired by The Hunger Games. The sea-themed glass beads I use for these are just beautiful.
If you could swap lives for the day with any fictional character who would it be and why?
This is a really difficult question (sorry to all of the other book bloggers I’ve interviewed and asked this to…), what I can say for sure is I’ve read a lot of dystopian tales who’s characters I definitely wouldn’t want to switch with! I think the obvious answer is, as Kath said last week, Hermione Granger. Of course I’d love to go to Hogwarts, learn magic and have dinner in the Great Hall! Who wouldn't?
Finally, which books are top of your TBR list right now?
Ten, Gretchen McNeil
Paper Towns, John Green
Roomies, Sara Zarr & Tara Altebrando
UnSouled, Neal Shusterman
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We hope you've enjoyed getting to know us better - don't forget to check back soon to meet the remaining members of the team!
In the meantime you can catch up on part one, featuring Anjali and Kath here.
I've really enjoyed getting to know you all better through these posts! I love Perks a lot too, recently re-read it and fell in love all over again <3
ReplyDeleteJennie xo | sailorjennie.com