BBAW Meme: Day 2

Post your blogger interview swaps!

I swapped interviews with Elena Gomez, who's blog With Extra Pulp, totally impressed me. Here are her responses to my questions:

1. How did you get started with book blogging?

My friends were getting tired of me overenthusiastically trying to tell them about all the books I’d read. I was sad, but then I discovered the online book blog community and found people also interested in reading and writing about books. I first started on a blog hosting site, then I borrowed an extension of my brother’s URL before getting my own URL a couple of months ago.


2. Has your taste in books changed at all since you started your blog? Do you read more genres than you did previously or do you specialize more?

My taste in reading has definitely expanded. It’s funny actually, that in the process of trying to specialise in a particular type of book for my blog, my personal reading has started going into new genres. I read a romance the other day! I’ve never read romance before.


3. What's your favorite thing about blogging? Do you have a least favorite thing about it?

My favourite part of blogging, besides the community of book bloggers who are the loveliest people, would have to be just the writing part of it. I love to write but I often suffer from writer’s block. Reviewing books keeps the seat warm in between my creative projects. My least favourite thing is keeping up a regular supply of reviews, when I get distracted by rereading favourites such as Jane Eyre and Master & Margarita.


4. I'm a relatively new blogger. Do you having any advice for folks who are just starting out? Is there something you wish you'd known when you started blogging?

Read a lot of blogs. Not just for entertainment, but critically. Look at what works and what doesn’t. Comment lots, book bloggers are welcoming and really supportive of new bloggers. And be patient. It takes a long time to build up readership. I’m still fairly new myself and would like to think there’s still a lot of growing room left for my blog.

There’s nothing in particular I wish I knew because I’ve enjoyed the learning process so far.


5. What are your favorite books of 2009? What 2010 releases are you most excited about?

I don’t read a lot of new books, so I would have to say favourite books I’ve read in 2009 have been Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman, Breakfast At Tiffany’s by Truman Capote and The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. As for 2010 releases, I can’t say I’m up to date on this, so I have no idea I’m afraid. Actually can someone point me to where to find this information in a handy and succinct format? That would be great thanks.


6. More and more books are being made into movies each year. Assuming you haven't already read the book, what do you do first: Read the book or see the film?

I ALWAYS read the book first, if I haven’t already. The exception to this is Jurassic Park because, well, I watched the movie when I was 5, and my reading level was advanced, but not that u Unfortunately this means I end up disliking the movie in comparison. Maybe I should reassess this order.


7. Where do you get most of your book recommendations? How important are reviews to you when you choose your reading material?

I get my recommendations from the other blogs I read, from my sister-in-law, from said sister-in-law’s book club that I have half-joined, and from conversations in my creative writing and publishing classes at uni. As you can imagine, my TBR pile is massive. Reviews are somewhat important. I mean, I hate to think that a bad review would stop me reading a book but it sort of does.


8. If you had a $1000 gift card to your favorite book store and only half an hour to spend it, which section of the store would you head to first?

It really depends on the layout of the store. But I guess I’d start at the classics, and then work my way around in a clockwise direction.


9. Do you participate in a lot of memes? If so, which is your favorite and why?

I don’t really, but I do participate in Musing Monday, by Rebecca at Just One More Page. (rebeccavoy.blogspot.com) most weeks. I like it because the questions are quite topical and it’s a great way to discover other blogs. And there are a couple that have been floating around Facebook that I decided to do just for fun.


10. What is the significance of the title of your blog, “With Extra Pulp”?

Couple of things - It’s an attempt at irony because pulping is considered BAD in the publishing process and the good publishers have a no-pulp policy. So extra pulp is very bad. But also, it’s sort of meant to loosely describe the types of books I review. Finally, it’s the way I enjoy my orange juice. Oh that’s three things.



There you have it! Wasn't that fun? :)