Armchair BEA Introduction & the Classics

image credit: Nina of Nina Reads

Since I can't make it to BEA this year, I'm going to try and feel the book community love by participating on my blog through Armchair BEA! There are daily blogging topics, and for this post, I'm going to answer 5 of the Introduction questions posted here.


1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

I started blogging a little over a year ago, and I didn't really know what I was getting into, I kinda just set up a blog and a layout and started posting the really short reviews I had written on Goodreads.  It seemed like it would be fun to maintain a book blog, which would help me keep track of the books I read and my thoughts on them.  Visiting other blogs and talking to other bloggers has been a great bonus, as I didn't realize how very much I liked seeing what other people were reading and sharing thoughts on great books.

2. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2013? 

I'm currently reading "The Nine Fold Heaven" by Mingmei Yip which is a historical fiction novel set in 30's Shanghai.  Although I haven't gotten very far reading it, I really enjoyed the first book in the series "Skeleton Women" so I have high hopes for this.  One of my favorite reads from this year was "Shadow and Bone" by Leigh Bardugo (I was a little late to the bandwagon on this!) but I loved the story and the characters and I'm really looking forward to going to the "Siege and Storm" launch party next week!

3. If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why? 

Well I will pick a character for this fantasy dinner - Mr. Rochester from "Jane Eyre"!  I would love to hear the entertaining stories he must have told Jane during their evening conversations, and as a gentleman I can imagine he would pull out chairs and be very mannered and attentive which would bring joy to my romantic heart. :)  And since he has seen a lot of the world, I think he would be very interesting to talk to.  I'm not much of a talker myself, so if I can get someone interesting started with a few questions and then sit back and absorb, that sounds like a great time to me!

4. What is your favorite part about the book blogging community? 

If I have to pick one thing, I think it is the enthusiasm for reading and for books.  I grew up in a family where I am pretty much the only reader, and I didn't really have friends who were keen on reading either.  I wasn't used to sharing what I was reading more than saying the title and author and if it was good or not.  English classes were great to listen to the teachers talk about the book, but generally classmates weren't too keen.  And how amazing it is, that after the isolation, you can come upon a community of like-minded enthusiasts on the internet and interact with them so easily?  I love book blogging, not because I love writing reviews, but because it's so great sharing my love of books with other readers!

5. Is there anything that you would like to see change in the coming years?

Well, there is one thing that I would love to have happen someday soon!  It's to have a free ebook version bundled with the physical copy of the book.  I like to buy books that I plan to reread, and if I can have it on my bookshelf, and on my kindle for travel, it would be so useful!

In addition to the Introduction, there is a genre topic, that for today is all about the Classics:

Today, tell us all the reasons why you love classic literature. What are your favorite classics? If you could give a list of classics to someone who claims to hate them to make them change their mind, what would be on it? How would you convince them to give classics a try? And why do you keep coming back to those old favorites?

I love classic literature because they are well-written, and they reward the reader's investment by their well-shaped characters, great plots and complexity.  Classics have endured and continued to attract readers because they are the best of the best in my opinion.

My favorite book is a Classic - "Jane Eyre", but I also love "Dracula" "Huckleberry Finn", "Vanity Fair", "Lord of the Flies", "To Kill a Mockingbird" and probably others I can't think of at the moment.

For someone who hates Classics, it will be hard to give them something that might change their mind, but something with a good pace and not too long like "Lord of the Flies" or "To Kill a Mockingbird" might do the trick.  Possibly the first Classic I ever read would be a good start too - "Tom Sawyer". These books have great, thought-provoking stories and should be a good introduction to the world of Classics literature.

Thanks for reading this post!  And if you would like to follow my blog, I will definitely follow back! :)