Armchair BEA 2014 Introduction

I’m late jumping onto this bandwagon, but I’ve never participated in Armchair BEA before (or attended BEA—maybe someday!) and it seems like fun so I’ve signed up! Participating bloggers have been asked to answer a few questions to introduce themselves, so here we go:

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? Where in the world are you blogging from?

Currently I am a consultant who focuses on enterprise customer experience (not like Spaceship Enterprise, but large businesses). I’ve been a technology marketing content consultant, a project manager, and a technical writer. Long ago I planned to be a professor of English literature, but so few people I knew were getting jobs, I changed my focus and the rest is…well, the rest. I’ve been blogging for eight years. For the first three years I blogged about perfume, and then I slowly transitioned over to books with this blog. I got into blogging when I was trying a lot of new niche perfumes and wanted a place to review and share my discoveries. As I got to know more bloggers, I found some book blogs and because I am a lifelong reader, I decided to start blogging about books instead. Believe it or not, it’s much cheaper (and easier on the nose). I currently live in Atlanta, Georgia.

Describe your blog in just one sentence. Then, list your social details—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. —so we can connect more online.

My tagline says it all: “Thoughts on books to read in your spare time.” You can follow me on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, or Goodreads. I am also on Library Thing. (I am most active on Twitter and Goodreads.)

What genre do you read the most?

I used to read only literary fiction or classics. For many years I almost exclusively read short story collections. When I started book blogging in 2009, I met so many wonderful bloggers who opened up my eyes when it came to the world of reading contemporary fiction. I see now especially that genre is a marketing tool, so I’ll just say that I enjoy well-written, thoughtful, or unusual fiction. It can be a mystery, it can be YA, it can be fantasy, or it can be “plain” literary fiction (short stories, novels). I also enjoy non-fiction but don’t read as much of it as I would like.

What was your favorite book read last year? What’s your favorite book so far this year?

My favorite book I read last year was The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. This year so far my favorite book is Byrd by Kim Church.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what 3 books would you bring? Why? What 3 non-book items would you bring? Why?

If I were stranded on a deserted island, I would bring Alice Munro’s Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage; Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, and…and…something by Richard Russo—either Straight Man or Empire Falls. (At least, that’s what I came up with very quickly.) The non-book-related items are no-brainers: my husband and our two kitties. (Technically not strictly items but I don’t care.)

So now you know a bit more about me. Please feel free to leave links to your own answers, or answer one or more of these below in the comments if you wish! I look forward to getting to know more of the participants this week.

*Armchair BEA button created by Amber and used courtesy of Armchair BEA. Book links all go to Powells. I have no affiliation with that site and receive no profit if you buy a book.