Artfully Arranged Armchair (ABEA)

Hello! Welcome to Literati's Literary Library! This week is all about Book Expo America... or for those of us unable to attend- Armchair BEA! To kick things off, everyone is doing a self-interview. Here's mine!

The folks in the Armchair Throne have given us all a list of questions and instructed us to answer five of them. My five:

1. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012?
I'll answer both parts of that. I'm currently reading The Serpent's Shadow, by Rick Riordan, third book in the Kane Chronicles. Love Riordan! My favorite book so far this year? That's a tie between Black Heart, by Holly Black, or Lola and the Boy Next Door, by Stephanie Perkins.

2. What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?
I have a gargantuan list, but topping that list is the world of The Edge. The Broken, The Weird, The Edge, and all the places within. I adore the series (book one is The Edge) and the authors, Ilona and Gordon (Ilona Andrews is the name they write under).

Why? It's beyond weird and beyond fantastic. The agents from The Hand are super freaky alterations of people. They've got extra body parts that do unheard of things; they are modification personified. It's very detailed and there is so much thought and imagination that went into the creation of the world. You really, truly feel like you are a part of it. I could say that for any of Ilona and Gordon's books though.

3. Have your reading tasted changed since you started blogging? How?
Changed? Hm. I don't think they've made any dramatic change. Content and genre-wise, my tastes are the same.  A change I have noticed, however, is that I definitely am a more critical reader and I no longer have a problem putting a book down. When I started blogging I read every book I picked up, cover to cover, even if I wasn't loving it. I know better now. Time is precious and if that book doesn't work for me, maybe the next one will.

4. If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?
Easy peasy. Edgar Allen Poe. I'd like to imagine that it would be wildly creepy and morbid and not lack for entertainment. Or else I, the dinner guest would be ignored, or only politely included. But I'd rather we go with the first scenario. ;-)

5. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?
Who am I? I am the Literati that lives in the Literary Library. I like alliterations. I enjoy going on walks with no time limit and my camera. I am a wife and mother and an avid popcorn consumer. I am an impulsive shopper and I've recently discovered that I find weeding to be a good outlet for frustration.

How long have I been blogging? Two years on this blog I think. Something like that. But blogging in general? Eleven years.

Why blogging? For this blog, it's because I love books. I love books like kids love bubbles. Like fish love water. Like aliens love probing. Like moths love flame. Well, hopefully with a better end result than those last two... but you get this gist. They help me cope with my life, with the people in my life, and with myself. They help me to understand others and see things from other points of view. They open my world. Through books I've learned that it's okay to feel how I do, to think as I do. I know that I'm not alone with my problems. They ground me and yet let me float high above and look down on the universe from astounding, shocking heights.

I've loved reading since I was not yet able to do it by myself. I remember begging my parents for just one more Berenstein Bears book at bedtime. Begging my dad for another chapter of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Waiting after class so I could test into reading college level fiction in the fourth grade - a fact I was not to disclose to my peers upon pain of removal of the privilege. I remember getting a tongue lashing from my mother after my brother tipped her off to me reading The Secret Garden in church. I remember getting extra chores when I'd promise to stop at the end of the chapter... only to read another couple of chapters of Redwall, Treasure Island, Kneeknock Rise, The Odyssey, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Island of the Blue Dolphins. Books have done so much for me. And I think it's only fair that I share that with everyone I possibly can, so that they too may benefit.

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Holy moly. I sort of got going there, but hey, that's it! I'm done now, promise. ;-) I hope you enjoyed my interview with myself. I'm off to read some of yours!