I interview a lot of authors, we all do. And it is really a lot of fun, right? But who is it behind those interviews? You!!! So now I want to interview you! This post will run every Thursday (give or take a day due to scheduling) as long as I have people who want to be interviewed! Check out the tab up there in my tab index for this feature. That's where you can check out past interviews, upcoming bloggers, and sign up for your own interview! :)
This week I have an interview with Randi and Becky from Cardigans, Coffee, & Bookmarks. Yes, I'm a day late - which is completely my fault. It appears my memory is a bit faulty!
Anyhow, thank you for joining back on another week of Blogger Interviews. I also have an awesome trading card and book mark swag prize, international of course!
So let's get on with the interview!
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Hey Randi & Becky! Thanks for being here today!
Hi, Liz! Thanks for having us! :) I second that thanks!
First, can you tell us something about Cardigans, Coffee & Bookmarks?
Well it kind of started on a whim. I mentioned to Becky that we should start a book blog since we actually met as English majors in college; now Becky is pursuing a Master’s degree in library science and I’m in graduate school to become a secondary English/language arts teacher. Though I was excited about it, I couldn’t possibly have guessed how excited Becky would be...We were chatting via Skype and all the sudden she was in the midst of building our little corner on the internet! Hee hee. Web design is so interesting. I can’t wait for my class in it next year! I’m so glad Randi thought of this blog, because it has been great practice.
Now your website is run by both of you, how does the division of responsibilities go?
Becky handles about 99.9% of the design and html responsibilities. Thanks, Becky! I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I try. Randi does most of the socializing and hunting up cool blogs/memes. Other than that, things are pretty evenly split. We do a joint review on Thursdays and we each try to do two other individual reviews per week. We alternate on our other memes, usually by the week. Except I do the Sunday Post and Randi does Stacking the shelves. It’s very even. I leave most of the fan-girling to Randi, too lol. Haha, it’s one of my specialties!
Hi, Liz! Thanks for having us! :) I second that thanks!
First, can you tell us something about Cardigans, Coffee & Bookmarks?
Well it kind of started on a whim. I mentioned to Becky that we should start a book blog since we actually met as English majors in college; now Becky is pursuing a Master’s degree in library science and I’m in graduate school to become a secondary English/language arts teacher. Though I was excited about it, I couldn’t possibly have guessed how excited Becky would be...We were chatting via Skype and all the sudden she was in the midst of building our little corner on the internet! Hee hee. Web design is so interesting. I can’t wait for my class in it next year! I’m so glad Randi thought of this blog, because it has been great practice.
Now your website is run by both of you, how does the division of responsibilities go?
Becky handles about 99.9% of the design and html responsibilities. Thanks, Becky! I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I try. Randi does most of the socializing and hunting up cool blogs/memes. Other than that, things are pretty evenly split. We do a joint review on Thursdays and we each try to do two other individual reviews per week. We alternate on our other memes, usually by the week. Except I do the Sunday Post and Randi does Stacking the shelves. It’s very even. I leave most of the fan-girling to Randi, too lol. Haha, it’s one of my specialties!
Do you ever participate in memes (ok, you covered that a bit, but lets get more in depth!), and what can you tell us about Twice Baked Thursday?
Becky does wonderful Sunday Post wrap-ups of what’s been going on throughout the week & what to expect next, and I throw in the occasional Stacking the Shelves post when we have book purchases to share! Twice Baked Thursday is Becky’s brainchild! It’s an original feature where Becky and I go head-to-head joint reviewing a book that we’ve selected. We usually plan pretty far in advance to give us both a chance to get our hands on copies. We would love to see other joint reviews around the blogosphere, so feel free to borrow our Twice Baked Thursday button & link up your posts! It was originally meant to be a meme, but we don’t really have time to advertise it or do the extra work that goes with that. It is my favorite blogging activity every week, though. More co-bloggers should try it! I got the idea of it from Zombies Vs. Unicorns which has a similar format at the beginning of each short stories between two authors.
Becky does wonderful Sunday Post wrap-ups of what’s been going on throughout the week & what to expect next, and I throw in the occasional Stacking the Shelves post when we have book purchases to share! Twice Baked Thursday is Becky’s brainchild! It’s an original feature where Becky and I go head-to-head joint reviewing a book that we’ve selected. We usually plan pretty far in advance to give us both a chance to get our hands on copies. We would love to see other joint reviews around the blogosphere, so feel free to borrow our Twice Baked Thursday button & link up your posts! It was originally meant to be a meme, but we don’t really have time to advertise it or do the extra work that goes with that. It is my favorite blogging activity every week, though. More co-bloggers should try it! I got the idea of it from Zombies Vs. Unicorns which has a similar format at the beginning of each short stories between two authors.
What do you do when you aren’t blogging?
Lots and lots and lots of homework. Piles of it. This is turning out to be quite a busy semester for both of us! I’m gearing up for student teaching in the spring (yay!), so I’m trying to fit in lots of for-fun reading now. Other than homework and reading, I try to spend lots of time with my friends and husband. I must admit that I live a pretty unexciting life! ;)
I love to write horror, most of which I do on a cool site called writing.com. I also paint, walk my adorable cocker spaniel, and watch movies with my friends. We are all librarians, so of course we talk a lot about books.
Since there are two of you, lets play a game. Randi, which book would you put Becky in to live for the next year? And Becky, which book would you put Randi in?
I would put Becky in The Thirteenth Tale because I know how much we both adored that book, so I’d really look forward to hearing her tales when she got back!
I would put Randi in (gag) Hush Hush so she could have a brief romance with her fictional boyfriend Patch. Sorry Randi’s husband, lol.
What is your favorite part about blogging?
I really love co-blogging because it gives me someone to compare books with, especially when we do our Twice Baked posts. Blogging overall, I love meeting new people and finding new fun blogs to read, though I haven’t had nearly enough time recently to keep up on the blogs I follow! I love how many new books I get exposed to, and the way I can kind of judge the fan-girl temperature of a series through blog trending. Professionally, book blogs are very useful. I also love making top ten lists, fiddling with the coding of our blog, and comparing books with Randi.
What do you do when you read a book you really don’t like?
It depends on how much time I’ve already invested; if I’m more than halfway through the book and realize I’m really not liking it, I usually finish it just for the sake of finishing. Some books I can’t force myself through, though and so I’ll put them down. I just convinced myself this year though that it’s okay to do that.
I usually throw the book against the wall or across the room. I’m a woman of strong feelings. I try to restrain myself if it is from the library. Quite honestly, I’m a picky reader, so most books I read I don’t really like. Randi can attest to it. I do my best to soldier through them so I can suggest them to library patrons.
Favorites:
Movie White Christmas Waitress
Book! Jane Eyre & Little Women! The Scorpio Races
Food Sushi or basically any kind of shellfish. Mashed potatoes (Ew Randi) Bahaha, the whole seafood jag is totally because I married a New Englander! We went to a hibachi grill on our wedding night & I had calamari steak. ;)
Vacation New Hampshire/New England - we go every year to visit my in-laws. :) Non-US locations, definitely Northern Ireland. New Orleans! Gosh I love the atmosphere.
Place to Read Curled up in bed or on my couch. On my 3 person beanbag chair with my dog snoozing beside me!
What kind of things can we expect from Cardigans, Coffee & Bookmarks in the future?
I love this question! We haven’t started advertising this yet, but we’re going to start doing bi-monthly themes on the blog starting in February of next year! We got a little taste for it by doing an all horror month in October. With so many books to read, it is nice to plan ahead. So for February, we will be featuring all fantasy reviews! In April we’ll be featuring non-fiction, and mystery in June. There will be a really great mix of books from these genres in each of those months, so stop on by cuz we’re really excited about it! We’ll be posting more updates on that as it gets closer. :) We’re also both really excited to be participating in the 2013 Debut Author Challenge, so keep an eye out for reviews of debut books in 2013!
Who are your favorite authors, and which books of theirs are your favorites?
I have favorite books more than authors, but I think Louisa May Alcott is the flippin’ bomb. My favorite of hers is of course Little Women. I find that a lot of my favorite authors only have a book or two so far, so from those I’d say Huntley Fitzpatrick (My Life Next Door) and Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus). Oh and John Green of course, though I have yet to read all of his and my fave is The Fault in Our Stars.
Hmm, I don’t really get attached to authors so much as single books. Recently I have loved The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater, and Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin. Needless to say, I also love John Green and I have only one more of his books before I’ve read them all!
There are so many social media outlets available nowadays. Which ones do you use?
Well we have a twitter account for the blog, but we haven’t really utilized it, unfortunately. And we both use Goodreads like CRAZY - feel free to add us! I adore Goodreads. If all the social Networking sites were in danger and I could only save one then it is first on the list. We should really tweet more, but I just never think to do it.
And lastly, can you each give us a little teaser from a book you are reading now?
Here’s a teaser from Me Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
This is a classic situation in which you try to engage people as little as possible, because if you look like you’re part of one group, the other group will take notice and ostracise you. I mean, being ostracised by sophomore church kids would not be the worst thing in the world, but my one goal in life was not to be ostracized by anyone. Were there times when this goal seemed like the goal of a moron? Yes. But honestly, name one life goal that does not occasionally seem like the goal of a total moron.
Here’s a little teaser from The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder.
“Oooh,” said Perry when Cam came in the door. Perry wore a tight Hello Kitty T-shirt, short-shorts, and pink Uggs as she walked through the house texting someone on her hot pink phone. Two low, looped ponytails at the nape of her neck made her look like a Swiss Miss. “How was your date? Did you get any lip-lock or what?” she said, without looking up from her phone.
“What do you know about lip-lock?”“More than you do, probably.”
“I hope not, you little tramp.”
“Mom! Cam called me a tramp.”
“If the shoe fits, honey,” sang Alicia, sweeping in, winking, and giving Cam a hug. She was in a good mood for some reason.
“Mom!” screamed Perry.
“Stop boo-hooing, Perry. You know she was joking. Go hug one of your unicorns.”
Perry was elevent and still had unicorn posters plastered all over her room, glass unicorns, porcelain unicorns, unicorn stuffed animals. Cam hated that stage in girls’ bedrooms when posters of rock bands coexisted with piles of stuffed animals. But who was Cam to judge? She’d just gone on a date with freaking Tigger.
I hope that’s not too long for a teaser! I’m not too good at these. ;)
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