Armchair BEA Day 1 - Introductions!

 



Today is the first day of Armchair BEA. Every year I am jealous as various bloggers head off to BEA and every year I wish I was American or that it was easier to get to America. This year I decided that at least I could sign up for Armchair BEA and participate slightly in the fun :-)

Here are my introduction questions. For those of you who already know a lot of this stuff, sorry, and for those who are new, hi!

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'm Bex, although I've recently realised that only my family and people on the internet call me that. Everybody else I know calls me Bekah or Rebekah. Anyway. I've been blogging about two and a half years and I got into blogging when my husband and I moved to another part of the country, away from all my family and friends and I thought it would be a good idea to have somewhere to keep track of my reading so that I would be better at giving people recommendations. I quickly realised how much I love having a place to voice my opinions and ramble about all the bookish things my long suffering family and friends really don't want to hear about!

2. Where in the world are you blogging from? Tell a random fact or something special about your current location. Feel free to share pictures. 

I'm blogging from the coast of Kent, UK and down the road is the house where Charles Dickens Aunt's house, where he used to spend his summers. I used to have a picture, but I have no idea where it's gone, sorry!


3.Have you previously participated in Armchair BEA? What brought you back for another year? If you have not previously participated, what drew you to the event? 

I've never participated before, but I love the idea of it because BEA itself always seems awesome and so much fun for bloggers who go.

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

I'm currently reading a few things; A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg (which is great), The Second - Last Woman to Die by Maggie Joel, which is really interesting, and How To Make Money Using Etsy by Timothy Adam, which is also really interesting and useful.  

5. Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you.

I learned piano for ten years and really want to take lessons again so I can get my Grade 8 certificate.

6. Name your favorite blog(s) and explain why they are your favorite(s). 

Oh, I feel like I do this so much that any regular readers will just be rolling their eyes going 'oh my god not this AGAIN!', but since you asked, I have three absolute favourites. Musings of a Bookshop Girl is written by lovely Ellie and reading it feels like sitting down at your kitchen table on a sunny afternoon when you've got nothing to do except either curl up with a great book or have a long chat with a friend you've not seen for ages over tea and a warm scone. Laura is in charge of Devouring Texts and she is hilarious. She has a lot of the same interests as me and reads a lot of the stuff I want to read and it's my go-to blog for cheering myself up. Finally Hanna my book twin at Booking in Heels. I'm pretty much guaranteed that everything she reviews will either be something I love, have on my TBR, or really want to read. If she says something is good and it's not already on my list it will immediately go on it, no further questions needed. All three of them are generally lovely people and I now class them all as good friends as well as keepers of awesome blogs, which is a definite bonus  :-)

Obviously I have a lot of other blogs I really enjoy, but I'll limit myself to those three for this post! My blog roll is down the right hand side, in case you're interested.

7.Which is your favorite post that you have written that you want everyone to read? 

My little rant about libraries and why they are essential to society and the survival of life in general is pretty much the only post I've ever written that I would really love everyone to read.

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

Neil Gaiman, because he's just awesome. But in all honesty, I don't meet authors for a reason, which is that I mostly can hardly communicate with everyday strangers in social situations. If I were to meet an author I really loved I would probably end up in a corner in the foetal position, whimpering. An attractive image, I know.

9. What literary location would you most like to visit? Why? 

Haworth again, because last time we went we didn't go walking on the moors and I feel like I missed out. Also Bath because I want to go to the Jane Austen Centre which seems amazing, and the Lake District, because Swallows and Amazons.

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

The people! And the recommendations, and the events, obviously.

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

Not really. I know some people say it can be quite bitchy and stuff, but I honestly have no experience of that. From where I'm sitting it's all sunshine and roses :-)