BBAW Day 2: Interview with Heather from Capricious Reader

Welcome to Day 2 of Book Blogger Appreciation Week which is interview swap day!

Over the years I have participated in these kinds of events I have always been matched up with new to me blogs which has always been fun, and some of those blogs have made it onto my must read daily blog list. This time  though I was totally thrilled to end up being matched up with someone who I have been following for many years, who I consider a bloggy friend - Heather from Capricious Reader.

True to form we ended up with more of a conversation instead of an interview as such! You can read the first part of our interview discussion chat over at Heather's blog. Heather's thoughts are in purple and mine are in black.

Marg: Has blogging changed the way you read?

Heather: Absolutely!!

Right after I got out of college, I was so burned out on reading. I majored in English, so I spent two years reading books, dissecting books, and writing writing writing. I used to read such crap back then! Then I found blogging and all of a sudden, I was hearing about all the great books and was reading all the great books. It really helped me find what I enjoy reading.
Marg: One of the things that I think has changed about blogging is that there is so much more to blogging than just the blogging now. There is Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and so much more. How do you keep up with all the other stuff?

Heather: All I can say is Thank God for my iPhone! I can’t get on anything at work any more (once upon a time I could get on Twitter) (miss those days!), so now at lunch and breaks I check in on things. Twitter does email me now when someone mentions my handle (most of the time), so that helps too. And once the kids are in bed, I’ll hop on for a bit if the mood hits.

How do you keep up?

Marg: I have become selective about what I do.

Whilst I loved Pinterest and spent a lot of time there when I first joined I now haven’t visited there for months. I used to play a lot of Facebook games but that has stopped. So really now I focus on blogging, on Facebook and Twitter. Nearly everything else has gone by the wayside. Oh, although recently I have become a little bit attached to Instagram.

Even with those decisions made, I am still behind on blog reading!

What are the best books you have read this year?

Heather: Oh, now we get down to the good stuff, eh? :)

Let’s see, I’ll just list them, shall I? Because there are SO MANY.

• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, excellent historical YA epistolary/WWII espionage thriller
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, YA sci-fi dystopian kind of thing
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, read by Wil Wheaton is incredible! Especially for an 80s child like me!
• The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, a fine example of a book I would have never read before book blogging, which is so sad! I love this series fiercely
• Lips Touch, Three Times by Laini Taylor, great collection of 3 short stories, all of which I adored
• Railsea by China Mieville, so glad I finally read a Mieville. He intimidates me!
• The Stand by Stephen King, a direct influence of book bloggers. I would have never read this and it’s probably on my all time fave list now
• The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan, I’m convinced. The woman can do no wrong.
• Every Day by David Levithan, I feel a fierce, protective love for this book. So good.

How about you?

Marg: I just finished the Margo Lanagan last week (although here it was called Sea Hearts) and thought it was fabulous! And yay for The Wise Man’s Fear.

Other highlights for me include (but are not limited to)

• Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - completely absorbing, heart breakingly good story.
• Legacy by Susan Kay - I thought I was all Tudor’d out, but this book showed me that I could still love a well written account of Elizabeth I’s life. 
• Fables series by Bill Willingham - I have been wanting to read these for ages, but finally started them this year.
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - Ugly, sobbing crying but oh so good.
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - such amazing imagination.
• The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots by Loretta Hill - Rural fiction is currently a huge seller in Australia and this is one of the better ones I have read
• Ride with Me and About Last Night by Ruthie Knox - Sexy contemporary romance from a new author that is really good reading.
• The Siren by Tiffany Reisz - The publicity for this book was very firmly targeted at the Fifty Shades of Grey crowd, but in my opinion it is a much better book
• Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier - it’s been years since I have read DdM but I should really make more of an effort as I have enjoyed the books I have read by her.
• Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti - awesome short story collection which is part of the Twelve Planets series.

Heather: Oooo you have some great books in there! A Monster Calls and The Night Circus in particular. And you know how much I love Fables. It’s been so long since I’ve read Tudor book, for the same reasons. I thought I was Tutor’d out. Now I’m thinking I should look that book up! And I can’t wait to hear what you think of the Margo Lanagan, no matter the title. :)

Marg: The longer I blog, the more involved I find myself getting in the community. Recently you and Andi relaunched the Estella Society lit magazine. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that project?

Heather: Of course I do! Andi and I loved doing The Estella’s Revenge E-Zine, but school for her, new parenthood for me, made it hard to continue it, so we shut it down a few years ago. Now, she’s out of school, my kids have gotten older and a touch more self-sufficient, so we decided we wanted to bring it back. As we talked (and this went on for like nine months, our new daughter so to speak) we realized one thing we really wanted to do was bring the book blogging community together. You know, that “playground” aspect we have in our tag line. We wanted somewhere for book bloggers to come to get to know each other, have readalongs, readathons, learn tips and tricks about blogging and just relax. Seems like every other month or so our community gets up in arms about something and we want to get away from that, although we will tackle it if something should come up. You know how Andi likes her snark!

We’re still in our infancy, but we are having so much fun and the response has been terrific. Really, more than we ever hoped for.


Marg: Thanks Heather! This was fun!