Armchair BEA: INTERVIEW!!!

Welcome all y'all to my interview of Florinda from The 3 R's Blog. I was really excited to interview her and read the other interviews with Armchair BEA because I don't know many book bloggers and today's day of interviews gives me a chance to meet more people who love to read! So without further ado - here's Florinda!

1. What is the book that made you fall in love with reading?

I'm not sure I can remember the book, to be honest. I've been reading since I was four, and that was many, many years ago - I can't remember a time I didn't have a book with me once I learned how to read by myself, and I've always read one book right after the other. But I do remember some of the earliest books I loved and read and re-read: the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace, about girls growing up in small-town Minnesota in the early 20th century (the series follows them from elementary school through marriage and motherhood); the Melendy family stories by Elizabeth Enright; Eleanor Frances Lattimore's children's fiction set in both China and contemporary America; and, of course, Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books.

2. I'll be honest - I'm more of a book blog stalker than writer, but I do read quite a bit. So,what do you enjoy most about combining reading with blogging?

I was never good at keeping a reading journal, but thanks to blogging, I finally have one! Knowing at the back of my mind that I'll be trying to capture my impressions of a book in a written record has helped me read more carefully and thoughtfully, and I'm glad that's happened. But what I really love is that I've found so many other avid readers in the book-blogging community - people who constantly point me toward new books to read, and who love to talk about the books we've read already!

3. I recently graduated from college and I didn't read much fiction during those 5 years of schooling. I remember feeling very daunted at jumping back into reading anything fun. So, what book are you most likely to recommend to someone who is looking to get back into the reading scene and has missed basically everything awesome?

I don't really have one "go-to" book recommendation - I try to base my suggestions on knowing something about the person and her interests. But having said that...in the situation you mention, Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series is not to be missed - and since the final book in the trilogy is due out in August, this is a great time to start on it!

4. You participate/host a lot of fun memes/daily topics. Which one is your favorite and why?

I don't really participate in as many memes as I used to, but I've used some of them as jumping-off points for my own features. My favorite participation meme is the Sunday Salon, which I finally joined last year. I like it mostly because it's so free-form it really isn't a proper meme, but it does give me a good framework for a weekly reading recap and some discussion of book/blog topics. My favorite self-developed feature is the Week-End Review, which I usually post on Fridays. That's my place to share the great links I come across in my blog reading - which I love to do - and it's also place for non-book-related discussion and general stuff that I might not be able to build a full post around.

5. What's your biggest guilty pleasure?

At this point in my life, I'm really working on not feeling guilty about my pleasures! But most of the ones I have aren't book-related. There's definitely some music on my iPod that I might skip past if I'm not alone, because I don't want to be judged on it - and since I know I judge other people on their (questionable, to me) musical tastes, I tend to expect the same! TV is a big source of my guilty pleasures too - for the last couple of years, my prime one has been Smallville on The CW - but since next year will be its last season, I guess I'll be looking for another one soon!

6. Are you a good boy or a bad boy kind of girl when it comes to books? And who is your favorite good/bad boy?

I can see the allure of the bad boy, but I'm past the point in my life where I have much patience with them any more, so I go for the good guys in fiction - and in real life, too. And I can't pick a favorite - I've met too many of them in all my years of reading!

and finally...

7. If you had the opportunity to go to BEA which author would you want to meet and why?

I probably wouldn't have had an answer to this question before I started working on my own Armchair BEA posts, since I really didn't even know who'd be there - but now that I've checked out the list, my #1 choice would be Jon Stewart, for reasons that have little to do with the fact that he and the Daily Show writers have a new book coming out! Since I get tongue-tied and stupid when I meet authors, it might be for the best if I didn't actually try to meet and talk with any of them, to be honest...but after reading her blog and three of her books, I'd like the chance to meet Beth Kephart.

Thanks so much for answering my questions Florinda! Be sure to stop by her blog to learn more about her and read her great reviews! Also - don't miss my interview over at Tales of a Capricious Reader and the other great interviews can be found at Armchair BEA Central!