As part of Book Blogger Apreciation Week I’m interviewing Suey from It’s All About Books.
Suey lives in Utah, USA. She focuses on YA books, but also enjoys reading a variety of different genres including science fiction, fantasy and literary fiction. She ran the famous Book Word Game and has a wonderful feature where authors pick the five books that have been the most influential in their lives. I recommend that you take a look at her lively blog.
You’ve been blogging for over 5 years now. How has blogging changed your reading habits and which books have you read as a direct result of your blog?
Yes, five and a half years now! The biggest thing about my reading habits that blogging has changed is the amount of YA I read and enjoy now. My reading used to be mostly classics and literary fiction. Now, I read tons more (probably because you can finish YA books much faster!) and about half the books I read are YA. And while I enjoy these books a great deal, I’m quite sad that the classics have fallen by the wayside. I’m always making an effort to still fit them in, but wow… they suddenly got hard to read!
There are so many books that I’ve read as a direct result of the blog. How can even begin to name them?? 🙂 Some recent ones would be: For Darkness Shows the Stars, The Scorpio Races, Code Name Verity, The Wise Man’s Fear, The House at Tynford… etc. I think I should look into this further and see what percentage of books I read are directly related to my blogging connections and what books I would have discovered anyway. That would be an interesting number to me!
I’d love to know that figure too! I think mine must be at least 50%, if not higher.
I see that you have children too. How old are they and which books have they especially enjoyed recently?
I’ve got four kids; two boys and two girls. Sadly, the boys don’t love reading quite as much as the girls do. I guess this is a fairly normal thing? I don’t know. But my son, age 23, does love The Catcher in the Rye and for some reason can really relate to Holden Caulfield! I’ve tried to get him to read some John Green books this summer, thinking those are a bit in the same style, but he never seems to be able to stick with it.
My 20 year old daughter reads all sorts of YA like I enjoy. This summer she read Sara Zarr’s new book, How to Save a Life. She also manged to fit in The Hollow City by Dan Wells. She didn’t read as much this summer as she has in the past… there was a boy, you see.
Next is my 17 year old son. I thought he would love Ready Player One, but he didn’t make it through. He is in a phase of wanting “learning” books (ie. non fiction!) so I gave him a book I have called Discover Your Genius and he seems to be enjoying bits and pieces of that.
My 13 year old recently read and loved The Hunger Games series, and she loves the Pendragon series (by D.J. MacHale) and the princess books by Jessica Day George. Also this summer she’s been devouring the Wings series by Aprilynne Pike. She looks forward to the day when I’ll let her read Dan Well’s I Am Not a Serial Killer series. I’m feeling like she needs to be a bit older for those still!
Do you still work at a library? If so, what is the weirdest thing a customer has asked you?
Yes, I do still work at the library, but I work upstairs in the administration office as the administrative assistant’s assistant! So I don’t get much interaction with the patrons, though I do hear some funny stories quite a bit. However, one day a guy came upstairs into the office, hoping to get some community service hours. While he was waiting for the lady he needed to talk to, he started chatting with me. First all, you must know, he was wearing a kilt. We don’t see that much around here! So we knew right off he was a little different. And then he said something about the weather and how hot it was and how he wasn’t used to that where he was from. Of course, he wanted me to ask…”So where are you from?” … so I obliged. He proudly said Ireland! I said, “Oh, funny, I don’t hear one bit of an accent!” He said, well, that’s because he hated his accent and had taught himself in the last few years since he’d been in the US to hide it. And I said, weird, why would you want to do that? And he went off on some story, I can’t even remember now. But about that time I began to realize he was a pretty big nut case! And I wasn’t’ believing a word he said! When the lady he was waiting for came out, she mentioned his kilt and asked was he from such and such a clan? He said, “Oh, no…. these aren’t a clan plaid… I’ve been banned from my clan and can’t wear their plaid!” Oh boy… whatever! As he left, we could all barely contain our giggles until he got out of earshot! Sheesh? Hide your Irish accent? CRAZY!! Doesn’t he know that he’d have girls swooning at his feet? But… if you’d seen his feet (he was wearing flip flops with the kilt) I think maybe not after all! Oh… and then we suddenly realized… isn’t it in Scotland that they wear kilts? Hmmmm……
Are there any books published recently that you think deserve more attention? How about a fantastic older book that people no longer talk about?
My friend and I decided we are on a campaign to make Dan Wells and his book The Hollow City, a New York Times bestseller. We are baffled that some writers of quite low caliber get so much attention, and then other awesome writers, such as Dan Wells, seem to fall between the cracks. I mean, he is getting to be more well known, but has yet to make it to that very prestigious club. An older book that I really loved and never hear anyone talking about is The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye. Oh, I would love to re-read that book. And I wonder if very many people have read it and if they loved it too, or not.
I haven’t heard of The Hollow City, but you’ve sold it to me! I’ll keep an eye out for a copy. I have The Far Pavilions on my shelf. I bought it after I saw some very positive comments on a blog (I wonder if it was yours?) I’ll try to actually get it off the shelf and read it sometime soon.
What is your favourite book at the moment? Has that always been your favourite or do you regularly get new favourites?
My favorite book at the moment continues to be The Book Thief. It’s held that place for several years now. Perhaps something will someday bump it from that spot, but my guess is, it will be another Markus Zusak book… if he ever gets another one done! 🙂 But like all readers, I have several favorites…. several that I hug to myself with much love. Other such books would be Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, The Grapes of Wrath, Life of Pi, Wives and Daughters… just to name a few.
Thanks to Suey for answering my questions.
You can see my answers to Suey’s questions over on her blog, It’s All About Books
In the last few years ebooks have taken off, 
