Armchair BEA: Introduction

Design credit: Nina of Nina Reads

This year I decided to participate in Armchair BEA. According to the official site,

Book bloggers unable to attend the BEA Bloggers Conference or Book Expo America (BEA) in New York City, but would like to ‘meet’ other book bloggers and publishers to discuss books and book blogging can participate in this virtual event.

I'm pretty far removed from New York City these days, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to get to know my fellow book bloggers and publishers. All this week my blog posts will therefore relate to Armchair BEA, and then it's back to business as usual next week.
 
Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? 

My name is Amanda and I've been blogging here at Late Nights with Good Books for just over a year now. I got into blogging about a year after I graduated college. At first I reveled in the fact that after work I could come home and do anything I wanted - or nothing at all. No worrying about homework, grades, and scholarly articles was nice for a time, but then I began to miss learning and wanted to do something productive (and something for me) with all my free time. 

A bunch of factors combined to form the perfect storm that enabled me to create this blog: I've always loved reading and writing and ended up majoring in both English and Spanish in college. I loved being exposed to so many types of books and learning how to analyze and interpret them. Writing's also been a passion of mine and I aspire to be a published author someday. I wanted something that would keep my writing skills sharp, even if it wasn't always through writing a story. I discovered the amazing community that is Goodreads and began to keep track of the books I read starting at the beginning of 2012 by posting brief reviews. And then a high school friend encouraged me to start reading more young adult fiction. I did read some YA fiction at the time, but I also read lots of adult fiction. When I noticed there was a whole blogging community devoted to reviewing books - and YA fiction - I knew that it was something I wanted to be a part of. And I haven't looked back since then.

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? 

No, this is my very first Armchair BEA. Since I only started blogging last May, I was unaware of BEA or Armchair BEA until they started. I'd love to be able to attend BEA one day, but if I had to choose one book-related convention, I think I'd rather go to ALA personally. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to attend BEA and ALA conventions at some point!

I was drawn to this event because it's something that I can participate in without the expense. I know that there are so many books and blogs that have simply gone under my radar, so I am eager to find this opportunity to better connect with publishers and fellow book-lovers.

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 am currently blogging from Wisconsin in the United States. I was born and raised in New Jersey and attended school on the East Coast as well, but for the past two years now I've called Wisconsin home. It's far less crowded than the East Coast and boasts some amazing scenery (I live right by many lakes), but we do deal with some overly long winters (we seem to have skipped spring and gone right to summer this year).

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

I am currently reading two books:  Golden by Jessi Kirby and The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

Since starting my blog, I've found that I prefer to read one book at a time, so that I can really concentrate on being immersed in that particular story. I am currently trying out reading a non-fiction book slowly (a chapter or so a day) at the same time as I read a fiction book, so we'll see if that continues!

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

Ooh, this is a tough question! Since I prefer to read fantasies, there are so many different literary locations that I'd love to visit. My top ones are definitely Hogwarts/the magical world of J.K Rowling's Harry Potter series, the realm of Tortall from basically every Tamora Pierce book, and Middle-earth of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I also wouldn't say no to visiting Lyra's Oxford/world from Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass so that I could find out what animal my dæmon is.

Now that you know a little about me, please link up and let me learn a little about you!