#ArmchairBEA 2015 Day One: Introductions and Library Love

Hi everyone!

I am so excited to be taking part in Armchair BEA this year and can't believe its here already. It's been a couple of years  since I last participated so I was planning to be all organised this year but time has gotten away from me so we will see how we go.

Today's day 1 topics are introductions and Library Love. I really do love my local library. My three year old and I are there at least once a week picking up books for one or both of us.  Unfortunately my local librarians declined to be interviewed which was a shame but I still love my library and will talk a little more about it further down the page but first I get to talk more about me :-)

Tell us a bit about yourself: How long have you been blogging? Where are you from? How did you get into blogging?

My name is Nikk, I am from Sydney, Australia and I have been blogging for just 4 years now. I actually got the idea to start a blog after attending a lecture at the Australian Fitness expo in 2011. The person giving the lecture (which was mainly attended by personal trainers) was about increasing the fitness profile by blogging about fitness and how to get started. Now whilst I knew I couldn't blog knowledgeably about fitness, and with my love of writing, the idea of starting a blog really appealed to me and what better to blog about than the thing I spend the majority of my spare time doing or talking about: Reading. It has taken me a while to get myself established and even now, there are times when real life makes it hard but I still love it and really want to grow my blog further.

This is a picture of me meeting the lovely Rachel Vincent. One of the authors, whose books I love to read.

Why do you love reading and blogging?

I have always been a reader. For as long as I can remember. There is nothing like getting yourself lost in a book and taken away from reality for a while. In some ways, I liken reading to meditation, at least for me. It relaxes me and takes me to that zen place. When you you turn the last page of a good book and then close it, it can be like waking up from a dream and sometimes it might take you a minute or two to get your bearings again and for a little while after that you mind may linger in the world of the book as you mull over the events and story that took place. This is why i love reading.

With blogging I get to write about what I am reading. Share my thoughts without worrying whether the person I am talking to actually cares that i am distraught as the main characters soul mate has taken from her in a series of tragic coincidences or that she has battled 5 monsters, challenged two gods and overcome 101 hurdles to get them back.
I also get to participate in a community with other people who share my love of reading and whether it be gushing about our latest read or titles received or impatiently awaiting the next book in our favourite series, its nice to have other people I can talk books too and get recommendations for new reads.

Lastly love being able to give my those books I love and the authors that wrote them a little bit more recognition and promote them by giving them honest reviews be they good or better. I don't generally write reviews for books I consider less than 3 stars.

What is your favorite genre and why?

I am a bit of mixed bag when it comes to favourite genre. Generally when answering off the top of my head, I will tell you Urban fantasy because I enjoy reading books about magic or fantasy stories with a more urban real life setting however my mood often decides the genre I will read and I also go through phases of reading everything i can get my hand on in just one type of genre before growing bored or having an entirely different genre spark my interest.

Generally most genres I read run along a similar vein so other genres like paranormal, paranormal romance, romantic contemporary and high fantasy are my life blood with my reading predominantly being in the YA/NA territory though I will read adult novels and the occasional historical fiction also if the story takes my fancy.

For me reading is an escape from the real world so the genres I read tend to reflect that.This picture is a typical library haul with its mixture of YA,NA and adult

What book are you reading right now?

I am currently reading Nowhere but Here (Thunder Road #1) by Katie McGarry and really enjoying it. Hoping to get my review up for it this week.

What is the top book in your TBR pile?

The book that is at the top of my TBR pile is Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch. I have received the second book in the series to review so am reading this one first. Here is a picture of it with the next two books on my TBR list

Library Love

As I mentioned above,  I love my library!  I have been a member there now for 5 years and my daughter and I make weekly trips to one of its branches to pick up books to read.
As well as being a very well stocked library with many of the latest reads available to be borrowed, they also do awesome thing in the community as well as have the occasional book event also such as hosting a signing event for author Lauren Kate, author of Fallen and Teardrop series, whilst she was visiting Australia.
They also run Baby Rhyme time for 0-2 year olds and story time for 2-4 year olds.  This was a godsend for me when my daughter was a baby.  It was a way for me to get out of the house, get new reading material, meet other mothers with young children and Buffy loved the singing and intro to books.  My daughter already loves reading and its an important part of our night time routine and this Baby rhyme time was the perfect way to introduce her.

They also do cool promotions like Mystery date books on Valentines Day where you would pick up a wrapped book as your mystery date and have no idea what it was until you got home and unwrapped it.  Unfortunately the date I randomly chose was not really up my alley but I still thought the idea was cool and when Leonard Nemoy passed away earlier they put up a star trek display in his honour.



Lastly they do a whole lot of other awesome stuff for the community like tutoring and study programs for chool age children, they have a justice of the peace come in once a week and regular groups for all sorts of other book, film or community related things.
My library forms an integral part of my community and I want to say thank you for the job they do.
As mentioned, the librarians at my library declined to be interview for this post but I would love to hear from other librarians and library assistants around the world for a follow up post in a week or two.
If you can spare the time, please pop across to my interview page here and answer a few questions.  Don't forget to let me know what country you are from as it would be great to compare and contrast libraries in diferent states and countries and find out more about them.

Hope you enjoyed my day one post and I can't wait to go check out everyone else's posts! don't be afraid to let me know you been by :-)

Armchair BEA 2013 Day One : Introductions

Design credit: Nina of Nina Reads

Welcome to the first day of ArmchairBEA 2013.  I loved being part of ArmchairBEA last year so am back again for the challenge.  So without more ado, please continue to read and I answer a couple of questions about myself.  I look forward to meeting many of you throughout the week :-)

1. 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 Nikk.  I am an Aussie blogger who reads mostly YA/NA and some adult predominantly in the

Paranormal/Urban Fantasy/ Fantasy/Supernatural persuasion.  Though i do pick up romances and/or contemporary novels, if I like the look of them.  I first started blogging just over 2 years ago but have only really taken it seriously for the past 14-15 months after the birth of my daughter in 2012.  Middle of the night feeds are the perfect time for reading it seems :-)

I got into blogging as I have always been an avid reader and would love discussing what I was reading with other people who have read it though often i had different reading tastes from some of my friends and I loved the thought of getting reads particularly for authors I really like early as I don't have a lot of patience and hate waiting for the next instalment in a series.  I also read pretty quickly so it was a way to ensure i always had a lot of books ready to read.

2. 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 participated in Armchair BEA last year (2012) and really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately it before I understood about scheduling posts so was desperately trying to write each days post on the day it was due to go up and with a nearly 3 month old baby I lasted about 3 days before I fell behind.

Part of the reason I came back was so I could be more organised this year and get a jump on my posts as soon as the topics came out.  Of course that hasn't exactly happened as I have spent the last couple of days interviewing for jobs and generally doing things other than blogging so I am frantically trying to get this post up on the day it is due but I am determined to last the whole week no matter what happens :-P

The main reason I came back is also the same reason I enjoyed it so much last year.  I love just being part of the blogging world, talking to other bloggers and participating in discussion and learning new things.  Being part of Armchair BEA ticks all these boxes.  As bloggers, often we are off doing our own things, reviewing the books we want to read and spending a lot of time drumming up folloowers and readers for our own blogs  so it's nice to do something as a community as well and share that love for books that brought us all to blogging in the first place.

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

I am just about the finish The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross (have about 3-4 pages left) then I will start on The Girl in the Clockwork Collar and then The Girl with the Iron Touch (both also by Kady Cross- books 1 & 2).

I read Dare You To by Katie McGarry here last week and absolutely loved it!  You can find the review here.  Along with Boundless by Cynthia Hand, they are probably my favourite reads of 2013 so far :-)


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

I have always wanted to visit Wales, particularly the Isle of Mon and King's Men Stones.  These locations are written about in my favourite book of all time, The Ancient Future by Traci Harding.  The ancient Future is a book about time travel, magic, soul mates and creating your own reality and I just want to visit these places to somehow experience this magic for myself.  :-)

There is something magic about locations you have read in books especially if you have an imagination. As a child, my athletics club had their meets in a place called Trumper park  and I had read a book called Riddle of the Trumpalar by Judy Bernard-Waite  about two kids that when trying to save a tree called the Trumper Tree accidentally got absorbed into the tree and ended up back in the days of the convicts. This tree actually existed in Trumper Park and my best friend and I would often play by the tree and try to hug it and go back in time ourselves.  If anything it definitely fired our imaginations  :-)

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

My favourite part of the blogging community is taking part in events where we get to share our posts and meet new people, whether it be memes like In My Mailbox or Teaser Tuesday or bigger events such as Armchair BEA and Bloggiesta.  There are always new people to meet and new blogs to discover and new things to learn and it is thorough sharing and visiting other blogs that we really come together as a community.

Armchair BEA Day One: Introductions First

Welcome to the first day of Armchair BEA, an event designed for those of us who are unable to make BEA (Book Expo America) and the Book Bloggers Convention but still would like to share in the excitement.

As one always does on the first day, it's time for introductions so below are five questions to help get to know me, Nikki Sapphired Dragon, a little better:

1. Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

My name is Nikki Sapphired Dragon, i live in Australia and my blogging site is called Realm of the Sapphired Dragon. Mostly it contains, reviews, memes, giveaways and other bits and pieces in the adult/YA genres of Urban Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Dystopian, Paranormal and Paranormal Romance. I am 35, a fitness administrator and instructor as well as an avid avid reader.  I have just had a little girl is now ten weeks old and the most beautiful baby in the world :-) I have been blogging now for just over a year.

As for why I got into blogging, well I have always been a reader from the time I was a child and I also have always liked to write but I found my writing extended more to journal or blogging type writing rather than fiction.  I attended a fitness convention in April 2011 where there was a panel on fitness and communication. It was essentially all about being a personal trainer /fitness professional and ways to promote your business using communication I.e. search engines, social media and of course blogging.

What I took away from it was that I really wanted to start my own blog...but about books.  I had a couple of friends who already had established book blogs so after picking their brains for a bit, Realm of the Sapphired Dragon was born.

2. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012? 

Currently I am reading the first 4 books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J R Ward and I need to get them all read by tomorrow as that is when the fourth book Lover Revealed is due back to the library :-)

I am really enjoying this series.  It's a lot of fun and I am looking forward to reading the next 6 in the series. However, next in my reading line up is Hourglass and Timepiece by Myra McEntire.

3. What is your favorite feature on your blog (i.e. author interviews, memes, something specific to your blog)?

Up until recently my favourite feature was In My Mailbox (hosted by The StorySiren) as I love showing off the books I have received each week. However, I have just also started an On My Wishlist feature (hosted by Cosy Books) where I get to showcase and talk about books that I WANT to read both already published or yet to be released.  What I love about it is often it is just as much a surprise to me that I want a book because I like title or the cover and have not even bothered to read the synopsis.

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

The literary location I most want to visit is Wales and in particular, the isle of Mon along with the Kings Men Stones in Oxfordshire. My favourite book, The Ancient Future by Traci Harding is set mostly in Wales and the main character goes back in time while visiting the Kings Men stones. 

5. Have your reading tastes changed since you started blogging? How?

I don't think my reading tastes have changed so much as been clarified. I have always been quite an eclectic reader and depending on my mood reading anything and everything from thrillers to romance to high fantasy to non fiction.  In the last year or so that I have been blogging I feel I have really nailed down the genres that I particularly like reading and these are the genres I tend to read and review (and are listed in question 1). 

Well that is my introduction so hopefully now you all know me just a little bit better. Feel free to comment and let me know you have been by. Now I am off to meet a few more of you.  Wishing you all a great Armchair BEA 2012!!


*design credit for armchair picture at top of post and button in sidebar is Emily of Emily's Reading Room