BOOK BLOGGER INTERVIEW: MARIJA // INSIDE MY LIBRARY MIND

Hey guys! I’m back with another book blogger interview post and todays guest is Marija who blogs at Inside my library mind. I really love reading her posts and she writes some of the best discussion posts in the book blogging community. So I’m really excited about this post.

p.s the bold letters are the questions and some commentary by me ? Lets go!

Hello Marija. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

• Hey everyone, my name’s Marija, I am a student and blogger and I blog @ Inside My Library Mind. I like coffee (a lot), video games and books obviously.

• It is what it is. Being an international blogger can be really frustrating, since ARCs aren’t as available, we can’t go to conventions or author events etc. so that can be a bit discouraging at times. I find that a lot of people who aren’t from the US or the UK feel the same way and share the same grievances. International bloggers tend to feel a bit left out at times, so that’s something that I struggle with a bit. Other than that, when it comes to other readers and bloggers, it’s amazing.

• I was a part of the online book community for a while – through Tumblr and Goodreads mostly. And I loved talking books and writing about books, so creating a book blog felt really natural and came to me spontaneously, as an extension to what I was already doing online.

• The good part (the best part, actually) is the community. Everyone is beyond nice and beyond welcoming and it’s such a nice place on the Internet, as a whole. It’s great to talk to people who are as passionate about books as you are. The bad part is definitely trying to manage your life and obligations with blogging – you don’t always have the time, and sometimes it gets difficult to juggle multiple things you’re trying to do at once. It’s hard finding the time to dedicate to blogging because there’s a lot of things that need to be done in a day.

• Definitely Truthwitch by Susan Dennard. I feel like a lot of people know about it, but not a lot of people have read it. The series as a whole is fantastic and with a complex world and nuanced characters. I really wish more people would read it.

• Ugh I am always reading multiple books at a time, because I can’t just focus on one thing and I always want to read ALL the books. Currently, I am listening to Leah on the Offbeat on audio, reading Mother of Invention on my Kindle, and I have hard copies of Wonder Woman and The Powers on my bedside table, ready to be started and yet just sitting there lol.

• I am not sure. I think it was the fact that my dad loved books and he sort of passed on that love to me. And I had a fantastic librarian at my school, who recommended the best books and made me adore libraries and she’d let me hang out at the school library way too much. So I just always loved books and I really don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t reading.

• I don’t really snack much while reading. But I drink lots of coffee. And I mean LOTS of it.

• Do your own thing. When I first started blogging, I was trying to do the same stuff everyone was doing. But that gets old quickly and it never works. As long as you’re doing what’s interesting and exciting for you, others will see that and start coming to your blog. Oh and also you could check the Blogging Tips section on my blog *wink wink* (I am kidding, I swear).

• This is always hard for me, but I’d say Susan Dennard, Brandon Sanderson, Maggie Stiefvater, Ali Smith, Hanya Yanagihara… I mean I could go on, but it’s silly. My most recent addition to favorite authors list is Emma Mills. She is so amazing and writes the cutest books and I adored all three of her books immensely.

• I think diversity is so important, and that’s definitely something I discovered through talking with others in the community. I always felt represented in books and I could always relate with the characters and see myself in them, but that’s not true for a lot of people. And seeing yourself in a book, and feeling understood is so important and one of the greatest pleasures of reading. SO diversity in books and representation in books is something I think everyone in the community should strive towards and support and encourage.

• Fight Club. The movie is AN EXACT copy of the book. Like seriously, almost word for word. But I think the actors were fantastic and brought so much to the story, so I think the movie ended up being better than the book.

• I am not really sure about changing my perspective on a certain thing, but I think Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky changed the way I look at a lot of things. It’s a book about redemption and how good and evil aren’t such exclusive categories, so it made me definitely rethink a lot of things.

• This is always the hardest question. Favorite tv shows of all time are Black Mirror, Game of Thrones, Gilmore Girls, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Sense8… There’s more possibly but I am blanking on them right now. And then my favorite movies of all time are A Clockwork Orange and Inception. And music changes on the daily, I could not tell you one song or album even if I tried. Favorite artists are Halsey, Ed Sheeran, Florence + the Machine, HAIM, Pink… (I actually started watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine because Marija would not stop raving about it on Instagram??)

What book are you embarrassed to have not read?

• Hmmm this is a hard question. Actually I’m not really embarrassed by anything I do or do not read, but lets say The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. I always say she’s my favourite author ever but I have only read The Raven Cycle. So I’m going with that.

• Those afternoons at the school library! I even got to organise books and library cards and it was super fun and I have such fond memories from that time.

• There’s so many people! Mikaela @ The Well-Thumbed Reader (she doesn’t blog anymore, but her blog is still one of the best and she is so amazing and I miss her posts so much) and Janel @ Keeper of Pages are the ones that immediately pop into my mind and they are both amazing and have been supportive of my blog for as long as I can remember.

• I would die. Seriously, I would not last a day in a zombie apocalypse. I have no survival skills whatsoever lol.  (??She is so honest. Don’t worry Marija, Im ready to protect you)

Thanks for the great Interview Marija. All the images in this post were gotten from her instagram account @insidemylibrarymind (she post great pics so check it out) and you can also find her on Twitter and Goodreads.