Blogger Backstage Pass: Karin from My Life…

It’s time for another edition of Blogger Backstage Pass! Are you always looking for shiny new blogs to follow? Do you feel like you’d just like to get to know some of the bloggers a little better? Here’s your opportunity.

Each month I’ll pick a new blogger and host them here! You’ll get to see an interview with them and nab all their contact info. Also, in case you forget who they are and want to visit them, their information will be in the right hand sidebar all month.

This month’s featured blogger is…

A little over a year ago I started my sweet little bookish place in the www. Since then I stopped annoying all my friends with my bookish rambling, put them on my blog and made a ton of friends with book bloggers via Twitter. Unfortunately, living in Europe makes it harder meeting my fellow bloggers but Twitter is a good, not perfect but good substitution for it. 

On my blog I review books I love, ramble about my life, share photographs I made and have a lot of fun interacting with people.

Hi Jessica! Thanks for having me.

As you said, my name is Karin and I live in Vienna which is the capital of Austria. I’m currently studying English and Geography to become a teacher for 10 to 18 year olds and I really enjoy it.

I cannot remember a time when books didn’t play a huge role in my life. When I was little my parents always read to me in the evenings before bed and as I got older this ritual stuck with me. I need to read before bed because I don’t sleep well otherwise (weird, I know). I read constantly and I always carry a book with me. When friends pick me up at my house and we go to a bar and I know I’m never alone during this evening I still bring a book. I guess I’m a bit Rory. I am one of those readers who even read their shampoo bottle while showering.

When I’m looking at my bookshelves I see all kinds of genre. I don’t have any favorites. I love reading books set in Italy, cosy mysteries, Steampunk novels, book about teachers, teaching, school, YA novels, adult novels, etc. You name it, I probably read it, as long as it’s fiction.

2) How did you find the book blogging community? What is your favorite part about running your blog?

I started a blog for daily photographs in 2010 to get myself to take more pictures and to learn how my camera works and what kinds of magic I could do with it. During this time I discovered how much I love blogging and started another blog in English talking about my reading habits. After two years of daily pictures I decided to merge my two projects into one blog and My Life… was born. I finally was able to post my photographs, write about books, things in my life and a bit more about books.

So you could say that I didn’t really find the book blogging community until after I started blogging but the first blogs I found back in 2011 had such a tremendous influence on me that I wanted to be part of this wonderful world of blogging, books and friendship and I find it hard to imagine that there was a time when I didn’t have all my lovely girls around to talk and geek about old/new/favorite books, characters, authors, etc.

I’m pretty sure that everyone now can guess that my bookish buddies, as I usually call them, are my favourite thing about blogging. I love talking on Twitter, reading blog posts, discuss important questions and from time to time just knowing that there are so many like-minded people out there who completely understand my love of books and my addiction to reading (which my let’s call them real-life friends don’t get at all). The only sad thing is that we all live around the world so that meeting up for a chat or for browsing the shelves of a bookstore is noting you can do on a daily basis but I hope that one day I’ll be able to say that I met many of my bookish buddies and that they are even more wonderful in person than online.

3) Where is your ideal place to curl up with a good book?

I can read everywhere except the car. I read while on public transport on my way to university, while waiting for the subway or for friends to arrive, before bed, while others watch TV, during breakfast, on the plane, at the pool…

One of my favorite places to read is my bed. I love snuggling in there with a good book and no distraction for hours and hours but I also love to read sitting outside with the sun shining one my face, a glass of iced tea and my dog to keep me company.

4) What snacks are a must when you’re on a book reading binge?

I’m not big on snacks while reading because that usually means that I don’t pay attention to what I eat and that seems like wasted calories to me (not that I’m big on counting them). I love having something to drink with me when I’m on a reading binge. This could either be iced tea, coffee or a warm cup of tea and if I get really hungry during reading I gravitate towards carrots, my all time favorite food.

5) Let’s say we were to look at your to-read shelf right now. What three books are you most anticipating?

I don’t have a to-read shelf! I have one whole wall in my room with a big bookshelf covered in loads of books and read und unread books are all on there. I have a weird brain because I know exactly which books I have, which ones I read and which ones I haven’t and I also know basically all of my mum’s books. I really fear that one day I won’t have room to remember really important stuff.

When you would look at my bookshelf and ask me about the three most anticipated books on there I would answer:

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare 

I read Clockwork Angel but haven’t started Clockwork Prince yet.

Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweet Shop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan 

I love Jenny’s books and I cannot wait to dive into this one.

Heartless by Gail Carriger 

Gail’s books awakened my love for Steampunk novels and her writing is just amazing. If you haven’t read one of her books you really should.

6) I see you’re a fan of the Discworld series! (ME TOO!) If you had the chance to meet any of the characters in real life, who would you most want to meet? Where would you plan your meeting?

I adore the Discworld novels and I’m so happy to meet another fan. Those books were introduced to me by a colleague of my father and I cannot express my gratitude enough for doing so.

The answer to this question really was the easiest of all because I would love to meet Nanny Ogg. I think she is a hilarious character and when I would meet her I am hoping that Granny Weatherwax and Magrat Garlick would also be there. I’m sure Nanny Ogg would be more than willing to teach me the Hedgehog song and we would certainly have a wonderful time either at a coven in the Lancre woods or at the Lancre Castle where she would have convinced either her Shawn or Magrat to let us in and visit it.

I would also love to meet DEATH at this domain because I would love to see his room full of hourglasses, meet the Death of Rats *squeak* and feed a carrot to his horse Binky.