Hey all, today I’m starting a new feature here on Books in Her Head, called ‘Let’s Have Dinner’. It was inspired by Jamie’s ‘If We Were Having Coffee’. On Jamie’s post, she catches her readers up on what is currently going on in her life, reading and non reading wise. I’ve been trying to think of some way to do more collaboration with other bloggers, and I was inspired by Jamie’s post. ‘Let’s Have Dinner’ was born.
Let’s Have Dinner is different from Jamie’s posts in a lot of ways. First off, instead of talking about myself, each dinner will feature another blogger (or maybe someday more than one blogger? I don’t know?!?) The next difference is that while Jamie’s post is pretty informal, my ‘dinners’ will be sort of ‘interviews’. You will understand more when you hear the questions, but they are not exactly the most typical interview questions, because a lot of it is casual, and I phrased them all to require some thinking. I’m really excited to be hosting my first dinner, so I would like to Welcome Lara from The Paperback Palace!
Who are YOU? What your’s name, and where do you blog?
I’m Lara and I blog at The Paperback Palace, but you should already know that since you invited me out to dinner. Didn’t your parents teach you about stranger danger? *shakes head*
How ARE you? What’s going on with you right now?
Right now I should be completing a maths assignment, but I’m having dinner with you instead, so I feel a wee bit guilty, but I’m enjoying this far more than my maths assignment, so I’m pretty good.
Since we’re having dinner, we should probably put our order in. What are you having for dinner?
I think I’ll just have a burger. Oh, and one butterbeer as well, please.
Do you ever eat and read? I know I’m guilty of this *lol*
What about blog and read?
Sorry what was that? *closes book and places it back on the table* Of course I read and eat, but people tend to get offended as that means I completely ignore them and as for blogging and reading, I wish!
Who’s your favorite character? (I know, it’s hard, but try).
What is one thing that you have in common with them?
Celaena Sardothian. She’s my favourite character and I don’t even know how to spell her name… I think that was right? I’m a badass assassin like her and we both like cake. In fact if there’s a chocolate cake on the menu, I’ll take one of those too.
What’s the most relatable book you’ve ever read?
This is actually a difficult question because generally I feel like I don’t read a lot of books that I can relate to…. Maybe I do, but I just don’t take it in? However there was a quote in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath that really stood out to me.
“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig-tree in the story.From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and off-beat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out.I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig-tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
Sorry, that’s a pretty long quote, but I deeply relate to this. Currently I think I have a lot of amazing options in my life. There are a lot of paths I could take, but I can’t make up my mind. By choosing one path I feel as though I am ruining my chances of being able to turn around and choose a different path, but if I don’t make up my mind and decide what I actually want to do then slowly all these options I currently have will drift away until I am left with nothing.
Wait stop… what music is playing while we have dinner?
“Hedwig’s Theme” just played which was a little emotional for me as it made me reminisce on all the good times I had during the years I read Harry Potter. *wipes tear away* But now it sounds like “Bad Blood” (Taylor Swift) is on which always reminds me of Celaena Sardothian…. She should have been in that music video!
What’s a book you’re dying to get your hands on? (Either unreleased or maybe something that you’ve been meaning to read FOREVER)
A book I am dying to get my hands on is Queen of Shadows! It’s less than two months until it comes out and I already have plans to go and buy it on the day it comes out. Me and a friend will be going to every single book shop until we find it.
What’s your favorite thing about blogging?
I hate to be cliche since that’s something that often pisses me off when I read, but my favorite thing about blogging is all the new people I’ve met and then through them, all the new books I’ve managed to find.
I know you’ve been dying to say it… what’s one book you can’t believe I haven’t read?
For a moment there I thought you hadn’t read Vampire Academy which is a series I absolutely loved, but you have now, haven’t you? Good! As long as you’ve read Harry Potter, Throne of Glass and Daughter of Smoke and Bone, then we can continue to be friends.
As dinner continues, what’s your drink of choice?
Definitely not butterbeer *hic* I have the tolerance of a house elf. I think I’ll stick to Frobscottle (from The BFG, apparently it will make me “whizzpop”, whatever that means).
Do you prefer blue or black ink?
Definitely blue. I never realised how strongly I felt about this until you asked me, but I really do.
What’s a backlist title you still want or need to read?
I really want to read Under the Dome by Stephen King. I’ve owned it for so long and I even watched the start of the TV series, but the size of it is just so daunting and I don’t know if I’ll actually ever get to it.
Go! List your unfinished series’:
Don’t even get my started on my unfinished series, it’s a rapidly growing problem. Currently I have 43 unfinished series and that’s only from the last three years…. I know, I know, it’s a lot, but it’s a problem that I am trying to work on. I won’t list them all because there are too many (enough to have a whole shelf dedicated to them on Goodreads).
Speaking of series, are you more of a standalone or a series reader?
I love series and I’m probably more of a series person, but because of my current problem, I’m trying to either only finish series that I have started or read standalones, so recently I’ve actually read more standalones than series.
What’s one bookish trope (ex. ‘chosen one’) that you can never get sick of?
Kickass female leads (preferably assassins). I love reading books with assassins in them and I really need to find more because I think I’m starting to run out?!
Favorite book quote?
“You could rattle the stars,” she whispered. “You could do anything, if only you dared. And deep down, you know it, too. That’s what scares you most.”
And here’s another since I’m a bit of an over-achiever.
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
Obligatory Question Time!
Have you read Harry Potter?
And if not, why not?
I’m a little offended that you would even ask that?! Of course I’ve read Harry Potter, what sort of person do you take me for? I think the better question would be how many times have you reread Harry Potter….
Is there a book to movie adaptation where you preferred the movie to the book?
Have you read My Sister’s Keeper? Well, the ending was different to the book in the movie, but it was better and I don’t think that happens very often. I didn’t particularly like the ending of the book. I thought it was forced and unrealistic so I was pleasantly surprised when I watched the movie and saw that they changed it.
What’s your favorite movie?
I love Sucker Punch and Sweeney Todd, but my favourite book to movie adaptations would have to be Girl Interrupted and Mockingjay: Part One. Who else is excited for Part Two???
What book do you recommend the most?
I feel like I’m always recommending books with twists. So I often suggest We Were Liars, Gone Girl and Dangerous Girls. I love those books! Actually I love any books with a good twist at the end.
Have you ever had a book spoiled for you?
Ah, yes. The massive spoiler for Allegiant was revealed to me by a friend, but that was completely my fault since I asked her…. I have no idea why I asked….
Can utopian books even exist, since there needs to be some sort of conflict for a plot?
Wow… good question. I think a book that was completely utopian would either be very short or very boring, but I think books that begin in a utopian sort of world and then some conflicted is created would be very interesting since the people who lived in this perfect world wouldn’t know how to deal with imperfections created by a conflict.
Do we share any favorite books?
Definitely! A few of your favourites that you recommended to me I’ve loved (like The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie and Before I Fall). And I absolutely love Throne of Glass, We Were Liars, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, The Book Thief and Looking For Alaska which I saw are also on your favourites shelf, so it seems we have quite a similar taste in books.
I know that we just had dinner, but if this chat would have been during your meal of choice, when would it have been?
I think we could have had an excellent chat over the start of year feast at Hogwarts, but unfortunately we didn’t have either the venue nor the house elves to cook for us, so this had to do, but thank you very much, I definitely still enjoyed the meal and the chat. Is there any chocolate cake?
BONUS! Pick a question to be included in the next dinner.
Ask the next person whether they would be part of SPEW (The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare) and why or why not.
Thank you so much Lara for having dinner with me! I had so much fun, and I think I would consider my trial run a success!?! What did you all think? Should I do more dinners in the future?
Thanks for having me, Mary! This has got to be the most fun interviewish sort of thing that I’ve ever done and I’d definitely say that it was a success. I can’t wait to see more this feature with other bloggers 🙂 How often will you be doing it?
This was fun to read! I want more Let’s Have Dinner posts!