Sunday, February 8, 2009

Well Worth Watching Blogger Profile (2) The Chick Manifesto

For my second Well Worth Watching Blogger Profile, I chose Taren of The Chick Manifesto. I watch Taren's blog like a hawk, because you just don't know what will come next, but you know it's likely to be very entertaining. She's the co-host of the VC Andrews Challenge (along with Steph, one of my all time favorite bloggers) and she rocks the new Read Carpet Podcast.

And now she answers my questions!

If someone were to blurb your blog in 25 words or less, what would he or she say?
Aaaah I have no idea! Hopefully they'd say that it's a fun, random place to read about old favorites, new releases, and things they might not know about.

What kinds of books do you read and review on your blog?
I try to do all kinds, from current YA and chick-lit to biographies, historical fiction, and older books, both classics and plain old favorites. Lately, I've been re-reading a lot of V.C. Andrews books for the challenge I'm co-hosting. Basically, I like a wide variety of things and sticking to just one genre would kill me. So hopefully I have or will cover something for any book lover.

What were a couple of your favorite books recently and which ones are you most looking forward to reading soon?
A couple of books come to mind right away. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell I love love loved! It's a non-fiction look at successful people and how they were helped by outside factors and weren't just "self made men". It's so down to Earth (and in no way a self help book or anything cheesy like that!) and has stuck with me since I read it. Another, that I know a lot of people love, is Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. I have the attention span of a fruit fly and I could not put that book down. It's great if you like romance, science fiction, or adventure. I'm so excited about the sequel that's going to be released this fall. As for other upcoming reads, look no further than the pictures of my bookshelves I just posted. There are a few hundred I haven't read yet that once I stop procrastinating I'll get around to.

I'm all about The Hunger Games. What are some of your favorite posts or reviews in your blog archive and why?
I'm strangely proud of my three part V.C. Andrews Primer (1, 2, 3) because people seemed to like it (I had no idea there were so many VCA fan out there!) and it was fun to look at these trashy fun books from sort of a literary standpoint. I like my Outliers and American Wife reviews just because it's so fun to write passionately about something if you really love it or really hate it and those two were definitely at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Those are exactly the posts I would have picked! What are some posts or reviews on other blogs that have caught your attention as being well worth reading?
That's a really, really hard one and so hard to pinpoint. Just recently I loved your post about dystopias, the transcript of your Read Carpet podcast segment. I envy Steph, Reviewer X's ability to write negative reviews since I'm generally so chicken about critiquing books and she's so…not! Alea at Pop Culture Junkie does this great round up with pictures of the books she got that week that are always so creative.

Ahh..Thanks! Complete this sentence: "If I didn't have my blog..."
If I didn't have my blog I wouldn't know about some of the great authors I've discovered or the awesome bloggers who are so much fun to talk to and read!


We are so thrilled you do have your blog, Taren. Thanks for playing along.
The Well Worth Watching Award was created and designed by Joanne of The Book Zombie. I'm just passing it along to other bloggers!

17 comments:

Erika Powell said...

great interview! And thanks for noticing the links on my blog, I got them all fixed.

bermudaonion said...

Great interview. I want to read Outliers now.

Alea said...

Taren is so great! And I can't believe she mentioned me, I'm blushing :)

Lenore Appelhans said...

I want to read Outliers too.

And of course you know this already Alea, but I am in love with your book stacks too!

Khy said...

Yay Taren!

Alea said...

Outliers is great and The Tipping Point... even better!

Thanks Lenore! My picture wasn't very creative this week unfortunately!

Lenore Appelhans said...

Actually, I liked your pic this week Alea. And I loved The Tipping Point.

Anonymous said...

Yay, thanks again for asking me, Lenore! I'm so glad people like the interview. Alea, your awesomeness is what got you mentioned. That and the fact that I'm so envious of your artistic ability and book haul. The Tipping Point is actually on the short-list of my tbr pile, and if it's half as good as Outliers I know it'll be amazing!

Linda said...

thanks for the great interview. Now I have another blog to read religiously. Where am I going to find time to work, keep up with housework, etc?

Guess I need to go back to re-reading VC Andrews. I read Flowers in the Attic and a bunch of the earlier books a long time ago, but haven't read any in forever. Time to hit the used bookstore and pick some up.

Liviania said...

Cool profile! I love the VCA Primers.

juliethree said...

Oh, wow! The V.C. Andrews bit is what caught my eye! Very good to see her interviewed on that. I read "Rowan of the wood" recently. That is the only horror/fantasy fiction book I have liked since The Andrews collection! I ABSORBED the first two Andrews' series when they first came out!

Keri Mikulski said...

Great interview! Loved "I have the attention span of a fruit fly".. :)

Christina Farley said...

Great interview! Since I've started blogging, I've been exposed to so many more books and authors. It's really helpful.

Christina Farley said...

Great stuff here. Since I've been blogging, I've been exposed to so many new authors and I'm loving it.

Alea said...

The Tipping Point is amazing, Taren you must read it RIGHT NOW! And stop making me blush!

danie88 said...

Great interview! :)

Anonymous said...

Christina Farley, if you liked those you would probably like the book I read 'Rowan of the Wood'. Have you heard of it? The page is www.RowanoftheWood.com, but I also think I saw them on here.