BBAW Interview Swap

I recently signed-up for the book blogger's interview swap on the Book Bloggers Appreciation Week site. I was given the name of the "Nothing More Delightful Book Blog" by Sarah Merz.
Sarah Merz is the owner of a popular book blog in Germany. I wish I could read German, but Ms. Merz is fluent in English and has shared some delightful information about her blog and her life.


Sarah, please tell us something about your blog.

It is called "Nothing more delightful - Reading from Passion" as this is what reading is for me. Therefore, I also decided to make books my profession and started studying book sciences in Munich in 2004, which is an interdisciplinary programme combining courses on handson skills with business management knowledge. I quickly got interested into two main areas, which are historical development of the international book trade and new digital technologies. Ok, I am not only passionate about reading, but also love studying, which is why I also did a degree in Technology Mangement and an MSc in Material Cultures and the History of the Book in Edinburgh (which also many library-people do, because we worked with special collections and rare books and thought about things like conservation and so on). As my boyfriend is an archaeologist, I wrote my dissertation about the German 19th century archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann and the international publications of his works, which also was a quite funny topic, because Schliemann really has a distinct personality. The next year I will spend in Oxford to do an MA in Digital Publishing at Oxford Brookes University
and I am very much looking forward to it - I think it will be a great year, but I have promised my mum that afterwards I will definitely stop studying and start working - maybe in online marketing of a publisher or something like that.

What kinds of books do you like to read?

What I love to read: quite a lot actually and it is hard to sum up. There is general literature, all-age-titles, fantasy. Since the publication of the Hunger Games I am also especially fond of dystopias*, as you always start to think about things when you read them. I therefore take part in a dystopie challenge. Another of my real passions are books about books or reading - bibliophile titles so to say including books such as The Name of the Rose or The Uncommon Reader. At the moment I am planning to launch a books-for-booklovers-challenge, but this still needs a bit of preparation. And beyond that I love bookish places such as book stores, libraries, birth places or houses of authors but also places out of books such as any Harry Potter locations or so on. There is a little category on my blog, where I load up photos of places. At the moment, there is only one post in this category namely about a German town called Tübingen. Many German writers have lived or visited the city, partly owed to the very old university located there. Goethe for example had his publisher Cotta there and stopped by two times. Now there is a plate remembering his visits saying something like "Goethe upchucked here". But also Mörike, Hölderlin or Hesse lived there. And I do have a category on my blog called Friday Tea, where I ask a question to a certain book blogger every Friday. I initiated this meme, because I am quite new in the "business" and love to get in touch with other book bloggers, which is also why I signed up for the BBAW interview swap.

*Dystopia is defined as a society characterized by poverty, squalor, or oppression. Most authors of dystopian fiction explore at least one reason why things are that way.

I want to thank Sarah for this interview. She is a real inspiration and I wish her much luck in her academic endeavors and her career.

Please visit "Nothing More Delightful" to read Sarah's interview with me. She came up with some great questions and I did my best to answer them.

Please share your thoughts in the Comments Section below.