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.

Book Blogger's Appreciation Week ~ Community

Today is the start of the fourth annual Book Blogger's Appreciation Week. This is my first year to participate and I am discovering some great ways to connect with book bloggers all over the world. The theme this year is "Community" and participating book bloggers are writing about this topic today;

"Today you are encouraged to highlight a couple of bloggers that have made book blogging a unique experience for you. They can be your mentors, a blogger that encouraged you to try a different kind of book, opened your eyes to a new issue, made you laugh when you needed it, or left the first comment you ever got on your blog. Stay positive and give back to the people who make the community work for you!"

Here are two of my very favorite book blogs;
Man of la Book
Zohar is the "Man Of La Book" and writes book reviews and sponsors book give-aways. He espe­cially likes biogra­phies, his­tory, historical-fiction, espi­onage and mys­ter­ies. He started this blog to share his thoughts about books. Most peo­ple think of read­ing as a soli­tary activ­ity, but Zohar takes the oppo­site view — he thinks read­ing could eas­ily become a social activ­ity and it's even eas­ier to do with the advent of the Inter­net. Zohar is active on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and the Ning Book Boggers Group. He is a real inspiration to me.

Gently Mad
I met Sharon Henning in the Ning Book Bloggers Group. She is a fellow Texan and specializes in writing Christian book reviews. She states on her blog, "I am hopelessly and helplessly condemned by my own lust for literature that I recklessly and depravedly buy books with remorseless abandon. My day job is the ever more practical occupation of freelance musician. I'm not rich. Which makes my licentious book purchasing all the more irresponsible."
Sharon writes honest book reviews that leave the reader curious and eager to read the entire book. She writes from the heart and is not afraid to voice her true thoughts. She has encouraged me in my book blogging endeavors and often leaves positive comments on my posts. Sharon is a real treasure in the book blogging community.

Tomorrow I will post an interview with German book blogger Sarah Merz at Nothing More Delightful. Sarah will share her love of reading and some interesting aspects of her life. I had the opportunity to connect with Sarah through the BBAW Interview Program.

Please share your thoughts in the Comments Section below.