the Little Red Reviewer

Interview with Matt, from 52 Book Reviews

Posted on: September 24, 2012

I recently had the opportunity to get to know Matt, from 52 Book Reviews, a little better. Father, scifi/fantasy fan, and all around cool guy, Matt is pretty new to the blogging community.  This is his first year blogging, but he’s been on GoodReads for ages, and I think he has more Goodreads reviews up than the number of books I own.   Matt has recently reviewed the newest short story collection from Saladin Ahmed, Wool by Hugh Howey, and has a very in-depth interview with Ken Scholes as well. have you bookmarked 52 Book Reviews yet? It’s cool, I’ll wait.

Here’s my interview with Matt:

 
LRR: your blog is fairly new, what made you decide to start blogging about books?

52BR: Obviously, I read a lot. I can’t think of a time when I haven’t had at least one or two books in process in the last ten years or so. What is not so obvious is that I have always dreamed of being a writer. After two abortive attempts at a novel, I decided to channel my need to write in a slightly different direction, and writing about books seemed the best fit. I already volunteer book recommendations to my family, friends, and strangers in the bookstore, so I thought why not do it online to a bigger audience of strangers. At least they won’t look at me funny, like some of the folks in the bookstore.

LRR: Your blog might be new, but you’ve got hundreds of books on Goodreads, going back years! I’m not on Goodreads, do you recommend it an online community that book bloggers should all be involved with?

52BR: To be honest, up until now I’ve only used Goodreads to keep a record of what I read. No one was more shocked than me to find out just how many books I’ve read. These days I’m posting my reviews on the site and have seen a small uptick in hits since then. But nothing beats networking with other bloggers in my experience.

LRR: What are your favorite genres to read and review?

52BR: Thus far I’ve only been reviewing speculative fiction with a strong leaning towards the fantasy side of the house. I’ve been branching out into more science fiction lately, but fantasy is definitely my first love. I also read a lot of other things including horror, contemporary fiction, crime novels and more. I may do a feature for out of my comfort zone books that I think everyone should read. Stephen King is a favorite, but I’m sure most of my readers have read more than a few of his novels. Pat Conroy is another favorite of mine, The Lords of Discipline, The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides are three of the most beautifully written novels I’ve ever read.

LRR: what’s your favorite book that you read recently?

52BR: I just finished The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks and easily exceeded all of my considerable expectations. I find myself wondering if he can top this one. The characters are believable and react in ways that are all too human, the antagonists are not just mustache-twirling boogeymen, and the pacing is so tight that it may be the first book that I would have gladly read until my eyes bled. Do yourself a favor and pick it up. Weeks stands poised to one of the genre’s greats.

LRR: what are your goals for your blog?

52BR: To grow the readership of my favorite authors, to exercise my critical and creative thinking skills, to get to meet (at least virtually) more of the fabulous people that make up the genre and blogging community, and maybe get a blurb on the back of book eventually and review copies every now and again would be cool too. My experience thus far has been loads of fun and almost never feels like work, so I hope to be doing this for quite a long time.

LRR: if you could travel to any historical time period, which “when” would you choose?

52BR:Fuedal Japan, hands down. I teach Japanese martial arts after almost 20 of continuous training and have always been fascinated with the culture and its history.

 

 

thanks for taking the time to answer my questions Matt!  And fellow bloggers, I’m here to tell you, if you’ve got a blogger friend that you’d like to get to know better, this is a great way to do it.

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2 Responses to "Interview with Matt, from 52 Book Reviews"

Great interview! Thanks for sharing :)

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I love the comment about making recommendations to people in the bookstore – I so do that and I think probably sometimes people think I’m a bit ‘odd’. LOL
Lynn :D

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