Saturday, June 7, 2008

Reviewer Profile: Book Chic

Name: James
Alias: Book Chic
Headquarters: http://www.myspace.com/bookchicclub
Mission: To promote the awesomeness that is YA literature and chicklit! OH YEAH!!
Genres: all kinds of YA lit and adult chicklit, with the occasional other genre mixed in

What's your occupation by day?
I am a college student for the moment, but I graduate on May 10, which I believe will have been several weeks ago by the time this is posted. I shall return to this question at a later date when hopefully I can put an actual job, seeing as I need one after graduation.

What made you decide to tackle this whole blog reviewer biz?

There’s a huge story about it in one of the Ask Book Chic’s on the blog (the 1st one in February, if you wish to go find it), but I’ll keep this brief. Lauren Barnholdt wanted to promote her book Two-Way Street via blogs, and I had a livejournal, so I was going to post an interview and book review there, but after sending off the questions, I got excited about it all and how cool it was to do, and thus a book review/author interview blog was born!

What are your blog's strong points?
Most likely the interviews and guest blogs, though people also enjoyed the Ask Book Chic’s which I hope to do more of in the future.

What are the best aspects of being a reviewer?
When coming up with the site, I did not envision being able to receive ARCs. That thought did not cross my mind until Meg Cabot offered a copy of Jinx to me last summer when I was first starting out. So getting ARCs is a huge perk. But the two best things are chatting with authors and fellow YA/chicklit readers and making connections through the various books I review and authors I interview. It’s been so much fun doing that. The other thing is doing the contests, which I enjoy immensely and which is a big reason as to why I decided to do giveaways all through the month of June to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of Book Chic and also as a thank you to all my loyal readers who have supported me through the past year.

In your opinion, where lies the heart of a good book?
For me specifically, usually humor. But in general, a really good plot speaks to me more than characterization or anything else. However, I do believe there needs to be a good balance between plot and characterization, so it’s really hard to completely pinpoint one aspect as making a book good.

What books rocked your world? Which authors?
Oh my goodness, there have been so many that we’d be here forever if I listed them all. I am really easy to please and love pretty much every novel I read for review on the site. But to pick just a few, I’d have to say Burned by Ellen Hopkins, Airhead by Meg Cabot, Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway (LOVED this book- everyone should run out and buy it now, even if it is like 2am. Go to Walmart or break into your local bookstore and leave the money on the counter or something, but GET IT ASAP!), Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson, Wake by Lisa McMann, The God Box by Alex Sanchez, and so many more. The authors of those books (and obviously many others) also pretty much rock my world too. But a special mention really needs to go out to Meg Cabot, who’s been so friendly and supportive, and provides so much stuff for me to give away on the blog that I gotta say that she totally rocks my world so much that I might as well have fallen off the face of the earth, it was so intense.

What are some of your other passions and interests?
I love to write, sing and dance (really badly; the dancing, not the singing- I can sing pretty well), making people laugh, gay activism, and probably some other stuff that I am forgetting, lol!

Can you roll your tongue or do other nifty stuff?
I wish. However, I am fairly good with changing my voice and imitating some people or just making up random voices. I can also walk VERY well in high heels, and strut in them too. Which is extremely impressive for a guy to do, but since I’m gay, it’s not terribly impressive since it’s probably somehow embedded into my DNA at birth.

What music puts the rock to your roll?
The songs that I’m obsessed with now are “4 Minutes” by Madonna and JT (you should see me dance to this one, lol), “See You Again” by Miley Cyrus, “The Voice” by Celtic Woman, and some other artists I really enjoy include Kylie and Dannii Minogue, Melanie C, Anastacia, Hilary Duff, Nelly Furtado, Anna Nalick, and Spice Girls, among many, many others.

Any movies you can watch over and over again and not get bored? TV shows?
In regards to movies, my absolute favorite has got to be Clue, the movie based on the board game. Despite it being a murder mystery, I could watch this movie over and over, which I have done. I’ve seen it over 10 times by now, and this is without owning it, lol. Princess Diaries and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants are close contenders. My favorite TV shows would be Charmed, Wonderfalls (short lived FOX show), Simpsons, Family Guy, Ellen (her sitcom, though her talk show rocks too), and Gilmore Girls.

Young Adult or death?
Such a tough question, but I’d really have to go with Young Adult. Less mess to clean up.

16 comments:

Book Chic said...

Thanks so much for asking me to do this, Steph! I had a great time answering the questions! :)

ambeen said...

Great answers!

I'm glad that most reviewers are saying the perk to being a reviewer is getting to chat with authors and make connections that way. I've seen on couple sites that people think we only do review blogs because we're "that desperate for ARCs" according to one person. :P

Book Chic said...

Totally! I mean, I love getting ARCs- it is a fantastic perk, but I just love making new friends and chatting about books! It's great!!

And who's that one person, ambeen? I will go beat them up with my Supergay powers. *strikes heroic, but gay pose*

Lisa McMann said...

Book Chic is my hero.

Stephanie Kuehnert said...

I looooove Clue the movie!!! And love it when I meet others who do! Yay!

Book Chic said...

Lisa- And you're MY hero, as well as the wind beneath my wings. :)

Stephanie- Yay, someone who actually KNOWS about Clue the movie and also loves it! Every time I mention that as my favorite movie, I get blank stares (or a "what's that?" if I'm on AIM because blank stares don't really occur much there). So it's good to find someone who loves it too! :) Yay, indeed!

I really need to buy the DVD sometime. I'll have to look through the $5 bin at Walmart, haha.

Shooting Stars Mag said...

AWESOME answers. I think we need to be best friends now. How does that sound?!

And sheesh..some people just don't get it. ARC's are cool. But why take all this time to maintain a blog with reviews, interviews, giveaways, and MORE, if you really didn't love it?! It's fun and I agree that I love being able to talk to and get to know authors better...not to mention other reviewers and book lovers. :)

Again, great reviewer profile!!

-Lauren

Anonymous said...

YAY! BC is one of the best and awesomest book reviewers out there so YAY! for having him here. Loved the answers, btw. :)

The Book Muncher said...

James, you are way funny! in a way you actually remind me of a good friend of mine who's also totally awesome :D

ambeen said...

Lol, I don't remember where I read it. I was searching for reviews of this book I'm reading now and wanted to see if anyone else hates it as much as I do. I came across a couple of obscure forums in the process with people who were discussing book reviewers.

I love the movie Clue, too. I don't think I got my copy from the Walmart $5 bin. I think I had to buy it from Columbia House. I watch each alternate ending every time I watch it. :P

Book Chic said...

Lauren- I'm down with that! :) I love being BFFs with other book reviewers!

Harmony and BM- Aww, thanks so much!! :) I appreciate the comments!

Ambeen- Ah ok.

And yay, another Clue lover! :)

Shooting Stars Mag said...

Sweet deal. We are totally BFF's now James. :0)

-Lauren

Melissa Walker said...

James, I cannot believe we didn't talk about CLUE when we hung out! It's an absolute top 5 of mine. 3 endings? Genius!

Book Chic said...

Melissa, I'm sure if we had talked longer, we'd have gotten around to it eventually, lol. Maybe next time? Are you planning on doing more NC readings for Violet in Private? If so, I will totally be there and we can discuss Clue then.

Although I will have to rewatch it in preparation because it's been too long.

Oh, it's so great to find all these Clue lovers! :) YAY!

Amanda Ashby said...

Hey BC, great to see you on the otherside of the interview fence!!!!!! You're such a star!!!

Book Chic said...

haha thanks Amanda!! :) I certainly feel like a star what with all the attention the site has been getting- it's so exciting and very appreciated.

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Hey! For some reason, this embedded comment form makes most people click twice before the comment is processed and published. It's not you - it's just that it's a new Blogger feature with kinks and all that. (But I adore it and don't wanna get rid of it!) I removed Captcha to make the process easier. You don't have to rewrite the comments twice; just click on SUBMIT twice and it should work. If not, email me. Thanks! -Steph

 
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