Armchair BEA 2014 Intro

Design by Amber of Shelf Notes

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? Where in the world are you blogging from?

I’m known in many places as “Nordie”, a nickname that I’ve had since University days, when I belonged to the local SciFi group. I am a woman of a certain age, living in the West Midlands in England. I have been blogging in various forms for 8 or so years, but book blogging in this space since early 2012.

I got into blogging, partly as a way of ensuring I wrote better reviews of the books I was reading – some early reviews in other places are shockingly appalling! I write my reviews on my blog, and spread them out to other sites such as Goodreads, Google+ etc as a way of keeping ownership of my content (I can also delete reviews on the other sites with gay abandon, without losing all the hard work I’ve put in previously)

What does your favourite/ideal reading space look like?

My ideal reading space is lying down on some form of bed – either in my bedroom with a cuppa, or in the sun by a swimming pool, with a Pina Colada!

What was your favourite book read last year? What’s your favourite book so far this year?

There were some great books last year, but I can narrow down to two, rather than one. The best I thought was The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan, closely followed by Longbourn by Jo Baker. Whilst I have read some great books this year, I have yet to find “the one” that I’ve found to be outstanding.

What genre do you read the most? I love to read because ___________________ .

I’ve got quite an eclectic taste in reading, and have realised recently that I have several genres represented on my shelf. Each one brings a different thing to the reading mix. I do, however, like crime novels from authors such as Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie, and Margaret Allingham, who write short, sharp, crisp crime novels, often set in the 1930s, and from a different age. Lawrence Block is another crime writer, whose books are based much later (1960s and later), where he can also write tight, short stories.

 Describe your blog in just one sentence. Then, list your social details — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. — so we can connect more online.

I see my blog as a place where I can track where I’ve been and support authors where I can through decent reviews and social media.  I can be found at the following places:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@brumnordie

Email: wpnordie@gmail.com