One of my blogging resolutions for 2019 was to start interviewing more authors and and start interviewing book bloggers as well. I've ticked the author interview box a couple of times this year but this is my first interview with another blogger! I couldn't think of a better blogger to start off with than Lara @ Words With Lara who I've been friends with since shortly after I started blogging! Without Lara having my back and always being the most supportive friend whenever I'm going through blogging woes, blogging would've been such a struggle at times. She's on a bit of a blog hiatus at the moment, but pleeeeeeeease go and check out her blog! Lara's an expert in mystery and thriller recommendations so definitely her blog out if you're looking for recs!
Hey, hello, Lara! Thank you so much for coming on the blog today! Would you mind introducing yourself and your blog?
Hey, Ella! And hey everyone else! My name’s Lara and I blog over at Words With Lara. I’ve been blogging on and off for probably around seven(ish) years now and I’m still going, although at the moment I’m struggling to balance it in with university and life so I’ve been a little MIA.
I can relate with trying to balance uni, life and blogging...it's a struggle! You've been given a time machine! What's something you wish you'd known before you started blogging and that if you could, you'd go back in time to tell Baby Blogger Lara?
Oh gosh, stop deleting posts!!! I’m a serial deleter. About once a year I look at my blog, hate everything about it and go on a rampage where I delete everything and start again… and then I regret it COMPLETELY about two days later. Somebody needs to take my password off me when this happens because even though some of those older posts were probably crap and a tad cringey, it would be cool to be able to look back and see how far I’ve come.
Oh my god, YES, I'm seriously going to steal your password and lock you out of your dashboard next time you start talking about this! What was the best book you’ve read this year and why? Did it give you chills, make you scream from all the cuteness or it was just an all-round good read?
Eeek, so I’ve read a grand total of five books this year (Goodreads is telling me that I’m thirty books behind schedules, whoops). BUT out of those, Fahrenheit 451 was my favourite. It was my first read of the year and I’m not quite sure what struck me about it… It’s one of those books that got me because of the general vibe/feeling it had rather than the storyline. Does that make sense? It just made me feel something.
I feel like I'm the only person that hasn't read Fahrenheit 451...I love books that you just *get* you. What's the most interesting or exciting experience you’ve had thanks to or through blogging?
Getting to the point where I got sent actual books from publishers was a pretty insane moment for me. I mean, that’s why I started blogging in the first place, so to get something back for doing something I love is pretty exciting.
That's one of the most exciting experiences I've had through blogging too! What was the book or series of books that made you go “OMG BOOKS ARE AMAZING” and turned you into a bookworm?
I come from a family of readers so books have always been quite a big part of my life, but I think what really kick started it was the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton. There’s like twenty books in the series and I devoured them and then moved onto all her other series. I’m pretty sure there was a year of my life where all I read was Enid Blyton.
Enid Blyton brings back so many memories, I loved the Famous Five SO much! What do you reckon is the hardest thing about being a NZ-based book blogger (for me it’s FOMO over international bookish events like BEA or YALLFest and wishing there were more Kiwi book bloggers/tubers/grammers out there)?
FOMO is so real. I think we just have less of a community compared to some other countries. We’re so small and out of the way that it just makes everything a little bit more difficult. We’re growing though and it’s crazy how much the NZ bookish community has developed since I started blogging and only knew you.
I completely agree and it is lovely to see the tiny NZ bookish community grow just a *bit* bigger every year! Do people IRL know about your blog? Are you quite open about it or do you (like me ahahaaa) want to hide under a rock forever if it comes up in conversation?
Ha! My parents do, and I think my mum has very likely split the beans to a few people, but I keep my blog pretty quiet at the moment. My boyfriend knows about it, but I still won’t let him see it. I’m not totally sure why? I’m semi embarrassed for some weird reason and also he hasn’t really seen full book nerd Lara, but I’m probably going to have to cave soon and show him.
My mum used to tell every person she met about my blog which always made me want to burn my blog off the internet...ah, sweet memories! One thing in the next year that you’d like to do more of or start on your blog?
There’s a couple of features/series I want to either start or get back into (*ahem* Keeping up with the Classics), but the biggest thing is probably just staying consistent with my posting and being proud of the content I put out there. Lately I’ve been thinking about booktube a bit, but also that’s very scary and I’m not sure if I want my face out there hahah.
Thank you for having me, Ella!!
Thank you so much for being here, Lara! We will definitely get Keeping Up With the Classics back up over the summer and I'll make sure not to let you delete anymore posts!
