So, for BBAW, I signed up to do the partner interview, and I got Cass from Bonjour Cass as my blogging partner. She’s a new blogger, so here’s your opportunity to meet her (she’s pretty cool!). Then go by and check out her blog… (and leave a comment!)
MF: So, Cass: tell us a bit about yourself.
BC: I’m a twenty-something Bostonian (by choice, not birth–I grew up in northern Connecticut). I love city life, mostly not having to worry about driving, especially since I never got around to learning how to drive. I live with my wonderful partner and our two spoiled cats, Gino and Henry. I spend a lot of time reading (shocking, I know), exploring the city, and drinking far too much coffee.
BC: I’m a twenty-something Bostonian (by choice, not birth–I grew up in northern Connecticut). I love city life, mostly not having to worry about driving, especially since I never got around to learning how to drive. I live with my wonderful partner and our two spoiled cats, Gino and Henry. I spend a lot of time reading (shocking, I know), exploring the city, and drinking far too much coffee.
MF: I love big cities, too, though I’ve never really had the opportunity to live in a really big one… How long have you been blogging? Why did you start?
BC: I made the tragic decision to start working in the financial sector last year, right before the recession hit hard, and I was laid off. I started my blog in July after months of following book blogs and feeling frustrated about not being able to discuss all the wonderful (and not so wonderful) books I’d been reading. My partner isn’t a reader and even my friends who claim to be read maybe five books a year. Of course, this is fine, but it’s hard to convince someone who doesn’t read much to tackle books you admit aren’t the best, just so you can discuss them. I use my blog as a way to put my thoughts into a concrete form.
MF: I think that’s a reason a lot of us started! What do you enjoy about reading? What keeps you picking up the next book?
BC: This is a challenging question for me because I don’t feel like I make a conscious decision to keep reading. It’s become a part of who I am, beginning when I was young and my mom would read Little Women to me before bed. I couldn’t wait to learn how to do it myself. I was an only child (now I have three significantly younger brothers from my father’s second marriage), and I was frequently the only kid in the room with a bunch of adults. I started pretending to read–I’d hold my mother’s hard cover copy of IT and mumble out words, pretending I was a witch casting spells–and I would hand write books like When You Give a Mouse a Cookie over and over, even though I only knew the story from memory. When you’re an only child, you learn to make up your own games to entertain yourself, and my games just happened to make me a book lover.
MF: Are you a buyer or a borrower? Why?BC: Lately I’ve been reading so much I’d go broke if I bought every single book. We have a great local library, and I use the Inter Library Loan system to get everything I want. I buy used books from the independent book stores around–there are many–but I don’t buy many brand new books.
MF: Me either! (I really love my local library, too.) You mentioned in an email that you like YA books. Why? What is it about YA that pulls you into reading them?
BC: In high school I was the president of the town library’s Young Adult Council. They were trying to attract more teens to the library and recruited those of us who spent a lot of time there. Their YA selection was, well, embarrassing. Maybe a couple of Christopher Pike books, maybe some Lauraine McDaniels, but the selection was sparse. Mostly we took books out from the adult section. My favorite book at the time was Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, which I had bought myself, so that was one of my “wins” for the library. The group sparked my interest in YA books, and I just haven’t been able to let them go.
BC: In high school I was the president of the town library’s Young Adult Council. They were trying to attract more teens to the library and recruited those of us who spent a lot of time there. Their YA selection was, well, embarrassing. Maybe a couple of Christopher Pike books, maybe some Lauraine McDaniels, but the selection was sparse. Mostly we took books out from the adult section. My favorite book at the time was Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, which I had bought myself, so that was one of my “wins” for the library. The group sparked my interest in YA books, and I just haven’t been able to let them go.
MF: 
Okay… lightning round… Do you have:
Okay… lightning round… Do you have:A favorite place to read?
BC: The train. Or a cafe with a good coffee. Or in the library. Or at my kitchen table. Or in my cozy armchair, snuggled with one of my kitties.
A favorite author?
BC: Officially I might say Toni Morrison or Margaret Atwood. Off the record, I might say Charlaine Harris.
BC: Officially I might say Toni Morrison or Margaret Atwood. Off the record, I might say Charlaine Harris.
A favorite genre?
BC: Lately I’ve been devouring fictionalized accounts of history, like American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld (fascinating fictionalized autobiography of Laura Bush) and Joyce Carol Oates’ Black Water (based on the Chappaquidick tragedy).
BC: Lately I’ve been devouring fictionalized accounts of history, like American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld (fascinating fictionalized autobiography of Laura Bush) and Joyce Carol Oates’ Black Water (based on the Chappaquidick tragedy).
A favorite food?
BC: My stepmom’s meatballs, one of the many benefits of being Italian.
Five books that you think everyone should read?
BC: Obviously, this is just the beginning.
- The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly: my favorite book of all time.
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Fienberg
- The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff: I listened to the audiobook and the narrator made it very funny.
- The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
MF: That is an impressive list. Thanks so much, Cass!
BC: Thank you!
The Book Nut 
Cass sounds like lots of fun! Thanks!
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Sounds like Cass and I are on the same page with the library and used books. I'm a big fan of my library's requests system, and I don't buy too many brand new books. I get used copies from my favourite independents.
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Great interview…I'm off to meet Cass.
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Inter Library Loan – this is one of the best inventions ever 🙂
Gotta love homemade Italian food!
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Still can't get over how ferocious my cat looks in that photo…lol.
Melissa– thanks again for the thoughtful questions! I think that's the most I've written at once in months. 🙂
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