Nooooooo… I didn’t interview myself, but Sandra (one of our fellow readers) did, for her podcast! Sandra has been a big part of our book group for a long while now. We’ve always been so in tune with our book choices (well, happily, the whole HUGE group of us are)! Like I love to say… we have great book taste!! FUN book taste. Exciting, angsty, exhilarating bad-boy book taste! 😉
She and her friend Maria have their very own book podcast channel going on (“Book Bitches“), and this week’s podcast features an interview with me. *blush* (scroll to bottom of this post to listen).
I was so nervous. I mean, it’s one thing to write out your answers thoughtfully and concisely, it’s another thing to speak them. Eeeeep! But I will admit, it was SO fun, and I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to get to know one of my friends that much more. And now, you can get to know me a little bit more, too.
A lot of stuff many of you have heard me say throughout the years on this blog, but this is pretty much it, in a nutshell, and some extra detail to go along with it. How I started reading, how I deal with my TBR list, favorite authors, and honestly? Just so much more. The questions lead into fun conversations and it felt like we really were all together, hanging around, discussing our book-life. I couldn’t think of a more fun chat to have amongst fellow book-lovers! (other than discussing our favorite heroes… oh and yes. We do. :P)
WOOPS!
It looks like the original podcast is currently offline (oops? did we go over the bandwidth?) 🙂 BUT!! We have uploaded it directly here, for you to listen to (below). Please scroll down to the bottom of this post, to listen to it. I hope you enjoy it! It’s a longer interview, but it’s truly us, and I loved it!
P.S. I mention some of my favorite books/series/characters and THESE are the ones I’m referring to (if you were wondering what I was talking about):
- Zsadist from J.R. Ward’s The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series
- Ana & Christian from Fifty Shades Trilogy by E.L. James
- Perry and Dex from Karine Halle’s Experiment in Terror Series
- On Dublin Street by Samantha Young
- Anything by author Kristen Ashley
- Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
- Karen Marie Moning and her Fever Series
- Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
- The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
- The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx
- The Long Hard Road Out of Hell by Marilyn Manson
- PLUS I wanted to add Colleen Hoover’s Slammed Series as another one of my favorites (and I have quite a few more, I could go on 😉 ) Or you can click on my 5 star and 4.5 star section and my various “favorites lists” to see them.
{{{{Hugs}}}} You are so stinking cute and passionate. This is such a great interview. I think you need to start a radio/web book chat show next.
Love it!
*hug* LOL Lise!! Thank you. It was quite exciting to get to express my book enthusiasm out loud. 😉
Wonderful interview!!! Thanks for doing it and thanks especially for providing the link!!
Thank you Julia!!
I loved the interview! It just confirms how awesome you are!
Wonderful interview! Listeing to how this all started and what drives you makes me love this site and your book recommendations that much more!!!
Annie and Lisa *hug* Considering how we follow each other’s book suggestions so intently, I was happy to let you all know how I choose mine.
I haven’t read it yet, but just wanted to say what a great picture that is! So beautiful, inside and out!
(Running off to go read the interview now!)
*MandiDark* AWESOME! And now 1. I know how to pronounce your name lol 2. I have a voice to put with your words and all those eeeps and squees lol and 3. I have MORE books on my TBR list lol. It was Great! Thanks so much for sharing, you all are awesome!
Missy –> thank you!! And it’s a “listen to” interview, so you get all the giggles and silliness, too!
Mandi! LOL!!! Yep that’s all me right there. 😉 I keep forgetting that people might still not know how to pronounce my name, so YAY for this!!
That was great! It was so interesting to hear how you got started. Thanks so much to you (and your husband) for creating this incredibly warm and cozy PINK place for all of us to meet. BTW…a reading room is now on my wish list! 😉
Love it!! Maryse, guess what I just bought for my Kindle! The Heroin Diaries! LOL You intrigued me!!
Oh and PS! I read for years when I was young, then quit. Then for some reason picked up Twilight, loved them so much, had to do something so I found you and thank God you helped me move on! :)))
Awesome interview. It was fun to listen to. Just found your bog a few weeks ago pretty much the same way Sandra did, except I was looking for books similar to Thoughtless. Lol. I’vealready read a ton of the books you’ve recommended and now I wont buy a book until I’ve read your review. 😉
That WAS SOOOO COOL!! and yes, after I found your blog about 2 yrs. ago, I never looked back…NOW, I MISS reading GREAT VAMPIRE (Paranoral Romance) books…How About you go back a little for us?? Please?? Lol…just kidding. I LOVE all your recommendations, but I’m lately missing something great, similar to JR, and Lara Adrian’s books.
Congrats!! Your interview was great!
Note: Ana from FSG IS my fave Girl character too, and I always saw her POSITIVE choices instead of her being submissive, just like you. That’s great huh?
Hugs…xxxx
Bia
Julie! I’m gonna have to admit I crushed on Nikki Sixx after (during) reading his book! Tee hee!!! (not so much back in his early Motley Crue days ’cause he sorta scared me) but after “getting to know him” in his book, WOW! *crush*
I loved your interview and am so glad your husband is a computer programmer and started this website for ALL OF US!!!
Maureen! I’m glad you guys get to hang out in my virtual “pink reading room” here with me!
LizEly – I’m thrilled that you found us!! Even I needed books to read after Thoughtless…. so this is a list that I absolutely intend on adding to!
Bia: Have you read The Experiment in Terror series yet? That and the Fever series are two of my absolute favorite paranormal series. 🙂
I really enjoyed your interview! I also followed the Twilight track to reading again a few years ago, then devoured every vampire book I could for months afterward. I found your blog during that, I think by literally googling “what to read after Twilight”. 🙂 I’m so appreciative of all the amazing books you and your followers recommend! Many thanks!
On the Island is next on my to read list, cute and informative blog : )
xo,
Cindi
Breakfast at Cindi’s
Hi ladies I’m Maryse’s mom. Here is a little addition to the interview with Maryse for all of you ladies who liked her interview! by the way I also thought that it was a wonderful interview… I really loved it!
Let me give you a couple of insights to add to this very well managed interview. Maryse’s love of books started probably way before she even remembers. I have always loved reading so when Maryse was little I purchased all those Disney book series that came in huge, bound, colourful books and Maryse and I would sit together and we would look at the pictures, and as often as I could, before she went to bed, I would read to her the stories that went with the pictures. However, she couldn’t go to sleep while I was reading ‘cause I was sitting in her bed and she was looking at the pictures while I was doing the reading and I was pointing out some easy words for her to remember. She’s always been a bright girl, so it did not take her very long to pick up reading once she started school and then the real fun started.
When there were book sales at libraries in Toronto, Maryse and I would be just thrilled ‘cause we knew exactly where we would be on that day… and off we went, to return with our arms loaded and hanging low with bags of books. During the summer, when we went to the cottage on weekends, we couldn’t wait for my husband to run off with his buddies so that her and I could sit on lounge chairs and read all day… we barely stopped for lunch and then just lay back again to continue our reading.
I was an avid reader of horror books and I loved to watch horror movies… she had no choice as to her developing a liking for it as she grew up … I saw no harm in that… when she was 3 years old my husband and I took her to the drive-in to watch a very popular horror movie… it was such a terrifying movie that ambulances were waiting at the movie theater doors just to take away the people who passed out during the movie… well Maryse never saw the harm in the movie… she would put her own interpretation to what she was seeing, and by her comments we could tell that there was no harm done……. hummmm now thinking back to the kind of music she likes, I do wonder sometimes!
Now I live in the country (suburbs of Montreal) and I have 1 ½ hour of train every morning and night of the week. Obviously when you take the train every single day with the same people you’re bound to make friends. One friend with whom I sat every morning and night and with whom I knitted scarves as a hobby, told me one day “my younger sister loaned me these French books and told me that I would really like them” and then once she started reading the books she really flipped and we couldn’t even talk anymore… when she was done reading the first book, she loaned it to me…
that’s how the Twilight passion started… first, once I realized how much I liked the book, I just went on Amazon and purchased the English version of the book and all the other books of the series, my friend did the same thing and then nobody could talk to us for 3 weeks… we just read on the train nonstop…. When I read that other book which really put me in a “funk” for a few days (I’ll have to get the title from my sister who had loaned me that book) and I was telling Maryse about it… you wanna know what she told me?…. “Mom, don’t tell me you’re also into that Twilight craze!!!!” and I could just see her rolling her eyes. Believe me, I had no choice but to send her those books…. and then we would see who would be rolling her eyes at whom!!!… and that’s the story of how Maryse started her blog! Have a great day! Gisele (Maryse’s mom)
heheheh… true… true. Twilight and my mom were the catalyst to my reading frenzy. My mom and I were horror-movie & book buddies, through and through.
Lucy and Kristen, and I so appreciate you guys being here!!
Cindi, it’s a GREAT book. LOVED it and was the book that ended 2011 for me. I need to re-read. Let me know what you think of it, if you get the time.
Great interview, Maryse! But, I’m not surprised, because everything you do is great! I love the passion and excitement in your voice about what we all love…great books! Congratulations! 🙂
Zsadist (from Black Daggar Brotherhood) is my favorite character of all time and I have read it all!
You have wonderful tatse in books!
Gisele, I love that you and Maryse are book buddies. Now we all benefit! Thanks for instilling a love of reading in your daughter.
Great interview! I have been reading your blog for a couple of weeks now and after seeing that you had reviewed many of my favorites, I have found several books through your reviews that I really enjoy…The Mighty Storm and Taking Chances are just a few. BTW, you are not the only one who follows her husband around telling him all about the book you are currently reading!
Cindy – you have to tell me what his reaction is! Mine has now developed the “air-strangle” when I know he’s over my story and wishes I’d stop. LOL!!!!
Kathy that is wayyy too sweet of you to say!!! Thank you!
Kim – there is nobody better than Z. His imperfect perfection… *wow*
Jacque – we all do if we’re enjoying the same ones!! But thank you!! *hug*
Maureen – Every night she would read to me before bed. Every single night. I remember it perfectly (until I could read on my own) and then I’d read myself to sleep every single night, after that. And she’d help me prepare for school “read-a-thons”. My love of reading certainly stems from her. I remember when we were taking a road trip, and I was very little and I was behind her reading all of the road signs as we passed. All of the sudden she spun around and looked at me (when she clued in that I was actually reading them) and she was thrilled! She looked over at my dad wide-eyed, and said SHE CAN READ!!! I still remember that moment.
LOL… I only saw the headline earlier on my phone and kept laughing with myself and thinking the whole day that Maryse had interviewed herself for her blog… Haha You got me!!
Awesome interview girl!! I will tell you the funny coincidence… My husband told me last week that I should make a blog to talk About FragrantBooks blog because that is all I talk to him about now… Maryse blog this, Maryse blog that…Maryse bla bla bla all day… 🙂
Cool interview. Great job!
We are Definitely Maryse fans. Minha, I’ll join your Maryse fan club blog. I’m the same way. I tell everyone About FragrantBooks, but no one I personally know reads as much as our group does. I am so thankful for Maryse having this blog (book club) for all of us. Now I know there are others like me who are obsessed with a good read. I love you all.
Maryse – we had 1500 visitors because of the interview!!! SQUUEEEE Did I mention how much I love your site? And you sounded AWESOME – I’m listening to it again. hehehehehe
Well Mayrse, my husband has used several tactics over time to get me stop talking about my books, for awhile he would start talking about the technical aspects of his job. (He is a mechanical contractor, so this ranged from pipe fittings to cooling systems) All mind-numbingly boring even when I knew what he was talking about. While I was reading Seduction and Snacks, he finally resorting to telling me “PLEASE JUST STOP” apparently he didn’t find it as hilarious as I did! That still didn’t stop me from waking him up in the middle of the night because I was laughing too hard!
You guys make me grin like crazy!!! Love you all too!!
And Sandra, wow that is a ton! No wonder we crashed the system. Tee hee!! I really enjoyed it, and my nerves eased up soon enough. You guys were great hosts!
Cindy!! LOL!
What a great interview, I finally got around to listening to it this afternoon!! It was so nice to hear your voice and listen to your story of how you got started with all of this! Twilight was also my catalyst to a reading frenzy, I had always enjoyed reading, but found it difficult to read for pleasure while I was a student and also when I first got started working on my career, but in May 2008 my sister told me about these books, the Twilight books and I started to read them while on vacation visiting her, we had actually gone away with my Dad and our little siblings and he kept getting mad that all I was doing at the hotel even at the evening disco was reading these books! lol. My frenzy pretty much just revolved around those books, because I had never read anything that had moved me so much, so I just kept reading them, occasionally other books would get a lot of attention and I would read those, but always come back to reading the Twilight Saga. Then my sister introduced me to 50 Shades of Grey and that Trilogy and there I was finally finding a new series to be obsessed with, only of course it’s Twilight fan fiction, so not exactly a big leap, but I was hooked. After reading them all twice I decided it was time to stop scaring all those around me that I really did have some sort of OCCD (Obsessive Cullen/Christian Disorder) so I started to look into popular authors and books that might interest me. I came across P.C Cast and read one of her Goddess Collection books. In an attempt to find out the reading order of that collection I came across your blog and I’ve finally been reading all kinds of things thanks to you! I was so glad that you had all these lists about what to read after you’ve read Twilight and 50 Shades, now I can’t stop reading, I’ve read so many books in the last few months I feel dizzy, but I’m soooo happy 😀 I know that if you recommend it I’m probably going to love it and it’s so nice to know that while I’ll always have Twilight and 50 Shades when I need them, because of you my reading world has finally been opened up to all sorts of other heroes that I’m falling in love with too!! Thanks a million. xxx
And thank you Natalie!! What a great intro into your reading frenzy and thank you for sharing it.
This made me laugh put loud —> OCCD (Obsessive Cullen/Christian Disorder)
hahaha!!! 😛
I’m glad I made you laugh because you crack me up all the time 😀
I loved listening to this — it answered so many questions I had about the history of this awesome site/community. Great to hear, and hilarious at points. What really stands out for me is your incredible passion for reading, something I admire so much. And strangely, it makes me want to break down (at the age of 28…) and read those Twilight books. They’ve been inspiring to so many people. (Oh, and I also remember the whole chat room phenomenon when the internet was younger. Hilarious. Random people spamming ASL seems creepy now, but back then it was all so edgy and exciting.) Anyway, thanks so much for sharing this!