armchair bea: introduction

Hello everyone!
 I am back from my hiatus! I've actually been working on a review of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley these past few days to break the ice, but I'm procrastinating on that. Instead, I thought I'd do something more fun and interesting and current: like Armchair BEA!

 I've to chose from a list of questions, some that are such typical "interview" questions that I think I'll just link to posts where I've answered them in the full :) I hope you all don't get bored or anything, I'm not all that interesting!

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? 

Good question. Who am I? I don't know myself, and I don't want labels to define me. But it's the only way to put myself in words, so: reader, writer, student, friend, blogger. I have been blogging for 4 complete years and I'm going on my fifth (I started in October of 2008). I initially started blogging with a friend in elementary school about global warming issues, but decided I wanted a blog that I could run by myself on something else that I felt passionately about: reading.

2. Have you previously participated in Armchair BEA? What brought you back for another year? 

I have. I participated in 2012 (here) and I remember having fun and wanted to do it again! Honestly, I forgot until I saw another blogger's interview post and remembered. Don't look at me like that! I've been on hiatus, I had no idea!

3. What are you currently reading, or what is your favourite book you have read so far in 2013?

I haven't been keeping up with modern YA novels and in fact, I've been reading the classics, like Dracula and The Stranger. I'm currently reading Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre. It's absolutely amazing!

Winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize for Literature, Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher, critic, novelist, and dramatist, holds a position of singular eminence in the world of letters. Among readers and critics familiar with the whole of Sartre's work, it is generally recognized that his earliest novel, La Nausée (first published in 1938), is his finest and most significant. It is unquestionably a key novel of the twentieth century and a landmark in Existentialist fiction.

Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence. In impressionistic, diary form he ruthlessly catalogues his every feeling and sensation. His thoughts culminate in a pervasive, overpowering feeling of nausea which "spreads at the bottom of the viscous puddle, at the bottom of our time—the time of purple suspenders and broken chair seats; it is made of wide, soft instants, spreading at the edge, like an oil stain." Roquentin's efforts to come to terms with life, his philosophical and psychological struggles, give Sartre the opportunity to dramatize the tenets of his Existentialist creed.

4. If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?

Last year, I said J.K. Rowling. This year, I'll say...Albert Camus (The Stranger). First of all, he's pretty hot. He's my latest literary crush, and I think my first. He's got that suave, classy French feel about him.
Second of all, he's a French Existentialist (not the German sort) and I'd love to hear him "lecture" with me over a cup of cafe. Existentialism is a complicated subject matter and what I read tends to differ from other existential writings. I'd love to learn from Camus!

5. What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?

If you all have read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (its my writing-bible), then you'll know about the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. It's a secret library in Barcelona that safe-guards books. If one is introduced to it, then that person must chose a book to protect and is allowed to put a book inside. The setting of the novel is when the main character, Daniel, chooses a book called The Shadow of the Wind and learns that its the only surviving copy at that someone has been systematically destroying all copies of the works of Julian Carax (author of The Shadow of the Wind). It's such a romantic idea, and it sounds like a book lovers' paradise and hell all in one. That magical gothic feel I got for it while reading attracts me to it. If you haven't already read The Shadow of the Wind, I highly recommend it!

So there are my five questions! Thank you so much for stopping by, and have fun travelling to other blogs :)