BBAW 2012: Interview Swap With Emma Cazabonne

My interview partner blog for BBAW is Emma Cazabonne of Words And Peace

About her blog: Mainly book reviews, contemporary fiction, mysteries, some non-fiction, some dystopian, hardly any YA. 

Here I am reproducing the interview which we did back and forth via email. Hope all of you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed interviewing each other.

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Emma's questions and my answers:

How did you get to know about book blogging world?

I think I discovered it by chance, about 3 years ago, browsing about books online, finding a review, and then finding a blogger, one more, and many more! Devourer of Books was one of the first I followed. It is funny she lives actually in the same state, and not that far from me! Lately, I have connected also with book bloggers from England, and finally from my own country: France. It is fun to comment in both languages. They seem to be more intellectual and serious, which is not bad at all! LOL. And thanks to this swap, I just discovered you, a book blogger in India!

Do you remember who was the first book blogger you followed? Do you mostly follow book bloggers from your own country? or from other countries? Do you comment in several languages? Do you see a difference among book bloggers let's say from India and from the US?

Do you remember who was the first book blogger you followed? 

Yes, I do. I followed Angelique Manchanda-Peres who has a book blog named Lotus Reads. In a way, she was the one who brought me into book blogging. She used to visit my poetry blog, rooted, and leave comments there. I visited her too and then started my book blog. Then there was Dewey, who brought us all together. She is no more but her legacy lives....

Do you mostly follow book bloggers from your own country? or from other countries? 

I follow bloggers from all over the world. Only a few are from India. My followers too are from all over the world. Mostly US. I have readers visiting me from each and every continent!!
Do you comment in several languages? 
I can speak 7 Indian languages but I comment only in English. As most of my readers speak/read and write English...
Do you see a difference among book bloggers let's say from India and from the US?

Yes and no. Indian book bloggers tend to read India based books but I cannot generalize. I for one, read all kinds of books, World, Crime Fiction, Poetry etc. 

And yourself, do you have a job having to do with books?

Has the book blogging world changed the way you read? format, genre, etc

You can say I have job that involves books, Math and English books!! I am school teacher. I teach girls from Class 6-12. Math for Class 6 - 10 and English to Class 11 and 12. I enjoy teaching and interacting with girls.....

Yes, book blogging world has increased my horizon. I get to know about books which are not easy to find otherwise. I have gotten to know a lot about poetry. Then the fact that I get review copies via the book blogging world....!

How long have you been blogging? Are you doing things differently from when you started? Would you have any good advice?

 [extra questions, not to include in our interview: are you ok if I insert a picture of you in my interview post? I think I saw one on your site. can  use it, or you prefer just the picture of your blog?]

I started a poetry blog in 2005. And a book blog a year later. I lost that book blog to Malware in May 2009. I could retrieve my posts from my Google Reader but I lost all the comments. (Now I subscribe the comments too!!). I recommend that we back up our blogs, I started it too but somehow have not kept up with it. 

As for as doing things differently,  my poetry has evolved over the years. And book blogging has undergone changes too. I write simple and shorter reviews without any spoilers. One thing I would like to say here is, keep your blog uncluttered. That attracts more readers. 

A little bit about myself, personal stuff. I am single, in my 40s and I live with my mom. She is 75 and very feisty.  She too reads but our reading tastes are vastly different. She prefers short articles. I have three brothers, engineers and they read Techie stuff only...!! My nephews and nieces are always picking books from my shelves and I like that....

And yes, you can add my photo. I am sending a latest one for you....You can do the same, if you wish...

You can post all the questions if you like. No worries....

[thanks for the picture, I'm sending mine as well. Maybe we should stop here? Do you have something good to conclude? Unless you have another great question?]

Yes, we can stop here. However I want to share some thing with every one via this interview. I received the following mail in April, regarding a poem I had written three years back...
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From: Nadine Renazile
Date: 9 April 2012 21:19
Subject: Civilization poem
To: gautami.tripathy@gmail.com

Hi gautami,

I work in a K-8 independent school and three years ago I introduced your poem "Civilization" found online, we have been reading ever since. Our fifth grade classes who study pre-history and civilization year-long, spend two hours re-interpreting your poem during National Poetry Month in the States. Students compose their own work, act, dance, make short films and draw using your poem as a framework; this poem fits very nicely with our curriculum.

I wanted you to know how much your poem has influenced our work with our students.

All best,

Nadine Renazile

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I cannot describe my feelings after I read that mail. I had forgotten all about that poem and I had to revisit it!! am posting that poem for your reading pleasure:

Civilization

outside the windowsill,
a tiny leaf sprouts
nervous of the terrain
but eager to absorb
the sunshine. light
stares back, unsmiling
willing the leaf to be
useful. sipping a little
water, it senses changes,
each pore tingling
opening to ensconce
those noxious gases
yet giving out oxygen-
sustaining all life forces.
understandings the
purpose of its life,
shoot blossoms to tree
perpetuating the world.

we, the civilized ones
axe it down to ground.

gautami tripathy
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My questions for Emma, you can read her answers on her blog:

How did you get to know about book blogging world? 
What kind of genre you love most? Do you write long or short reviews? Have you met any book blogger in person? What is it you do for a living? What are your hobbies?
Can you tell me something about your family? Are they readers  like you? Do they share your books?
What kind of blogs you prefer to read? Does your husband has a blog?

Go see her hand-painted rocks at http://rocksbyemmanuelle.com and http://rocksbyemmanuelle.wordpress.com.

Watch her videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/RocksByEmmanuelle

Read her book blog: http://wordsandpeace.com

 Like her FB pages:
http://www.facebook.com/rocksbyemmanuelle 
and  http://on.fb.me/dGjqZt

Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/wordsandpeace

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Thanks Emma. I am very glad to have met you via email! Thanks for sharing your picture with us!! You are pretty...!! (Another trivia for you all, I and Emma share our Birthday, we were both born on March 22!!)