May 27, 2015

Armchair BEA: Introduction and Library Love

It's Armchair BEA time again! (Why do I forget every single year until I see people posting that day on Twitter?! Argh!) So I'm belatedly linking up for day one, which includes introductions and library love as the topics of conversation. First I'm going to answer five of the ten intro questions, and then I'm going to give my local library a little love!

Tell us a bit about yourself: How long have you been blogging? Where are you from? How did you get into blogging?

I'm Jessica! I'm 32. I double-majored in International Affairs and French, which are both very useful to life here in the American Southwest. I tend to be sarcastic. I talk a lot. And, as you probably guessed by my blog title, I'm a lifelong bookworm. I average about 120 books a year. 
In general, I've been blogging around 6 years. Here at Quirky Bookworm, it'll be 4 years in August. 
I'm sort of from Tucson - I lived here for the first 6 months of my life, and then the most recent decade. (I cannot believe that I moved here 10 years ago this week!) 
I got into blogging so that my poor husband would get a break from listening to me talk about books. Although he still has to listen to me talk about a lot of other things, haha.

The poor husband's name is Noel, and we have a 5 year old named Eleanor and a 1.5 year old named Juliet.


What is your theme song?
This is a funny question - because I literally always have a song stuck in my head, sometimes for years on end. I have Perpetual Earworm Syndrome or something.
When I first moved to Tucson it was "Oh the weather outside is frightful". When we were newlyweds it was a mix between "Scooby Scooby Doo" and the Chariots of Fire theme song. Even now, like 8 years later, humming a few notes of Chariots of Fire will totally make Noel crazy. 
I also went through an On Top of Old Smokey era and a Our God is Risen and Reigning phase. Lately I seem to have settled into the Hot Diggety Dog song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and "Let's go driving in an automobile" from Sesame Street. You know you wish you were my real-life friend so that you could hear me humming/whistling/singing that awesomesauce all day.
Share your favorite blog post on your blog.
I think probably this one. I mean, it's at least the one I refer to the most when people say "HOW DO YOU READ SO MUCH WITH TWO SMALL CHILDREN?!?!" (Which yes, they do usually kind of shout/gasp it at me.)

What book are you reading right now?
BookS. It's always plural. Right now: The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty and The Tournament by Matthew Reilly and A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear. All really good so far!

What does diversity mean to you?

Well, this year it means trying to read fewer books set in England, and more books set in other places. It's why I'm mapping my books, and it's why I try really hard to check out a large variety of books from the library for my kids.

Did you catch that neat little segue into library loving? I'm so proud of myself! 

Yesterday I went and read at the library for TWO whole hours while my in-laws took my kids to the Children's Museum - I can't remember the last time I was actually in the main, downtown library. It was fun to feel like part of the big city for a little while. Then today we hit our usual small suburban branch to get books for the kids and sign Eleanor up for the summer reading program.

My only annoyance is that the closest library to us is about a 20-25 minute drive. The city pretty much ran out of money a few years ago, so library growth has not kept up with population growth here. I really, really wish there was a southeastern branch of the library. 

But in spite of the drive, we're at the library at least once a week. I feel like we might be there every other day if it was closer, we all love it! Usually I can't even drag the girls out of the car when we get home, because they're so engrossed in their books.



Now I'm off to be 'introduced' to some other Armchair BEA participants! It was nice to meet you!