Armchair BEA 2013: An Introduction

This post is part of my week-long participation in Armchair BEA 2013.

An Introduction

Welcome to Day 1 of Armchair BEA, everyone! Hello to both my regular visitors and to those of you new to Book Labyrinth. I can't believe it, but this is my 3rd year participating in Armchair BEA!! I always have a lot of fun finding new blogs and seeing what everyone else is chatting about.

Without further ado, here are the questions I chose to answer:

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?
Hello! I'm Ashley, a 26 year old blogger from Ontario, Canada. I generally review YA, but I also delve into New Adult here on the blog. I've also been considering adding a few adult reviews here and there, as I've been reading a lot more non-teen books this year.

And here I'll crib from my own answer from last year: I've been blogging on Book Labyrinth since August of 2010 and writing reviews on Goodreads since January of that year. I started Book Labyrinth because I wanted a place where I could have bookish discussions with other people who enjoyed the same books as I did. What has kept me blogging is that connection with other book bloggers, because let's face it: no one else understands our book obsessions the way other bloggers do.

2. Where in the world are you blogging from? Tell a random fact or something special about your current location. Feel free to share pictures.
As mentioned, I'm from Ontario, Canada. To be more specific, Southwestern Ontario, basically equally distance from Port Huron, Michigan and Niagara Falls, New York. This means that despite all the Canadian stereptypes of igloos and the cold, I actually live in a place that's further south than about 1/3 of the States.

Something special about my location in regards to blogging is that I'm a couple hours from Toronto, which means that (when the timing works out) I get to attend a lot of great book events. There is also a large group of bloggers from the Toronto area, and it's been awesome to get to know them.

3. Have you previously participated in Armchair BEA? What brought you back for another year? If you have not previously participated, what drew you to the event?
Yes!! It's my 3rd year, as stated, which is pretty unbelievable. I think the greatest thing about Armchair BEA is the sense of community. We're all book lovers, and it's so cool to see all the responses to the great topics that the Armchair BEA team comes up with. I also love the Twitter parties and the chance for great prizes -- there's an exciting atmosphere throughout the whole event, which I think is great, considering a lot of people are sad they can't physically be at BEA.

4. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2013?
At the moment I'm reading "How I Lost You" by Janet Gurtler. She's a fellow Canadian who writes fabulous contemporary YA titles.

To name only one favourite book of the year is impossible, so I'll list a few. Despite owning The Host since it was published I never read it until the beginning of this year. Surprisingly I really adored it. Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers was an amazing second volume to the 'His Fair Assassin' series. On a completely different note, Me Before You is a book that I can't stop thinking about. It's a tough and controversial read, but the emotions it evokes are crazy intense.

5. Which is your favorite post that you have written that you want everyone to read?
I was lucky enough to interview Marissa Meyer before her event in Toronto this march. I wrote about the event, and you can also listen to or read a transcript of the interview.

Then there was that time that Kelley Armstrong stopped by my house. (RIGHT??)

One post that I found interesting to write, and I think garnered some decent discussion was about favourite types of Book Swag.

Thanks for visiting, everyone! I can't wait to be introduced to all of you.

You can also check out some of my answers from the Armchair BEA 2012 Introduction.