Today, bloggers participating in BBAW have been paired up to interview each other and get answers to all our burning questions! I was so glad to be partnered with Kelly from The Well-Read Redhead, because I’ve long enjoyed following her reviews and other features. Be sure to visit Kelly’s blog today as well to learn some fascinating facts about me. 🙂
I’ll start with the obvious: Who are you and where are you blogging from? How do you spend your time when you’re not in the blogosphere?
I’m Kelly, 32 year old wife and stay-at-home mom to two little boys. My past (and likely future?) career is in higher education administration, but for now I’m happy to be home with my ruffians. 🙂 We live in the great white north of Rochester, NY, but I grew up in Connecticut.
When I’m not blogging (or parenting!), I’m reading, running, practicing yoga, scrapbooking, enjoying the outdoors, and brainstorming vacations with my husband (we love to travel, though we are sticking to kid-friendly destinations these days!). Oh, and I’m drinking wine. Lots of that. 🙂
What do you value most about reading and blogging?
I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love reading. There’s certainly the escapist part of it (love being transported into someone else’s story…what a great way to relax after a crazy day), but reading is also such a wonderful way to gain an understanding and respect for other people’s experiences. I did well in school and have two college degrees, but being an avid reader (of both fiction and nonfiction) has been a major part of my education as well, even if self-directed.
As for blogging–I think many of us agree that one of the best things about reading is sharing the experience with others! Blogging about books has been a wonderful outlet for that, and I love all my book blogger friends. I’m also finding similar camaraderie in the running blogger community, which I love.When I started the blog in 2012, I posted more frequently, but even though my posts are more spread out now, I don’t feel any less connected to my fellow bloggers, thanks to conversations on their blogs and other areas of social media.
What’s the latest book you read that got you really excited, and why?
The last one I finished and gushed about was The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. That one totally took me by surprise and blew me away! I should also mention that I’m currently reading What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty, not done yet but can’t remember the last time I was this glued to the page!
You started “The Well-Read Runner” as a temporary feature, and then kept it going because you liked it so much. What do you particularly enjoy about this aspect of your blog?
I started my running posts because I wanted to track my training for my second half marathon, and keep myself accountable by checking in via a public forum. However, once the race ended, I realized my blog had been enlivened as new running-blogger friends began to appear alongside my reading-blogger friends in the comments section. I’d been struggling for a while with how to keep my blog fresh (hard to do when you’ve been at it more than a few years), and this felt perfect. Why give up a feature that I had such fun writing? And honestly, though my love of running is not nearly as long-standing as my love of reading, I sure do like sharing it just as much. 🙂
Has your blog changed direction in any other ways over the years? Do you have any wishes or goals for the future?
I’d say the running feature has been the only significant change in terms of topic. I was pretty solely book focused before that. The only other major change has been in the frequency of my posting. When I started in 2012, I was still working part time and only had 1 kiddo at home. Since then, we’ve moved (from Albany to Rochester), I quit my job, and my second son was born…so my blogging frequency has had a lot of peaks and valleys. That worried me at first, but I finally realized that even when I disappeared for a while, my dedicated readers stuck around…and really, I’ve never been all about the page hits anyway. I started blogging to share something that I love, and that’s what I want to keep doing. My only wish for the future is that I can keep it from getting boring around here, and that I can maybe, hopefully, eventually attend BEA! Long standing dream!
What’s one fun fact about you that readers wouldn’t know from your blog?
I road tripped to the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 with two of my cousins, and it started my long-standing obsession with the Olympics. Can’t wait to take our boys one day!!
The Emerald City Book Review Archive 
How cool to have gone to the Olympics. I love watching them. I too loved Mount Char, and although I hate running (I’m a big-time walker, though), we share a love of wine. 🙂
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Hey walking is good too! Whatever gets the blood pumping! 🙂 And hooray for wonderful, wonderful wine.
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Kelly (I hope you read these comments) – You have an Olympics obsession too?!! I’ve been completely obsessed since 1988 and went to the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Are you going to do anything on the blog for Rio this summer? I’ve been brainstorming a little bit 🙂
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Oooooh Sydney!!! What an experience that must have been! I would love to do something on the blog…I’m getting my thinking cap on…we should collaborate! 🙂
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That is a fun fact!
Kelly’s blog is new to me – new as of yesterday – and so it was great getting to know a little more about the person behind the blog.
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Happy to “meet” you as well! 🙂
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I yoga also, actually guide it, love the yoga journey, I wish I could run, I just can’t seem to commit to getting into is consistently. Kid friendly travel, enjoy those moments. I hear What Alice Forgot is great, Still Alice is my favourite similar book.
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I find yoga is a great compliment to my running. Running makes my muscles sore/tight, yoga helps me iron everything out. Plus works on my mental focus, which is hugely helpful for racing!
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Great interview! I always listen to an audiobook when I exercise (walking or elliptical machine). My other form of exercise is country line dancing, although I come from a family of runners. I loved The Library at Mount Char, too, and am thinking of organizing something to celebrate the paperback release next month!
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I used to use the elliptical a lot when I was pregnant and didn’t run, audiobooks were perfect for that! I find it harder to concentrate on them while running though.
Didn’t know the paperback was coming out next month, I will be on the lookout for that!
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I so admire Kelly’s running. I admire anyone’s running, really. I do a good number of fitness classes but just can’t fathom running for long periods.
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Hey, gotta do what works. Fitness classes are no joke either! I just started doing some BodyPump, etc. and I am a noodle afterwards.
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Yaaaaaaaaas! I just did Body Pump last night and I’m feeling it. Tonight I need some cardio, so it’s Body Attack, which honestly is the TOUGHEST of all the Les Mills classes. Holy burpees, Batman. Ironically, Body Attack’s “running track”? The most running I can stomach.
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Oooh haven’t tried Body Attack yet. My cousin is a Les Mills instructor and totally IN LOVE with all their classes, that’s who got me to try them out. Like, no one should say “pop it like a squat” as much as she does.
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Love this and love the name of Kelly’s blog. Admire the running and living in a place that is so, so cold to me. I’d never make it. LOL
I love the Olympics and I am so not any sort of athlete, but I find it kind of fascinating. Devoting so much of your life to that sort of goal. Oh, and I need to read What Alice Forgot. I’ve loved other books by Liane Moriarty.
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Haha! Kay are you in Texas? Honestly I’ve always lived in the Northeast so I don’t think about the cold that much. Well until it hits about -20, like it did last week…I have my limits. My brother in law moved to Florida in 2005 and we have visited there a lot, I always say I could never survive in such heat!!
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The Olympics, how fun! I hope you do get the chance to go with your boys someday — that sounds wonderful!
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Ah, some day! I keep an eye on all the newly-voted-in Olympic host cities for future years…a lot of them are in Asia coming up…hoping for another North American venue at some point! I’d love to do another continent, but the airfare for 4 of us would be killer (and Olympic event tickets are insanely priced, plus usually give preference to residents of the host country).
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Great interview,
I am also a reader and a runner. I find that the two interests often go hand and hand. Perhaps contemplative people like to read but also find time to ponder ideas as we run.
I am off to take a look at your blog Kelly.
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I completely agree! Sometimes my best thinking time happens when I’m on the road. 🙂
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What Alice Forgot was a page-turner! Your running goals are inspiring. I was just starting to run successfully a few years ago, but then I went back to school and all was lost! I’m giving it a go again though.
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Understandable if you’re back in school. My husband and I used to work out together all the time, then he enrolled in a PhD program…he can’t wait to graduate and have time for other things again! 🙂
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I definitely need to pick up both What Alice Forgot and the LIbrary at Mount Char! I love Liane Moriarty 🙂
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I can’t wait to check out some of her other books. The Husband’s Secret has been on my Kindle for ages now!
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That was the first book of hers that I read and I really enjoyed it 🙂 I’d also recommend Big LIttle Lies, if you haven’t read it already.
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