Sunday Special: Interview with Katie of Call Me Crazy

Really pleased to present a third blogger interview here, with Katie of the fabulous Call Me Crazy site! The feature will take a break after this weekend as I have a couple of others scheduled for the next few weeks, but if you're a blogger and you'd like to feature in it, please get in touch.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself - what do you do aside from reading and blogging?

Hi Guys! My name is Katie and I'm less than a month away from my nineteenth birthday. I'm a freshman in college so most of my time is spent trying to figure out my impossible math homework! Aside from reading and blogging I love napping, making mosaics, painting, scrapbooking and going to concerts! Last year I broke my record and saw nineteen bands last year one of which was my favorite band, The Maine, three times!


2. Congratulations on your 2nd blogoversary! Do you have any tips for newer bloggers that you wish you'd been given 2 years ago?

Thank you so much! It's been such an incredible two years! When I first started I was super self conscious of putting my opinions out there. After a couple of months passed, I slowly got used to expressing my thoughts about the books I read, but I was still super hesitant to write a not so positive review. So my tip would be that as long as your polite in your reviews, don't feel guilty about not enjoying a book. People come to your blog for your honest opinion and they trust that you will tell them the truth. Not everyone likes the same things and that's okay!

I definitely agree there! There are some books I LOVE which no-one else seems to like, and some that I think are awful which other bloggers rave about. Hopefully people can make up their own minds after reading a variety of reviews.


3. Over those 2 years, you've had several different titles for the blog. What made you pick Call Me Crazy?

My first couple of titles either took an eternity to say them (like Tales of a Teenage Bookaholic) or just didn't fit my personality in the slightest (like Heartland Reviews). I had a super hard time fitting in when I went to school, I was a total outcast, but I had my books! They called me 'Crazy Katie' because they didn't understand my extreme shyness (I'm actually super shy in person!) and my love of reading. So at first I adopted that as my blogging siggy and decided to focus my blog's name on how crazy I am for books!


4. I love the way you give books scores out of 5 for characters, creativity, voice, plot and impact in your reviews. Are the five categories all equally important to you, or does one of them stand out as more important than the rest?

Aw, thank you! I'd say all of them are super important to me as great qualities for a book to have, but I think voice and impact might mean just a tad more for me. I love being able to picture the main character in a book because his/her voice is just so clear that it feels like I'm in their shoes. After I'm reading a book I love it when my views of something change or I start thinking in a different way because the author's writing had impacted me so much! I think it's so incredible that a book can affect someone in such a way!

For me, characters are the most important thing (even though they're all pretty important!) but I definitely agree that a strong voice makes it much easier to love a book.


5. If any of my readers haven't seen Call Me Crazy before (which seems unlikely, but you never know) is there any post on there you're particularly proud of that you'd like to suggest they check out?

A while back I wrote a review of Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma and I feel I was able to get across everything I was feeling while reading the book. A lot of times I worry about forgetting something that I loved or thought was really impressive and with this review I think I touched all the important parts of my thoughts. It's one of my all time favorites books and it definitely made me question my beliefs, which is incredible when a book can do that!

Great review! I've never read Forbidden - at one point I had it out of the library but I also had her A Note of Madness, and found that so powerful that I switched to light reads for a couple of weeks. I keep meaning to pick it up again though.


6. Call Me Crazy has to be one of the prettiest book blogs out there! Did you make the fabulous graphics for your banner and buttons yourself?

Oh my goodness, thank you so much! That means the world to me! I did make the banner and buttons on my blog! The current design took a while for me to come up with, but after a while I thought what could be crazier than a flying purple giraffe?!


7. Are there any YA books that you've read or reviewed which haven't been as successful as you'd have expected them to be?

I'm a huge fan of the Personal Demons trilogy by Lisa Desrochers and I think it deserves so much more attention! I love the main characters and how it has multiple POVs while still keeping a strong voice for each character. Right now I'm in the middle of reading Beauty Queens by Libba Bray which is literally laugh out loud funny and has a great message too! It's based of Lord of the Flies, but it has such an awesome twist to it, everyone needs to read this book!

I haven't read Personal Demons but I've heard some great things about it, and Lisa is one of my favourite tweeting authors. I'll have to move this trilogy up my to be read pile as well!


8. I know you mentioned last month that you didn't want to see The Hunger Games movie but you thought you'd probably end up going with a friend - I felt the same way until I saw the trailer, which was so awesome it has me excited for it. Have you seen the trailer yet, and if so, has it changed your view on the movie?

Ooo such a good question! Yes, after seeing the trailer I definitely will be seeing the movie! I was totally bummed about the casting at first, but I'm super happy with the actress that plays Katniss and the actor for Peeta is growing on me! It comes out on my birthday and I wanted to do something else that day, but I have a feeling I'll go out to lunch with a friend and see it later that night! I'm excited to see how they did the violence with the PG-13 rating and I'm really hoping they make it more than just a love story.

The PG-13 rating is seriously intriguing (and slightly worrying!) me. Not sure how they can keep the aspects that make it so fabulous with that rating, but here's hoping...


9. What's your favourite thing about blogging? Anything you'd rather not do?

It's so hard to pick just one! Before I started blogging I never expressed my opinions and pretty much lost faith in people. I'd been bullied throughout my school years and only had my parents and dog to call friends. The people I met through blogging are just so incredibly lovely and definitely made me realized that the entire world isn't going to be like my high school, that there are still awesome people out there!

One thing I'm not that big of a fan doing is videos, which sounds weird because whenever I had polls on my blog my followers would say that was their favorite thing I did. I just think I'm always so boring in them and I always stumble on my words, but I'll keep doing them as long as people like them!

I'm MUCH too self-conscious to even think of doing videos!


10. Do you think you'll still be blogging in another 2 years time?

Oh yes, definitely! This past Fall I had to go on a two month hiatus for personal reasons and I totally missed it! Blogging lets me organize my thoughts and just overall it just keeps me sane!

Thank you so much for having me on your blog Jim! It was my first ever interview and I had so much fun answering all these awesome questions!

Thanks for those great answers, Katie! Fab to have you here.