Blogger Interview: Jasprit from The Reader's Den

As you guys know I'm going to intereview my friends every month so expect more of these posts in the future. Today I have the honor to host this gorgeous, friendly and lovely creature we all know as Jasprit on Little Pieces of Imagination. She's so adorable and such a sweet girl and I cannot wait for you to guys see what kind of answers she provided me. I'm not going to hold you longer with this intro so let's get on with it and here's Jasprit's interview :) Enjoy!

Profile

Name: Jasprit
Origin: The UK!
Blog name: The Readers Den
URL: http://www.thereadersden.blogspot.co.uk/
Blog’s age: Coming up to two years in March.
Favorite book of all time: Eeep you can’t aske me to just choose one book, but if I had to it’d be Sophie Kinsella’s Can You Keep A Secret. It’s one of my favourite comfort reads.

Interview

Siiri: Introduce yourselves in 140 characters or less.
Jasprit: Reader, sports junkie and Starbucks addict. Occasionally found arguing over fictional characters. I would love to travel the world one day.

Siiri: Why did you start blogging? Have you changed a lot throughout it? What kind of advice would you have for people who are thinking about picking up blogging? Do you have any blogging inspirations who you look up to?
Jasprit: I first started posting my reviews to my Goodreads profile, this is where I made some amazing friends in Sam from Realm of Fiction and Rachel my co-blogger, I loved chatting with these ladies and so many other people who shared a love of reading and had as many fictional crushes that I had. My sister hardly reads at all, despite me book pushing on her all the time, so I needed some form of outlet, where I could discover new books and fangirl over books and Goodreads was perfect for me. At the same time I remember discovering book blogs, one of the first ones I used to follow each week was Reading Teen, I loved seeing their book hauls each week and reading their fun reviews and before you knew it within a year I’d discovered so many great new blogs and a lot of my friends from Goodreads started their own blogs too. My cousin I remember had always been on at me to start my own blog, (he had a background in computer science), so was always telling me having my own website for my own reviews and thoughts could be so much fun. So I decided to take a plunge, I knew next to nothing about coding and how to set up a blog, but great help from Sam and encouragement from other bloggers, whose blogs I adored (Joy from Joyous Reads) eventually led to The Readers Den being born. I didn’t realise when I first started that it would be so much hard work, but I absolutely love blogging and reading great comments left by fantastic bloggers. My only advice is if you’ve been meaning to start a blog, don’t put it off, these two last years for me have been the best ever.

Siiri: Ah yes! Blogging has changed my life so much as well and the people I have met have mostly been extremely wonderful. So are you an organized reader? Tell us a little bit about your blogging habits.
Jasprit: I try to be an organised reader, but this sometimes never happens. I usually make up a schedule with all the upcoming arcs I have to read and their release dates, so that I can plan my reading. But sometimes I have days, or weeks where I don’t get any reading done, or according to my mood I want to pick up one of my own books. I have a massive tbr pile, so this year I have definitely made it my goal to read more books from my tbr pile and my library stack (my library has an infinite number of renewals allowed, so sometimes I can end up keeping a book for a whole year and not reading it). I also try and be organised in my blogging. Rachel and I usually arrange a blogging schedule for the coming month a few days before the month starts, so we have an idea of what we need to get ready, but sometimes I find myself scheduling my post the night before, as life or books get in the way.

Siiri: I have no idea what it takes to co-blog with someone, but I'm so glad that you two make it work so well. Ok, so what is your favorite and least favorite thing about blogging?
Jasprit: My favourite thing about blogging is discovering new blogs. There are so many new friends that I have made and books I have been able to read because of their fantastic reviews. My sister and I were actually laughing about the fact that most of my instagram followers are my virtual friends, whereas all hers are her actual friends. There’s nothing I truly dislike about blogging, but I hate it when I find myself in a reading or reviewing funk, last year I went through this month where all my books were 3 star ratings and they are so hard to review.

Siiri: Totally agreed. It's hard to review something that's mediocre. You can like rave or rant about a book forever, but something that is just likable and okay-ish? Ehhh.. not so much to say. At least on my part. How many books do you own and do you categorize them in some ways on your shelf?
Jasprit: Oh my gosh I own so many books, I revently bought a new bookshelf, but still my books don’t fit on both of the book shelves that I have. I’m one of those readers that tend to buy books on their release date, but never get around to reading it until months later. I usuallyorganise my books on my shelf by author surname (I’m ocd like that) and my hardbacks tend to take up my entire bottom shelf.

Siiri: What are your favorite genres and who are some of your favorite authors?
Jasprit: I love my contemporary YA reads, I love all the swoon, fun and butterflies in stomach sort of feeling that these books create. Every year I always end up reading more of this genre, but I don’t think I would ever tire of it. I also have grown really fond of fantasy books, before I started blogging I rarely read fantasy books, but now I can’t seem to get enough. My favourite authors include Meg Cabot, Sarah Alderson, Miranda Kenneally, Paula Weston, Jenny Han, Sarah Ockler and Gayle Forman

Siiri: Contemporary YA is one of my favorites too :) I’m a big shipper and I almost always ship a pairing in a book I’m reading. Do you have any OTPs? :D If so, why do you like these pairings so much? What makes them special?
Jasprit: Oh there are so many to choose from, there are pairings which I hold close to my heart like Mia and Michael Moskowitz, I loved their entire relationship over the 10 book Princess Dairies series. They had so many beautiful scenes, so much fun, but most especially just got one another when things hit the fan for each other. Other favourites include Cooper and Heather from Meg Cabot’s Heather Wells series, this is another couple which I adored watching thier relationship bloom, they always seemed to be at each other’s throats, but it was obvious this was because they truly cared for one another. And others include Zeke and Allison from Kagawa’s Blood of Eden series and Mac and Barrons from Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series.

Siiri: I'm reading about Allie and Zeke right now and oh, the feels, girl! The. Feels. If you could have dinner with 5 authors/characters, dead or alive, who would the be and what would you ask each of them (without spoilers, of course)?
Jasprit: 

• Barrons from the Fever series, I really don’t think there will be any talking taking place during this dinner at all (more likely me being held up against a wall and being referred to as Ms. Kaur)
• Meg Cabot. I absolutely adore this author, and everything she writes, so I would love to pick her brains over her writing and her plans for future books.
• Roald Dahl. I loved reading Roald’s book growing up, I remember one day when I was chatting away about my love of his books that my friend told me that he had died. I was so shocked, I was so eager to read more of his books, that I was quite sad that I wouldn’t get the chance to do so.
• Heather Wells/Lizzie Nichols. I honestly can’t decide between these two Mc’s, I have adored watching them grow throughout each of thier series and know that I wouldn’t have to ask them a single thing but have so much fun with them. I would probably find myself involved in some sort of mystery with Heather (with hot Cooper on our heels *sigh*). And I know Lizzie would keep me throughly entertained too with her bubbly personality and love of clothes!
• Harry Potter. I would insist on the dinner being held at Hogwarts, so I could experience the magical world of Harry Potter!

Siiri: *tries a British accent* Harry Pottahhh, yes, he'd be one of my choices as well ;) Lastly, where can we find you when you’re not reading or blogging?
Jasprit: At work, out shopping, at Starbucks with my best friend discussing all the books I’ve currently lent her or arguing about our ficitonal crushes. I’m a big sports fan, so you can always find me hooked when it’s Super Sunday (football) or debating with my cousins over our fantasy football teams.

This or that

Blogger or Wordpress? Blogger, only because I’ve never tried Wordpress before
Facebook or Twitter? Twitter
Physical books or e-books? Both, I used to think that I could never jump to a Kindle, but I can never go anywhere without it now. But I still love having pretty physical books on my shelf.
Contemporary or fantasy? Contemporary
Music or no music? (while reading) No music, I can never seem to concentrate when there’s so much going on in the background. My sister thinks I can be really anti-social at times, especially when I’m reading.
Triangle or no triangle? No triangle. But I don’t mind a love triangle, as long as it’s done well.
Insta-love or slow-burn? Slow-burn definitely
Cliff hanger or no cliff hanger? Cliff hanger, books which end in a cliffhanger always end up being my favourites.

3 random facts about you would be...

Jasprit and Leicester Tigers
rugby player Jordan Crane

• I’m a huge sports fan. I grew up watching sports and wrestling, so whenever I meet somebody new especially a guy, they’re quite surprised when I end up knowing more about football than they do.
• I wish I was taller, I’m only 5ft 2 1/2 , so of course I look like a hobbit next to everyone else.
• I’m a sucker for accents. I’ve found to lose my train of thought on ocassion when I hear a gorgeous accent!

Siiri: Eeeeep! I always know more about sports then the guys so it's pretty weird lol. I have some friends who know like.. about a lot of stuff about a few sports, but in general? I know a lot and it sometimes annoys me that there's no one to discuss it with. Football being the prime example. Hehehe.. lols, I'm 5ft 2 as well. *sings to the tune of Alone Together by Fall Out Boy* We can be hobbits togetheeeerrr!!! And who doesn't love accents?;)

Jasprit was kind enough to provide a picture of a local bookstore
and holy smoke the YA section! *pets her screen* GIMMEEEEEE!!!!!!!

So that is it. Thank you so much for answering the questions, Jas, and I hope the rest of you liked the interview. Now give Jasprit some love:)