BBAW post: Interview with Florinda of The 3 R’s Blog

For Day 2 of Book Blogger Appreciation Week (#BBAW), I have the privilege of sharing an interview I did with Florinda of The 3 R’s Blog: Reading, ‘Riting and Randomness. Florinda currently hails from Southern California and has been book blogging since March 2007. I’m sure many reading this post count her as a friend as she’s been active contributor to the community for many years. I’d previously seen Florinda around the blogosphere but it was a pleasure to learn more about her and interview her over email.

I started off my interview by asking Florinda to name three highlights of her years as a book review blogger.

Two of the three highlights I’ve chosen are things that would never have happened without the blog:

After four years of writing about books for free, my first paid, published-elsewhere book review went online in July 2011.

I have attended Book Expo America three times (2011, 2012, and 2014) and will make it four in May 2016

I reached the milestone of 2000 posts on this blog in November 2013. I’m on pace to make it to 2500 sometime this year!

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Though Florinda had said in a recent blog post that she is currently taking a break from deadline reading and paid reviewing, that is an aspect of book blogging in which she has a good deal of experience. I asked her for an observation about current publishing trends:

I know this will sound cynical, and I’m not sure it really address the question you’re asking, but I’ll put it out there anyway: There are more books out there than ever, but it can be really challenging sometimes to find one that doesn’t feel like you’ve read a version of it a dozen times already.

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Florinda is on the advisory board for this year’s Bloggers’ Conference at Book Expo America. I asked if there were any topics guaranteed to start an animated discussion among book bloggers:

Let me plug two Facebook groups that are regular sources for animated discussions and dedicated to book bloggers, TLC Readers and Book Bloggers Do It Better–if you’re not a member of these (and you don’t despise Facebook), consider joining! Popular talk topics include blogger/author/publisher relations, ethics in book blogging, review policies, and of course “What are you reading right now?”

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Then I asked what are some things she’s learned about her own reading taste, thanks to blogging:

I doubt I would have become an avid audiobook reader if not for blogging! My interests in narrative nonfiction have widened. I read more genre-influenced literary fiction, but I’ve learned that I’m not terribly interested in “experimental” fiction that plays with form for its own sake–I still care about a good story most of all.

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I saw that Florinda had once mentioned she had 150 blogs in her blog reader. I asked: what kinds of posts usually catch your eye? What motivates you to comment on a post?

I don’t comment on posts nearly as much as I’d like to, mostly due to lack of time. But I try to share links to posts that strike a nerve–sometimes I don’t know if I have anything to add to a discussion, but I think it merits wider circulation so it can be seen by people who do. I respond to posts that make me think of something differently, relate to my own experiences, or express something that I’ve thought about more effectively than I could do myself.

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And to end the interview looking ahead, I asked: what are some things you are looking forward to this year (doesn’t have to be blog related)?

I’m anticipating my trip to Chicago for Book Expo, and hoping to spend time with some of my best blogging friends while we’re there! Also, my husband and I will be celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary this October, but I think we’ll probably keep that pretty low-key–we’ll save it up for the trip to Italy we’re planning for the spring of 2017! (I know that’s really not “this year,” but I really am looking forward to it!)

I love that Florinda plugs community resources in her answer to my third question. I know I’ll be checking those out. Thanks again to Florinda for being my interview partner!