BBAW Interview Swap

Today for BBAW, we get to interview a blogger we're not familiar with.  Hooray!  I have the pleasure of interviewing Cass from Bonjour, Cass!  To check out the other half of our interview swap, go to Cass' blog.

Bonjour, Cass! :) First off, are you or is anything you read French (i.e., where'd your blog name come from)?

Actually, I'm mostly Italian--there's a bit of French-Canadian blood on my mother's side, but not enough to be able to claim any kind of Frenchness. I can't speak or read or write in French, despite the best efforts of five years of French classes. I like the French well enough, but I can't even claim to be a true francophile. Such a poseur. I just like the way Bonjour, Cass! sounds. It was either that or FanCASStic, which I thought might seem a bit egoCASStical. Ahem.

Now that we've got that out of the way, you read a lot of GLBT literature.  What's the best GLBT book you've read recently?

I mostly read GLBT non-fiction, theory, and the like, and the best I've read recently is The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies by Victor Russo. Published in 1981, it's a seminal work of the history of gay and lesbian characters in film. It's a bit out of date (it says that Rocky Horror Picture Show is the gayest movie to date, for example) but it's a very readable, in-depth history of film.

You say in your profile that your first favorite book featured Grover. Grover is my favorite Muppet, too!  What's your favorite Grover skit?

I really love this one of Grover trying to explain what a library is while trying to speak very, very, softly (which is very, very hard for Grover to do).

Have you ever tried to read a book in a genre you don't like?

Oh yes, especially if it's recommended by someone I trust. I'm always willing to go outside my comfort zone when it comes to reading. Sometimes I end up loving it, sometimes I end up throwing it across the room, it's really a toss up... (Pun intended. Har har.)

If you had to describe reading metaphorically, what would you say it was like?

Depending on the genre, reading is a curled up cat napping in the most blissful patch of sun, or the five intense hours spent solving a Rubix cube.

Do you always finish books, or are you of the mindset that life is too short to read bad books?

Before I started writing my blog, I always had to finish books, especially books in a series--even if I didn't like the first one! Now I seem to have fine-tuned my tastes and/or instincts, and I sometimes even put books down after four or five pages. It keeps me from getting too cranky.

Do you write bad reviews?

I do hope my reviews themselves aren't bad but I believe the question is about whether or not I'm ever critical in my reviews -- in which case, the answer is a definite yes! Offering a thorough, fair, rigorous critique is what I enjoy most about reviewing.

It's the zombie apocalypse.  How long do you think you'd survive?

I consulted my local expert in zombie takeovers and she says about ten minutes. I am completely unprepared for the zombies. I am also a slow runner.

What do you like to do first, read the book or see the movie?  Or does it matter?

I've decided to start seeing the movie first, when possible, because I've been known to ruin the whole movie for others by whining about how the book was either completely different, so much better, or both!

If you could meet one literary character, who would it be?

What a tricky question! I think I'll go with Thursday Next, from Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair. We could make bad book jokes together and she could probably protect me in case any zombies show up.


Thank you, Cass! Hmmm, I think someone should challenge Cass to read a book from her least-favorite genre, romance.  Anyone want to take a stab at recommending one?

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