Blogger of the Week

Welcome to Turning Pages, and to another "Blogger of the Week"!

If you aren't familiar with this somewhat new meme, here at Turning Pages, then don't be worried! You can simply press up top, on the "Blogger of the Week" tab and read all about it (:

This week's blogger is Kathe from Good Lit and Green Tea!

Kathe, can you tell us a little about yourself, and your blog, Good Lit and Green Tea? How did you come up with the name? Does it have a special meaning? 

Hi, Lisa! Well, I'm twenty years old, a Psychology major, and a Filipina. I've been blogging for roughly seven years, if I'm right, and book blogging for... three months? I'm really new at this! Good Lit and Green Tea originally wasn't a book blog, to be honest. It was just supposed to be my journal when I started reading classics. Then, well, I got sucked into the book blogging world and haven't gotten out since! Oh, and the bit about green tea? Basically, I'm not supposed to have coffee anymore—doctor's orders. I've been told to have tea. Green tea, specifically. Hence the title. ;) 

(I love green tea, but I don't think I could go a day without a good hot cup of coffee; unless of course it's a sunny day, then I'll reach for ice coffee)

 If you could change one thing about your blog, what would that thing be? 

Well, considering how I haven't been around for a long time, I haven't seen many things I don't like yet. I guess I should be more critical, huh? Haha! Regarding its appearance, maybe the layout or the font. I think it's too big! Perhaps more sidebars would be lovely, as well. Not, about the content... I'm having a bit of a problem with my weekly book haul because of the whole Story Siren fiasco, and that's causing me just a little stress, but I'll figure things out. I need that issue solved, and stat! Besides that, I'm happy. I really am. :)  


(I wish I could be satisfied, I always feel there's room for improvement)

What are your goals for blogging? 

Well, since I'm so new, I've reviewed very few books... so one of my goals is to get past 50 reviews this year. With internship and all my thesis work, I wonder if that's possible. I'll definitely do my best, though! Also, I really, really want to make new blogging friends who like reading and writing about books as much as I do. I have some I absolutely love, but the more, the merrier, right?

What got you into blogging about books? Have you always enjoyed reading? 

I've been reading since birth, pretty much. I was a bookworm throughout grade school and high school, and though uni sucked me dry for a long time, I think I'm back to reading, and for good! My blog, on the other hand, I started because of a classics challenge I had for myself: to read twenty classics in a year. I'm far behind, unfortunately, but I'll catch up! 

What do you enjoy doing besides reading and blogging? 

I've been a Human Resources intern since mid-April, and that's taken up most of my time recently. I hardly have time to do anything else! I still write prose for myself, articles for the publication for which I work, and occasional things that could be poetry but lack finesse. I spent around two years doing judo, too, and I miss that. I'll probably visit and train with my team when I'm not so busy! 


(My advisory teacher does judo, and he spends a lot of our class time showing us videos of his tournaments, I think it's pretty cool looking!) 

If you could disappear into any book, which would it be? Why? 

The problem with the books I read nowadays is that they're all dystopian, so of course I'm exposed to everything negative, right? Haha! Being Graced with a useful power in Kristin Cashore's Graceling world sounds tempting, though... especially if I were a lady at court as well. In Lienid! Oh, and of course living in an alternate reality London, like Jonathan Stroud used as the setting of The Bartimaeus Trilogy, would be amazing. I'd have to be a magician, though! 

Have any book changed your life? Changed the way you think? 

Well, every book adds to my understanding of life, so I can't mention any one book. The Book Thief, though. Oh my god. I laughed, I cried, my heart physically hurt... It was intense and it totally changed the way I review. I became so much harder on ratings after reading it. No other book I've read has gotten to me like that one. I wonder if I'll ever find a piece of historical fiction as good! 

Favorite fictional crush? 

Oooh. I'm pretty tough on protagonists and their love interests, so this is difficult! I'm torn between Max Vandenburg from The Book Thief and Po from Graceling by Kristin Cashore. On a lighter note, I also have a soft spot for Jem Carstairs from Cassandra Clare's Infernal Devices Trilogy. :)


Thank you Kathe for stopping by and answering a few of our questions!