Hey guys, it’s Lois. Today is a very exciting post as it is an interview with Zuky from Bookbum. Zuky is so lovely so as soon as we saw the opportunity to interview one another we took it! Don’t forget to check out her interview with me on her blog too.
So, without further ado, let’s interview Zuky!
A little about Zuky and her blog:
The blog BookBum is run by 20 year-old Zuky Edgar. Her blog mainly consists of book reviews and posts to do with the mystery, thriller or horror genres but she likes to post discussion topics and movie reviews every now and then too. Zuky works full time for a tech company, as a marketing assistant, but still aims to get out a blog post a day!
You can find her on Goodreads and Twitter.
When and why did you decide to create a book blog?
I started off blogging as a beauty blogger (I’m still very into my makeup!) but I found I was losing interest in doing all the actual writing for the things I was buying and promoting. Then I discovered Goodreads in October of 2015 and never looked back! I found a great community of readers and reviewers on there and decided to make my page a tad more “professional”, so I created my very own blog. Why did I decide to? Well because I love books so much, they’re such a beautiful art form and I love hearing others opinions on books I may have read myself, and it’s so much fun getting reading recommendations from like-minded people!
What has been your best moment and worst moment since becoming a book blogger?
My best moment of book blogging was definitely when I bagged my first author Q&A! I contacted Rena Olsen, author of The Girl Before, on Twitter, expecting her to laugh me off, but she was totally down to answering my questions and I was so giddy after that!
Worst moment is hard, because I have loved every moment of blogging since I first started, but I think changing over blogging systems was the worst part of everything. I used to use Weebly as my blogging platform and while it was simple to use and looked good, it had no community like WordPress does, so I never got any comments, likes or shares on my posts! I finally moved all my stuff over to WordPress in Jan 2017, which took me a hell of a long time! It was really tedious and I almost gave up doing it, but I’m so glad I’m here now! 3 months into this blog and I have over 200 followers and an amazing bunch of people to talk books with!
Have you always enjoyed reading? If not, what helped you get into reading? Did someone influence you to read?
I’ve always been a reader, but there was a period in my life where reading felt more like a chore than a hobby, and that was during my school years. The books we read at school bored me stiff, Pride & Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Othello, Educating Rita etc etc… yawn!
What helped me get back into reading (and it was literally just after I left school that I started reading non-stop) was the novel The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North! It was so mind bending, exciting and well written that I suddenly remembered how much fun reading could be and I haven’t looked back since. My mum has always been a huge influence on my reading, as she’s a bookworm herself. We’re always recommending novels to each other… she’s the one who got me to read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn before it completely blew up!
Since you started book blogging which 3 books have been your favourite to review?
My favourites have definitely been American Psycho and Maestra but I couldn’t pick a third for you. I always have fun reviewing books, even if I thought they were rubbish!
I especially like these two, though, because American Psycho blew me away and I had such an incredible time reading it, so my review is really passionate and my review for Maestra is dead funny (if I do say so myself).
What are you currently reading? What did you last finish reading? And what are you planning on reading next?
I’m currently reading Butterfly on the Storm by Walter Lucius, which is a Danish police procedural type book and is the first novel of a trilogy. I’ve only just started it so I don’t have much of an opinion on it yet.
I recently finished the novel Basically Frightened by Vasily Pugh, which was a dystopian, post-apocalyptic novel that I received from the author! It was a pretty good book!
I never know what I’m going to read next because I’m useless at sticking to my own agenda! My next book may be The Last Sin by K.L. Murphy, Grimm Woods by D. Melhoff or Anatomy of Innocence by Laura Caldwell… or something else!
What are your thoughts on book acknowledgements? Do you read them or wish they just weren’t there?
I don’t have much of an opinion on book acknowledgements to be honest with you. Sometimes I read them, sometimes I don’t. I think they’re a nice thing for the authors to put in their books, but I can’t say I really care either way.
One time I read an acknowledgement in the back of a book, that I found pretty average, and for some reason it’s always stuck with me! The book was called The Headmaster’s Wife by T. C. Green and in the acknowledgments it said ‘“as my brother put it “if you hadn’t got into so much trouble at public school your book would have been called The Principal’s Wife, and no one would have wanted to read that!”’ (there or there abouts) and I just thought that was funny so I always remember it! So I guess they’re good for something.
What book is one that you have carried around with you the most?
A book I have physically carried round with me the longest is probably The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (which I haven’t finished but have misplaced), probably mainly because it’s such a long book, at 800+ pages.
Mentally, I’d say either To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, or The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, just because they’ve both made me emotional and both have really heartfelt meanings behind the things that happen in them.
Is there any movie you have seen that you actually like better than the book?
For this question, I think I’m going to go with Romeo & Juliet and The Virgin Suicides. Honestly, I thought both the books and movies were average but I was more excited watching the movies than I was while reading the books.
Which book has been on your TBR shelf the longest?
According to Goodreads, I’ve had A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine on my shelf since October 28th 2015, so that’s the one that has proof of how long I’ve been meaning to read it, but a book like The Shining or The Stand by Stephen King has probably been on my TBR list longer, it’s just not down in words.
An impossible question, name your top 5 favourite books.
This actually isn’t too impossible for me I have a number of favourite books and I think I can get the list down to 5… let’s see…
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
- Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
- Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
- The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
See, that wasn’t so bad! If you asked me again in a year they’d probably be different, but for the time being, these are my favourite books!
Thank you to Zuky for that! I had a lot of fun putting this post together. Don’t forget to check out Zuky’s blog as well as my guest interview over on her blog!
If anyone else is also interesting in doing a post like this then please do contact me via my email loisreadsbooks@yahoo.com or via my Twitter!
Be sure to check out Book Depository using my link here: Loisreadsbooks
Find us on Twitter @loisreadsbooks,on Goodreads here and don’t forget to follow us!
Until next time,
Loisreadsbooks 
Yay! Thank you so much for doing this with me, it was a lot of fun! My post with your interview is also up now! 🙂
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Thank you for doing it with me too! I will check it out when I am home soon 😊
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