Saturday, June 10, 2017

Book Blogger Hop June 9th - June 15th: Cao Cao Won the Battle of White Wolf Mountain in 207 A.D.


Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: If you could have lunch with any living authors and/or book bloggers, who would you choose and why?

Ursula K. Le Guin
So, I have actually had lunch with a few authors. I had lunch at a local diner with Ursula Vernon one year that I went to Balticon. I ate lunch at an Uno's during another Balticon with the authors Tom Doyle and David Walton. I ate dinner with Scott Edelman at a pop-up restaurant that served the best ramen I've ever had. I once at dinner in a bar with a group of authors that included Alethea Kontis, Sunny Moraine, and Ceallaigh McCath. I've been to dinner with Day al-Mohammed a couple of times. This is more or less a side-effect of going to a fair number of conventions and making friends with authors while you are there. However, the author that I have not had lunch (or any other meal) with who I would most want to is Ursula K. Le Guin. I have written multiple times of my deep and abiding love for Le Guin's writing and that, coupled with her general all around brilliance, is why I would desperately love to be able to sit down with her for an hour or so and just listen to her talk about pretty much anything she wanted to.

Mike Glyer
As far as book bloggers go, that is a somewhat more difficult question. Although I fit into any reasonable definition of "book blogger", I am generally not all that well-connected to the book blogging community. My blogging relationships are all much more in the "fan writer" category of blogger, using the term in the science fiction fandom sense. So, for example, one of my closer blogging friends is Natalie Luhrs, who blogs at Pretty Terrible. Although she does post some book reviews, that's not really her primary focus. I have, however, had lunch with her. Another would be Paul Weimer, who blogs at Blog, Jvstin Style. Once again, though he does review some books, that isn't really the meat of his blog. Or there is Camestros Felapton, who blogs at, naturally enough, Camestros Felapton, and once again, book reviews are not really the focus of his blog. I have not had lunch with either Paul or Camestros. However, if we expand the question to simply "what blogger would you want to have lunch with", I'd probably have to pick Mike Glyer, who publishes File 770, posting what is essentially an online fanzine, keeping everyone appraised of the news, events, and goings-on related to science fiction fandom. He started publishing File 770 as a paper fanzine in 1978, and moved it to a blog format in 2008, so he has a store of historical knowledge that would almost certainly make for an interesting conversation.

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2 comments:

  1. Marvelous answer, Aaron.

    I do not know Ursula K. Le Guin, but she sounds like an interesting person. Thanks for the intro.

    It would be awesome to have lunch with bloggers and anyone we talk to on regular basis from the Internet. I have met some wonderful people as you have.

    Hope you are having a good weekend.

    Happy Hopping!!

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews
    My Blog Hop Answer

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    Replies
    1. @Elizabeth: If you are interested in Le Guin's work, I generally recommend The Left Hand of Darkness, The Lathe of Heaven, and The Word for World Is Forest. If you are interested in fantasy, I'd go with the Earthsea series, starting with A Wizard of Earthsea.

      And yes, meeting the bloggers and authors you have found online is always great, and I am very happy that I have been able to do so with so many fantastic people.

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