A Book Worm and Cristiano Ronaldo Fan
It is time for another fan interview! This time I interviewed the lovely Jessica, @lusobooklover on instagram. I have been following her for a while and had fun viewing her bookstagram, but those of you who know me know I am crazy obsessed with Cristiano Ronaldo. I became a fan in 2009 and when I saw she was a huge fan as well, I knew between her book shots and being a fellow fan, she would be perfect to interview for my blog. I hope you all have as much fun reading our interview as I did!
Bookish You:
1. What is your favorite genre of book to read and which is your favorite book? Who is your favorite author?
I don't really have a favorite genre. I like to read a little bit of everything and I like to mix it. So if I read a classic after that I would a fantasy book, for example. But I read a lot of classics, fantasy, historical fiction, young adult contemporary and dystopias. My favorite books of all time are Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter, One Hundred Years of Solitude, How to Kill a Mockingbird, Hunger Games and The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Those are the ones that I remember right now. And my favorite authors are José Saramago, Jane Austen and Gabriel García Márquez. I love the magical realism of Márquez, I love the culture description that Austen offers to the reader and I love the ironic humor of Saramago.
2. How did you become a book nerd? How old were you?
I start reading very late, and by late I mean I only finish the Harry Potter series last year. I start reading because of school and teachers influence. I was probably around thirteen when I start. And since then I have been able to transfer that passion to my three younger siblings. So now, at home, the only ones who don't like to read are mom and dad.
3. Which book character do you relate to the most?
That's a hard question. Let's see Belle because I love literature, but I don't feel stuck in my little town. I prefer the countryside, I actually feel more free here. I'm also very close to my siblings and don't have a problem in saying what I think. So maybe Elizabeth Bennet, but I'm not that awesome (and I don't have a Mr. Darcy). I was also thinking about Gwen Castle (What I Thought Was True, Huntley Fitzpatrick), but only because she works at her dad's restaurant. Something I also have to do everyday. So maybe a mix of these three.
4. If you could live in any fictional world, which would you choose any why?
I would say, a Jane Austen's novel, but internet and woman's rights... so no. My second answer is in the magical world of Harry Potter. Just imagining is enough to make me smile. My Hogwarts House is Gryffindor, I share that with my brother, but my sisters are proud snakes.
5. What is your reading ritual? Where do you like to read, do you snack, what do you drink? etc.
I don't have a habit of eating or drinking while I'm reading. I do most of my reading at night before I go to bed and I also read a lot on my subway or train trips. However, my absolute favorite place to read is in the summer by the pool or at the beach.
6. You have some amazing pictures on your bookstagram account, where do you find inspiration for the photos you take?
Thank you so much, that means a lot.
Well, I use to take photos of the books I read and I would post them in my main Instagram. During the time I was doing that I was able to explore places to take photos and ways to edit them. So when I finally created a Bookstagram (27/05/2017 - almost a month ago) I had already figured out what I wanted to do with my feed. I follow some amazing accounts, but I believe I wasn't inspired by them. I was just having fun taking some photos of my books.
7. Who is your favorite bad guy/girl in a book and why?
I like Bellatrix Lestrange. I always found her very intriguing and I love the way J. K. Rowling explored her personality. The thing that most upsets me about her is not that she killed Sirius Black (Sirius is over rating in my opinion) is that she killed Thonks. Anyway, I don't like the things she did, I just found the character very interesting.
8. If you could pick any two authors to write a book together, who would they be and what would you want the book to be about?
J. K. Rowling and I would sign as J. G. Mendes (just kidding, but it does sound nice and I'll probably would get rich). Maybe Jane Austen or José Saramago (they're both dead, but this is a hypothetical question so it counts). However, I don't know what we would write about. But we would have to have something to say, I wouldn't write a book just to say I had written it.
9. What is your least favorite book and why?
Say Her Name by Francisco Godman. I just never really understand the story and in the end, I felt like I hadn't learned anything from the book and it was a waste of time.
10. Do you prefer reading a real book or a book on a device?
I definitely prefer reading a real book. But I won't lie, in the winter when it's very cold and our hands get cold from holding the book, I appreciate being able to read an ebook under the covers.
Questions about just you:
1. Besides reading, what other things are you in to?
I have a YouTube channel and I like to make and edit videos. My channel isn't about books, I started it because I wanted to edit but I didn't have anything to edit. So I started to record something every day and the weekly blogs were born. And I also really like sports, especially football (soccer). Those are my three big passions: literature, football and telling stories through video.
2. You are a fan of Portugal football and the amazing Cristiano Ronaldo. Do you support Real Madrid as well or just the Portuguese National team? Do you like any football clubs? How do you feel about Iker Casillas, a Real Madrid legend going to play for a Portuguese team? Do you think he did well there or were you disappointed if you even followed him.
My favorite team is SL Benfica. I don't miss a game, I see every game dressed with my jersey, I cry when we lose a big game, I cry when we win an important competition. It's not madness, it's passion. It's happiness without any sort of explanation.
With that said I'm also a Real Madrid fan. Partly because of Cris of course, but also because I always loved seeing Real Madrid play. You see, when you came from a country so small as Portugal and you have a player like Cristiano who takes our flag to such higher flights, you can't help but support him. Sometimes we joke, here in Portugal, that we are not millenniums (generation Y), we are from the generation CR7. The generation who put Portugal in the mouths of the world. People say that he's from another world, but we can proudly say that he's from Portugal.
I never really liked Iker. I never understand how a team as big and as historical like Real could have such average goalkeeper. So when they finally had the courage to send him away, I can't say I was sad. Real needed a world class goalkeeper and Casillas was never that. And I was also happy he had chosen the Portuguese league (it's not like he had a lot of proposals everyone knew is limitations) because he would call attention to our league.
He played at FC Porto, Benfica's rival. And as it was expected he didn't make a difference. In the end Benfica became champion for fourth year in a row, conquering the national league for thirty seventh time.
3. Do you plan on being an author or what is your biggest dream?
I would love to become an author, I write a lot and I studied creative writing for almost two years. But I believe every book must have something to say, if the reader has taken the time to read it, at the end he must able to say that he had taken something from the book. So If someday I had enough to say to fill a book, I would love to be an author.
4. Do your closest friends like to read? If not, who do you talk about books with?
Yes, thankfully my best friends also like to read. And when I'm not talking with them, I can talk with my siblings, especially my sister Rita. She also loves to read, we share the bookshelves and she also has a Bookstagram.
5. Do you travel? If so, where is your favorite place? Where would you like to go?
I do most of my traveling in the summer with my family. I've been to the Azores (Portuguese island), a lot of places in Spain, I've been to Paris and to London. This year I'll go Italy, another road trip, we're going to visit Salamanca (historical center in Spain), some french southern cities and then stay in Genoa for a while. I'm very excited about that trip.
6. Do you have a favorite book that you would collect different editions of? For example, I love Harry Potter and would love to collect the books from different places even if I can not read or speak languages.
No from languages I cannot speak, I don't think so. But I have the Harry Potter series in English and in Portuguese and I plan to buy it in Spanish as well. I also plan to buy a lot of editions of Pride and Prejudice in those three languages.
7. Who is your favorite celebrity? If you could trade lives with a celebrity for a day would it be your favorite one or someone else?
My favorite celebrity is probably Emma Watson. I also really like Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence and Anna Kendrick. But if I could trade lives with a celebrity for a day I wouldn't any of them. I would trade lives with a Benfica player, like Pizzi. Just to have the experience of playing in my team's stadium (Estádio da Luz), see the eagle Votória fly and hear them team's anthem from down there in the field.
8. The whole world is a huge mess right now. Politics has gone crazy, terrorism seems to be at an all time high, yet there are moments in life, like on Instagram where strangers who have things in common, can get along and have fun. Books bring people closer together, it is a shame life can't do the same. How do you stand for what you believe in when we keep hearing the negativity in the news?
I believe it's not the catastrophes that we face today that will define our lives, but the way we deal with them. So, as Shakespeare once said: "If you pay everyone what they deserve, would anyone ever escape a whipping? Treat them with honor and dignity. The less they deserve, the more your generosity is worth.". We can't loose our morals and ethics, we must embrace and valorize them, I believe only we them we can find an answer.
9. It is a rainy, Sunday, what do you do?
Me and my siblings do this thing that we called "Gaming Marathon" when we are bored or simply have free time. We pick twelve games, the games could be anything like board games, card games, skill games, anything. With every game we get points and in the end, we add all the points to find the winner. It's really fun and we love to do it. So that's probably what I'll be doing on a rainy Sunday.
10. If the whole world could know your name and face for one thing, what would it be?
From my work. Maybe my videos or maybe my writing or maybe something else. I don't know. However, if the whole world could know my name and face for one thing I would want to be because of something I created.
Jessica is a lovely person and I can see her going places. Doing interview with fans is as fun for me as doing them with authors. These fans may be the next big thing out there. They can be someone who's work we will someday read, movie we will see, song we will hear, or maybe they will just continue to be fans like I am and create a comfortable place online where we can all get along, share our love for something as wonderful as a good novel and make the world a better place!
