Designed by Amber of Shelf Notes

Last year I discovered Armchair BEA, the book blogging community’s answer to the industry convention (Book Expo of America). I wrote posts, took part in Twitter chats, visited a lot of blogs, entered (and won) a few contests, and generally had a lot of fun.

However, you may have noticed that book posts have been noticeably absent this year and for a good part of last year. I was working on the wrap-up post on the day Rudi got injured in January, and I haven’t been able to force myself back to it — or to move forward without it. I have been reading, as you’ve probably surmised from the Yarning Along posts I share some Wednesdays, but summarizing or evaluating or anything formal just hasn’t happened yet this year.

Because I’ve been largely absent as a book blogger, I’d planned to skip this year’s Armchair BEA. But then it started today and I had a little pang.

Over the years, I’ve learned to recognize those pangs. They’re my psyche’s way of smacking me upside the head and saying, “Hey, dummy, you want this!” So I just signed up and offer this (and the following answers to some of the questions posed for the formal intro post) as way of saying hello:

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? Where in the world are you blogging from?

Hi, my name is Sprite. I blog from the Burrow, the apartment my partner and I share with three cats. I’m into my ninth year of blogging here at Sprite Writes, a birthday present from my partner back in 2005, for purposes of doing the writing I claim to love and never do.

Describe your blog in just one sentence. Then, list your social details so we can connect more online.

Sprite Writes is a lot like me: highly disorganized, active in fits and spurts, and filled with what I like best — including books, knitting, friends, cats, gardening, and music. I also write on Twitter, where, as @spritewrites, I write about all those things (just more concisely), as well as life in D.C. and liberal politics.

What was your favorite book read last year? What’s your favorite book so far this year?

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan topped my list last year. I loved his use of AIDS victims as a Greek chorus and the way his multiple storylines got more and more intense and overlapping as the book neared its climax.

This year, I’ve read a number of good books, but I think the most recent floats to the top as my favorite thus far: A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd is the story of Felicity Juniper Pickle, a 6th-grader who just arrived with her itinerant mom, little sister, and dog in the once-magical Tennessee town her mother grew up in. Felicity is a word catcher, capturing those she learns and those she sees emanating from the world around her in a book and on her sneakers, but she has difficulty sharing these words back with people outside her family. If she can harness the snicker of magic that remains in the town, it’s possible she can turn things around for herself and for Midnight Gulch, but her mother’s got that glint in her eye that means the open road is not far away.

What does your favorite/ideal reading space look like?

A bower? A hammock? A cushioned window seat? The Beast’s library? Jo’s apple tree? Under a comforter on a rainy afternoon? In a park? At the beach?

So from this, we can deduce my favorite spot to read might be in a window seat under a comforter in a formal library of a cottage when I feel like reading inside and then moving outside into a hammock beneath an apple tree in the surrounding park that overlooks the beach.

Actually, that does sound pretty fantastic.

What book would you love to see as a movie?

Gayle Forman’s Just One Day and Just One Year would make great films. A love story! International settings! Fun secondary characters! Mmmm!

So that’s a little bit about me. I’ll be back tomorrow (seriously!) with more bookish talk. See you then!