In talking to Chelsea (The Page Flipper) and Heather (Book Woman), I thought it would be a fun to turn the tables and do a series on my blog of interviews with YA book bloggers — let them be the stars! So now every Tuesday, another Book Blogger will be featured.

If you’re interested, please e-mail me.

Ashley D., A Girl and Her Books

1.  Describe yourself without using any qualifiers relating to reading, blogging, or writing… who are you outside of your literary life?

A 21 year old college student who graduates this month! Ashley enjoys baking, cooking, cleaning, organizing, photography, her iTunes collection, twitter, tumblr, texting, knitting, inside jokes, talking really fast, Christmas lights nicknames and her friends. Ashley is also sometimes a conspiracy theorist a la Hodgins from Bones. Ashley also enjoys talking about herself in the third person, her friends do not.

2.  You’re trapped in a dystopian society like that in Fahrenheit 451, where all books, periodicals, scriptures, texts, or other forms of written communication have been banned… but in this society, every person can hoard away one piece of writing to keep for herself.  What is the one written piece that you choose to keep, and why?

Can I keep the whole Harry Potter series?! Or is that cheating because it’s a series. Even if it is cheating I still think I choose Harry Potter.

3.  Congratulations!  You’ve been given the position as Personal Assistant to any author of your choice (all time periods and genres allowed)… who is it, and what’s the biggest problem you have to overcome working with them?

Meg Cabot. I adore her and all of her books. My biggest problem working with her would be the fact my best friend adores her, too. We’d spend most of the day texting each other about the fact I was a PA for Meg Cabot and yelling EEEEEP! (something I have done a lot of recently, which is very un-me.)

4.  When it comes to reading and reviewing, which aspect of a book is the most important to you?  The plot?  The characters?  The setting?  Something else entirely?

How quickly I can read the book. I know that sounds weird to say but I have a stack of books that I have tried to read and I just cannot. People recommend books they think I will ‘love’ and three chapters in and I have this need to read something else. The book just hasn’t hooked me in and I have no interest in it. So I guess in a roundabout way plot.

5.  If book blogging weren’t an option, how would your reading habits be affected?  Would you be as motivated to read if you couldn’t widely impart your thoughts on books to other readers?

My reading habits would not be affected at all. I honestly read what I want, take a picture and sometimes post my thoughts.

6.  You’re giving a dinner party for three contemporary (living) YA authors and three dead classical authors.  Who are they, and who do you seat next to whom?  Why?

This is a tough question for me, I’ve kept coming back to it.

Contemporary: Cassandra Clare, JK Rowling, Nora Roberts.
Classical: Louise May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Mark Twain.

Living, dead, living, dead, living, dead. I’m Type A, any other way would not do.

7.  What’s your favorite punctuation mark?  Why?

A comma. My thesis professor wrote all over my paper about my use of commas.

8.  What literary device could you happily never see used again?  (Simile, metaphor, spoonerism, hyperbole, etc.)

Metaphor. Same reason as punctuation mark, thesis professor.

9.  What is your favorite local bookstore?  What’s a bookstore that you’ll never set foot in again?  And do you have a ‘dream bookstore’ that you’d either love to visit… or would love to design and own one day?

My favorite local bookstore is Bookmans in Arizona. Any of them are amazing and the workers are so nice. And amazing because I can order from my couch. As for a bookstore I’ll never step into again there is a tiny one in Phoenix that looks nice from the outside, but inside it’s horrible and smells like smoke. I died a little inside. And Bookmans is my “dream bookstore” everything is pretty much 50% off and they have random treasures, too.

10.  Have you been to any Teen Read Week events or other Writers’ Conferences?  What was your favorite meet-and-greet or interview experience?

No, I have not.

11.  In your opinion, what is a YA novel?  How is it different from a children’s novel, and how is it different from an adult novel?  What makes someone a YA reader — because it’s clearly more than a matter of their being “a young adult.”

It’s weird because I work at a library and they have a lot of books listed as MS (Middle School) that should be YA, and a lot of YA books that should be MS, so my opinion on the genre is a little skewed. Even if I didn’t work at the library I think my opinion would be skewed because YA is a wide genre and I like that. Generally there is a little more romance, or a little more horror than a middle school book. To me though a YA book is able to almost bridge gaps. At work all of my coworkers and I love YA and were in our 20s, but so do our bosses who are in their 50s. Which is an amazing thing, but at the same time when a book is well written, like many YA books are, they should be able to.

12.  What’s your guilty pleasure reading snack?  And what’s your guilty pleasure to read while snacking on it?

I generally don’t read and eat. My guilty pleasure reading habit is definitely trashy romance novels, my friend and I read them jokingly to find the worse ones.

13.  “Don’t judge a book by its movie!”  As a connoisseur of all types of books, which genre do you think translates the best from page to screen?  What’s your favorite book-to-movie adaptation?  Conversely, what’s a book that you hope never to see filmed?

Romance translates really well, in my opinion, it just works. And my favorite book-to-movie adaptation is Pride and Prejudice. I honestly think it was done really, really well. As for a movie I hope to never see be made I have to go with Breaking Dawn, however since I’m pretty sure it’s going to be made I will love seeing how they can pull it off.

14.  What are your plans for the future?  Do you see yourself working in the literary community?

After I graduate I plan on going to grad school for Library Science and working in a library someday, not as a page (my current job).

15.  Describe your perfect reading location… are you in a coffee shop sipping cappuccino or curled up at home near the window?  Reading on a Kindle in the Big City or taking in the smell of a dusty hardcover?

The hammock in my backyard when it’s 70s and breezy with my iPod.