Recently
I was informed about the amazing Ninja Book Box created by the lovely Rebekah
from @ninjabookswap. To launch the box there was a blog tour organised and will be happening across other great blogs and she was lovely enough to do a little Q'n'A with me.
First of
all, you may ask what is the Ninja Book Box?
Ninja Book Box is a new quarterly
box shipping worldwide from the UK and featuring books published by independent
publishers. We aim to introduce excellent books (both backlist and new
releases) particularly those which our team & the publishers we work with
feel haven't received the recognition they deserve, and help you find
favourites in genres you wouldn't necessarily pick up for yourselves.
Supporting primarily UK based small businesses; each box will contain a book
(often signed by the author & with additional material) plus at least two
gift items and lots of other fun extras and will take its theme from the book.
We want to support excellence and promote exploration and discovery in all
aspects of the box. Subscribers will also gain access to lots of additional
community perks. For more information sign up to our newsletter,
or check out our website for details of how to get the first
box!
There will also be a 'mini box'
option available via the website (www.ninjabookbox.com) which
will be just the book plus one small gift, a list of books to read if you loved
the book & access to any online extras. It'll be £15 with free UK shipping
(intl will be a little more).
Now time for
the Q’n’A:
-What is
the reason behind the name Ninja Book Box?
I have a little group of friends
I've made through blogging, and one of my good friends used to send our little
group what she called 'Ninja RAKs' (Random Acts of Kindness), where we wouldn't
know that she was sending anything and it would just turn up and cheer us up.
It seemed like such a good idea to me that I've kind of adopted the stealthy,
ninja, 'you don't know what's coming until it turns up' approach in most of my
projects since. Surprise joy is so much more joyful, I find!
Obviously people will know that
they've ordered a Ninja Book Box (unless they've been given a secret gift
subscription, which is totally an option by the way!) but the contents will be
very mysterious - we're going to give out hints before the boxes ship but
nothing will be revealed until everyone has received theirs. We like to keep
people guessing about the excellence in store!
-What
genre is your favourite? Will we be seeing this in future boxes?
Ooooh tricky question! I have a
lot of genres I love but my absolute favourites are probably graphic
novels and fairytale retellings, and yes I think we can safely say that you'll
be seeing them in future boxes! I'm definitely looking to include graphic
novels very soon since I think they're a genre that people can find really
unapproachable and often don't know where to start with, and I would really
really love to do something fairytale themed - I'm a massive fairytale geek and
actually did my BA dissertation on feminism in fairytales, so you can imagine
that making a fairytale box would be pretty much my dream. I'll have to wait
until a great indie publishes a great fairytale retelling though - at the
moment I'm still looking so watch this space!
-How do
you choose books to include in each box?
When I originally started
thinking about the idea of the box I put together a little survey and asked
people for genres they'd like to read more of and then used that as a starting
point. Honestly I pretty much just spend a lot of time browsing publishers'
websites and catalogues, seeing what looks interesting. I also tend to read a
book and then put it in a pile and stare at it on and off for a few weeks and
if I'm still thinking about it after a while then into the box it goes!
- What
other projects are you involved in? Are there any plans for the future?
I'm one of those people who,
doesn't like to have nothing to do, so I probably go to the other extreme and
am involved in SO MANY projects! As well as my own book blog, I also co-founded
and run the twice yearly Ninja Book Swap (like secret santa for book lovers but
not at Christmas!), the Parcels of Joy project (an international happiness
project where people send each other unexpected parcels of baked goods, gifts
and books) and organise the annual London Bookshop Crawl, plus a roving summer
one. I have a well documented history of coming up with an idea and just
deciding to try it and see what happens, and I have oh so many plans for the
future! I'd love to expand the box in many different directions including
having an indie book box for kids, but I guess we'll see how this goes first!
- I'm
sure there's plenty of different places involved in the book swap. What are
some places you would like to travel to?
So many! I've not actually been
abroad for years but we love travelling in the UK - I'd love to go back to the
Yorkshire countryside, and I'd also really love to visit Edinburgh. I have a
childhood dream of going camping in the Lake District and discovering all the
places that inspired the Swallows and Amazons series, and I also have an
abiding love for Devon & Cornwall and want to explore both more thoroughly.
Outside of the UK I'm dying to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in
Florida as well as visit New York again, and I'd love to go back to Australia
someday. We're hoping to visit Vienna next year as my sister just moved there,
and will do some further exploration of Europe along the way if all goes
according to plan!
-Since
you're an avid reader yourself, What is your typical reading routine(food,
beverages, location)?
I have two small kids so it's
basically just whenever I get a free second! If I have an evening to myself
though (or during the 24 Hour Readathon!) I like to snack on apples (because it
reminds me of Jo from Little Women, my favourite book) and a whole load
of junk food. Cookies and Revels are probably my favourites. And it goes
without saying that I have to have a cup of tea. Reading without tea is pretty
much blasphemy. I generally either read in bed or in my excellent armchair that
I got for 99p from eBay. It's the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in!
- What
three books do you wish more people would read?
Oh such a hard question! I talk
about her all the time, but probably one of Scarlett Thomas's books. Difficult
to choose but I'd probably go for Our Tragic Universe since it's
the one I love and re-read the most. Also probably Ravenheart by David
Gemmell - it's epic fantasy with such heart and David Gemmell was the author
who made me love fantasy, and probably the Umbrella Academy series by
Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba. It's (so, so annoyingly) not finished yet but the
first two graphic novels are excellent.
And to
top it all off, What is the thing you cant live without the most ?
Honestly, besides my family,
house etc, probably books, closely followed by tea. I have lots of other
hobbies but the vast majority of the things that bring me most joy are fuelled
by books. I don't know where I'd be without them
And you have a chance to win a box for yourself! It is open internationally and people who backed the Kickstarter can enter also.
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