Armchair BEA: Meet and Greet with Karissa

The Book Expo of America is taking place this week, May 23-27 in New York City. The Armchair BEA is an online convention for those of us who could not attend. 

It is Interview Day!! Armchair BEA pairs up participating bloggers to interview each other in order to better acquaint ourselves. I am excited to be interviewing Karissa from Karissa Reading Reviews. So! Let’s get started!

 How did you get into book blogging?

I have always read a lot of books, and my friends started asking me
for review/book recommendations.  So I basically started blogging for
friends/family.  Then things got a bit crazy when I started
participating in blog hops, doing author interviews stuff like that.
I am definitely into book blogging mainly for the joy of reading 🙂
That’s why you will find more reviews on my blog than anything else.

You are a big fan of urban fantasy and paranormal books. What are your favorite series?

– I love urban fantasy and started reading it back when Charles DeLint was the main writer in the genre.  I have a lot of favorite series but top of my list right now would have to be The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews, Jane Yellowrock by Faith Hunter, and The Hollows by Kim Harrison.

I did see a Harry Potter review on your blog and you are a fantasy fan so I have to ask: Where do you lie on the Harry Potter fan spectrum? Do you have any specific plans for ringing in the last movie?

– I loved the Harry Potter books but wasn’t a huge fan of the last
book in the series.  As for the movies I always  go and see them, but
not necessarily on opening weekend (I have a young child so
movie-going is a challenge at times).  The movies have been okay but
nowhere near as good as the books.  So I’ll probably see the last
movie eventually, but I am not such a die-hard fan that I will be going
to a midnight showing!

 Moving on to non-book related topics. You mentioned that you are a chemist.  I find the application of science in the real world to be fascinating. Could you tell us a little bit about what kinds of projects you work on?

– I work for a company that primarly makes Medical Imaging Film; used to be called Kodak until Kodak sold us off.  Up until recently I
worked as a formulation chemist for medical imaging film; basically
the type of film they would use if you go get an MRI or CT Scan.  As
things go more digital we are moving to new areas and now I am doing formulation work for a new type of conductive film called Flexx which uses Ag nanowires as the conductor.  It’s been a challenging new field and there is always a lot to learn!

You recently took a trip to the Bahamas.  What were your favorite activities? What would you recommend to someone wanting to visit?

– My favorite activity was swimming with the dolphins.  That was just
so awesome!  It is obvious that the dolphins are having a really good
time and they are just so much fun 🙂  We also did a fan boat ride
through the Everglades and that was a blast too; we saw a ton of
Alligators.

Thanks so much, Karissa, for taking the time to answer my questions!! I am even more fascinated by your job now!

If you’d like to read an interview with me, visit The Bibliophilic Book Blog.