Part of the fun of Book Blogger Appreciation Week is getting to know other book bloggers. One of the features of this week’s celebration is the “interview swap”, where we interview a blogger here at Books on the Nightstand, and he interviews us in turn at his blog.

We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Harry Markov, of Temple Library Reviews. The tagline of the blog reads: “Reviews on fantasy, sci-fi, horror and the literary fiction. New and Classics. Novels and Movies”.

Harry lives in Bulgaria, where he was born and raised. He is currently pursuing a degree in International Economic Relations, and is a writer of science fiction. The pitiful state of the Books on the Nightstand budget precluded us from flying to Bulgaria, so this interview was conducted via email.  

Harry, how did you become enamored with the written word and transform into a book worm?

I am a late bloomer, when it comes to becoming a bibliophile. When Cartoon Network was in its infancy and the shows they put weren’t brain dead time fillers, I never felt the need to pick up books. This was around the time I discovered anime on cartoon filled afternoons with German television. Books were long and more often than not had no illustration, plus works I was forced to read at school pretty much gave literature a bad name. My mom sensed that I was not destined for reality so she bought me “Harry Potter”, when I was eleven and reading was suddenly my thing. After learning that there were fun books I ventured out, found out about Pratchett and Tolkien and the rest is history.

What was your first contact with the world of blogging?

Blogging as a form of journal keeping to me sounded like a waste of time, when I was first introduced to it. This was approximately four years ago, when I was a part of Writing.com, a community for writers in the making. They had blogs, but the content output proved to be on a too personal and mundane level. This however changed, when I introduced to the Blogger community, which so far seems to speak on subjects other than grocery lists.

Was there a particular moment when you felt brave enough to start your own blog?

This happened after I found Rachel Vincent’s blog and since I am a writer decided to start a blog on writing called “Writing Chaos That is Me”, which is down on Blogger after changing into a more personal venue. The blog still exists on LiveJournal, but is soon to become private and exclusive only to those that have friended me.

What do you enjoy most about blogging, and what keeps you going back to it?

Immediacy. I love writing in all aspects, hence my dream to be an actively published author. But I am also a sloth, an exceptional one at that, and rarely finish projects as fast as I would enjoy, and revising is even slower as I contemplate on changes. So sharing my work with people is rather sporadic, hence blogging. People reading my reviews and commenting gives a rush that makes me feel good. Blogging also helps me practice my English, which has to feel native in order for me to prosper as a writer and a blogger and hopefully as an editor one day.

How many books have you read at one time and what is your reading schedule like usually?

I think I have ADD, because sometimes it feels hard even to keep up with one novel, but I have made attempts at multitasking/reading, which resulted into a reading triangle with two novels and one anthology. Very uncomfortable.

What are the stories you most like reading about?

Big stories. Magic, violence, sex, love, scandals, joy and happy endings. All of these things I like to read in supersize version with a bang, bright procession, confetti and dazzling lights. I think that this is a long term effect of too much Japanese anime and manga.
(note from Ann: Harry, do take a look at A FRACTION OF THE WHOLE by Steve Toltz – based on your answer to this question, I think you’d enjoy it!)

What are your personal pet peeves, when it comes to published novels?

Failing at dialogue and world building. I can forgive a lot in a novel, but when dialogue reads forced and clichéd or a world is insanely inconsistent or unoriginal I m ready to tar feather an author. I am more civilized than this answer in my reviews, but the sentiment is the same.

I see from your ‘About Me” page that you live in Bulgaria. Can you tell us a bit about the book scene in Bulgaria? Who is the best-known Bulgarian author, and is there someone that the rest of the world should know about?

The book scene here is at least in the speculative fiction genres atrocious. Since we are a seven million nation with numbers melting like wax, few are the people that would enjoy books enough and even fewer are the people would write and even fewer are those that would overlook the newest bestseller from the West to read a native author. Books pop up from minor celebrities that shouldn’t be celebrities at all and their work is complete waste of paper in my opinion. To be honest Bulgarian is a very challenging language to write in and to me it seems that the early XX century had the best novels.

What is the best thing that has happened directly as a result of your blog?

We’re really curious about the name of your blog. Can you tell us the origin of ”Temple Library Reviews”?

Oh, this is a very profound question to which I have a very stupid answer. When I thought about starting a review blog I wanted to have it as fast as possible and just feverishly brain stormed and slapped the first words I came up with. I am always fond of libraries and at the time I was writing a small short story, where the protagonist had a father, who designed temples as an architect. One random impulse led to another and a name for a blog I had. In retrospect I wished I had named it “Forest Library Reviews”, but I love the name I have picked.

Thanks, Harry! We look forward to reading more
of your writing at Temple Library Reviews!