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NOVL HEADQUARTERS
SAVANNAH
From the land of South Florida
Currently reading • Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
Best part of my job • Books everywhere. EVERYWHERE.
Favorite place to read • Snuggled up in bed
Favorite music to listen to • Punk/classic rock
Favorite LBYR book • The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Favorite books • Eragon by Christopher Paolini, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Book I fake-read • I never finished Jubilee by Margaret Walker. I just couldn’t do that last chapter. Don’t tell my 8th grade English teacher, though!
Book that made me a book lover • The Secrets of Droon by Tony Abbott
Hardcover, paperback, or ebook? • Hardcover, all the way.
Bookmark or dog ear? • Bookmark, of course. I am not an animal.
Hot pink or bright blue? • Hot pink, baby!
MARA
From the land of Washington state
Currently reading • The Wicked King by Holly Black
Best part of my job • Doing what I love (digital marketing), surrounded by great books and fellow book lovers every day!
Favorite place to read • The giant fluffy beanbag that takes up a good quarter of my bedroom.
Favorite music to listen to • I listen exclusively to Ed Sheeran.
Favorite LBYR book • My 14-year-old self would be very upset if I didn’t say Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.
Favorite books • The entire Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein.
Book I fake-read • I took a postmodern literature class in high school and hated every second of it. One of the books we were assigned was White Noise by Don DeLillo, and I just couldn’t do it.
Book that made me a book lover • My default answer is always Matilda by Roald Dahl because I really related to Matilda’s bookwormy-ness and desire to crush her enemies. But, truthfully, my love affair with books started at a very young age and the real answer is probably Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy E. Shaw.
Hardcover, paperback, or ebook? • Hardcover if it isn’t leaving my home and I want to put it on display, paperback if I want to carry it with me.
Bookmark or dog ear? • I tend to use whatever scraps of paper happen to be laying around as bookmarks. Currently I’m using an envelope from a letter my mom sent me!
Hot pink or bright blue? • Hot pink!
EMILIE
from the land of QUEENS
Currently reading • A minimum of 5 books: work manuscript, work book, just-for-me book, audiobook for walking/commuting/cleaning, and bedtime read-aloud to kid
Best part of my job • Our sparkly, bookish, HILARIOUS team—love you guys
Favorite place to read • N/A (everywhere is made for reading)
Favorite music to listen to • Pop! The cheesier, the better
Favorite LBYR book • Favorite from childhood: The Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. Favorite from now: Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor.
Favorite books • All of them. ALL. OF. THEM.
Book I fake-read • Catch-22. Major major major major lie there. (I read enough to make one joke!)
Book that made me a book lover • I cannot remember a time when I didn’t love books at the exclusion of everything else. I can remember pretending to read before I knew how!
Hardcover, paperback, or ebook? • Hardcover first editions; no substitute
Bookmark or dog ear? • This question makes me uncomfortable. Know that after reading everyone else’s answers, I will not be lending books to most of you. <<shudder>>
Hot pink or bright blue? • Think pink!
STEF
from the land of New Jersey
Currently reading • Dune by Frank Herbert
Best part of my job • The people! Authors, illustrators, fellow booknerds, and especially our amazing team.
Favorite place to read • Curled up in a big armchair.
Favorite music to listen to • Depends on my mood. Hit shuffle on my music and you’ll get everything from LANY to Dolly, Ariana Grande to Louis Armstrong, plus a lot of Kenny Loggins. What can I say, I love it all!
Favorite LBYR book • Picture Book by Dog by Michael Relth, The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns and The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Favorite books • Why is this always a question? It’s impossible! A few forever favorites: The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and a Kurt Vonnegut or Ray Bradbury but I can’t keep making tough choices! .
Book I fake-read • I don’t think I’ve done this! I usually admit to it…plus I’m a terrible liar.
Book that made me a book lover • Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Hardcover, paperback, or ebook? • Hardcover AND paperback. Hardcover because LOOK HOW PRETTY! But paperbacks for carrying everywhere, reading a lot, and looking extremely well-loved.
Bookmark or dog ear? • GASP. Bookmark! (Except it’s usually some other scrap of paper functioning as a bookmark.)
Hot pink or bright blue? • Both. Whichever is more obnoxiously neon. Or has sparkles.
BILL
From the land of Massachusetts
Currently reading • Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Best part of my job • Having an excuse to be a professional fanboy
Favorite place to read • Big comfy chairs that allow for a full range of absurd sitting options
Favorite music to listen to • Shameless bubble gum dance pop, deep in your feelings R&B, indie pop rock with a strong queer sensibility, show tunes, basically anything that falls under the “crying on the dancefloor” umbrella
Favorite LBYR book • Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman and Zachariah O’Hara
Favorite books • Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (this question is cruel and unusual punishment)
Book I fake-read • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Somehow managed to write a full paper about Miss Havisham based on one chapter of the book and what I remembered of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series.
Book that made me a book lover • As cliché as it may be, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It was on a list of recommended summer reads the summer before I started fifth grade. I remember exactly where I was when I started it (parking lot outside the hardware store), and I proceeded to keep a notebook filled with all of the spells.
Hardcover, paperback, or ebook? • Hardcover. I’m too impatient for paperback and have too short of an attention span for ebook.
Bookmark or dog ear? • Dog ear, so I’m fully an animal and/or heathen
Hot pink or bright blue? • Bright blue
SHANESE
From the land of New York
Currently reading • Titan Vol 6: Into the Bleed by Dan Abnett. It’s taking me so long to finish because it’s the last one and I don’t want it to end.
Best part of my job • Working on the all of the wonderful books
Favorite place to read • I have this really comfy chaise lounge chair in my living room right next to the windows that looks out onto the balcony.
Favorite music to listen to • There is so many. I like it all, K-pop, country, R&B, musicals, hip hop, show tunes, I can go on
Favorite LBYR book • Answered above
Favorite books • All of the Percy Jackson book. Big Bad Beast by Shelly Laurentson. Styxx by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Stone Cold Touch by Jennifer L. Armentrout. There are a lot.
Book I fake-read • Dracula. I had to read it in high school, and I was so excited because I was going through my “I only read vampire books” phase. I read maybe the first chapter and faked it for the rest of the time. To this day I still don’t know what happens in it.
Book that made me a book lover • True to the Game by Teri Woods
Hardcover, paperback, or ebook? • All. It depends on where I am.
Bookmark or dog ear? • Bookmark! What kind of person do you think I am?
Hot pink or bright blue? • Bright Blue
NISHA
From the land of New Jersey
Currently reading • Persuasion by Jane Austen
Best part of my job • Making swag for authors, seeing them get excited about it, having them share it with their readers, and then watching the readers get excited. There’s nothing like knowing that something you produced made people happy.
Favorite place to read • Anywhere as long as I have my earphones.
Favorite music to listen to • Too many to list.
Favorite LBYR book • The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black and the upcoming We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra
Favorite books • We work in publishing—how are you even asking me this question?
Book I fake-read • I don’t believe I’ve ever done this. Or I’ve convinced myself that I’ve read it even if I haven’t.
Book that made me a book lover • I can’t pinpoint this down to one book. But I do remember wanting to go to the library to get another chapter book from the Paddington Bear Series when I was a kid.
Hardcover, paperback, or ebook? • Any and all. Give them all to me!
Bookmark or dog ear? • Bookmark. Dog-earing is for heathens.
Hot pink or bright blue? • Depends on the context. I commit to nothing.
BECKY
From the land of New York
Currently reading • The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett
Best part of my job • Reading books before they pub and designing cool swag to promote these books!
Favorite place to read • Reclining on the couch with my kitty
Favorite music to listen to • When I’m reading, I like to listen to classical music. When I’m designing, it’s a much more eclectic mix of world music, gothic rock, and alternative tunes, with a mix of classic rock, too.
Favorite LBYR book • The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Favorite books • Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, Blindness by José Saramago, Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Book I fake-read • Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. I never really read this, just skimmed it. I KNOW, I have to revisit.
Book that made me a book lover • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. I borrowed it from my classroom library and read it in one sitting. I was completely mesmerized and at that point had never read something so fast, because I could not put it down. This started my love affair with reading!
Hardcover, paperback, or ebook? • Hardcover for my fave authors and art books, paperbacks for everything else, and ebooks for “trashy” romance novels, so no one sees the covers, lol.
Bookmark or dog ear? • Both!
Hot pink or bright blue? • Hot pink
JESSICA
From the land of New Jersey
Currently reading • Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
Best part of my job • Designing marketing assets for the most adorable picture books!
Favorite place to read • At the beach
Favorite music to listen to • Post Rock
Favorite LBYR book • My Teacher is a Monster by Peter Brown
Favorite books • This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki + Julian Tamaki, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Book I fake-read • The Scarlett Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne. It was part of my summer reading before junior year in high school and couldn’t finish it no matter how many times I’ve tried.
Book that made me a book lover • Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss, the first book I can remember
Hardcover, paperback, or ebook? • Hardcover
Bookmark or dog ear? • Whichever is available at the moment.
Hot pink or bright blue? • Hot pink.
ALLISON
From the Land of Georgia
Currently reading • There There by Tommy Orange and Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet by Laekan Zea Kemp
Best part of my job • Working with people who are just as passionate about books as I am!! Oh, and I LOVE seeing all of the covers and swag that gets made.
Favorite place to read • My bed or in a sunny park somewhere!
Favorite music to listen to • Indie pop, rock, rap
Favorite LBYR book • All of The Clique and Poseur, also The Wild Robot
Favorite books • I can’t answer this!!! All of them!
Book I fake-read • Sophie’s World by by Jostein Gaardner… it was about the history of philosophy. Looking back now, I think I’d find it interesting. It was just reaaalllllyy long!
Book that made me a book lover • Hmmmm!!! Harry Potter! I mean, I still remember randomly starting that book before dinner one day and then skipping dinner and reading into the night because it was SO GOOD. Also I used to be obsessed with this book called Stan the Hot Dog Man. I was a simple child, hot dogs and HP.
Hardcover, paperback, or ebook? • Either hardcover or paperback! I think you need a good balance.
Bookmark or dog ear? • I’d like to say bookmark but I’m definitely more of a dog-ear person… I also write in my books… I like to underline things that really hit me in the FEELS!!!
Hot pink or bright blue? • Bright blue!
CASSIE
From the Land of New York
Currently reading • Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo.
Best part of my job • Seeing the designs I make in the wild! It is great to create and work on something then see it widely used on social media, websites, and other platforms.
Favorite place to read • In bed next to my partner as we both catch up on our new favorite books.
Favorite music to listen to • Too many genres to list, but currently alternative rock and indie pop.
Favorite LBYR book • My Last Summer With Cass by Mark Crilley
Favorite books • Spinning by Tillie Walden, This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, and My Giant Geek Boyfriend by Fishball.
Book I fake-read • Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne
Book that made me a book lover • Cliché, but the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling.
Hardcover, paperback, or ebook? • Anything that lets me read my stories!
Bookmark or dog ear? • Whatever is convenient! I usually take sticky notes and write on them and put them in my books as I read.
Hot pink or bright blue? • Bright blue!