Karen currently reigns as the #1 best reviewer on GoodReads.com as selected by fellow Good Reads users, as well as the 16th most followed reviewer. All this on top of juggling college and a job!  Generous as she is, she squeezed me in between work and studying and spared me a few minutes of her time for an interview:

Rumor has it you like to read – care to lay this one to rest?
Karen – Ha! yeah, pretty much true.

You gave Moby Dick a 2-star rating.  Why?
Karen – Oh, um. well, I read it years ago in college and it just didn’t work for me.  It seemed like there was a good story in there somewhere, but it was lost between what seemed to me chapters that had zero purpose (anatomy and such).  There were some descriptions of New England I remember liking though.

You’ve rated more than 2300 books, and only 4 of them have received 1-star ratings.  Are there really only 4 bad books out there, or are you just nice with ratings?
Karen – I think I am nice. at least online I am.  In my head, my three-star rating is really broad and it covers everything from “eh” to “good”.  2 stars means it was a struggle to get through and one star means I probably threw it at some point.

How do you manage to read so much while going to school and holding a job?
Karen - Subway mostly, and now that I am going to school at the opposite end of NYC, there is also an additional subway and bus.  Going into work I get at least 40 minutes, then I get an hour break, and then 40 minutes home… plus an additional 30 minute subway home, depending if I have school. On my days off I read a bit.  Also – elevators… post office… bank… laundry room…
there are tons of little pockets of time.

Do you have a favorite place to read?
Karen - No, I guess not.  When I was younger, I had a tree I loved to read in.  That was in Rhode Island.  Here I read on the floor, on the bed, on the toolbox that holds my fridge closed…  It’s a smallish place – not a ton of options.  If I had my druthers, I would have a nice window seat.  I read on the top of the Alps one time– that was pretty sweet!

That sounds like a fun story – tell me more about it!
Karen – Well, my one and only European romp, I mostly read through.  I had just discovered Infinite Jest.  So at one point, we took the big old ski-lift thingy, and we went up to the top and there were all these crows and there was snow and glare everywhere and it was really nice.  And my friend wanted to take some artsy pictures, so I let him have at it, and I curled up in a snowbank and read some book.  Then we went to a little cabin place up there that sold hot drinks and apple pastries.  Very nice.  I read in there, too, I think.  Sheesh.

If you could fly around the world in a hot air balloon with any author, who would it be?
Karen – So many ways to answer that question.  On the one hand, if I could bring David Foster Wallace back from the dead, I would do anything.  So there’s that.  Dawn Powell would probably be a lot of fun in a hot air balloon and a hoot to talk to.  I am over-thinking it now…   I will go with Dawn Powell.

What is your favorite story that involves you reading?
Karen – Ha!  My dad told me this one recently.  It seems when I was young, I was a little bossy bookgirl.  When I had playdates, I would select two books and say, “You can read this one, and I am reading this one,” and I would make them read with me.  I don’t remember this, but it sounds like something I would have done.  My dad swears I did it all the time.

What do you love most about reading?
Karen – Oh, its purely for escapism.  I just like to be told a good story.  I like just being a passive vessel and being transported for a little while into something else.  When I watch movies, I don’t get absorbed into them as easily as I do with books.  I just love stretching out and zoning right into the book.  Mmm.

Thank you again to Karen.  If you would like to share your story, feel free to contact me: nruffilo at bookswim dot com

-Nick