Hello Readers!
I’m back again with another co-host interview and today I’m chatting with Gaia from Lalettricesegreta on Instagram! Gaia is our main Instagram user and creates some incredible stories/posts. If you aren’t following her, you should absolutely change that! Now let’s get chatting!
Mr Geek: Hi Gaia, thanks so much for chatting with me for my blog. Let’s kick things off with you introducing yourself to my readers. What are a few things you enjoy doing outside of reading? Do you have any fun hobbies? What do you do as your day job?
Gaia: I have to admit that I’m a “late” reader. I discovered my love for books during senior year of high school. It took me almost three years to start sharing online, opening my blog and then my Instagram account. Before that, music was my soul and heart… and it still is today. I’ve took singing lessons for years! Can’t pass a day without singing or listening to Broadway show recordings! When I have to be serious — yup, sometimes it happens — I’m a psychology student at the University of Bari (Italy).
Mr Geek: I had no idea you were into music and theater! I actually grew up going to the theater once every summer. My Mum and Grandma would buy season tickets to 3 shows playing in the city and they would always buy me a single ticket to join them for a show. It was always a really fun, enjoyable experience and I definitely appreciate the arts more now as an adult because of it. And since we’re talking about art, I love your Instagram stories and posts! You’re @Lalettricesegreta on Instagram. What inspired this name? How did you first get started on Bookstagram?
Gaia: My nickname, La Lettrice Segreta, means literally THE SECRET READER. That’s exactly what I was at the beginning of my voyage through books. I didn’t have friends, at the time, that shared my passion – except for a group of online readers I met at some fantasy-related forums.
When I opened my blog, I decided to name it “The secret worlds of books” (translated in Italian “Le Parole Segrete dei Libri”). I had this idea of whispered emotions and words shared between just me and my books. It felt so poetic — it was the right choice. My nickname came along very naturally from that.
Then starting my Instagram was one of the best choices I ever made. I love photography, especially if it’s surreal and photoshopped – it’s so fun to create! The possibility of talking about books and taking pictures at the same time was just perfect for me!
Mr Geek: Love how your book related accounts are able to also incorporate some of your other passions – that’s awesome! You’re Instagram posts all have a sense of fantasy and whimsy about them, so you’re really staying true there! Since you’re our resident Instagram expert here at Tome Topple, when did you first get involved in the read-a-thon?
Gaia: I met Sam on Instagram during ROUND 9 of Tome Topple a couple of years ago. I remember tagging her in my stories with some reading templates I had created for myself — as I just said, I’m a graphical edits and photography nerd! She saw them and we talked a little bit. Some weeks later she asked me if I wanted to be the instagram host of the readathon. Of course I said YAAAAAS!!!
Mr Geek: It’s awesome how you just randomly connected with Sam on Instagram, very similar to how I got involved. I participated in Tome Topple for a couple of rounds and then reached out on Twitter to see if she could use another co-host. She said sure and the rest is history! As we are on the tail end of Tome Topple, if you could only pick one genre to read for the rest of your life, what would you pick?
Gaia: This is SO hard. My heart right now is *painfully* divided between fantasy+scifi. Yup, obviously cheating and putting them together as branches of the same ginormous tree or literary fiction. I know I’m proving myself a 100% Libra with these awful decision making skills…. Oh well, I can’t choose! May the odds be ever in my favor!
Mr Geek: Well… I guess I can let this combo slide! I definitely consider Fantasy and Sci Fi as part of the same tree. Did you read any great Fantasy or Sci Fi books recently? What were some of your favorites from 2021?
Gaia: 2021 was a great reading year. Just to name a few of my favorites, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Normal People by Sally Rooney, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
Not a bad book, but one I was expecting a little bit more from and then didn’t blow me away as I hoped, was A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. Good book, but not life-changing for me.
Mr Geek: I read The Handmaid’s Tale back in college and really enjoyed it. Definitely a crazy book that really makes you think. I also own, but haven’t read, The Secret History. I’ve heard great things about this one, I’ll have to get to it soon! Have you ever considered writing your own book?
Gaia: Oh well, that is a BIG dream of mine! Right now I’m concentrated on my studies, both at university and outside, reading fiction and non-fiction, especially about creative writing. Fingers crossed!
Mr Geek: Well, if you ever write that book, I am expecting an ARC! The good news is, you have already have a bunch of bookish Tome Topple friends who are waiting to hype this up for you! Were there any particular books that inspired you to want to write your own novel or that had a big impact on you growing up?
Gaia: Yes! I would not be here talking to you if it wasn’t for The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. This was THE book that made me realize I could love books more than anything! I’m a book addict, a bookstagrammer, even a Tome Topple host because of it – well… it’s a thousand page book… a forerunner indeed! Then Little Women came, and it was the first time I saw myself perfectly portrait by a fictional character. Jo March is very close to my heart today, just like when I first read this book!
Mr Geek: Gaia, we’re winding down our interview but for my last question. You speak Italian as your native language but your English is outstanding. Do you know any other languages?
Gaia: Yes, Italian is my native language and I started learning English in kindergarten. I do my best to talk, read and listen in English as much as I can every week – thank goodness we have books, movies, audiobooks and TV shows! I studied Spanish during middle school, but can’t remember a single thing now that I’m 28. It has been too many years since, but I would love to study it all over again – it’s such a musical and fun language!
Mr Geek: This was such an interesting conversation and I definitely learned a lot more about you, as did our Tome Topple readers! Thank you so much for stopping by and chatting, Gaia!
There you have it – Gaia from Lalettricesegreta on Instagram! Hopefully you know a little more about Gaia and, like I said, if you aren’t following her on Instagram be sure to do that! Tomorrow is the last day for Tome Topple and I’ll be featuring my final interview – Sam from Thoughts On Tomes, the original creator of Tome Topple (talk about a great way to close things out)!
Until We Meet Again,
Mr Geek
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