An interview with Jackie, from Farm Lane Books

I recently wandered onto Jackie's blog, Farm Lane Books, as a referral from Beth from BethFishReads. I was so pleasantly surprised to find wonderful book reviews, weekly memes, questionnaires, and best of all, a really nice person behind the blog! Jackie and I began an e-mail correspondence about a hard-to-find book I was looking for, as she is in the business of buying and selling books online, all from the comfort of her home in the UK. We decided it would be fun to interview each other as a sort of interview cross-post. So without further ado, let's find out a little more about Jackie!

Sandy: I am intrigued with the career change you describe in your profile. When did you make the switch, what motivated you to make it, and explain exactly what it is you do presently for a living. (A loaded question, I know!)

Jackie: I worked for a multi-national pharmaceutical company, as an analytical chemist until about three and a half years ago, when I went on maternity leave to have my oldest son, Adam. To make a bit of extra money, I started to sell my old books on Amazon. I realized that I was actually making a profit on some of them, despite having read them, so it was only a little step to buy more, and skip the reading part! I loved it, and decided not to go back to my laboratory job when my maternity leave ended. Over the past three years I have slowly increased the number of books I have for sale, and I now have about 2500 listed in my amazon shop. (Note: see her Amazon shop Farm Lane Books
here.)

I buy books from charity shops, local sales and on the internet, and then sell them to people all over the world. My only problem is that I hate selling books that I think might be interesting to read, so my TBR pile turned into a mountain! I am trying to be more ruthless but I still have several hundred books waiting to be read!

Sandy: Can you describe a typical day in your life?

Jackie: Not really! Every day is so different, but I’ll give it a go!

Mornings are dedicated to my two boys. I’ll often have friends with similar age children over for a coffee, or meet up with them in a park somewhere. If I’m at home on my own with them, then I might try to persuade the boys that sorting out the washing, or doing the vacuuming is fun too! We have lunch, then I drop Adam at nursery. I then have about an hour and a half while Matthew is asleep to get on with my work, blogging or reading – depending on my mood! It is normally a mixture of all three! I then go and pick Adam up, drop all the books I’ve sold at the post office, and come home to make dinner. Luckily my husband normally makes it home in time for dinner, so we can have a nice family meal together. My husband then plays with the boys for an hour, while I get a bit more time on the computer. We then put the boys to bed, and have a few hours where we might watch a bit of TV or read. I normally have a nice, long bath before bed in which I do my best not to make my latest book turn crinkly!

Sandy: Besides running a profitable online book-selling business, running a home, raising two children, and blogging, what are some of your hobbies that you enjoy in your loads of spare time?

Jackie: We like being outside with the boys walking and cycling are the only things we can really do with them at the moment, but hopefully we’ll be able to do more once they’re a bit bigger.


I’m also very involved in my local NCT group. The National Childbirth Trust is a charity supporting pregnant and new mums. I’m on the committee, and am currently busy organizing a nearly new sale to raise money for the group.



Sandy: Tell us an interesting or unusual fact about yourself that would surprise us!





Jackie: I used to breed show quality, pedigree chinchillas! I soon realized that I didn’t have enough time to take them to all the chinchilla shows, so I now just keep three of them as my lovely, furry friends! I’ve attached a picture of one of my chinchillas with her baby below.









Sandy: What is your favorite book that you have read in the last twelve months?



Jackie: That’s easy! A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. I think it is probably my favourite book of all time too! It is a great story, packed with emotion. I still think about it all the time. If you haven’t read it, then you should order a copy now!!! See my review here.


I have had alot of fun getting to know Jackie, and hope you have enjoyed reading more about her! If I can find some willing subjects, I may try to do this again in the future. If there are any interested parties out there, let me know!