Thursday, July 18, 2013

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge | Day(s) #7-11 (Oops I know! I know!)



It's Day #11!! In the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge. You can find out more about it at Good Books and Good Wine


Okay so I got side tracked with review books and blog tours and life so I'll do a little catch up. This is going to be Days #7-11...Oooh 7-Eleven...now I want a Slurpee...*Smacks self* FOCUS! Okay so here we go!

Day #7 Talk about your blogging quirks.

I'm not really sure I have any "quirks". It took me a while to find my "style" and by that I really just mean how I format my blog and I'm happy with it. 

I've grown fond of throwing quotes in. I don't do it every single time but it's fun to find ones and try to either write around them or fit them in somehow.

Sometimes I'm able to jump right into a review after I've finished reading it. Others times they sit there for a week or two. *Side eyes "needs review" shelf on Goodreads* But I try not to let more than 3 reviews stack up at a time. Once I hit 3 I will sit here until I get all 3 written and won't allow myself to move on to another book until they're done. 

After finishing a book I will at least go in and do everything for my review post and have it all set up so all I need to do is put in the review. It's a helpful little reminder that screams at me every time I go into my dashboard saying "HEYYYYY GET THIS DONE!"

I tend to go a day or two between catching up on comments and/or blog hopping. Though this past week I've been horrible because I'm trying to get so many review books read. But I always catch up eventually. Some of you will get comments on week old posts be warned haha.

I dunno I'm not all that quirky I guess.


Day #8 Quick! Write 15 bullet points of things that appeal to you on blogs!

Review wise:


  • Book covers displayed - I'm sometimes a visual buyer
  • Goodreads links - I'm lazy I don't want to type it in :D Just click and go!
  • Ratings - It's silly but not everyone does this and I like to know numbers!
  • Honesty - Loved it or hated it always be honest
  • GIFs - This isn't required but when they're on there they are so much fun!
  • Quotes - Again also not a requirement but I love me some quotes!
  • Pages - I like to know how long a book I may potentially like is going to be. It's nice to have all that available as I'm looking through the review
  • Author links - Once again it's my laziness. I like to just click to find out more of what I want to know if I'm not familiar with the author!


Blog in general:


  • Having a post archive easily accessible so that I can look at some of your old posts
  • NO CAPTCHA! Seriously there are times when I just close a post instead of putting it in. 
  • Our blogs reflect our personality. I like getting to know you that way :)
  • Memes obviously aren't required blogging material but they're a fun way to find new books and blogs to read!
  • Features. I have a few blogs I follow that have their own features and they're always interesting and open up dialogue and conversation. 
  • Having a variety of follow options. I like to have a choice on how I hear about your newest posts :)
  • Keep it simple. Keep it organized. (Obviously I don't follow this one very well myself haha)



None of these things are required for me enjoying blogs I visit. These are just things that when I see them I'm like "Yay!!!"


Day #9 Why do you blog about books?

I'd been wanting to start blogging again for a while, see way back in the MySpace days (I know right?), when everyone was still like "Facewhat?" I was part of the MySpace blogging community. It was all just random life posts at the time. I made a lot of great friends though once everyone switched over to Facebook I've lost track of all but one and I still talk to her on a daily basis and it's been like YEARS and YEARS. She started a nail blog. Erika @ Polish Fixation if you're into that sort of thing too go show her some love! :)

But I remember having so much fun blogging. Telling crazy life stories filled with humor, at my own expense, and I wanted to do something like that again. I tried doing something like that on blogger a few years ago but I was having trouble getting into it. Then I discovered Goodreads and I was reading a review and someone said something about their blog and so I went and then I started hopping from blog to blog soaking in these reviews and it was so exciting for me. One day I thought to myself..I can write about books I should try it. Nearly 7 months later here I am. It's fun. It's cathartic. It helps me to decompress after reading whether the book was good or bad. It's not my total intention to influence someone one way or the other about the books I've read, I just want a platform to talk about what I've read and even if it's only me who reads it, I feel better after I've gotten it out there.


Day #10 How do you choose what book to read next?

It used to be me browsing through page after page on Barnes & Noble in their "teen" section trying to find a new YA book to love. But now a days I find things sometimes on Goodreads but for the most part it's my friends, other blogs and Twitter. If something is being raved about I will usually pop on Goodreads and check it out then add it or buy it straight away! 


Day #11 Show off! 5 of your best blog posts!

Oh boy this is scary. I'm highly critical of myself and it's a miracle posts actually go out but I'll see what I can come up with...


REVIEW: The Human (The Eden Trilogy #2) by Keary Taylor




REVIEW: Point of Retreat (Slammed #2) by Colleen Hoover


Bonus: 

I was just going to skip this one but it made me happy seeing how much Kate enjoyed this review. Total fangirl moment.



Alright sorry for the long post but I wanted to catch up on this and hopefully I'll stay more on schedule for the remaining few days!! xoxox


4 comments:

  1. I remember using xanga back in the day. I really enjoyed blogging about random things and just whatever I wanted. And once I discovered book blogs, I was just like you -- I really wanted an outlet of all my thoughts about books! Lately I've been reading more than writing my reviews, oops. I blame the addictiveness of the VA books!

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  2. I'm overwhelmed by this :-) You have so much good stuff to say! Tangled was one of my favorite posts too! :-) I was going through all my old reviews yesterday and noticed how much they have changed as time has passed. It definitely takes a while to get a style down but I think it is ever changing and its fun to see how it evolves.

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  3. That was fun catching up on! I also tend to get behind on commenting and do it all a week later on old posts (like me commenting right now!). It was interesting to read your blog favorite items. I love GIFs too. They are so fun but I am not very good at finding them myself.

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  4. OK, handy to have them all together so I can comment on them all together!
    I always forget to put the GR link into my posts. Note to self, buck up and try harder! I use it all the time on other blogs so I know how handy it is.
    I'm the same as you with quotes, sometimes I add to reviews and sometimes not. I love seeing them though as they give you a flavour of the writing.
    I can never find good GIFs, I start looking and get intimidated by the variety, fret about copyright, wonder have other book bloggers used it and then give up. Really enjoy the fun element they give a post though.
    No captcha! Sing it sister!

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