Last night was a wow wow wow book club meeting at my house…. it was a discussion over the book Postmistress, and I read this last fall and found it to be an ok read, but not one I wanted to review again…. well… last nights discussion made me change my mind. Later this week I will share the food, the discussion… did I mention the food? 😀
The winner of yesterdays BBAW giveaway of The Night Circus is: (using random.org)
GAH!!! WOO HOO!!! Congratulations. Send me your address (no po boxes please) to journeythroughbooks@gmail.com
And now… another 24 hour giveaway of another smoking hot title that was released recently…
This beautiful new book is sitting on my kitchen table right now. I have two copies – and one is about to go to one of your homes!
To enter, leave a comment here telling me which book released (or yet to be released) in 2011 have you been most excited about. (You can get in on a second entry for this book by commenting on my BBAW Community post that will go up yet today. )
Today I am very excited to share with you my interview of the amazing Lu from Regular Rumination.
I admit I did not know Lu’s blog prior to her being linked to me for the interview exchanges but that is what is so great about this. I immediately started stalking her blog which is pretty cool, and you must check it out. 😀
With no further yammering from me, please give a warm welcome to Lu.
I’m Lu (short for Lulu), no that’s not my real name, but there are people in real life who have been calling me that since I was 7 or so. I’m a 20-something reader who wants to talk about her books with other people who think sleeping is overrated when compared to how many books you could read if sleeping was optional.
I started my blog so I could have a place to write and ramble about all the books I’m reading. I read pretty much anything and everything and if you tell me it’s good, I’m bound to give it a try. That doesn’t mean I like everything I read, because I definitely don’t. Reading and writing have been a passion of mine for a long time.
1. How long have you been blogging and what influenced you to start a blog?
I’ve been book blogging for almost three (three?!) years now! I started my blog back when I was in college, home from winter break, and totally bored out of my mind because I had nothing to read. I decided to go to the library, but was suddenly overwhelmed with choices! Oddly I wasn’t a library user really before that winter break, since I had a horrible habit of forgetting to bring the books back, especially since I didn’t have a car. But in college, I could walk to the library, so I started using it more and more. Anyway, that winter break I was googling book reviews and stumbled across a book blog. It was definite an “I have found my people” moment. I had had a little sad craft blog that hadn’t gone anywhere and I realized it was because I wasn’t as passionate about it as I thought I was. Reading, however, was my life love. Book blogging and I just were meant to be! So I commented on all those blogs, wrote my first few reviews, and the rest is history.
2. What is your favorite part about Book Blogging?
For me, I love to be able to practice my writing. I love to write and blogging is just another way to work on it. But I think the best thing about book blogging, and I think most people would agree with me here, are the relationships you form. I think it’s the most unexpected thing about book blogging. Suddenly you have all these people who you can call friends, despite never having met them in the “real world.” It’s a really remarkable thing.
Lu and Margaret Atwood
3. Name a book that you found out about by reading another blog that really turned out to be a fantastic read?
There are so many of these! I think Neil Gaiman is the one I always talk about, because I don’t know that I ever would have found out about Neil Gaiman if hadn’t been for blogging. That seems so silly and impossible now, but I remember having to look up who he was when everyone was participating in the Dream King challenge when I first started blogging! I also have gotten back into reading YA, after years of thinking I was too old for it. Ha! Right. I have loved getting back in touch with all the novels I loved as a teen and discovering so many more I wish I had read then.
4. What book do you wish you could jump into the pages of and travel right along the story line with the characters?<
When I was younger, it would make my heart ache that the worlds I read about weren’t real. I wanted so badly to travel the countryside with Ella in Ella Enchanted or various planets with Meg in A Wrinkle in Time. Who hasn’t wished they could live in the world of Harry Potter for one day? Forever? I know I do. Or, goodness, any of Charles de Lint’s novels? I used to dream about living in that world.
Lu with Tim O'Brien
5. Over the next year what is one thing you hope to either implement, improve on,or change about your current blog or blogging?
Oh, lots of things. My blog never has been and never will be perfect. I’m a lazy blogger. I often forget to write reviews or to update information. I’d like to do better with things like that. I also want to do better about finding new blogs. I feel like all the people I talk to regularly on my blog and on their blogs are people who I have been talking to for three years now. I love them, but I also wonder what I’m missing when I’m not looking for and reading new blogs. The book blogging community seems to have grown tenfold when I wasn’t looking, so I know there are great blogs out there that I haven’t found yet.<
6. What advice would you give to a brand new book blogger?
BE YOURSELF. Find your voice and use it. Practically every blog has reviews, so you should do something to make it special. Talk about yourself, make it a little bit personal. Also, don’t be afraid to comment. Sometimes I still find myself lurking on blogs. Everyone loves a comment, no matter how intimidating they seem! Also, if someone comments on your blog, show them some love and visit their blogs once in a while. I know it can be hard, and it’s something I still work hard at, but it’s really the bread and butter of this community. But most of all, have fun. It’s a hobby and if you’re not having fun, it’s not worth it. That’s why we’re all here, to be nerdy, passionate book lovers, so let that shine through on your blog!
Thank you Lu for hanging out here today. Readers, be sure to stop in and see Lu in her natural environment at Regular Rumination… and if you stop by her blog today and leave a comment on her interview with me, I will put you in for an extra entry for today’s giveaway book …. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.
Three chances to enter :
1. My post this morning – leave a comment there
2. Leave a comment on the interview here with Lu
3. Go over to Lu’s blog and leave a comment on her interview with me
Today’s Topic Community While the awards are a fun part of BBAW, they can never accurately represent the depth and breadth of diversity in the book blogging community. Today you are encouraged to highlight a couple of bloggers that have made book blogging a unique experience for you. They can be your mentors, a blogger that encouraged you to try a different kind of book, opened your eyes to a new issue, made you laugh when you needed it, or left the first comment you ever got on your blog. Stay positive and give back to the people who make the community work for you!
This is a hard post for me to write as there are so many book bloggers out there I love to read, have picked up more than a book or two from their passionate reviews, or just hover around their blog because they are witty and fun to read.
I tried to narrow it down to a few bloggers who really have meant something to me over the last year and I came up with this:
A post on book bloggers who I appreciate would not be complete without me mentioning that crazy spirited teacher friend of mine, Reagan from Miss Remmers Reviews. If it wasn’t for Reagan, I probably would not have gone to BEA. If I had not gone to BEA, I would have missed a huge part of what I love most about book blogging – the community. Mental *high five* to you my friend! (The short version of this story is I wanted to go to BEA in 2010 but was nervous about not knowing anyone. I knew Reagan from her blog only but she was also from Minnesota and we started chatting about the possibilities… now she has been my BEA roommate the past two years).
Amanda from Ramblings (previously from The Zen Leaf). I think I first found Amanda over her love for all things Harry Potter. It was so nice to find someone who was as big a Potter geek as myself! 😛 When I started reading Amanda’s blog I really appreciated and enjoyed her reviews. Amanda made some changes this year and now has a new blog, it is not necessarily a book bog – but she talks books and that makes her a book blogger to me. 😀
Alison from Alison’s Book Marks was someone I connected with at BEA in 2010. I enjoyed talking to her and really started following her blog when I returned home. Amanda writes some incredible review and reads some pretty awesome books that have come to me through her recommendation.
And this post would not be complete without adding Alyce from At Home With Books. Alyce is just a sweet down to earth blogger who writes not only about books, but life, and happenings, and I just love that. When you read Alyce’s blog you feel like you have just been invited into her home for a cup of coffee and a little conversation.
That’s my list for this year – there are so many wonderful hard-working book bloggers out there and I adore you all. My sidebar list of blogs I follow (which needs a few more added to it) – that group I pretty much visit every time they write a post.
Happy BBAW everyone! Be sure to watch tomorrow morning for my first exciting giveaway!!!!
I had a great weekend and hope you did too! We spent Friday, Saturday, and half of Sunday at our cabin up North. We (hubby and I) went out to eat, rode motorcycle around the shore, hung out at the cabin… he became hooked on the Game Show Network 🙄 and I read The Knife Of Never Letting Go (WOWZA!) On Monday we both spent time in our offices getting caught up for the week that is upon vote us.
I worked a short day on Monday and then went rollerblading with my friend Wendy. We had not chatted in a while due to busy schedules so the trail is a great place to catch up while getting a work out at the same time. At the seven mile marker Wendy suggested turning around but I thought we should set the goal of ten miles up the trail and so …. we did. Perhaps, in hind site that was not the best plan as neither of us had bladed in the last couple of months and neither of us had went that far this year. We started feeling the effects of that “choice” on the way back at about mile 15. I told her I hope she didn’t mind if I whined the last 5 miles back, she said she did not as she planned to whine too. 😛
Well obviously I am typing this so…
we survived. 😛
However may not have been the smartest idea with my still recovering from the sinus infection and still taking antibiotics… (lets just say there was a point there I was coughing so hard I thought I was going to lose a lung….) 😯
In other fun news… It’s Monday! What Are You Reading made the short list for best book blog meme. Ahhhh…. that’s so fun! Make sure to take a minute or two this week to vote for the book blogs on the short list – there are many awesome categories and awesome blogs up for nomination. I just love Book Blogger Appreciation Week (coming up September 12) there is so many incredible book blogs out there, set aside some time during BBAW to visit them! 😀
Please note – the Best Book Blog Meme Category had a glitch in the voting system and all previous votes this category were lost. PLEASE take a moment and re vote, or vote if you have not already. Its quick and easy. 😀
BBAW is so exciting! Thank you to everyone who voted for “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” for Best Book Blog Meme. There are some wonderful memes on this list!
I am at camp this week…. up early for a bike ride to start my morning before every one else gets up. 😀 I figure I can get in a little exercise this week so brought my bike.
Here is where I need your help. I have made the long list in the 2011 BBAW Awards in the following niche categories:
Best Audiobook Blog
Best Eclectic Book Blog
SSSSQQQUUUEEEEE!!!! Really, thank you, that is exciting 😀
Now I can only move forward in one category. I do LOVE LOVE LOVE audio and promote it to no end here…. but know a few other blogs that are super audio blogs too…. even more so than my own. I know I am an eclectic blog and love to read diverse styles of books. So the questions lies with…. which one do I go forward with?
Please let me know your thoughts and they will be taken into consideration. Just when I think I have chosen…. my head goes the other way…. 😛
Thank you in advance for your help.
As for camp day one…. awesome. I really thought it might be a bit scary, but really….. everyone is soooooo nice. Already I have laughed and cried several times….
Also – on another note….. it is not too late to sign up for a Blogger interview swap for BBAW week. Trust me, this is a lot of fun.
I have been meaning to draw these winners all weekend but it just didnt happen! So today I am finally able to do a bit of catching up and am thrilled to announce our last three BBAW Winners.
The winner of the prize package from a random drawing from comments on this blog between Sept 14 and Sept 18 goes to:
Congratulations J Kaye!!! How about that? You are a top commentor on my blog!
I am emailing you the gift card here shortly
Thank you to everyone who left comments here during BBAW! That was a lot of fun! I love my regular visitors and so enjoyed meeting new people and I am still actively seeking out the blogs of those who took the time to comment here.
I think I will start having a monthly contest for Amazon Gift Cards starting in October (they are so easy to do – just email to the winner!)
I keep posting giveaways as I have time and so as long as I have a bit before I need to fly out the door again…. thought I would post another!
This time I am looking for the titles and Authors of any one of the top ten books of 2008 according to the New York Times. Just one of the books.
I will take three winners here – a different winner for each correct title. The winners will receive choice out of the gift box.
Have fun!!!!
(*Please remember these giveaways are open to US entrants only and can not be delivered to PO box numbers) ** Note that the comment giveaway at the end of BBAW where you can win an Amazon gift card is open worldwide – so while the individual giveaways are USA only – the overall comment giveaway is worldwide!
Ok…I wont even try to shoot for one correct answer here as I am sure there are many…. so what I am looking for this time is a link to what you find to be the Worlds largest Book….. again – I am not putting in guidelines…. put a great link in the comments to what you believe to be the worlds largest book and you will be one of my winners!
One of the winners? Yup – in this final day of BBAW I am going to look for 3 winners this time…. you can not however use the same link to the same book as another winner has. I need three separate books here. (There is no right or wrong answer – I am just looking for three links to 3 EXTREMELY large books) A different winner per book – the same person on this one can not win the 2nd or third spot as well)
I thought this would be kind of cool to see what links come in to see what are considered to be the Worlds Largest Books! Winners will be announced on here and will get a chance to pick out of the gift box!
Ready? Set? And Go!!!
(*Please remember these giveaways are open to US entrants only and can not be delivered to PO box numbers) ** Note that the comment giveaway at the end of BBAW where you can win an Amazon gift card is open worldwide – so while the individual giveaways are USA only – the overall comment giveaway is worldwide!
Book Journey 