Book Journey

I can not even believe that here we are on Day 5, the final day of BBAW.  It came… and then it went so quickly.  Todays topic is:

Today’s Topic
The world of blogging is continually changing. Share 3 things you are essential tried and true practices for every blogger and 1-3 new trends or tools you’ve adapted recently or would like to in the future.

This is exciting for me to discuss as I remember all the crazy things I did in my early days of book blogging just to get connected.  I created meme’s and features and let me just say this to those of you who are fairly new… do not do this unless you have thought it out well and know you are in it for the long-term.  Within the first couple of months these meme/features fizzled out by either lack of participation, my loss of interest or both.  😀  You can still find them in the archives of my blog…. Word Verification Balderdash…  Wednesday Feature Book Club…

As far as tried and true practices here are the top three for me:

1.  I know time is of the essence, but comment.  Comment not only on other blogs (if you do not know where to begin, find a meme to participate in that links many blogs to the same topic…. great way to meet other bloggers and find blogs you enjoy reading.), but also comment back to those who comment on your blog. 

One of my favorite blogs when I started was J Kaye’s Book Blog.  I would visit her blog daily, but sadly she moved on with her writing and let her blogging days drop to the wayside.  J Kaye responded to every comment on her blog.  Now – before you panic, just do what works for you – but I loved going back to her blog several times a day just to follow the conversation.  It was not unusual for people to comment on the same post two or three times as the conversation continued.  I knew then, I wanted to do community like she did and model some of my blog practices today after how she did hers. 

2.  Post at least 3 -4 times per week.  Your blog, (my blog) should not go silent.  Maybe you can not read 3-4 books a week and review them…. I hear you there!  😛  There are other posts you could put up that make great discussions…. bookish topics, trends, questions on e readers, an author event or author interview, book store stories…. or like myself, I put in a morning discussion – not always bookish, but mainly just life that goes live 6 mornings a week.  I may not get a review or topic in on a certain day, but I almost always have my morning post and consistency build loyal readers.

3.  Keep a neat and organized looking blog.  I know I may catch some slack for this one, but if you read some of the comments going on my earlier post today, you will see that many of us (dare I say most of us?) visit blogs to read the main post.  Too many bells and whistles, pictures, and flashes on the side bars just distract from your posts.  I am guilty of this too in the past and hopefully have now what I believe is a tasteful looking blog where the main feature is the post and it draws your eye to it.  I love sidebars – they are awesome for other connections and I think as long as they match what you and your blog are about, they work.  Even as I type this, I know (and I have been meaning to) make some upgrades to my own.

As for the future… yes, I am always planning things I want to do with the blog…. always thinking of ways to connect others to great reads and genres near and dear to my heart.  I have a big project I want to take on in 2012 but have some homework to do first on it.  One hint… it would require me setting up a second blog to man it.  (**Note on stuff like this…. when you are thinking of ideas and reading challenges, try googling them first.. sometimes you may discover it is already being done by someone else). 

Another thing I am putting back on is the Word Shakers on-line book club.  I had great responses to this in the past, but the way I was running it was too time consuming and I was putting too much of the discussion on me, and not enough on the participants.  If you look at my right sidebar you will see I have a book in place for the group read, I just need to  post the details and time frame.  (*when starting things like an online book discussion, check out other blogs who are doing it and see what you like about their style and what you do not… it’s a great way to build on how you will do your own.)

I think that is it for now.  BBAW was awesome this year and I hope everyone had a great time discovering new blogs and/or maybe discovering for the first time how big, and how tight knit this community can be. 

**Note:  Comments on this post will be entered into my BBAW giveaway for today a hard copy of The Night Circus.  (for an additional entry, comment on my morning post as well). Winner will be announced tomorrow morning.

Life as a book blogger is not always easy.

I have a job that while it is only 25 hours a week, I spend a night or two a week volunteering, I have a mandatory dinner date once a month with a group of girls I used to work with, I have an amazing book club of 14 strong that I meet with every month for in-depth book discussion, writing a book,  I try (TRY) to work out by bike riding rollerblading and classes at the gym, I am in a weekly study group, plan special events, spend the weekend with my hubby or traveling to nearby towns and festivals with friends… oh yeah…. and I read.  😛

Uhhh….. Sheila…. what does that have to do with the Book Blogging Community?

Well actually a lot.  By what I said above I think we can all agree I am a community girl.  I love love love getting in and trying new things, supporting great causes, meeting new people… and yeah – all of that takes time. 

Knowing all of this about me…. the Book Blogging Community is also so important to me.

But ummmm…. why?  You have so much going on?  Why care?  Why do it?

Well that is the beauty of the book blogging community.  Back when I felt like a lone reader (pre-blogging), I had people I could occasionally talk books with, but certainly not on a daily basis.  When I discovered book blogging, and that there are so many others like me…. seriously….. book lover heaven.  There is no other way to describe it. 

Yes – yes the early years were crazy (early years… ha!  Who am I kidding… I am three years in and it is still crazy!  :razz:)  I started out wanting to find book lovers who read what I liked to read, and yeah that worked…

BUT…

I think the real community began when I started reading blogs and bookish topics that were not necessarily my genre, but I liked what they were saying….  and suddenly all sorts of great book blogs entered into my life and I was reading books I would have never thought to read….   and loving them… I had to read every post these bloggers wrote and I loved “comment chatting” it up with them and boy… did my book tastes open up to a whole new world. 

How do I keep up with it?  Well…. I enjoy it so I make time.  I try to comment on at least 10 blogs a day.  That usually comes easy as I my wind down time is usually seeing what others are reading anyway…  I recommend that if you are still trying to find your “community piece” of the blog world make sure you are commenting.  Conversations begin, and by the time I went to BEA in 2010…. the book bloggers I had connected with on-line were already like friends.  Meeting them in person was not awkward at all.  Seems to me that from my experience, book bloggers are pretty real people and I did not meet anyone that seemed different than who they were on their blog and in the blogesphere. 

SO … three years in I can say I have slowed down on the commenting but certainly not because I want too… just lack of time.  I love meeting new book lovers and I really get my fix through the Monday What Are You Reading meme.  Chatting books is a passion of mine and you – all of you who read and comment… you make my day.  SERIOUSLY.  I come home to comments and they make me smile, and occasionally laugh out loud.

You stretch me.  I love it!  My life since June 9, 2009 … when I first discovered book blogging…. has never been the same and I do not regret a minute of it.  I look forward to my time to unwind and catch up on the book world.  Thank you…. thank you…. to me, you are what makes book blogging so pleasurable. 

(*Note comments on this post will be entered into my BBAW drawing for today discussed in my morning post directly below this one.  😀 )

Thank you

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?

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. 

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.

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

Winner will be announced tomorrow morning.

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!!!!