Tag: Book Stuff

Whats Your First Book Of 2013 Going To Be?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)47 Comments

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I am probably revealing a level of geek about myself that I shouldn’t… but…

too late. 😀

Every year – long before I was blogging, probably since I was a kid…. I have always made the first book of the year a big deal.  The first book for me had to be one I had been wanting to read for a while, one that I couldn’t wait to dig into, even with blogging – that first book excitement each year has not changed.

It is a book I really want to read – not (necessarily) a review book, a book club book or any other book that is on my TBR shelf.  This one may have been purchased by me for the occasion…

Here is what I have on the possibility list:

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Since meeting James Dashner this past summer and finding him to be smart and funny… I want to read him.  This book has been on my shelf for probably the 3 years it has been out.  Is this the time? 

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Can you believe I havent read The Twelve yet?  Did you know this is the one book I wanted to leave New York with this past June and I did… and I have passed it around my book club but still have not read it myself?  What is wrong with me????

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Or Wild?  Because this book makes me think of hiking and maybe someday I will go hiking for a long long time… maybe… who knows… I should read the book….

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Or…. back to Gillian Flynn?  She rocked my world in Gone Girl.  Is it time to try another one?

 

 

I would love to hear what you are considering for the new year!  What is your first book going to be?

Books To Movies… “Heck Yeah!” or “Hell’s No!”

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)43 Comments

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As readers/book lovers I believe we take the reading experience quite personally.  From the discussions I have had here at Book Journey to the discussions I have participated in or just read all over the web, books can touch our very innermost soul.  They make us laugh, cry, become angry, and take us to places we may never step foot in if not for the book.  The characters become a part of us… we may know them, or wish we could know them.  Some books cause us to wear t-shirts saying ‘Team ______________”, and some make us publicly defend their honor.  Some books stay with us for years afterwards, and just thinking of them brings up fond emotions as we gush to a friend, “It’s one of my all time favorites!”

Now… let’s say (Insert a Favorite book title here) is going to become a movie.  Enter Joe the Director (yeah, for this post we will call him ‘Joe’).  Now Joe has big – BIG ideas of how he is going to turn your beloved book into a movie.  He has a vision and you start to hear and see the hub bub of who might play this character or that one….

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BUT (and it’s a big one, I will not lie) what if this Director, Joe Whats-his-face’s vision does not line up with what you or I had felt was the heart of the book?  What if Joe takes the book an entirely different direction and now what you loved, what you admired, seems to be gone…

Are you in camp:

A.  I hate it when my favorite books become movies – it ruins what I loved about the book.  I do not see movies that were made from books.

B.  I am so excited when a book becomes a movie, I LOVE to see what they will bring out on the screen and how their vision may differ from my own.

C.  I am ok with a book becoming a movie as long as they stick true to the nature of the book – like when ____________________ became a movie.

D.  I have no opinion either way…. I am just reading the post to see what you are up to. 😀

E.  Other

 

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.  Can you choose a camp you fall into?  Can you name a book to movie that was extremely successful in your opinion?  Can you name a book to movie that was an epic fail? 

 

 

As a Book Lover, Are Books On Your Christmas/Wish List?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)26 Comments

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It’s that time of year, even though Minnesota is just starting to get t the snow part which as much as I hate snow, it does make it feel more like the season.  SO looking out the window at the lawn, it makes it a little hard to believe that in about two weeks it will be Christmas.

I think it is always funny when friends/family say “I know you love to read but you have so many books that I would never get you a book.”

What they are missing is I love getting books for any occasion. 

A book from a friend to me means it is something they think I will enjoy.  I love the meaning behind that.  They are sharing an adventure within the pages and if they have already read it and want to share that adventure with me, even better.  How many gifts out there really come in a nice square (EASY to wrap!) package that is not only lovely to hold… but to go inside, and meet …

people!

places!

things!

That is so exciting to me! 

To let me friends and family know the books I hope to experience, I keep an Amazon wish list.  I find it easy to use, quick to add new books to, and it makes an easy way for others to pick out something they know I would love.

My questions to you is that as fellow book lovers (HIGH FIVE!) Are books on your wish list?  Do you receive books from friends and family as gifts?  How do you communicate to them what you would enjoy reading?

The Bremer Library and Literacy Leadership Institute (and me)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

 

Last week I was thrilled to be a part of the initiative for this new program to build the strength and integrity of libraries and literacy programs throughout the state of Minnesota.  6 libraries and 6 Literacy partnership  agencies were chosen to partake in this institute.  3 people were sent from each area, I represented the Brainerd Library along with the Librarian and another Library employee.

The institute was this past Thursday and Friday.  It involves another weekend in November, an assessment in January, and a wrap up in May of 2013.  To be a part of the Institute you have to be available each step of the way. 

 

Our common goal? 

“The foundation funding of $388,540 will support an initiative to strengthen the leadership of rural libraries and literacy organizations in order to enhance the service these organizations provide to their communities. The initiative will offer training sessions to small cohorts of library and literacy leaders on critical aspects of running a rural library or literacy organization, from budgeting and board development to strategic planning and cultural competency.”

as seen on the Otto Bremer Foundation site

Our first day we spent going over our strengths as individuals.  We all had taken the Strength Finders test as past of this group (I reviewed this book a while back and if you have never took the test I highly recommend it – it is enlightening – the code to take the test is sealed in the back on of the book).  They then explained the strengths and how they work together with those in our own groups, as well as with other in the Institute.  I had taken this test over a year ago for work and it was fun to do it again and see how my strengths lined up this second time:

My current top 5 are:

 

Strategic:  (Talent driven, these people are innovative, inventive, original, and resourceful. 

 

Arranger:  (someone who can take the role of team leader or team player as needed, arranging ideas in a creative way people with these strengths tend to come up with more ideas for brainstorming)

 

Maximizer:  (someone who sees something good, and has the skills and ambition to make it even better.  By nature these people enjoy taking full advantage of their talents, enjoy playing games for fun.)

 

Adaptability:  (A free spirit who is seldom thrown off task by unexpected events and comments.  Instead you react to things as they occur.  You are quite comfortable at letting the future unfold at its own pace.  You do better if you are free to respond to demands as they arise.  Understandably you dislike being forced to follow someone else’s plan of action. 

 

Empathy:  (You are aware of the fluctuating moods of individuals.  You can adjust your responses by how the persons mood is set.  You may be known as a giver, not a taker.  You sense when someone could use assistance. 

 

It really is quite fun!

That evening we had a dinner where they sat us together by our top strengths.  I was with a table of Strategic people and we had questions we would answer as table discussion.  It was interesting to get to know the other participants. 

On Friday we switched gears and had discussion on raising money which normally is not something I enjoy but a particular discussion had me taking notes like crazy, talking to people afterwards for more information, lining up a phone meeting and well… I dont want to say too much right now but I hopeful that I am on to something that could be rather exciting and raise funds next year for our Library and Literacy programs locally. 

Maybe.

Hopefully.

😀

As Friday went on we had the lunch speaker, author Kao Kaila Yang who I wrote about on Saturday.  Later in the day we spent time discussing goals with our assigned mentors who will be guiding up through this seven month process. 

I really enjoyed my time working with this institute and learning more about our local Library and how it functions as well as the literacy obstacles we need to overcome as a state (funding cuts in schools, etc…)  It really is an honor to be a part of this and I will keep you informed each step of the way. 

Here is some more information on what we are doing. 

Waiting On John Green (Write John write!!!)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)23 Comments

 

 

It started in late June of this year.  I was just back from BEA (Book Expo of America) for a few weeks and had been staring down that copy of The Fault In Our Stars for far too long.  It was starting to feel like summer and I was in the mood to try this author I had heard so much about.  I opted to go audio with this one as life was already getting active and audio works better for me in the busy summer days. 

I will never forget that I finished listening to The Fault In Our Stars from the back on my husbands motor cycle on the fourth of July…. crying.  Now before you say, “Uh no thanks Sheila, why would I put myself through a painful book about young people dying of cancer!”, let me remind you that you would also probably never wanted to read the Hunger Games, a book about kids killing kids.  BUT – if you read Hunger Games, chances are you loved it (if you haven’t you are missing out – but that is a whole other post for a whole other day… :razz:).  What I am saying is that The Fault In Our Stars is blow you away good and one of the best audio books I have listened to this year and I am certain it would also be one of the best books.

 

And so, it was on the Fourth Of July that I finished The Fault In Our Stars, and began listening to Will Grayson, Will Grayson.  While Will Grayson x 2 took a little longer for me to get the flow of, I was soon loving it as well… listening to it throughout my day and while mowing the lawn.  I now knew that John Green was not a one hit wonder.  He has a knack for creating characters that are smart, and witty, and bookish, and even a bit geeky and all things I LOVE.  And so my book love affair with John Green grew….

 

 

Now on a John Green self-appointed read-a-thon I found my way to Looking For Alaska, and find myself in a college setting of characters alive and “college style daring” – pranks and rule breaking and I am now even more infatuated with these fun and flawed characters that have been brought to life through John Green’s imagination and created through his fingertips as they are written out on paper and tapped out on keyboards. 

 

Then in August I finished up listening to Paper Towns and found that Margo reminded me a bit of Alaska, reckless…. but Margo even more so in a self-centered sort of way that fascinated and annoyed me all at once.  Margo did not make the book for me but the other characters did and that is another brilliant thing about John Green’s characters… there may be a main character, but all of his other characters play big supporting roles and you see that throughout all his books but can really see it and feel it in this one.

 

 

An Abundance Of Katherine’s was an impracticable story (really… only dating girls names Katherine?) BUT – in John Greens way with words… this did not matter.  I loved this one for the sheer joy of listening to the characters come alive, for laughing out loud about crazy scenes (really… a wild boar?) and just because John Green makes me smile.   This is also my second encounter with John Green where he uses two characters who share a name and something about that… seems smart, like why would you do that?  And more importantly… why wouldn’t you do that? 

 

 

And so now here I am…. going Green… but I seem to be out of books.  😯  Yes, I know he has a Christmas read, but I can not read Christmas books when the temps outside remain in the 80’s.  That one will have to wait.  It’s hard to explain all the wonderfulness of John Green’s writing.  He is extremely quote worthy.   You will be reading along this funny YA read and suddenly something written will give you pause.  You find yourself tucking it away in your brain files or writing it down on the scrap peace of mail that is closest to you so you can refer back to it later. 

 

SO John Green, this message is to you.  Are you writing something new?  How long must I wait for this work of awesomeness?  Is there anything I can do to help move this process along?  Bring you coffee?  Mow your lawn?  Walk your dog?  Send you manilla envelopes filled with gum wrappers with potential character names written on them?  Talk to me. 

Sheila

Book Endings We Love and Hate At The Same Time (or we just hate…)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Does anyone remember the movie City Of Angels with Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage?  If you do, then no doubt you remember the incredible story line of a love that is so strong it conquers all obstacles.  In the end, all is looking so wonderful and then…

the unspeakable happens.

Shock.  Despair.

This is a movie I own and love, but can not watch it due to the ending.

While biking today my friend Amy and I were talking about this movie and she said she hated that ending.  Well, so did I, but on the flip of it, it was a powerful way to end the movie. 

This made me think of books.  Are there books out there that we have hated the ending?  And by hate – is that a real “throw the book across the room” hate, or do we secretly love to hate them… they make us mad in an infuriating an awesome way.

While thinking of this today, the book that came to mind for me was Jodi Piccoult’s My Sisters Keeper.  If you have not read this, really you must.  Of all of Jodi’s books I think this one impacted me the most.  SO the basic story line is that this Anna’s older sister Kate is very sick with leukemia.  Anna, is a bone marrow match for Kate and so Anna is constantly in the hospital giving of herself under her parents requests to help Kate.  Anna, who loves her sister very much but is tired of being a pin cushion for her sister and seeks out a lawyer to help her win rights to her own body.  The story is brilliant, and I wont give it away but the very end = explosive.  Maddeningly so. 

Note:  If you have seen the movie and not read the book, it is not the same – the move does not even end the same as the book, and that is another rant for another day… 😛

 

My question before you today is this.  What books have made you mad with how they ended?  Was it a serious I am so mad, or was it a “that made me mad but I love it anyways” read?  I am coming up blank for more books that did that to me but I know they are out there and I hope you can help me get the juices flowing. 

Literary Blog Hop June 23-27

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)151 Comments

Welcome to The Literary Blog Hop hosted by Judith of Leeswammes Blog!  Not really sure what is considered a Literary read, Wikepedia defines it as well written, critically acclaimed and usually serious in nature.  Still not sure?  Goodreads has compiled a list of over 500 titles of literary fiction.

My giveaway will be for a literary book of your choice of $20 or less from either Amazon or the Book Depository.  To enter I have one question you need to answer.  I would like to know what is the best book you have read (or listened to if it was on audio) so far in 2012.

I will draw a winner the morning of the 28th and announce it here.

For the list of the other participants to hop your way too – click here

How To Build A Better Blog

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)69 Comments

I just celebrated my third year of book blogging.  Who knew that in June of 2009 when I put together a few random thoughts on books that three years later I would still be doing this… and loving it. 

Throughout the years I have made many blogging blunders… shoot, I still do.  I do for the most part really like what I am doing now and how I am doing it.  I thought, if I may, I would share with you some of the trials and errors I have learned from through the years for anyone who would like to know how I pulled together Book Journey.  Take from this what you can, leave what you don’t want or need.

Please note – above all else, I am no expert.  I am sharing my thoughts on how I built up my own blog and that may not be the way you would do it, want to do it, or even agree that I know what I am talking about. 😛  I am sure in some cases, this has been said before, in other ways, on other blogs.  What I am talking about here may not even apply to the way you host your blog, and I respect that.  I encourage you to add your own thoughts on this topic in the comments, things that you can add that I did not, and yes, even things you may now agree with.

1.  The Blog Name

For those of you who have followed me since the early years you may remember this blog was originally called One Persons Journey Through A World Of Books.  Mmmmm hmmmm… say that baby three times fast.  😛  It remained that from June 2009 – April 2010.  It wasn’t until I was considering making business cards for my first book expo that I really took into consideration what a mouthful that was.  My blog address already was bookjourney, my twitter name was bookjourney, it seamed logical to trim up that title, and after a little chat survey on Twitter, found that it was not only acceptable, many agreed with me. 

The point?  Long blog names are hard to remember,  a mouthful, and if you are planning to partake in bookish events where you are meeting authors, publishers, etc…its a lot easier to have a shorter blog name. 

2.  Side Bar Loving!

My original blog had two sidebars… if I could put it in the sidebar, I did.  Meme’s, pictures of authors I had chatted with, links and pictures to challenges I was participating in, links to other bloggers, contests, pictures, An about me that ran down the right side a good 10-12 inches…..

You can see that some of that remains to this day.  I do think sidebars can serve a wonderful purpose.  Have a post that drove lots of traffic to the blog that you hate to see get buried?  This is a great place to link it.  Blogs you frequent, I actually like this on blogs as if I enjoy reading someones blog and they link blogs they enjoy on their sidebar, I know chances are I will enjoy those blogs too.  However – you will also notice I now have one sidebar instead of two and I love it.  Why?  Many reasons…. it is a cleaner looking blog for one, I think my blog today looks more professional than my blog of past years.  For another reason, it makes the main space, your posting space – BIGGER.  I like that to, after all, that is what draws in your readers, not what you have on your side bars.. but what YOU are writing about.  The post should be what captures the eye. 

Oh and one more thing on sidebars, try to keep them current.  This is one I still have to watch… take down links to old contests and to blogs that are no longer active. 

3.  I wrote this incredible post… and no one is reading it…

Ugh.  I remember those early days.  I felt (IMO) that I had written something very read worthy.  I wanted people to read it and comment.  I didn’t know how to make that happen so here is what I did…. we have to remember as much as we want people to comment on our posts, other bloggers want that too.  We all write and want to talk books, I have not ever heard a blogger say… “I really don’t want people to comment”.  I will tell you right now… I do.  I want to know if you loved the same book I did or hated it, I want to chat with you about like reading tastes, or books that are suggested to me.  I smile when I open my email and see I have comments to read on my posts.  I do!

So – here (now that I get back on subject) is how I grew readers.  I commented.  A LOT.  I would go and read blogs and comment on what they were talking about.  I would click on the blogs on their sidebar that they read and comment there as well (See?  That does work on sidebars, I still do that occasionally!)  I would set a goal of trying to comment on twenty blogs a day – don’t be scared, I find I do not have time to do that consistently anymore…LOL.  My point is, that many of those whose blogs I commented on would come and visit me as well.  It’s true… I grew a readership, by being a good commenter.  My hope was if they would visit me, they would read something they enjoyed enough to want to come back again….

and that what I just said is important, and leads me to my next point.  😀

4.  What ever do I post about…

Ok…. its go time.  You are working on your readership, but when they arrive, you want to have something good front and center for them to ponder.  It’s like… you are inviting company over.  Most of us do a few things to our home before we do that.  I, for instance, usually do a few extras before I invite people over to my home.  I might dust the furniture.  I for sure straighten up my piles of books and notes that are usually all over the place.  I most likely will put out some refreshments.  I want my guests to feel at home.  Welcome. 

Now think of that in blog terms.  Before I would go out commenting and seeking readership, I made sure that whatever was the current post on my blog was one I wanted people to read and partake in discussing.  I would have up a discussion post I was particularly proud of, or a review that I felt was timely and could create a buzz.  I wanted people who came, perhaps for the first time to my blog, to make a note to come again.  It’s not an exact science, but that is how I did it.

5.  To meme or not to meme… that really is a good question. 

Meme’s.  Some people love them.  Others do not.  Are they a great way to drive traffic?  You bet.  Are they all you should blog about?  Absolutely not. 

Meme’s serve a great purpose and can be a lot of fun.  I host the Monday, What Are You Reading? meme and love the people I have met through it who, as I had hoped, many have become regular readers.  That meme has brought many people to Book Journey through the years and for that I am grateful.  In fact in the early months I participated in many memes, which is fine – I would just encourage you to make sure you are not more memes that content.

What do I mean?  If you are only doing memes or the majority meme’s, what draws in readers beyond the meme?  As I mentioned above, memes are wonderful for bringing in new readers, and yes, some of those readers will only connect to you through that meme… but some, SOME will like your blog and want to come back to see what else you offer.  My suggestion is a sprinkle of meme’s is a wonderful additive to your blog, but also be sure to have posts on what your blog is about …. is it book reviews?  Then have book reviews, is it cooking?  Then be posting those great recipes!

I like to mix meme’s with posts I am writing anyway.  Alyce from At Home With Books hosts Saturday Snapshot which is posting pictures you have taken, and I tie that in with my Morning Meandering post which was going up anyway.  On Fridays, Jen at Devourer of Books hosts Sound Bytes where you can link your audio reviews.  I listen to so much audio I usually have an audio post going up anyway, and linking to her meme only helps drive more traffic to my review.  Candice at Beth Fish Reads hosts Weekend Cooking which is a great way to link up and reviews on cook books, or books that have inspired you to try to make something.  Again, for me this is not an additional post, but a post of a review and food that was going to go up anyway. 

6.  Pages.  A blogger’s best friend

Remember above I talked about cleaning up those sidebars?  A lot of that sidebar stuff is good stuff.. things you do want to keep to the forefront without it looking sloppy.  I mentioned I used to have a picture of each author I had interviewed on my sidebar.  I still want my readers to have easy access to those posts, so I created a page for them.  You will see under my header a bar that has titles like Home, About Me…. this is where I neatly can store information my readers may want access to.  Want to know more about me?  Click About me.  Curious about my review policy (and seriously, if you do not have one… get one!  Truly a lifesaver!), you can find my review policy easy enough.  And those Author interviews?  There they all are under author chats.  I also have a page to keep track of my challenges in a neat space that does not add clutter to the blog. 

I work with wordpress and do not know a lot about blogger but I believe Blogger must have pages that work similar to wordpress.  Pages are wonderful for storing information you don’t necessarily need right on the post space unless someone clicks to get to it.  I use pages for spoilers too.

7.  I want to start my own read a longs, memes, weekly discussions….

Here is where I discuss my biggest epic fail when I was a new blogger.  I loved that people were doing on their blogs… I loved the memes the regular scheduled discussions and I wanted to be a part of that.  I wanted to be original yet find ways to draw interest to the blog.  (Seriously as you are reading this you are probably thinking, “dang Sheila, take a chill pill… RELAX!”)  As in many of the projects I undertake, I wanted to really make my blog stand out…. and the things that came out of all that were things such as:  I featured a book club of the week which involved people in books clubs getting a hold of me and answering a series of questions I would send them.  Actually as I write this, I really loved that idea and still do, but what happened was I ran out of interested book clubs within about 5 weeks and so that died away.  I created Wordshakers On-line book club which I also loved the idea of, but with my work life, active life, my own book club as well… I struggled to keep up with it and eventually it too fell to the way side and now I just try to do bi-monthly read a longs.  Another, and a few of you will remember this one (Ryan, Laurel, Hannah, Alison…) I had a weekly meme called Word Balderdash where we would take the word verification from our comments and make up new meanings for them (ok that one was fun, it just never caught on…)

For giggles… here are a few of those from when this was active in 2009:

Revent: When one becomes so upset about something they have to just get it out so they vent about it.  Then…. hours later, something triggers  this anger  again and causes one to revent.

Gaspr: Casper the Ghost’s annoying cousin.  Due to Gaspr’s asma…. he is always trying to get in more air and creating breathy noises that really can ruin a good night of haunting.  Since Casper is the friendly ghost, he often is the one chosen to hang out with Gaspr.

Cercula:  Dracula’s half brother who has an inner ear infection which causes him to run in circles…. thus taking the fear factor away from potential victims as they can just…. well…… walk away.

AND my point is in talking about all of this is when you choose to start a meme or weekly discussion topic, whatever, try to be sure you are in it for the long haul. I don’t think it is bad to try new things and then they fall away, I just think I did it A LOT.

On a better note, there is one I tried that sticks to this day and that is the Morning Meanderings.  In the early days, I only talked about books and never strayed from that topic.  Then one day, I wanted to talk about crazy life happenings and I wrote a post called Morning Meanderings.  I know I told people that this was me “unplugged”.  I received email about that post from readers saying how much they liked reading about my life happenings.  When I talked about my fitness triumphs and fails in the Meanderings, they liked that too, some saying I inspired them to get out and walk in the mornings.  Mainly the meanderings were me picking on me… but readers like it.  Many tell me they love to open up their email in the morning and see what I have going on next.  The Morning Meanderings, stick to this day.

8.  Social Media – yes?  no?  Maybe?

*sigh*  I have a love hate relationship with social media.  Mainly because to me, it is ONE MORE THING.  And honestly, you don’ have to use social media, although I have to say I know it adds to my blogging relationships with other readers, and it adds to my blog.  SO that said, here is what I use that works the best for me and my limited time.  Twitter (can I get a “YEAH!”) While Twitter does take effort on my part, I can not deny that it it does build on my blogging experience.  I use Twitter to link my posts… the good ones I will tweet about several times throughout the day to capture people on-line at different times.  I only use Twitter for bookish friends… I have no other twitter account nor do I need one.  Many people have a Facebook page that connects to their blog.  I do not.  There may be value to that, I just do not see it.  One thing I can say I learned is that Pinterest is a great blog asset and thank you to Joy from Joy’s book blog sharing that information during the last Bloggiesta.  By linking your reviews on Pinterest back to your blog, Joy shared that she has seen significant traffic coming from that direction.  I actually created a Pinterest account off of that advice.

Bottom line for me on social media- if traffic driving, blog relationship building is important to you, Twitter and Pinterest are the two I suggest. 

9.  It’s Me!  Sheila!  Remember????

Blog identity.  In 2009 Natasha from Maw Books drew my attention to this.  Your blog should be identifiable to your readers.  Its funny how that works.  For me, I will be clicking over to read someones review and know where I am as I read the post due to the layout, the look, the feel of the blog.  It is funny how that throws me off when someone changes up their blog look.  I will know who’s blog I am going to and I will be reading a post when suddenly… I don’t know where I am.  Seriously.  I will quickly scroll to the top and identify the blog by the name, but the new layout will throw me off.

Now I like to change up the blog and have a history of doing this once a year, usually around Bloggiesta time when I am doing blog housekeeping and suddenly feel the need for change.  Knowing how I feel when other bloggers do that (LOST!) this time I made my header identifiable to me.  Yup… my pic is on it.  That was more strategic than anything, I don’t mean strategic like sneaky…. but I mean so when someone came to Book Journey and went “WHOA!!!  Where did I go?” When they looked at my header, they would know it was me.  I am a reviewer who posts my picture frequently due to events I am in, group pics with friends etc, that makes me identifiable (that works for me – I know that is not something everyone wants to do)…   Another cool side effect to that is, when I do things like go to BEA, people know me from my blog because they have seen what I look like.  I like striking up conversations with readers so that is a plus for me.  😀

Another thing on that blog identity… when I made my new business cards for BEA this year, I used my header on them.  My thought behind this is you can pick up a lot of business cards at BEA and other bookish events… I wanted people to be able to identify the card to the blog instantly by them all matching. 

 

 

 

 

10.  It looks like people are visiting my blog by the hits, but I am not getting a lot of comments!  (*this point was added on 6/18/12)

People are visiting.. your stats show that… but where are the comments?  This can be frustrating.  Here area few things I can think of that may help with that…

1.  Does the way you write your posts encourage comments/discussion?  On many of my posts, especially my non review ones, I ask a question at the end.  It could be if people have had a similar experience and I encourage them to share.  Try to think of ways to write your posts that encourage discussion. 

2.  Comment on the comments.  When I first started blogging an incredible blogger called J Kaye was the first blogger I seen do this.  She encouraged conversation, and when I would comment on her blog, she would respond.  This honestly, would keep me coming back to see what she had to say.  I always get excited now when I see other blogs doing that.  It created conversation.  It build up readers.  I know this isn’t for everyone, this is just something I do and enjoy doing it.  😀

3.  Take a good look at how comments work on your blog.  Is the comment area easy to see and use?  I have been on blogs where I want to comment and actually can not figure out how!  Depending on how much time I have, I will try to find the comment area, but sometimes I admit I have just given up in frustration and went away.   Bottom line:  you want to make sure commenting is easy to do if comments are something you value in your blog experience.  😀


That’s all I have.  This post was one I have wanted to write for a while, then thought nah… and then today when I thought I was sitting down to add links to posts I have put up the past few weeks, instead I started writing this.  So – use any of it if you can… this may not work for everyone, but if there is any take away from this that you can use, then I am happy to have done that much 😀 

Please feel free to add things in the comments that I did not, ask any questions, or even add a different opinion to something I did write here.  😀

When You Don’t Love That Book That EVERYONE Seems To Love

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)75 Comments

Recently I feel as though I have hit a couple “must read” books that I just didn’t feel the love.  I t starts out the same, I heard about the book through lets say:

  • Book friends

  • magazine

  • Book sites like shelf awareness

  • Book Blogs

The book sounds… well, AMAZING.  The reviews are AWESOME.  I read the synopsis and I can’t wait to get my hands on it!  I then:

  • Purchase it from a book store

  • download it on to my NOOK

  • pick it up in audio from audible.com

  • cross my fingers and rub my lucky rabbits foot and hope I am offered it for review

And then I dive in… reading it or listening to it on audio….

and occasionally it happens….

it sucks. 😯

Ok, ok, maybe sucks is a strong word, but it doesn’t fit for you.  It’s unclear, the characters are not developed well, you are lost within the story line with the first 30 minutes, it’s too long, it’s too short, the language makes you cringe, the crudeness makes you wonder why everyone raved about this book, in the end story lines are left wide open, there is no closure, there is too much closure, it quite possibly is… dull.  (and by saying this I do not mean all of the above, I mean a book may be disliked for any one of these reasons… or well, yeah, all of them.  😀

You get my point. 

And then, for those of us who review… you review.

I have noticed one of two things happening on these reviews.  1.  You write your honest and truthful review.  You are fair, you keep it light, you don’t use words like “it made me want to vomit” or “I could have thrown this book across the room, picked it up and thrown it again, preferably into a burning fire pit”, no instead at the end you may add warnings or be aware of: and you quietly and accurately list things to watch out for in the book if said book has things to watch out for (ie. language, crudeness, graphic). 

and 2.  You let it all hang out in the review.  You put your emotion into it, you DO mention if it made you want to vomit or if you wanted it to burn in a fire pit.  If you screamed or yelled or cried or groaned out loud… you say it. 

Honestly, I tend to lean more towards #2 in my reviews.  I like to know how a book affects people, even if it is negatively… I like a little spunk in my reviews….  😛

So here are my questions:

When you do read these awesome books that turn out to be not so awesome, how do you review them?  Are you more of a #1 style reviewer, or a #2?  When reading a review (book bloggers and non book bloggers) which style of review do you prefer?

Do You Judge A Book By It’s Author?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

Come on… admit it…

nobody is watching….

nobody knows you are reading this post right now…

admit it…

you’ve done it…

shoot, I HAVE DONE IT.

and more than once.

You read a book, it s not a fit for you for whatever reason.  There is a good chance that unless that author has some sort of reputation that makes you want to try again, you are most likely probably out for future books by this author.

And maybe that is the right thing to do.

Maybe.

There are always exceptions to every rule and I want to bring out some examples today of yup, I was wrong, books that I feel are our of an authors norm, and for me personally, a better author for it. 

*Note:  The authors I am about to mention are well established authors who know what they are judged for in their writing, I am not dissing them, or anyone who enjoys reading them.  Instead, what I am trying to do here is point out that if you have a pre notion of what an authors writing is like, these are examples of where it is different and mainly to prove my point here – that we shouldn’t give up on an author after one book.  😛

Nora is known for being an author of many many books.  She has been putting them out since 1981 and that is impressive.  When I think of Nora Roberts I think trilogies… I think the first book will introduce three men or three women…, one of these men or women will take the protagonist role for that book and somewhere early on a love interest will be introduced and by the end of the book – yay!  They are together.  The second book will take one of the two characters that were introduced in the first book and wallah, now they are the protagonist and the same thing will happen, and then again in the third book.  It is a tried and true formula.  It has worked time and again for Nora Roberts.

Now it is true that not all her books are trilogies, she does write some stand alone reads as well, many times with the same outline as I dictated above, but no, honestly I don’t think all. 

For me personally, I have never been a fan of the romance read.  The handsome men or the beautiful women all finding ways to each other does not a page turner make for me.  And that’s just me….

however, here is where Nora Roberts scored big with me.

Now I know you are looking at these three books and  thinking “Sheila, are you off your rocker?  It’s a trilogy!  There are three!”  And if you have read these then you also know… there is a little romance in them and then you may want to say, “Sheila, I know these books!  They are about three women!  They meet three guys throughout the three books…. this is the Roberts formula tried and true!  How are they any different?”

And for you I say, these are different… because the women….

are witches. 

It’s true, the story line in my opinion is superior and the strong independent modern-day women with powers is well… they are three of my favorite all time books. 

And as long as we are discussing Roberts, she does it again here:

Mmmm hmmm, yeah yeah yeah… another trilogy – yes three strong women again but again… with powers!  I don’t know why that gets me… but it does and I love that! 

Ok one more example:  Stephen King.  What comes to mind?  Sure, Christine, a possessed car.  Carrie, yes a possessed girl.  Thinner, creepy thin guy… yup.  It, ugh, probably the creepiest as I really don’t like dolls and It is a clown or to me… a big doll.  Pet cemetary, yes, people and pets back from the dead… gross, but keep going!  Cujo, spooky book and movie, and CRAZY scary dog.  Misery, yes crazed book fan, oh wait… I like that – no no I am kidding of course, she is nutso!  Anyhoo, you got this… Stephen King writes deep creeptastic stories.

And then… he writes this:

So what is this?  This is historical fiction, it is a little time travel…. it is a great “what if” story that simply blew me away when I listened to it a few months back.  This is not your typical Stephen King, in my opinion, it is some of his best work.  There is no more creep factor in this one beyond a bit of intense moments, and average mystery type happenings.    If you have not gone here…. do so.  Soon, if not now.  😀

Now it can happen in reverse too… I read Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard forever ago.  Laughed out loud silly and funny.  Every Linda Howard I have tried since… flat line.  Cant get into them. 

Now I turn this over to you.  I would love to hear your examples of the books that seem out of an authors normal writing genre or pattern that made you look twice at an author you perhaps would not have .  Please share your experiences below.