Category: Book Blogger Hop Page 5 of 6

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Julie @ Stepping Stone Book Reviews:

Are you able to choose your favorite books?

Um, er…yeah.

Sure.

Maybe?

I need some parameters, or we’re going to be here for a while. Quite a while.

How many can I pick? My desert island, all-time, top-five? Favorite Books in _____ Genre? Favorite Books from a certain year/decade/century? Favorite books by an Author?

And even then…an hour or so after I gave you my list, I’d have to revisit it.

And then a month later, and….you know what?

No. No, I am not able to choose my favorite books. I even tried to come up with a partial list, 2-3 books, with a few alternatives and I just quickly realized that I was going to spend more than an hour on the joke. A not-very-good joke.

Rats.

What about you?

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Do you ever get burnt out from reading?

Theoretically, yes. It’s been years since it happened, though–I honestly can’t tell you how many. At least 5, maybe 10. This blog has kept me from it, I think, I just don’t have the opportunity for it.

At the same time, for 40 years now, reading has been my escape, a haven from whatever is going on in my life. Even when life is good, I need a way to disengage from it all and recharge. My need for that seems to be increasing, too. I’m not sure if that’s a commentary on my life/mental state or the world around me (a quick glance at headlines suggests the latter is likely). So getting burned out is difficult–how do you need a break from your break? (ask anybody at the end of a long vacation, and they probably have some ideas)

Now. I do get burnt out with individual books–or reading for the purposes of blogging (i.e., for tours or because I’ve accepted a book from a publicist/author). If I do too many “obligation” reads in a row–no matter the quality (but a string of “how do I say something nice about this?” books makes it harder)–it starts to take a toll on my attitude. This is the major contributing factor for my cutting back the last couple of years. Even with these reads, however, within a couple of minutes of starting a reading session, the psychological effects kick in, and I get over it. It’s really the effort to get started where I notice the burnout/”blah”-ness/Carter-esque “malaise.”

Usually that burnout lasts no longer than a book or two (if I scheduled smartly, I don’t read two of those in a row).

What about you?

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Heather @ MM Romance Reviewed:

Do you have a threshold on books where you will offer the author feedback but won’t review?

No. It seems arrogant* to hit up an author with “you need to hear what I have to say about your book” and then list issues/problems/complaints. I write for other readers. Period. If an author reads what I have to say, especially the negative/less positive, that’s on them. I love to hear when an author reads my stuff–it’s even better when they appreciate what I had to say. But an author has editors/publishers/beta readers, etc. to give them feedback. That’s not my role.

* I’m sure some people can do this without coming across as a jerk–more power to you if you can, I’d also love to see how you do it. It’s just not in my wheelhouse.

What about you?

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Have you ever attended a book signing? If so, who was the author?

Not as many as I’d like to–my corner of the world doesn’t really attract many authors I’m into, alas. But there’ve been a few:
Lance Olsen, who was then Idaho Writer in Residence, at Borders bookstore. This would’ve been somewhere around 1996, I think.
Cherie Priest was at Rediscovered Books in November 2011 for a reading/signing.
John Scalzi did a reading/signing here in ’15
A couple of weeks later, Shane Kuhn, did, too.
I’ve been to a couple of signings/book releases/etc. for Devri Walls books.
Craig Johnson was really entertaining when he did a reading/signing in 2018.

All in all, these are great ways to hear writers reading their work, hear their stories, and get your book squiggled in. Also, they are fantastic opportunities for me to fail at basic human interaction, you know, just in case I forget that I can’t handle that.

What about you?

This prompt was submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews:

What is the average number of books you read per month?

You’d think I’d know that, wouldn’t you? I had to do a tiny bit of research for this. I could’ve gone back about a decade in coming up with this number, but that felt like overkill. I figured a look at the last three years would fit my current habits best (and was easiest to get the data from, which helped). But just the raw number looked boring, so why not make* a chart?

* Have my spreadsheet make a chart, after it did the math for me.

What about you?

This prompt was submitted by Penelope @ The Reading Devil:

Do you have any bookish posters or artwork on your walls?

Yes, some. I should really have taken photographs here, but it’d be better to go look at the art at the links instead–I know what my photographs look like 🙂

On my walls are:
a pair of Dresden Files prints by Mike Kuloda
a print from Bearded by Jeremy Billups
a print by Gene Mollica of Atticus, the Iron Druid (signed by Kevin Hearne)
I also have a nifty print from No Country for Old Gnomes> signed by Delilah S Dawson, Kevin Hearne, and the artist (but I can’t read their name)
a print by Chris McGrath of The Brightest Fell (October Daye) cover art
and a mash-up of things like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, To Kill a Mockingbird, Ready Player One that my daughter painted for me a few years ago.

I’d get more, but I’m about at the point where I have to decide between space for bookcases and space for art. So something’s gotta give. (although I saw three prints while getting links for the artists I almost bought today, so…)

What about you?

This prompt was submitted by Elizabeteh @ Silver’s Reviews:

How many books have you read this year?

Well, as of last night, I’ve read and/or listened to…

290

books in 2021 but I’ve got another 15 days, so I’ll probably work in a few more.

What about you?

Book Blogger Hop

This prompt was submitted by Julie @ JadeSky:

If you were in a book, would you rather be the main character or in the background?

When I saw this question, a line from The West Wing* jumped to mind, President Bartlet asks Josh:

You know what the difference is between you and me? I want to be the guy; you want to be the guy the guy counts on.

That’s me. Put me as the loyal sidekick, the comic relief guy, the one the protagonist comes to for answers, resources, venting, whatever. Keep me out of the limelight, let me get stuff done.

* from “Guns Not Butter” from Season 4, Episode 12

What about you?

This prompt was submitted by Julie @ JadeSky:

Why did you start a book blog?

Well, one day I was taking a tour of a lab and was bitten by a radioactive pilcrow…

No? Not buying that?

Okay, there was a period, slightly over a decade ago, when I was just reading too quickly, without any reflection, or really thinking about it. I was practically binging non-stop. I’d end up checking out the same book from the library multiple times and wouldn’t understand why it felt so familiar (that’s when I started keeping a log). I didn’t like that. Authors deserved a reader who would take a beat and think about the book, who’d really appreciate their work. Also, what was the point of reading like I was just going through them like Pringles? What was the benefit to me (other than keeping me occupied)?

So I plunged into Goodreads, resolving to post something about every book I read, as a way to force myself to ruminate at least a little on what I was consuming. I wanted to soak it all in. But I largely didn’t have any Friends or Followers there and wasn’t good about finding people to interact with, so it was easy to take breaks from it and fall into old habits.

I’d been blogging for over a decade in a few places—some related to theology and whatnot, and I had a personal blog about everything—I thought about putting my Goodreads reviews there, but no one seemed to read/care about any blog post I had about books. So why go to the trouble?

But I’d heard about book bloggers. It’s important for me to say this—I had never read a book blog at this point. But I liked the idea. If I’m just one voice in thousands on Goodreads, who notices if I don’t say anything. But if I’m the voice on a blog (even if only 3 people see it), it’ll be noticed that I stop.

I played around with a few templates, copied over a handful of my most recent Goodreads posts, and dug in. After posting pretty regularly for a month or so, I started to tell people that I’d done it. But not many—I think I was up and running for about three months before I showed my wife! I just wanted to make sure I could do it regularly.

8 1/2 years and 3,500+ posts later, here we are.

Book Blogger Hop

 

This prompt was submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews:

Do you use Goodreads as the main website to keep track of what you have read? If not, please share what you use?

A main website? Sure, it’s the first website I used for tracking–and has stayed as my primary since then. I also use LibraryThing and StoryGraph, but I haven’t invested the time to really get into those. I should probably put a little more effort into them. Maybe if I got a follower or two there…

But my actual primary tracking is a Google Docs spreadsheet (because I’m too cheap to pay for Excel, and I like being able to access it anywhere, so I don’t use LibreOffice’s version). I used to use one of my own devising, but for the last two years, I’ve used the Ultimate Book Blogger / Reader Spreadsheet Template from Reader Voracious, which is much nicer than anything I’ve cooked up (and I don’t even use all the features).

What about you?