For something different to do on my blog, I thought I’d have a little look around and see what other book bloggers post about in-between book reviews and mix up their content. I found myself on zeezeewithbooks’ blog and more specifically, the “tag week” she took part in.
I found this tag that’s right up my street – the Blogger Stats Book Tag which essentially has you being asked plenty of questions and you’ve got to answer them. I thought this could be fun as it would be a great way for you to all find out a bit more about me (as my “about me” page needs seriously updating). SO here we go!
The tag was apparently created by Stuart at Always Trust in Books.
SPOILERS OR SPOILER-FREE?
Definitely spoiler-free. If I can, I even try to avoid reading the blurbs on books because I like to go in completely blind as to what I’m expecting.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BOOK BLOGGING?
Since May of this year, I believe (2021). SO not long – still a newbie. Especially considering Zee Zee With Books’ answer was 2012! Let’s see if I’m still here in 9 years!
A BOOK YOU READ IN ONE SITTING
I don’t think I’ve ever read a book in one sitting, but there have been audiobooks that I’ve managed to get through in one day. I think I finished 1984 by George Orwell in under 24 hours (great book by the way!)
YOUR FAVORITE GENRE
I tell everybody fantasy and I think I will still continue to tell them this as I love nothing more than nerding out in some unbelievable world. However, I’ve become a huge fan of contemporary/historical fiction, the likes of A Thousand Splendid Sons, Shuggie Bain and the like really captured me! And there are also some absolute classics that I fell in love with such as To Kill A Mockingbird and 1984.
PREFERRED BOOK SIZE (NOVELLA, TOME, ETC.)
I’ll read anything. I guess everyone loves a novella because they’re short and sweet. But when it comes to fantasy, I feel it has to be a tome or something really special to capture the depth needed to envelop you in a completely new world.
AMOUNT OF BOOKS ON YOUR TBR
I mean, over 100. I consider my TBR, the list I keep on my Goodreads and Storygraph which sit at over 200 books currently…
A BOOK YOU DNF’D
Dune was the last book I DNF’ed. It’s a book I’d heard a lot of mixed reactions to and one I wanted to read knowing the film was coming out. However, it just didn’t click with me. Though I’ll definitely pick it up again!
RECENT AWARDS OR MILESTONES
Not a clue! I recently surpassed over 5,500 total views on my blog – so we’ll see if when I come back in 9 years, that’s good or not.
BEST INTERACTION WITH AN AUTHOR YOU ENJOY
I’ve only really ever spoken to a couple of authors. Lisa Jewell is the largest author with who I’ve ever reacted – she responded to one of my tweets thanking me for my review of Then She Was Gone.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF BOOKS YOU READ PER MONTH
4-6 books I reckon – depends on how many 300ish page books I read and whether I try reading a 600+ fantasy epic that month.
TOP 3 PUBLISHERS
In all honesty, I have no idea. I’ll check my bookshelf.
Harper Collins
Orbit
Gollancz
I think this list o reiterates how much of a fantasy nerd I am as both orbit and Gollancz specialise in fantasy novels. Harper Collins seems to cover most of the bigger names – the DIvergent series, The LOTR, the Daughter of Smoke & Bone series and so on.
SOCIAL MEDIA SITES YOUR BLOG USES
Instagram was the first big social media I had for my blog. Bookstagram is a wonderful community with a lot of equally book-nerdy people like myself whom I have conversations with, regularly interact with and have received plenty of support from. You’d be surprised about how much the kindness of strangers can motivate you to keep going!
So Twitter is where I get most of my traffic from (think is due more to its formatting than Instagram). I get a lot of click-throughs from here and have also built up a good following of regular likers, commenters and interactors on there too.
I have a Facebook for the sole purpose that I feel you need one. However, my following on there is very small (currently around 60 Likes) and hasn’t really grown. Facebook pages can’t grow as organically as Tweets due to the fact people don’t share as they do on Twitter.
I do post to Pinterest. When I first started out, I was led to believe that this was the best platform for blogging – I’m sure it still is but there’s certainly an element that you have to repurpose your same blog posts multiple times with a variety of different graphics to see any popularity from it. It’s still a slow burner for me and not really something I put all my effort into.
AVERAGE AMOUNT OF TIME YOU SPEND NETWORKING
A week? A Day? A month? A week? I’d say around two to three hours. BY networking, I put out interactive content on social media, like and comments posts on different platforms and look to create engaging social media content.
MOST COMFORTABLE BLOGGING POSITION
I do most of my blogging while sitting up at my desk in my “man cave”. Though I do a lot whilst laid up in bed after my partner goes to sleep.
MUSIC OR QUIET WHEN WRITING REVIEWS?
So I’d always usually say quiet – I struggle enough as it is with my ADD getting me distracted all the time but adding any sort of noise in as well is a no-no! However, I’ve recently taken to reading whilst my partner watches awful TV programmes and will put on my noise-cancelling headphones and play some very simple, relaxing music in the background which also seems to work.
CAN YOU SUM UP YOUR BLOGGING STYLE IN 5 WORDS?
Brief. Engaging. Irregular. Planned. Teal.
A BLOG YOU LOOKED UP TO STARTING OUT
I’m not sure I really did. I had looked into ways of utilising my love of writing and my love of books in a way that there could potentially be the possibility of earning from in the future and I found blogging – so I thought I’d give it a go.
BEST BOOK YOU’VE REVIEWED SO FAR
The best book I’ve reviewed so far is likely To Kill A Mockingbird. It might just be my favourite current book of all time.
BEST PIECE OF BLOGGING ADVICE
Don’t let it stress you out too much. As long as you keep engaging on your social media platforms, you won’t lose your audience. Also – work as much and as hard as you feel comfortable. If you love blogging as I do, don’t worry about sitting down every other night to write something. However, if it’s something you want to do less regularly and just to get your thoughts down, do that too!
CONSIDER YOURSELF TAGGED…
If you’ve read this and think you’d like to do the same – consider yourself tagged by me! Feel free to tag any of the social media channels above or let me know you’ve posted this tag too!
