15 Days Book Blogging Challenge: Who Are Your Blogging Mentors

If you've been following my blog for the past two weeks, you know by now that I'm participating in the 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My introductory post for the challenge is here, and I've been having fun writing up these posts, though I've decided to write them all up ahead of time to post each day. Quite the departure from normal for me. I'm generally more of a "write and post right away" type blogger.

I've made it to the end of this series of posts, as amazing as that sounds. The final topic of the challenge is "Who are your blogging mentors?"

I've found this one to be quite challenging to answer to be honest, but after thinking about it for several days (the advantage of prewriting this series), I've come up with a couple of answers.

The first was J. Kaye of J. Kaye's Book Blog, which has unfortunately changed owners and names at least once. Her blog was a good model for the type of thing I was hoping to build mine into, iirc being something of a hub.

The second is the group of people at Royal Reviews, which is another wonderfully vibrant blog.

15 Days Book Blogging Challenge - Tell Us Your Deal Breakers

If you've been following my blog for the past two weeks, you know by now that I'm participating in the 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My introductory post for the challenge is here, and I've been having fun writing up these posts, though I've decided to write them all up ahead of time to post each day. Quite the departure from normal for me. I'm generally more of a "write and post right away" type blogger.

Anyway, today's topic is "Tell us your deal breakers?".

I'm only really aware of a couple of deal-breakers that I have. There may be others though that I don't even realize.

The two I know of for sure are tense and person.

Tense especially is the big one. I don't like present tense in a novel. "He says" instead of "He said", for example and the way one of my otherwise favorite writers has used it is like fingernails on a blackboard. This writer has used present tense for some points of view in some of his books and past tense for others, and it's the main reason I've gone away from two of his series.

The tense changes are something I really have to push past in reading those books and I just can't put them out of my head while reading.

The second one, person isn't as big of a deal-breaker in some cases. I just don't really like first person, and yet there are some books that use the "I" perspective where it really works and I do like the books. The biggest example that comes to mind in this case is Jack Whyte in the Dream of Eagles cycle. It's in that "I" perspective, but there's a framing set of scenes that set it up as a later written account by the main character, and it works.

Other books I've put down within a few pages because I can't get past the perspective. There have been a few books, and I'm not naming names here, where I actually get frustrated with myself, thinking "I should like this book because of...." but I just can't get past either the tense or the perspective.

15 Days Book Blogging Challenge - Describe One Underappreciated Book Everyone Should Read

If you've been following my blog for the past few days, you know by now that I'm participating in the 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My introductory post for the challenge is here, and I've been having fun writing up these posts, though I've decided to write them all up ahead of time to post each day. Quite the departure from normal for me. I'm generally more of a "write and post right away" type blogger.

Here we are at post 13 of the 15 days posts. I think it's one of the most difficult to write too: "Describe One Underappreciated Book Everyone Should Read". How can I say what everyone should read? I like fantasy and science fiction. You might hate those two genres. How can I know, and therefore how can I recommend that perfect book unseen? Besides, what do you consider to be underappreciated?

Anyway, after some thought, I'm dipping into my archives for a favorite. One I'd lost for a while, and even forgot both the title and the author, but never the storyline. Thanks to LibraryThing as I told in this post, I was able to rediscover the book and buy it again to re-read. That original review is here.

The book is:

The Tattooed Map
Barbara Hodgson
Raincoast Books
Copyright Date: 1995
1895714915

The cover blurb is as follows:

Somewhere in Northern Africa, a woman traveler awakens with a mysterious mark on her hand, a mark that soon grows into a tattoo. So begins the enigma of The Tattooed Map, in which intrepid traveler Lydia journeys with her friend and former lover, Christopher, in search of antiques and adventure.

Lydia records her daily experiences in a journal, keeping track of hotel addresses and conversations, and pasting such flotsam and jetsam as maps, photographs, and drawings into her diary. She records her shock and dismay as the marks on her hand reveal themselves to be a detailed map of an unknown territory.

Later a cryptic Moroccan man explains the map's connection to a spiritual and physical journey she must make. Whey Lydia disappears unexpectedly, Chris takes up her diary to record his search for her - and for a way to unravel the riddle of the Tattooed Map.

In her rich and captivating first novel, author Barbara Hodgson guides us through the exotic world of Morocco, with its maze-like streets, musty shops, and unexpected secrets. Mysterious, enveloping, and thoroughly evocative, The Tattooed Map will make you want to embark upon a journey - if only you could be sure of your return.

You know what? After re-reading my review and writing this post up, I want to re-read The Tattooed Map again. Now where is it...

15 Days Book Blogger Challenge - How Do You Avoid Blogging Fatigue?

If you've been following my blog for the past few days, you know by now that I'm participating in the 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My introductory post for the challenge is here, and I've been having fun writing up these posts, though I've decided to write them all up ahead of time to post each day. Quite the departure from normal for me. I'm generally more of a "write and post right away" type blogger.

Anyway, today's topic is "How do you avoid blogging fatigue?". I'm sure that everyone has their own technique, and I'm planning to look at others' for inspiration as at times, maintaining All Booked Up has become a bit of a struggle.

There's two methods I find myself using, and one big inspiration.

The first method, and one I actually need to break away from, as I think it does more harm than good is to take a break from the blog, which can lead to months with four or fewer posts - or even a few month span of time where I'm ignoring the blog. I actually don't like this method at all, even though when I come back to the blog, I'm usually quite inspired to post things.

The second method is the better one (at least in my mind. People who are only interested in book reviews may disagree). I post about whatever's got my attention at this time. Thus the recent string of posts on my crochet projects, my new sewing machine etc. Heck, if it's really bad and you know it's going to be some time before you've got the oomph to write a review, post a photo or something. (I really need to listen to my own advice here, I think). Memes like the Saturday Snapshots one are great for this.

The big inspiration that keeps me going a lot of the time is traffic stats. I love seeing those go up when I post - at least most of the time. There are posts where it feels like I'm shouting into an empty room, and that does get discouraging. Especially inspiring are the rare comments, or when someone makes an (even more rare) purchase from one of my links.

15 Days Book Blogging Challenge - Five of My Best Posts

If you've been following my blog for the past few days, you know by now that I'm participating in the 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My introductory post for the challenge is here, and I've been having fun writing up these posts, though I've decided to write them all up ahead of time to post each day. Quite the departure from normal for me. I'm generally more of a "write and post right away" type blogger.

How do you objectively chose five posts to spotlight? The five that are the tops in your stats? Your favorite books? Randomly? Today's post has been giving me a lot of trouble. I just don't know how to pick my best posts. I'm going to give it a try though by going with a mix of the above methods.

1. The Adept by Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris. January 16, 2012. I call it historical fantasy, Katherine Kurtz has used the term "crypto-history" on her website IIRC. Either way, this is the first book in one of my favorite series.
2. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. January 27, 2009. A book I've been re-reading regularly for more than a decade now. Some call it a teen novel, some say it's regular fantasy. I just call it a very good read.
3. Worlds of Medieval Europe by Clifford R. Backman. April 22, 2009. As I noted in my review, this was one of those rare textbooks that left me snickering as I reviewed for the final exam. It's also one that's still in my collection today.
4. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. April 21, 2011. For a short book, this is one incredibly vivid and well written story. One of my favorites too. Also, this is a book that more than a dozen people recommended to me.
5. The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. June 24, 2009. One of those "all ages" books that's good for early teens on up. Again, the first book in the series, and one I quite enjoyed reading. I do have to point out that this is going to be a fairly quick read, as are the sequels.

15 Days Book Blogging Challenge - How Do You Choose What Book To Read Next?

If you've been following my blog for the past few days, you know by now that I'm participating in the 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My introductory post for the challenge is here, and I've been having fun writing up these posts, though I've decided to write them all up ahead of time to post each day. Quite the departure from normal for me. I'm generally more of a "write and post right away" type blogger.

Anyway, today's topic is one of my favorites, but one that is actually more challenging to answer than you might think: "How Do You Choose What Book To Read Next?".

A lot of factors go into the choice for me, but I'd say about half of them are almost subconscious, and the decision is often made well before I've finished reading the current book.

1. Is there a sequel to the current book? If so, I'm quite likely to be reading that one next. The variants to this are: "Is there another book set in the same world?" or "Are there earlier books in the series?". One of these variants is in play right now. When I was reading Bastion, the latest book by Mercedes Lackey, I found myself lost at some of the references to events from the previous books in the series, so I've started a re-read from Foundation, the first book in that series.
2. Is there a new book I've been looking forward to reading for a while? Quite often with these, I don't even wait until I've finished reading my current books, but just jump in right away. The above mentioned Bastion was one of these. I started reading it the same day I bought it.
3. Is a book tied to something else that's got my interest at the moment? The book Life Below Stairs: True Lives of Edwardian Servants) has inspired me to go looking for some of the Elemental Masters books by Mercedes Lackey that I have, as they're set in more or less the same time-period.
   
4. Has something simply jogged my memory towards a random scene in a book I've read? That may convince me to re-read a book too. Often this ties in with point three.
5. Simply finger-walking my way through the shelves until I find something that looks interesting. This is the one that I tend to do least often to be honest. It's kind of the court-of-last-resort as it means I likely don't have a current read on the go or that I need an extra book for a trip, and I need it now.

 One thing that's clear from this list, and also from the pattern of books and authors that appear on my blog is that I'm a re-reader. I love reading a book I enjoyed over and over again. Depending on the author, I often get some new detail that I'd never noticed before too (especially with J.R.R. Tolkien). Other times, it's just something comforting when I'm stressed out or not feeling well. These are books that I don't have to pay full attention to all the time.

At any rate, this is a system that seems to work fairly well for me in that I usually have at least one book (often two or three) on my "I want to read this next" list, usually well before I've finished the current one.

15 Days Book Blogging Challenge - Why Do You Blog About Books?

If you've been following my blog for the past few days, you know by now that I'm participating in the 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My introductory post for the challenge is here, and I've been having fun writing up these posts, though I've decided to write them all up ahead of time to post each day. Quite the departure from normal for me. I'm generally more of a "write and post right away" type blogger.

Anyway, today's topic is really the core of book blogging, "Why Do You Blog About Books?".

For me, the short answer is, "because I want to share a book I love with people".

In more detail, I love to talk about a book I've finished reading, and why I think people should read it or (more rarely) why I think they shouldn't. There's a distinct lack of an interested audience in real life too. Even at work I couldn't really rave about the books I love most of the time. So, the internet makes a great audience, and it's not even a captive audience.

After all, if the book doesn't interest you, you click on another link/page in the blog (hopefully) and find something more to your taste, or hit the "back" button - which I hope doesn't happen as much.

At least, this way I'm not boring everyone around me by talking about books constantly.

At the same time, I find that knowing I'm probably going to be writing something about a book I've read sometimes allows me to focus my thoughts a bit better. Sometimes it doesn't but it's a routine I've gotten into over the years since I started All Booked Up and I've gotten used to it and even like it while reading.

It's a habit I can't get out of either. Last year I stopped blogging for about three months, but all through that time, I was still thinking as though I was reviewing the books I was reading.

15 Days Book Blogging Challenge - 15 Things That Appeal To Me In Book Blogs

If you've been following my blog for the past few days, you know by now that I'm participating in the 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My introductory post for the challenge is here, and I've been having fun writing up these posts, though I've decided to write them all up ahead of time to post each day. Quite the departure from normal for me. I'm generally more of a "write and post right away" type blogger.

Anyway, today's topic is "15 Things That Appeal To Me In Book Blogs".

1. A clean layout.
2. Being able to find the first post without scrolling down past a full-screen header.
3. Easy to read font on a simple background - I think this is really part of the first point, but it bears repeating.
4. A fun attitude, not always serious.
5. The blogger's passion for what they're writing about.
6. A feeling of community.
7. Writing about books that appeal to me - this one's more about me though. I know my reading preferences and I don't expect every book blog to cater to them - that would leave an awful lot of sameness, and disappoint people with different tastes.
8. Interesting topics in non-book-related posts. Hey! I'll hang around for "off-topic" posts if I know and like the blog. My own blog has changed over the last year from strictly book-related posts to a wider topic range too.
9. A non-cluttered blog-layout.
10. Colors that are not an instant recipe for eye-strain. I still remember with dread the days of yellow text on a blue background or similar combinations, and not always from websites, but from computer programs themselves.
11. A regular(ish) posting schedule - and here's where I've really been falling down on the job.
12. Participation in a meme I participate in, or some interesting regular posts, such as the Mailbox Mondays, Saturday Snapshots etc.
13. Interesting reading challenges. I fail at doing these, but I love to read about them, and sometimes even try to complete one or two.
14. A clean, easy to read layout - see point one, but it bears repeating.
15. Headers that are interesting but that DON'T take up the entire screen when you first arrive at the blog - see point 2, but again worth repeating.

15 Days Book Blogging Challenge - Talk About Your Blogging Quirks

If you've been following my blog for the past few days, you know by now that I'm participating in the 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My introductory post for the challenge is here, and I've been having fun writing up these posts. Today's post is about individual blogging quirks.

My biggest one is that I feel guilty about not. Not posting as regularly as I'd like. Not finishing a post series I start. Not reading others blogs as much as I hope to. Even, not having finished a book to review it, so I have something to post about. Thing is, I always settle down at the computer with the best of intentions. I just end up feeling like I don't have the energy to do it, or that I'm not going to have the time without interruptions to do anything.

In terms of actually writing a review post, I'd say my biggest quirk is that I tend to write in a stream-of-consciousness form with only a few formatting requirements and I don't spend any real time reviewing my posts later. It's sort of a write it and post it with no wait time involved.

Of late, as well, my posting topics have definitely expanded away from just books to include some of my other hobbies like crochet and photography. I don't know if that is a good thing or not, but at least it sometimes gives me something to post about when I don't have any finished books waiting for reviews.

15 Days Book Blogging Challenge - Describe How You Shop For Books

If you've been following my blog for the past few days, you know by now that I'm participating in the 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My introductory post for the challenge is here, and I've been looking forward to today's topic: Describe how you shop for books.

It used to be a combination of "hey, here's a new book by (insert author's name)!" and "this looks interesting, I think I'll give it a try", leading to massive book buying. Once or twice it was even "I love the cover to this one - hey, the subject matter/story seems up my alley too". Sometimes that works, sometimes it backfires massively. Last time it worked was with Jo Graham's Hand of Isis.

Of late though, it's been pared down a lot (unless I'm at specific used book-stores where I run an exchange credit consistently). Now, except for Mercedes Lackey - and that's down to the Valdemar books, and Elizabeth Moon's Paladin's Legacy series, I'm not buying too much any more. There are times though, when enough people will recommend a book to me and I'll give it a try.

At the used book-store though, all bets are off. I start in the history section looking for anything interesting (and preferably recent) on ancient and medieval history, and then go to the fiction, science fiction and fantasy sections with a mental list of specific authors to check for.

Either way, I'm finding that I don't really try a lot of new authors any more, and there are times I feel guilty about that. I especially don't tend to try new authors with e-books unless I can get a free sample. The last one of those that I loved, was the books by Michael R. Hicks, which I've reviewed a couple of times here. I've just been burned once too often with a book that it turns out that I really don't like, and I can't give it away or do anything for any return with an e-book, unlike a paper book that I can take to the used bookstore or give away to someone else.

15 Days Book Blogging Challenge: Recommend a Tear Jerker

If you've been following my blog for the past few days, you know by now that I'm participating in the 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My introductory post for the challenge is here, and I've been looking forward to today's topic: Recommend a Tear-Jerker. Of which I know several. My choice though is going to be:

Magic's Price
Mercedes Lackey
DAW Books
Copyright: 1990
978-0886774264

The cover blurb:

Valdemar- the once-peaceful kingdom protected by the magic of its Herald Mages- is now besieged on all fronts. The king lies near death, the neighboring land of Karse wages a relentless war against Valdemar, and the forces led by a master of dark forbidden magic are massing to stroke the final devastating blow against the kingdom.

And Vanyel, the most powerful Herald-Mage Valdemar has ever known, has become the primary target of the evil which is reaching out to poison all the land. With all his fellow mages slain, Vanyel alone remains to defend his people against the dark master's army. Yet a dream vision has revealed to Vanyel the fate which awaits should he and his Companion Yfandes take up the dark master's challenge. And if either Vanyel or Yfandes falters, the dream will become a horrifying reality in which both Valdemar and its last Herald-Mage must pay the ultimate price....

One of  my favorite books by Mercedes Lackey. I should note before I start raving too much that this is the third book in her Last Herald-Mage series, following on Magic's Pawn and Magic's Promise.

I don't often end up in tears during or after reading a book, but Magic's Price is definitely an exception to that rule. There have been several times I've had tears running down my face at the ending of this one. Of course, at other points in this series, Mercedes Lackey's had me almost rolling on the floor in laughter too, so I guess it balances out. Especially as some of her other books have had the same effect on me - particularly Brightly Burning.

15 Days Book Blogging Challenge: Books You've Thrown Across The Room

The 15 Days Book Blogging Challenge is a challenge to write for fifteen days on a set of book and book blog related topics hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. One neat thing with this challenge is that there's no time limits to participate. My originating post is here.

Today's topic, Books You've Thrown Across The Room is one that's an interesting one. As far as I can remember, I don't think I've ever physically thrown a book across the room. I just can't bring myself to risk causing any damage to a book, regardless of how much I dislike it.

There are though, a number of books I've given up on in disgust or ranted about after finishing them. Two that came to mind immediately are:

Darkover Landfall by Marion Zimmer Braldley, set me off years ago and I ended up ranting about it here back then. I won't duplicate the rant, just say that my opinions haven't changed since. There's also too many unanswered questions left by the book, but my biggest issues with Darkover Landfall come down to the characters' attitudes.

If you like the Darkover world, I think this is a book you're going to end up reading, but by far my preferences run to some of the later books such as Exile's Song, or even The Bloody Sun, which was also one of the earlier books in the series.

The other book is one I tried reading last year, Norman F. Cantor's biography of Alexander the Great. Honestly, I don't think I got even twenty pages into the book before I put it down permanently. I found the author's point of view to be judgmental, biased and irritating on several aspects of ancient Greek culture.  I don't read a book like this for the author's biases, I read to learn about the subject in question. Give me the information and let me make up my own mind on how I feel about how they lived.

Not only that, but if my memory's not playing tricks on me, the map in the front has some errors in it too, namely the location of Alexandria. That's just sloppiness, though that might be more the fault of the publisher, and didn't give me the best feeling either. Based on this book, I don't even want to try any of his other works, and Norman Cantor is supposed to be quite a well respected writer on history.

There are definitely some better books on Alexander out there.

15 Days Book Blog Challenge: Blogging BFF

The 15 Days Book Blog Challenge is a challenge to post on a specific topic each day for fifteen days, hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. All of the topics are centered on book blogging or reading books. My day to day round-up post is here.

Today's topic is one I actually don't feel as though I can comment on at all. I've been pretty much solitary when it comes to blogging about the books I read. I've even gotten really bad with not even commenting on other book blogs over the past couple of years to be honest.

The latter though, is something I'm working on changing slowly, getting back in the habit of reading other book blogs as best I can, and starting to find things to comment on.

However, in terms of actually answering the asked question, I don't have any blogging BFF's. It's not something I ever really thought about before either.

15 Days Book Blog Challenge: Nighttime Reading Routines

15 Days Book Blog Challenge is an interesting challenge over fifteen days to write on fifteen specified topics about books and book blogging. The challenge is hosted at Good Books and Good Wine. My link round-up post is here.

Day 2's topic is nighttime reading routines. I used to have one - read at least a chapter a night, which would often end up going until all hours because I couldn't put the book down. Not any more though.

I still try to read at least a few pages from whatever book I've got on the go each night, but don't always succeed.

I miss the earlier routine, which I generally found relaxing - on occasion it would end up being the opposite if I picked the wrong book, but that rarely happened. The worst occasion though was with Tanya Huff's novel Smoke and Mirrors. That book creeped me out really badly - almost couldn't turn the lights out that night. Thing was, based on her previous books, I'd been expecting something on the lighter and funnier side. Not the vivid and creepy imagery I got. If I'd known, I probably wouldn't have kept reading it late into the night.

I've written a bit about night-time reading before in one of my Friday Favorites posts, Your Favorite Time To Read.

15 Days Book Blog Challenge: 15 Book Related Confessions

This is Day 1's post for the 15 Day Book Blog challenge being hosted by April of Good Books and Good Wine. The theme of today's post is 15 Book Related Confessions. My post introducing the challenge on my blog is here.

Here are mine:

1. I hate it when they change cover designs/styles midway through a series. Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series is a prime example of this. I think they're on cover style 3 now, but only for the later books in the series. It drives me nuts. I think I like my books to match on the shelf more. The same thing holds true for book sizes. I've seen some publishers trying a slightly taller mass-market paperback size, and that's great - unless it's book four and five of a series that they're trying it on.
2. I am a bit of a sucker for paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels. Give it a couple of good reviews, interesting cover copy or a couple of direct recommendations and I'll at least give it a second look.
3. I sometimes feel like I should be reading books from my Unread Books List rather than buying new books or rereading my old books.
4. If not reading books from my yearly Unread Books List, then at least I should be finding new authors and titles to read rather than the same five or six authors.
5. I prefer hardcover books to trade or mass-market paperbacks - except for travel and beach reading where they're just too bulky.
6. I usually have at least two books on the go at any one time. Although, the number of books I'm reading at any one time has been as high as four books. Right now though, it's only one book.
7. I prefer physical books to e-books quite strongly. The latter are useful for travel - until the battery on the reader goes or it malfunctions (as a fast reader I appreciate the reduction in weight that comes from needing to only take one book with me plus the reader). I also have to admit that I've discovered a couple of great authors through e-books, but there's nothing like an actual book in my hands.
8. I have been known to buy a book almost solely on the merits of the cover.
9. Lately books have been taking a back seat to some of my other hobbies like crochet or cross-stitch.
10. I don't see the point of graphic novel adaptations of existing novels.
11. The same thing is true for the ever-growing number of zombie novels being published
12. I wish I read more non-fiction. I keep buying the books and intending to read them, but somehow I never get around to it.
13. I love poking through my friends' bookshelves.
14. I wish I could convince myself to use the library more, but nearly always when I borrow books they go back unread - even though I had the best of intentions when I borrowed the books.
15. If I like a book, I'm probably going to re-read it at least once more, and probably multiple times. Which habit is reflected on my blog with some books having two and even three reviews at times.

It was actually surprisingly difficult to come up with fifteen different confessions. I thought this might be one of the easier posts to write too. Guess I was wrong.

15 Day Book Blog Challenge

I just found this (late as usual these days) over at Good Books Good Wine, the 15 Day Book Blog Challenge and thought it looks interesting to try.

Like April, I've been having trouble with keeping my energy up concerning my book blog over the past year, and I'm hoping this might bring back some of that. Although, for me, I don't think it's just the blog where I'm struggling. I've been having a lot of days where I just don't have the enthusiasm or energy to read. I do have to admit though to finding it a struggle to review the books I've finished. That, though I hope will become easier again next month, when I can go back to using my old computer for book reviewing. For the past few months I've been doing it all from my laptop, which is a faster computer, but the touchpad is so sensitive I have to turn it off to type anything. Hassle #2 for reviewing is having to make sure that the external drive is plugged in to the laptop for image saving. Otherwise, I can see myself with some stuff here, some stuff there, and yet more stuff in that folder over there. It's just easier sometimes to go "I'll write that up later" except that "Later" never becomes "Now".

All those issues will go away when I can go back to using my old (slow) tower computer with two monitors for a lot of my blogging, I hope (in regards to posting, not using the computer).

I'm hoping though, that this challenge will successfully fire me up again for a while.

What I'm going to be doing is writing all the posts ahead and setting them to go live one per day and linking them from this post. That way, I won't end up dropping this challenge part-way through like I have all the others I've tried over the last couple of years.

The challenge:

1. Make 15 book related confessions
2. What's your bedtime reading ritual
3. Who are your blogging BFF's
4. What's the last book you flung across the room
5. Recommend a tear-jearker.
6. Describe how you shop for books
7. Talk about your blogging quirks
8. Quick! Write 15 bullet points of things that appeal to you on blogs
9. Why do you blog about books?
10. How do you choose what book to read next?
11. Show off! 5 of your best blog posts
12. How do you fight blogger fatigue
13. Describe one underappreciated book everyone should read
14. Tell us your deal-breakers
15. Who are your book blogging mentors