Tag: The Sunshine Blogger Award

Approximately one billion years ago, Renée @ The Global Bookworm tagged me for The Sunshine Blogger Award tag. I’m not going to follow all of the rules for the tag because there are too many, and I’ve done this several times before, but I’ll happily answer the questions that Renée asked. I love questions!

The Sunshine Blogger Award

1. Why did you start a book blog?

Because I had thoughts! Actually, it was an accident. I wanted to write a journal-style blog about my life, but then I discovered that I have no life. I started writing about what I was reading instead. I didn’t know there was a whole book blogging community until I discovered Goodreads Groups in late 2014.

2. What is the best book which has been written in your country?

The whole country? In all of history? But there are a gazillion books published in the US every year! My first thought was In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. That book helped create the narrative nonfiction genre. It’s not the most widely read American classic, though. Maybe I should choose To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee? That novel is very readable, and it gets forced upon pretty much every American school child at some point in their life.

3. Which book is your guilty pleasure?

All of them? Reading is kind of a luxury hobby. You can only do it if you have book money (or library access) and free time. A lot of people in the world don’t have those things.

4. What is your favorite non-fiction book?

Well, I already mentioned In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. My childhood favorite was Winterdance by Gary Paulsen. A recent favorite is Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt.

5. When would you say that your blog is a (big) success?

When it makes enough money to support my book buying habit.

6. Which book do you believe should be mandatory to read at all schools worldwide?

So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. Social media sites should hand out free copies of this book to everybody who creates an account. If you use the internet, you need to read this book. It might make you reevaluate your behavior online.

7. Would you rather buy your books or get them from the library?

Buy them. I like libraries, but I don’t like reading deadlines. Also, if I love a book, I don’t want to give it back to the library. I want to keep it forever. It’s my precious!

8. Which mistake did you make when you started blogging?

Choosing Blogger as a host. Don’t do it, new bloggers! The comment system is infuriating, and you don’t get much control over how your site looks. There are zero cool plugins. Also, I’ve seen several people say they only follow WordPress blogs.

9. How do you take care of yourself and your mental health?

Poorly? I don’t know. I’m not good at it. I try to get enough sleep. I go outside every day and exercise 5 times a week. I pet a lot of dogs. I read a lot of books. I ignore a lot of trolls.

10. From which country would you like to read a book?

Ann Morgan read a book from every country. I’d love to do that. Can I answer this question with “all of the countries?” I want to read all of them.

11. If you could give advice to a blogger who starts today, what would it be?

Interact with the community! Most of us only bite during the full moon. You can’t just lurk in a corner of the internet and expect people to find you. Create social media accounts, join linkups, participate in readathons and challenges, and comment, comment, comment.

Do you want to answer Renée’s questions? Go for it.