Thursday, March 28, 2019

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.





27 comments:

  1. On the Blogger commenting section; My blog is from Blogger.com as well... You can add Disqus to your site :)

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    1. I can’t get Disqus until I get a better computer. Sometimes Disqus takes so long to load that I give up on trying to comment. I can’t do that with my own blog.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    2. Aw, I'm so sad for you... But I will keep commenting, no matter what source you use! :)

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  2. Ooh, Winterdance is one I forgot I wanted to read. And oh man, I feel you on the Blogger opinion..... I made the big mistake of choosing Blogger and I definitely regret it. I've thought about trying to transfer over, buuut I'm too lazy. So here we are for now. Also, interacting with the community is fantastic advice. It was so hard for me to start, but now that I do I can't imagine NOT interacting--I get so much more out of blogging!

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    1. I’m also too lazy to switch! It seems like a massive hassle. Yeah, interacting with the blogging community is key. Shouting into a void is no fun.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  3. AJ I love how you take care of your mental health LOL I also exercise (every day), pet a lot of dogs and cats and ... and ignore lots of trolls (they are not worth it) ;-)

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    1. I wish I enjoyed exercise enough to do it every day. Forcing myself to work out 5 days a week is challenging.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  4. Great point about reading being a luxury hobby? And I agree- I'd rather buy books. Especially if it's one I really like- it has to be my propertyyyy..... lol

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    1. It’s so hard to return a book I loved to the library. I want the book forever! It’s mine!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  5. I don't even make enough money at my job to support my reading habit. Thank goodness I can blog for books and have great access to resources via my library. I need to get motivated and exercise 5 times a week. Good for you! Interesting that you selected a Capote and Lee book. I am never not amazed that they were childhood friends. We have considered migrating to WP, but then I hear horror stories from WP users too, and a lot of those blogs don't look that great either. I love my Slothtastic blog.

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    1. Yeah, if I moved to WordPress, I’d probably make my new blog look as ugly as my current one. I’m really bad at design stuff! Also, I hate doing design stuff. I’d rather write content.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  6. I agree I would rather buy boks even though I do love the library. I hate when all the hold come in and I can't read quick enough. I tried to listen to So You've Been Publicly Shamed and couldn't get into it. Maybe I will try reading.

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    1. I have the same problem with all of my holds coming in at the same time. That’s why I’m stuck on waitlists forever. I reserve too many books and can’t read that fast!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  7. Great advice for new bloggers! Totally agree that you have to participate and put yourself out there.

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    1. Blogging is really lonely if you don’t interact with anybody!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  8. I learned about the book blogging community through Goodreads, too! I had a wild thought about blogging and books, and I was surprised to find so many other amazing book bloggers! Goodreads has led me to so many blogs, and I'm thankful for the groups on there. I've always used Goodreads to keep track of what I've read and what I want to read (seriously the best organizational idea ever), but it's so much more than that. We're a kickass community! I'm glad you're here. :)

    Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? 💬

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    1. Goodreads is one of the best things on the internet. It helped me get started with blogging, and I couldn’t manage my reading life without it.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  9. I have no life beyond books either! My life is very dull! I never see any book as a guilty pleasure as I'm never ashamed by what I like or don't like. Just love the books! I also prefer buying my own copy than using the library.

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    1. My life is dull, too. Books and blogging suck up all of my free time.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  10. I love your answers lol! I didn't realize I needed a good laugh!

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  11. To Kill a Mockingbird was also forced on me in school! Haha! I've never heard of So You've Been Publicly Shamed, but maybe I should check it out?? I definitely use social media a lot! I definitely recommend using Disqus on your Blogger blog if you don't mind figuring out how to install it! Best decision I ever made! And yep yep, interacting is so important! Which is funny to say since I do almost zero interacting in real life...

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    1. I also do very little interacting in real life! I’m not a people person. I like dogs and books.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  12. Hi AJ - great answers ... blogger v WP - just do it ... don't fret - I tried to go with WP couldn't hack it and got help to set up blogger and just left it at that ... it's simple - but if I ever need to move on I'll be able to.

    I think people who are on WP and don't want to be able to comment on blogger are limiting themselves to 'half' the blogging world - get over it and set up an account ... don't have to blog on another site, just have access to it - then one can comment wherever. I have to say I personally hate Disqus and Squarespace ... but have accounts and they still give me pains ... but I manage when I remember what I need to do.

    I love to buy books ... but getting out of the library forces me to read that particular book ... the rest quietly pile up! Good point about us in this little world of ours are able to buy, or use a library and we usually have some time to read, learn and interact.

    Commenting is absolutely essential to blogging - no point in blogging otherwise ... gets one started. Re books to read ... I was hooked with fairy stories in the early days, then moved along the other genres - now I need to learn as I read. Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and of course Shakespeare for us Brits.

    Commenting and relating to the blogger's ideas etc ... cheers Hilary

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    1. I’m not a big fan of Disqus, either. Sometimes it loads so slowly that I give up on trying to comment. I made a WordPress account just to make commenting on those sites faster for myself. I guess there isn’t any perfect commenting system or blogging platform. They all have flaws.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  13. Earning enough money to cover the book buying habit seems like a great goal, haha. I've definitely had the problem about following blogs that are not wordpress, but i saw someone recommend "feedly" and with it it's been so much easier to interact with all kinds of blogs.

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  14. Yep, ignoring trolls, petting cats/dogs - excellent for the mental health. Another one I've recently embraced is ignoring the news. (I can't handle anymore of the political bs going on in the UK at the moment.)

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  15. I'll have to check out Winterdance, and So you've Been Publicly Shamed. I wasn't aware of either of those books. 👍✨

    I love that Truman and Harper were childhood into adult years friends. I read a Fictional account, based on real events, Middle Grade about their childhood and I did want to read some Nonfiction about them. To Kill a Mocking bird is my all-time favorite book, but I've never read In Cold Blood. 📚

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