Book Blogger Confessions - 3

This meme is hosted by Karen at For What It's Worth and Tiger at All Consuming Media

The idea of this is to recount, perhaps even vent in order to ward off violent outbursts, about the nuances of life as a book blogger.

Deadlines for reviewing and blogging. Do you set them? How do you keep them? What do you do if you can't meet a deadline?

I always try to set deadlines, but they're never stringent because I think that would take the fun of it out of reading and then reviewing. In my head, I like to think when I can finish a book by and when I might be able to get a review written for it. I finished Slaughterhouse 5 on Friday, and I have general idea that I'll review it this week, but I won't force myself to. I need to think I can sit down and write it when I have time. Even though I want to post as much as possible, I know that I have to put things like school first. I tend to still be reading, but the reviews come slower.

Concerning keeping deadlines, I do try to avoid reading more than 2 books without reviews- even if just a rough draft. I leave a book for too long, I can't write a review properly. Saying that though, a few of the ones I have left for longer and not been wholly in love with haven't garnered negative attention so I try not to have too many issues with this. I also seem to keep to a deadline if I see everyone posting reviews while the spiders are busy making my blog look old and deserted.

I haven't been in a position where I've missed a deadline (yet!) but I don't know what I'd do. I think all one can do is apologise and try to explain why it was missed. Anyone who is expecting you to do something is also human and I like to think they can understand if you can't manage to do something. We're all human after all, not robots.

One final point before I finish.

I tend to a lot of memes in ratio to the reviews I do, but this doesn't bother me. Frankly, I feel lucky if I can manage a review a week and over the moon if I can do two. I like to do memes so that I can (figuratively) say I'm still alive, reading, loving books and I haven't forgotten about my blog. But then deadlines for these (since they fall on days) also sometimes push me. I tend to do Top Ten Tuesdays on Sunday (when I try and persistently fail to do all blog things) and the Follow Fridays on the Friday morning and Thursday evening. When it comes to hopping back for comments though... it's shameful. As I said, I put other things before blogging so I only tend to hop back when I have time, which usually isn't until Mid-Week.

An excellent topic this week- and I hope this explains a seeming tardiness or lack of reviews!

Friday Hop Sept

Q: It’s Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. so we want to know what you are Thankful for – blogging related of course! Who has helped you out along the way? What books are you thankful for reading?

I hate these questions. I ain't too great at being thankful and heartfelt. I'm just not generally good at emotion full stop. So when I hear this, I think of everyone who might expect me to mention them. But I don't wnat to do that, I want to try and be honest. So I decided I'd go for the one person I'm most thankful for in the blogosphere.

Karen. At For What It's Worth or @teamsheltie on Twitter.

I have bloggers I like, respect, read and feel I owe some of my tact and blogging ways to (I really do. If I haven't mentioned anyone and they feel left out, know that I you are all the jam on my bread. You make blogging this sweet experience), but that fine lady above encouraged me to go one step further and actually do a blog. You may all laugh and guffaw whilst reading, and tell your loved ones over dinner how monumentally bad this blog is, but I don't mind. Karen encouraged me to do this, and I love the dimension it adds to my life and outlook. Joining the blogging universe in the concrete way of starting a blog is like buying a house in the nieghbourhood you've always wanted to live in. The people are better than expected, it's comfortable and you don't need to worry about how things are going because this such a big change that you know things will work out as they're supposed to.

Part of doing this meant getting over that original fear and idea about blogging. It was scary. It was constant judgement, perhaps ridicule, in an environment that the whole 7 billion people of the world could potentially see. How do I overcome that? Stepping stones. Karen let me guest post and it sort of chased away my lingering demons. It was nice and even though I cannot physically keep guest posting for her, she can quite easily claim any of my post as her own, any book or any statement, since I owe her a whole bunch.

And she sent me Enclave. Winning a book makes me love anyone, but I adored that it led to conversations and surpassed the simple "Thansk for the book I won". I'm eternally grateful.

When You're Not Reading: What occupies your time 

when your nose isn't stuck in a book?

Just to get the obvious out of the way: school. I spend probably a third (if not more) of my week doing school related things. Homework, going to school, extra-ciricular or revision.

But if I get the time, I am- like many teenagers- quite a keen gamer. I haven't done a great deal recently, but I do do it in spurts when I have a particular game I like. I don't like shooters- the ones you hear about all the time- rather I like RPGs (Role Playing Games). I have the belief that a good RPG is like a good book. It completely immerses you in an alternate reality where you can do and experience the impossible. It's not for everyone, but I can personally see the parallels. Also, it's nice to be able to have something I love on multiple levels (Re: fantasy).

I also try and do exercise. Mostly it's just personal cardio, but I'm thinking about running properly. I started a while ago but gave up because of time constraints. It won't come about in the near furture but I hope it does soon. And I'm not fitness-mad. It's just that I like to graze on food while doing things and grazing is kind of a bad habit that I can't break. Instead, I just try to stay ahead of it.

My more interesting hobbies include:

- Taekwondo (I tell you, I'm not fitness-mad!) but not as much as I used to. My club closed down so it's mostly just a bit of practise every now and then.

- I write a little. I'm not a great writer; I'm more a good ideas person. Still, I don't have a creative outlet so I need something. I avoid poetry like the plague, but a bit of fiction never hurt anybody! Also, I can't draw. My 10 year old cousin draws better than I can ever hope to. I'm also in the school newspaper, but it's early days.

-  Probably my most unique thing is that I study Ancient Greek Classics (the language), and I don't even go to public school! It's so hard, and I tweet about it and complain, but's it's something I'm proud of for its innate quirkiness. And I can say things in Greek that are stupid, but sound impressive!

- I also really like casual learning. (Goodness I'm boring). It just means I try to learn a new concept (science, philosophy, psychology, writing, you name it!) each week and then test myself on them at the end of the month. I enjoy the challenge.

Besides other things like shopping, film and (obviously) blogging, there's not much else. Reading is kind of a dominant feature in my life.