Who’d have thought this blog would go on for five years? Not me, and yet here I am five years later still writing about books and lots of other things that please me. Blogging is now part of my life and I love it. Thanks to everyone who visits and especially to those who make comments – it wouldn’t be the same without you.
I find it hard to believe that I’ve been writing this blog for 4 years. It seems like it was only yesterday I tentatively clicked on ‘publish’ for the first time.
Over these last 4 years I’ve read almost 400 books and have written about the majority of them. I’ve also written about places I love to visit but my blog has stayed mainly about books.
The greatest change in my reading has come about gradually over the last two years or so, in that I now read a lot more crime fiction than I ever did before and that’s down to other bloggers, but also because I find crime fiction books are about so much more than crime. There is such variety in crime fiction – dealing with contemporary issues, historical crime (true and fictional), moral and ethical issues, personal and psychological crimes, and organised crime and so on. There are police procedurals, private detectives, amateur sleuths, serial killers and racial and political crime thrillers. And I love variety in my reading.
I’ve also found that blogging isn’t a solitary pursuit, although it can be if you want. I’ve ‘met’ so many kindred spirits on book blogs and other blogs too. There are numerous reading challenges and memes to join and the opportunity to discuss books with people world wide. I’m very happy that I ventured into the book blogosphere. Thanks to everyone who reads my blog and especially to those who’ve taken the time and effort to make comments.
I was amazed yesterday when I received an email telling me I’ve been nominated to receive an Award. Was it for real I wondered? Well it is!
Feeling very self-conscious and not being a person good at blowing my own trumpet can I ask you to have a look at this website:
and if you feel so inclined to vote for my blog?
This week’s Weekly Geeks host Tara asks if we are OCRs?
O.C.R. = Overly Critical Reader
Symptoms:
I don’t think I’m overly critical. I’m quite fussy about what I read in the first instance, so many books just don’t get a look in beyond the first page. I want to enjoy what I’m reading so I don’t start any book that looks boring or as though it’s not well written.
I do get exasperated when I read a description or a fact that I know is wrong, but a book doesn’t have to be completely realistic – I can suspend my disbelief to a certain extent. And I certainly don’t want every plot twist and turn to be foreseeable because that would be far too predictable.
I don’t feel the need to like all the characters, in fact unlikeable characters can be more interesting and necessary to the plot. It would be terribly boring if every character was ‘nice’.
I like reading critical reviews because then it gives me another view from the gushing praise some reviewers give (on Amazon for example), so in my reviews I like to say why I don’t like certain aspects of a book if I’ve found it disappointing or poorly written and give an overall idea of whether I loved it or not. I don’t give ratings on my blog, but I do on LibraryThing, where my average rating is 4 stars (out of 5). I also rate each book privately as I read it; most are between 3.5 and 5, where 5 is excellent and 3 is average. I don’t put it on the blog because it’s very subjective. I’ve noticed that this varies from blog to blog and I’m wondering if I should start putting my rating in the review?
Today I’m featured on Scene of the Blog over at Kittling Books, so if you’d like to see my blogging space head on over there.
Three years ago today I began to write regularly on this blog and this is my 846th post.
I started out very tentatively but now feel at home here. My intention at the beginning was to keep a more detailed record of what I was reading, but I soon realised it’s also a good place to record places we’ve visited; actually my first posts were mainly about places rather than books!
I also discovered memes. I had no idea what these were, ‘memes’ up till then were something I’d read about in Richard Dawkins’s books. Booking through Thursday soon became addictive and most weeks I still take part. Actually you could do a meme each day of the week if you want to and I then realised that this was taking me away from reading, so I’ve cut down on them.
Then there are the Challenges. I thought them too difficult at first and didn’t take part. But soon, when I realised that you don’t actually have to complete them I found that they’re a very good way of learning about new books and also of getting down to reading some books off my tbr piles.
So, after three years of blogging what has changed? I written about most of the books I’ve read – see the tabs above for my book reviews and indexes and I’ve learnt a lot, found many other book bloggers who share my love and enthusiasm for books and added loads of books both to my tbr piles and my wishlists, but most of all I’ve enjoyed it all immensely. I love the contact from all over the world and the comments I’ve had -I hope you all keep on visiting!
BooksPlease 
