1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? My name is Shay, I have three kids- two boys and one girl. I work and homeschool two of my kids. I just started blogging on May 23, 2012. (Not a typo, I've been blogging for only 11 or so days.) I've been meaning to start blogging for two years, but never quite managed it. So, one of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to start my blog by this summer.
2. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012?
I read about 10 to 20 books at any given time. Here's a partial listing: My Life by Bill Clinton, I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga, Girlchild: A Novel by Tupelo Hassman, and Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti. I think the best books I've read this year are 1Q84 and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.
3. Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you. I'm a germaphobe. Well, so other people say. I think it's normal to carry a Costco sized amount of antibacterial wipes (like Adrian Monk) and Clorox® Anywhere® Hard Surface™ Daily Sanitizing Spray in your purse. Germs are not your friends.
4. If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why? Owen Meany from John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany. I need to know what his voice sounds like. And Nobody Owens from The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I want to know what happens to him.
5. What is your favorite part about the book blogging community? My favorite thing is how welcoming everyone has been. And helpful. That people look upon this in a spirit of cooperation, not competition.
Is there anything that you would like to see change in the coming years? I'd like to see some kind of coordinated response or website that would help bloggers deal with authors who go nuts. You know who and what I mean. I haven't been doing this long, but I know people who are reluctant to even post reviews anymore on Goodreads or Amazon because of the more extreme examples of "Authors Behaving Badly."
Not ALL authors go nuts but it is kind of depressing that it has become more common now...
ReplyDeleteWELCOME TO armchair BEA :)
Krazyyme @ Young Readers
But the ones that do... like the stalking incident with the GR reviewer Wendy Darling. Where the author posted all of her personal info online. I've never seen the line crossed quite so badly. I know that a lot of people, including me, are a little afraid to review indie authors because of this. I mean, John Irving is not going to even notice (let alone care) if I slam his latest book. (Which I'm planning to, a little.)
DeleteWelcome to the blogosphere! and welcome to armchairBEA! I read The Wind Up Bird Chronicles, I loved it and was totally confused by it at the same time :)
ReplyDeleteWill follow since I'd love to see where your blog goes :)
I'm following you, too. Thanks. I added a few comments including a recipe using a whole chicken- it's super simple.
DeleteHave you read 1Q84? It's kind of a "companion" novel to Wind-Up. It takes place in the same time (April to the end of 1984) and has the same themes. They even share a character. I think that reading both books makes it clearer what he was trying to do.
Wow. I'm lucky no one has gone nuts on me yet. The authors I've written negative reviews for have simply thanked me for my time and opinions. I hope it stays that way. Anyway, welcome to the blogging community! I'm so happy you've decided to join us and I'm glad you're having a good experience so far.
ReplyDeleteI've had one experience with two authors that got defensive but only one of them took it a little far. I did have a publisher though that went haywire.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blogging community, it's a great group of people who will always be here to help.
A newbie! Welcome :) Busy first week for a beginning blog. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteSo wonderful to "meet" you :) Armchair BEA @ the Brunette Librarian
What is all this talk of authors going nuts? I've managed to avoid it because I don't interact with authors or receive ARCs or anything. Could you elaborate? I feel out of the book loop!
ReplyDeleteThe Wendy Darling episode- the one where a self-published author posted her real name, home address, where she and her husband work, etc.
Deletehttp://cuddlebuggery.com/2012/05/vanity-author-rampages-again/
Wendy's response: http://www.themidnightgarden.net/2012/05/breaking-silence-selection-debacle.html
Another author rampaging:
http://dearauthor.com/features/letters-of-opinion/author-deborahanne-macgillivray-harasses-amazon-reader/
Yet another one: http://fantasy-faction.com/2012/the-man-who-thought-he-was-king
Same guy, carrying it into GR: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/333837660?utm_medium=email&utm_source=comment_instant#comment_51595756
The first 5 days of 2012: Meltdowns on GR
http://cuddlebuggery.com/2012/01/the-first-five-days-on-goodreads/
Enough drama for the year and it isn't even halfway over. Kind of sad because the authors never win when they attack reviewers. I mean, we're basically amateurs who do this because we love books. Authors are the professionals- they're the ones who want to, hope to, expect to get paid for writing.
Thanks for all the links and information! What a pity this stuff is cluttering up the book blogging community. I myself try to be sensitive when writing reviews of a book I didn't enjoy because I know authors work hard and nobody wants to read negative things about their work. Then again, they're authors! They have published books! That gives them so much awesomeness that I'm surprised they let this get to them.
Delete11 days? Awesome! A year will sneak up on you before you even know it. I also tend to read a lot of books at once. Sometimes I get confused though. Hahaha!
ReplyDeletehaha, i love the bit about you being a germaphobe like Monk :]
ReplyDeleteIt's so great to meet you!!
Hope you have a great Armchair BEA week!
Here's my post: http://little-red-reads.blogspot.com/2012/06/armchair-bea-introductions.html
xo Stephanie
Welcome to blogging! It must be cool to have such a neat event starting just when you do.
ReplyDeleteGerms confuse the crud out of me. I've been reading that some soaps actually just make the bacteria mutate into stronger ones. And that scares me.
If you have the time, I’d love to hear from you at my armchair BEA post.
My husband is a year away from graduating from nursing school- so hearing about MRSA and other things has made me a bit worse. I think the most recent studies suggest that antibacterial soap didn't really cause germs to mutate- that was more a result of antibiotics used improperly. But that we don't wash our hands long enough for the soap to work anyway. The consensus seems to be, for now, that using the alcohol hand sanitizer is good for germ killing. So much so that hospitals have it in patients rooms. So that's what we have at each sink- soap and alcohol based hand sanitizer. It kills germs, I think, by sucking the water in the germ through the cell wall. So even if people use it improperly or it doesn't kill all the germs, there's no way for the germ to build up an immunity. (Leave it to a germaphobe to answer a non-question with a paragraph.)
DeleteWelcome to the blogosphere - you're going to love it! I also hope you have fun with Armchair BEA. :-D
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things I like about this post:
ReplyDelete1. I love Haruki Murakami's books, too. I don't think I've read anything written by him that I haven't liked. (How is Bill Clinton's book? I really enjoyed the memoir Hillary wrote years ago.)
2. I am also a germaphobe. I don't think you're strange at all. :)
3. I have not read Owen Meany, yet, but I will be doing so sometime this year. I would love to have dinner with John Irving, though--he's one of my favorites.
Welcome to the book blogging community, and have a great week!
Oh, I wish I could read Prayer for Owen Meany again for the first time. You're in a for a treat.
DeleteI'll have to check out Hillary's memoir. Does she go into the "incident" at all? Or does she ignore it?
Wow, your numbers put mine to shame! I've been wanting to read the bill Clinton memoir as well....how are you liking it so far?
ReplyDeleteJennifer (and Heather)- about Bill Clinton's memoir...
DeleteI like it. You get a sense of the charisma that I've heard he has- you can feel him turning on the charm in the book. It has a very Southern, folksy style. What I wasn't expecting was that this book is also his first hand account and experience with events that would shape the modern political world. He connects how the extreme end of the social activism of the 60's (social issues and Vietnam) helped contribute to the rise of the social conservative movement that Reagan was able to use in his run for the presidency. I think that if the book goes on the way it is now, it will rank up there with my two favorite memoirs- Life (Keith Richards) and Open (Andre Agassi)
Hi. I'm following from the Follow Party on Book Blogs. I hope you'll follow me back.
ReplyDeletehttp://kellyhashway.blogspot.com
I'm following you Kelly. Thanks for visiting and following my blog.
DeleteVery nice to meet you! I don't think it matters how long someone has been blogging for, it just matters that people are out there sharing their thoughts on topics of the same thing - and the book blogging community is a pretty amazing group to get in touch with. So many great bloggers and friends out there! :)
ReplyDeleteSee you around the blogosphere and keep up the great work. Your blog looks great already. :)