The “Saturday Review” will be back next week in its regularly scheduled time slot. Due to blog-reading backlog as a side effect of Disneyland, it’s being pre-empted in order to answer questions from this week’s survey responders. (Did you take the survey, by the way? It’s not too late!)
This is the first installment of “You’ve got Q’s, I’ve got A’s” – another will be posted soon, so don’t worry if your query isn’t addressed in this edition. Inspired by the “Reader Spotlight” feature on Maw Books Blog, I’d like to talk a little bit about each responder in addition to answering the questions, so I don’t plan to get all of the Q&A’s into just one post – that’s why it’s not too late for you to answer the survey and post your own question, if you haven’t already done so!
I’ve enjoyed reading all of the answers to this little survey. It’s been most interesting to see where readers come from, and how they found their way here. So far, everyone has been too polite to say that there’s anything they want me not to talk about so much – although a few were honest enough to admit to skipping the posts that interested them less, which I can’t fault, since I have been known to do the same myself. (Well, maybe not known for it…but oops, I guess I am now.) Thanks for playing along, and since the survey is still open, I’m hoping to get info and questions from even more of you!
I’d like to introduce some of the folks who have already done the survey, and answer the questions they left for me in item #9. This post will feature the first six commenters, their queries, and my responses.
** Julia Smith blogs at A Piece of My Mind and hasn’t been reading here for too long. She found her way here from Nova Scotia via Susan Helene Gottfried‘s guest post here last month (she’s a fellow follower of ShapeShifter). Julia’s question is:
I actually mentioned that in my most recent TBIF post: “I started keeping track of my reading in late 2006, using the list-making capabilities of a site called Backpack, but before too long I realized I wanted more than just lists – and that realization gave birth to this blog in March of 2007.”
I actually started pretty slowly. My first few book-review posts were roundups, but before too long each book got its own post, and I continue to review everything I read. While book reviews aren’t the only thing here any more, they’re still the blog’s main reason to exist.
The blog content grew beyond books as I started discovering interesting blogs to read – on all sorts of topics – and finding other things I wanted to talk about. Last year, I started to apply a little more structure to the randomness, and became more active in community-development activities; both of those changes have helped attract more readers (I think). I try to be an active commenter and linker to other blogs.
** Magpie of Magpie Musing has been on my blogroll for a while. She can’t remember how she discovered this blog, but think I may have found hers first (via Julie Pippert, if I remember correctly) and commented there and/or linked to it, since that’s the kind of thing I tend to do. I can’t remember how we discovered we both work with numbers. Her favorite feature here is the Saturday Review linkfest (which will be back next week in its regular time slot). Her question is pretty basic:
YES! Are you? I registered right after Christmas and bought my plane tickets a few weeks ago. I’ll arrive in Chicago on Thursday afternoon and leave on Sunday morning. I have my room reserved (it’s a double) but still have an opening for a roommate – any takers?
** Kathy blogs at Bermudaonion and contributes reviews to Paperback Frenzy. Although she’s been at it for less than a year, it didn’t take long for her to become popular with her book-blogging cohorts, if her frequent mentions on “awards” posts are a measure of that; she’s an honest book reviewer as well as one of the most active commenters around, and a valued contributor to the community. Speaking of books, that’s what she thinks I should talk about more here, since she enjoys the reviews and the link round-ups. Kathy and I “met” when we were assigned to interview each other during Book Blogger Appreciation Week , so you could say we were introduced by My Friend Amy. Her question:
I’m magic and do not need sleep. But seriously…”doing it all” is not the same as doing it all well. I don’t read books nearly as much as I used to, or want to, because some of that time goes to reading online and writing now. I spend most of my time at work at my desk, using my computer, and sometimes the words are a good break from the numbers. (That reminds me – did you hear about this study that found that workers who take periodic breaks for internet surfing are actually more productive? I feel so validated now!) I don’t do much blogging on the fly; most of my posts are pre-scheduled, and I try to write on weekends and gather links for the Saturday Review as I find them. Some things get shortchanged, but I try to juggle it all as well as I can.
With last weekend’s trip to Disneyland, I think maybe we already have taken this year’s vacation. My in-laws have a cabin up in the Eastern Sierras, between Yosemite, Mammoth, and Lake Tahoe, and we may take the kids up there for a few days in June, shortly after school lets out and before it gets too hot. While I hope my trip to Chicago in July will be fun, it’s for a conference, so that’s really not a vacation. But we are already working up ideas for a vacation next summer, and we’re thinking about an East Coast city trip – D.C. and New York.
** Tiffany (Olympianlady) is new around here, all the way from Alaska – she was lured here by the Blogiversary giveaway (in which she was one of the winners!), and decided to stick around, mainly for the book reviews. She blogs at The Phantom’s Lair, and her question is a thought-provoker:
Realistically, it would have to be Books, although without them it would be a pretty miserable life. But the kicker is that without Food, I wouldn’t live all that long – and I can’t eat books.
** Jill (Softdrink) of Fizzy Thoughts is one of those bloggers I kept reading mentions of on other people’s blogs before I really knew her, but now we’re both part of the Weekly Geeks team. Jill’s book reviews tend to be concise and honest – she doesn’t mind saying that she didn’t like something; what she likes here at The 3 R’s is the diversity, although she’d also like more talk about books (I’m seeing a trend here with that – hmmm). She’s a fellow Californian, living a couple of hours to the north on the Central Coast, but she’ll be traveling down to SoCal later this month for the LA Times Festival of Books, where several of us book bloggers are making plans to meet up in person! Jill’s question is a toughie for me – tough to narrow down, that is:
There’s much of the world I haven’t seen. There’s much of this country I haven’t seen. During the next year or so, I have plans to visit two cities I’ve long wanted to see, Chicago and Washington DC. I’d actually like to have the time for road trips along both the East and West Coasts, and I’d love to spend some time in Canada, our Neighbor to the North. I took an Alaska cruise ten years ago and I’d like to see it again; I’d also like to get to Hawaii one day. I’m less pulled to travel the larger world, but I’d like to go Australia and New Zealand.
If I had to pick just one of those places, right now, I think it would be Hawaii. I’d pack some books to read on the beach.
That wraps up this edition of Q&A, folks! I’m saving some of the questions for another post, and as I mentioned, I’m still hoping for more, so please visit the survey and leave me some A’s and a Q if you haven’t already!
This is such a fun idea, Florinda. I enjoyed reading your answers to the questions and your tidbits about the bloggers who asked you the questions, some I am familiar with, but others not.
You could probably eat books. My dog tried that when he was a puppy (thank goodness that phase didn’t last long!). I don’t think they’d be very filling though. Or tasty.
Canada is at the top of my list, although I can’t decide where I want to go. I’d love to have weeks to just drive all around eastern Canada and the US.
Kudos for being be able to do this and fit in all the other stuff. I think I am still in the haphazard phase a little bit. I love reading and the blogging community, but the more that you get into the more time it take and I also try to sustain other interests as well. But I’ working on a schedule and hoping to be more consistent son.
Wendy (Literary Feline) – Heh :-). Eating books would meet one’s fiber needs, but I’m not sure how much else they’re good for nutritionally. When Shadow, my ex-dog (that is, the dog who stayed with my ex-husband), was a puppy, he ate the corner and part of the spine of an unabridged dictionary. (He also ate part of the coffee table.) Fortunately, as you mention, they do outgrow that puppy-teething phase.
Jill (Softdrink) – I made brief visits to Ottawa, Niagara Falls, and Montreal when I was a kid. I wouldn’t mind seeing any of those places again, plus Toronto, and also Vancouver on our own coast.
Nicole – That’s so true. It’s great to be part of the community, but it does take time to nurture that, and trying to do so without letting things slide too much in off-line life is a daily juggling act for me.
I’ve never been to Hawaii so that is always on my list of places to go.
Ti – One of these days, I hope. Meanwhile, my husband says he’s all for that East Coast road trip :-).
Believe me, you do it all well. I’m so flattered by all the nice things you said about me.
If you do take a trip to D.C., We will gladly provide you with a guided tour or two! Thanks for talking about your shorter vacation travels…the cabin sounds lovely…great place to read and hike! I am so glad you enjoyed Gods Behaving Badly…loved that book.
Kathy (Bermudaonion) – I wouldn’t have said it if it wasn’t all true :-).
Serena – I may take you up on that! My son lives in D.C., but if he’s not up for showing us around it’s good to know that you’d be willing :-). My husband loved Gods Behaving Badly too – great recommendation!