Curious Wren Blog Party Tag!

I know it's not Day One anymore... but oh well...

My lovely twitterfriend Annie Hawthorne has joined the blogging world! You can find her at Curious Wren. WELCOME!

In celebration, she is having a blogging party and giveaway, and has shared some questions in a tag. She also offers coffee, tea, cake, and handfuls of chocolate chips. How can I not participate?

1. What was the last book you read, and would you recommend it?





I just finished Illusive by Emily Lloyd-Jones. It's a sci-fi superhero thriller thing, and it was decent. Not superb though, so I wouldn't jump excitedly to recommend it. But give it a try if you are looking for something fun and adventurous.






2. Describe the perfect reading spot.

Luckily, it's an actual place: he couch on my screened in porch, in nice weather. It's outside, but bugless, and the couch is possibly the most comfortable thing on the planet. Ideally, there would be a bookshelf on the porch as well, for easy access, but we all know outside isn't the best place to store books.

3. Favorite book beverage? Tea? Coffee? Hot chocolate? Tears of your readers?

Ideally, the last, but I've yet to gain a large enough number of readers to sustain me. So I generally make up for it with water, tea, or lemonade.

4. Share favorite quotes from four books.

I have the crappiest memory, so this is possibly the most difficult question for me to answer. But Elizabeth Wein, Victor Hugo, Mark Twain, and Terry Pratchett have some awesome quotes.

5. What is your most loved fantasy read? Dystopia? Contemporary? Sci-fi? Classic?

Fantasy: Narnia and LOTR.
Dystopia: Hmmm. Brave New World, perhaps?
Contemporary: I... don't have one? I did like If I Stay, though, so maybe that?
Sci-fi: The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis. But I haven't read much Sci-fi.
Classic: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

6. List three authors you've collected the most books from.

-Shakespeare. I've got the complete collection, plus a bunch of Folgers editions. Because I'm lazy, I don't want to go upstairs and actually count, but I'm going to guess... 10?
-CS Lewis. I have the Complete Chronicles of Narnia, plus Surprised by Joy, which makes 8.
-Third place is a tie between a bunch, with 4 books, but let's go with Marissa Meyer.


7. What are your thoughts on magic in literature?

YES. It's lovely. Unless it's used as a way to explain everything and get out of actually making clever plot points.

8. What types of book covers capture your imagination most strongly? Feel free to include images.

I actually have a draft of a post on book covers sitting in my blogger drafts, so I'm not going to answer this question as fully as I could, because that post will be going up soon. But I really really like artsy covers, like the ones a lot of MG books have.

9. Mention the first book character that comes to mind. Elaborate on this.

Blue Sargent because I was just on tumblr and looking through Raven Cycle stuffs.
But really, she's kind of and epic character (like all of Maggie Stiefvater's characters), so she deserves to be mentioned.

10. Do you lend out your books? Or is that the equivalent to giving away your babies?

I don't lend out books. I don't OWN many books, since the library is my friend, so if I recommend a book to you, it's your job to acquire it. (Also, yes, they are my babies.)

GO WELCOME ANNIE! :-)

'Bout This Blogger Tag

 

Cait is one of my favorite people out there in this book blogging neighborhood of the internet. And about a week ago, she switched her blog from Notebook Sisters to Paper Fury! *cheers and throws confetti*

To celebrate, she made this blogger tag. Are you a blogger? Do you like parties and (virtual) cake? Then click on the button above and do this tag! There's a linky AND giveaway! 

1. Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging on Friday, May 17th, 2013.

2. What’s the story behind your blog’s name?
I have a whole page just for that! But basically it's from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. 

3. How many designs have you been through since you started blogging? (Pictures! We demand pictures!)
So far, just two. I don't do change very well. My first design looked something like this:

This is, of course, not actually it, but my private blog where I mess around with design ideas before they show up here. You also can't tell, but it was messy and had a lot of buttons on both sidebars. 
And then of course:

4. Have you ever switched blog platforms? What made you move? If you haven’t ever changed…why?
I have not. But I am considering  a switch to Wordpress. Eventually. Remember - I don't change things up on a whim. Tell me - Wordpress? Blogger? I want pros and cons!

5. How long does it take you to write a post? What’s your postly process like?
Oh, it varies. Reviews take the longest, around 40-50 minutes. Discussion posts, since I've usually been rolling those over in my head, take around 30 minutes. Questionnaires, tags, Top Ten Tuesdays, etc - those take shorter, about 20 minutes, though it depends on the length of the tag. 

6. Have you ever been super nervous about a post? Why?! What was it?
I was nervous once about a review I had to write for a book I absolutely did not like. I tried to be diplomatic about it, and find the good points. But I just hate writing bad reviews! I actually had my mom look that review over to make sure it was postable. Ugh. 

7. Do you have a blogging schedule?
Well, Top Ten Tuesdays are weekly on... Tuesday.
When I did do The Bible Project (I'm reviving it soon), those came on Sundays.
Monday Memories go up on the second Monday of every month. 

Other than that? I try to squeeze in something every so often, when I'm not studying for exams or writing papers. Nope - no schedule.

8. Do you tell people In-Real-Life about your blog? Their reactions?
Actually, I do. It's so weird for me to have Virtual Friends and IRL Friends, and not let the worlds collide. I only recently discovered the beauty and wonder of Virtual Friends, so I'm not used to having a separate Virtual Life. So I'll say things like (when talking with my irl friends about books), "Oh yeah, I just wrote about that on my blog! Hugo's villains.... etc." (I actually had a long conversation about villains with one of my friends, and drew on a lot of what I wrote about in my post on Hugo's villains.)
I think, ultimately, the reason I tell people about my blog is that I actually know bookish people irl. And so it's hard NOT to talk about a book blog when you're talking with someone who is just as obsessed with literature as you are.

9. Top ten blogs you read/comment on the most! Go! Go!
Um. I've been a neglectful follower/commenter lately (blame school). But let's see what I can come up with. If you show up on this list - note, I probably haven't commented on your blog lately. But I will, very, very soon!

~Paper Fury (of course)
~Spiral Bound
~The Thousand Lives
~Classical Carousel
~Life of a Random
~My Sky of Paper and Ink (New Blog Alert! Go welcome the wonderful Bennet!)
~This Page Intentionally Left Blank
~You, Me, and a Cup of Tea
~Books, Tea, and Me
~Adrift on Vulcan

10. If you could change/improve things about your blog, what would they be?
Hmmmm. Well, I feel like I just redid it (really, it was way back in August), so it's feeling preety perfect to me, right now. Yeah.

Now you know EVERYTHING about my blog! (Sorta.) Go join the party at Paper Fury! And give me some blog recommendations in the comments - I want to follow more awesome blogs this winter break! 

~Sophia