A bloggy meme

Want to know more about me?  Okay, then.  Please enjoy.  I don’t know who I stole this from because I’ve seen it floating around a lot lately.  But feel free to steal it from me.  (And feel free to seek credit in the comments if you are the originator of this meme!) *UPDATE —> The creator of the meme was MsMazzola at State of Denmark, and thanks, Nymeth, for letting me know!

1. How long have you been blogging?
Since November 2007

2. Why did you start blogging?
Well, I thought it would be good to start writing down my thoughts of the books I was reading and typing for me is faster than writing by hand so a blog just naturally came into my brain as a good way to do that.  Not too long after I started I realized that there is a HUGE book blogging community which I had no idea existed previously.  Once I realized that I could actually talk about the books I’ve been reading with OTHER HUMAN BEINGS my blogging just took off. 🙂

3. What have you found to be the benefits of blogging?
Like I said above, I love talking books with people.  And most of the people in my life outside of blogging aren’t big readers, so it’s great to have this huge network of friends who love reading.  Also I discovered ARCs, which has been super fun and has allowed me to read tons of books I wouldn’t have otherwise picked up but definitely enjoyed.  And going along with that, bloggers provide the BEST book recommendations.  I don’t even want to think about how many books are on my phantom TBR list (not to mention my ACTUAL TBR bookshelves in my home).

4. How many times a week do you post an entry?
I am pretty random about it.  I have tried on several different occasions to have a system, but I always fail at that and then feel guilty.  So now, I post as much as I can but don’t put too much pressure on myself.  I typically post 4 or 5 times a week, sometimes as few as 2 and sometimes as often as 7.

5. How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis?
There is no way I can even think about the number of blogs currently in my Google Reader.  It’s too many.  But I love them all, and even though I know I’m not the greatest commenter (in fact, I’m probably one of the worst) I faithfully read a LOT of blogs and enjoy every single one.

6. Do you comment on other people’s blogs?
I kinda suck at commenting.  But I’m really trying to get better at it.  I have been making more of a conscious effort to comment on posts when I actually have something to say.  Hopefully I will get better at this because I so value the comments people leave me, so I know I should make it more of a priority to reciprocate.

7. Do you keep track of how many visitors you have? Is so, are you satisfied with your numbers? I really don’t.  Sometimes I’ll look at the tracker wordpress automatically provides but I have no clue how accurate that actually is.  One of these days I’ll register on one of those websites that keeps track for you.  I keep meaning to, but to be honest the numbers aren’t as important to me as they are to some people – I certainly love having visitors but I’m not obsessive about my numbers or anything.

8. Do you ever regret a post that you wrote? I don’t think that I ever have.  When I look back on some of my earlier reviews, I don’t too much enjoy the quality of writing that came from me at that point so sometimes I’d like to go back and rewrite them.  But I also enjoy seeing my progression as a writer so I don’t believe I’ll ever touch them, even if they make me cringe.

9. Do you think your audience has a true sense of who you are based on your blog?
I think so.  I certainly don’t hide anything in my reviews, and I definitely let my personality shine through.  At the same time, I don’t write too much personal stuff on here so there’s a lot that my readers don’t know about me.  But I’m a pretty open book – anything you want to know, just ask! 😉

10. Do you blog under your real name?
Yep, I do.  My wordpress site name is heatherlo which is actually just my first name and my middle and last initials.  The username I wanted was taken so I had to settle for that.  But anyone who reads the blog in detail knows my name is Heather.

11. Are there topics that you would never blog about?
I don’t ever talk about my job because I work for a huge company in a highly regulated industry and saying the wrong thing about work could definitely get me fired (not that I have anything bad to say, but you know what I mean).  And I don’t really blog about too much personal stuff, but it’s not because I’m opposed to doing so it’s just that I mainly focus on book reviews and book-related stuff.

12. What is the theme/topic of your blog?
Pretty much, books n more books. 😉

13. Do you have more than one blog? If so, why?
I actually do have a challenge blog.  I don’t spend much time on it, but I started it because I was having issues trying to keep track of my challenges on this blog.  There were just too many of them, and I wanted more organization than was possible on this one.  I barely ever post to the challenge blog, but I do keep track of everything challenge-related there, and it just helps me stay more organized.  Otherwise I’d probably just forget what challenges I’m supposed to be doing.