armchair bea: nurturing book blog relationships

I blog because I love books and I want to share my love of them with others.

For me it's as simple as that. When someone comments on one of my posts it really makes me ridiculously happy because I'm meeting other people who also love to read and talk about books. To be able to read their words and nod enthusiastically in agreement or 'hmmm' aloud in reply because they have pointed out a way to look at a book or character that I hadn't thought of before is such an amazing part of the Internet. That exchange of ideas is such a huge way to grow that I can honestly tell you that I've added so many books to my TBR list that I might never have heard of otherwise. So, honestly: thank you.

I will admit that I do not actively network mainly because I don't want to think of this blog in those terms. If a blog that I follow links to another site that has something I find interesting on it the chances are I will comment on the post, browse other posts and then follow the new site. I follow because your thoughts and ideas are written in a manner that just speaks volumes and because book bloggers tend to be a varied group of incredibly smart and interesting folks.

Before I even go to update my site I tend to go over the list of blogs that I follow and read and comment; I don't want to be someone who just follows and doesn't interact. I really enjoy reading your posts and, yes, I will read over old posts and comment on them, too, so don't be surprised if that pops up! I blog because I enjoy it and I follow you because I enjoy it and meeting new people.

I spent probably about two and a half hours writing my first review because I was nervous stiff. I wrote, edited, reworded, reformatted, spellchecked more times than I can count - I was so nervous because there are so many what ifs: what if it's too short, what if it doesn't contain enough information, what if it's just not good? But then as I wrote them more and more it became more like a stream of consciousness. I'm still nervous, but I write what I feel. My reviews, my blog, my design is pretty indicative of me. I like blue and more and more I like bright colors. I like simplicity and a sparse design without too many images. And I like creating things myself. My blog represents me just as much as my words.

After finding that lots of authors and book bloggers have Twitter accounts I created one to follow everyone. Twitter is interesting because it takes the context of your blog and reformats it into 140 characters and almost feels freeing, like blogging is using your indoor voice where on Twitter you can squee and yell all you like. (I'm @papereader there, too!)

I'm not particularly sure I answered the question but I hope I made it at least halfway there.

Have a good night, guys! It's ice cream time.