Follow My Blog Friday #130


If you are new to the FF fun, Feature and Follow Friday is a blog hop that expands your blog following by a joint effort between bloggers. Feature & Follow Friday is now hosted by TWO hosts, myself of course and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow us to show off more new blogs!

How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them "hi" in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you!

Now to make this FF interesting we do a FEATURE blogger. If you are interested in becoming a Feature click on the drop down link above FEATURES and Features and Follow Friday and get on the waiting list!  It is also required, that if you participate you must follow the hosts (Parajunkee and Alison Can Read) and the two Feature blogs.

This Meme is hosted by Rachel from Parajunkee's View and Alison from Alison Can Read on Fridays.

To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Host {Parajunkee.com} {Alisoncanread.com}and any one else you want to follow on the list.

2. Follow our Featured Bloggers - Cassi @ Galavanting Girl Books and Lost in Thought.

3. Put your Blog name and URL in the Linky thing.

4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments

5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can

6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love ... and the followers

7. If your new to the Follow Friday Hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

The Friday Follow Feature are ...

Our Feature is Cassi @ Galavanting Girl Books

When did you start blogging?

Well I started my blog in 2007. I was going to Switzerland for 3 months, volunteering at a Girl Scout world center, and I thought “hey why not blog.”  Well that didn’t work out very well.  Switzerland was amazing –fun, beautiful, experience of a lifetime, etc. Between the shared computer and all the fun I never actually posted a blog.  I revived the blog for a brief period in 2009 (one post) then really started actually blogging midday through 2010.

What is your favorite part of book blogging?

New books and new friends.  Since discovering goodreads & starting to blog the quality of my reading material has gone up and up (except for some galleys, but that can’t be helped right?).  Outside of blogging circles people recommend me books just because they are YA, inside the blogging world friends understand why I read what I read and help me find books that I will truly love.

What is your favorite book(s)?

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (and all the rest of her books)
Ruby Oliver series by E. Lockhart
Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld
(Ask me tomorrow & my answer might be different)

What has been the best thing that has happened to you because of book blogging?

The friends that I’ve met.  I’ve gotten surprise packages with books and lots of encouragement. My goodreads group did a “Melina Marchetta around the world” book tour.  It all started with a Melina Marchetta middle grade novel that was only available in Australia, then it traveled the world accumulating postcards and notes. http://www.galavantinggirl.com/2011/09/melina-marchetta-around-world.html

Our Feature - Lost in Thought

1. When did you start blogging?

I started blogging almost a year ago. Actually, my one year blogoversary will be happening on the 12th of this month! Time has really flown by. I started after finding out about reading challenges (and realising they were easier to do with a blog) and happened to stumble across a few blogs and then I thought of making one myself. I like to think I’ve come a long way in a year and learned a lot about blogging, reviewing, publishers etc. I love blogging and I’m quite proud of myself for sticking to it for a full year even though I’m quite busy in my personal life. I love the book blogging community and love books and reading in general so it’s always fun and never ever a chore.

2. What is your favorite part of book blogging?

Writing posts and having lovely comments off other bloggers especially when it comes to reviews. After spending ages writing reviews (and it takes me so long!) and worrying about its quality I love reading comments off others saying that they enjoyed reading it, or that they added the particular book to their wishlist. I also love my readers and followers. After creating my blog I can remember doing a dance of pure joy when I had my first follower haha. You could swear I had won a million pounds or something, but it was a great feeling! I've also met so many lovely book bloggers whom I consider friends, it's been great.

3. What is your favorite book(s)?

The Lord of the Rings. Just pure amazing stuff. You should all read it and get lost in Middle Earth with all its adventures. I also love George R. R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. It has been an obsession of mine since reading it. I just love epic fantasy. But also since blogging I've read some great YA books and my favourite reads of 2012 were definitely Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, Cinder by Marissa Meyer and The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa.

4. What has been the best thing that has happened to you because of book blogging?

Receiving books of publishers is up there with the best. I love Netgalley but when I had my first paperback book from a publisher in the mail I felt like I had made it haha! I squealed in delight when it came through the letterbox! I've loved having the chance to work with authors and publishers; it's been awesome. I’ve had the chance to read and review some amazing books so it is definitely one of the best things to happen!
Q: What New Years Blogging or Writing resolution have you placed on yourself?

I want to comment more (I've been really bad about this), add a drop down link list to my page list, set a blogging schedule and stick with it (I'm pretty good about this but sometimes things come up and reviews aren't put up), interact with the blogging community more and redesign my blog.