Welcome to another Befriend a Book Blogger post. I’m loving this series where we enjoy posts from book bloggers talking about what they do best, read and share books! Today I have Nicola from Short Book and Scribes on the blog and I’m sure you’ll enjoy this. Do pop over and pay her a visit on her book blog.
Nicola is 41. She works as a part-time Church Administrator and lives in Sheffield with her partner and their little boy, Daniel, who is almost three. She is obviously a big reader but she also plays the piano and loves singing.
Welcome to the blog, thanks for stepping away from yours for a few minutes to answer some questions about book blogging.
We’ll start with the easy questions and then see where we go from there!
How long have you been book blogging and what prompted you to start?
I only started blogging at the end of October 2016 so I’m really new to it and I love it. I’d been reviewing books for years but had never really felt that starting a book blog was for me until one day I changed my mind and suddenly it was all I could think about.
Tell us a little bit about your blog, what will blog readers find there?
My blog is a mixture of reviews and articles. I post a Seven Day Spotlight post every Sunday which looks at what I have done during the previous week and lists my (many) acquisitions for the same period. I also sometimes do a Friday Book Share feature. I have my first blog tour booked in for March 2017 and hope to do more as my blog grows.
What’s your favourite part about book blogging?
Apart from the thrill of doing a new post and sending it out there, it’s the interaction with readers, other bloggers, authors and publishers. That was another reason I wanted to start a blog. It’s such a friendly community.
What has been your highlight since you’ve started?
Being asked to do features like this one. Not only does it help to raise my profile but it’s so nice to be ‘one of the gang’.
If you could carry on blogging but could stop doing one thing (that’s maybe a necessary part of the process now) what would it be?
One of the biggest issues I have had is with image sizes. What works on the blog doesn’t work on Twitter, and what works on Twitter might not work on Facebook. Aargh! So I would just like that to be a lot easier.
What advice would you give to anyone who is considering starting a book blog?
Do it for yourself and take advice from established bloggers as they have been in the same position as you have.
How much time does it take up?
Setting it up how I wanted to seemed to take ages but writing the actual content isn’t too time-consuming. I was already writing reviews of every book I read so it’s only articles that are extra to that. It’s probably the social media/sharing aspect that takes up more time.
What are your reading habits like?
I only ever read one book at a time. I just couldn’t have two on the go, I’d feel like I wasn’t concentrating on either. At the moment it is a case of squeezing reading time in first thing in a morning and last thing at night, on the bus and whenever else I can manage. I love contemporary, women’s and literary fiction, crime and psychological thrillers, and I have a soft spot for time travel.
What state is your TBR (To Be Read) pile in?
Erm….humongous! I currently have just over 2,000 books to be read, made up of a mixture of physical books and digital ones. I know I will never read all that I have but I just can’t help myself.
What do you drink while reading?
A good old cup of Yorkshire tea.
Where’s your favourite place to read?
On the settee with my feet up, cup of tea and a box of chocolates at my side.
What book would you recommend, that gets little attention, that you haven’t really seen talked about? And why, what is it about this book that you love?
Can I choose two? First of all, Star Gazing by Linda Gillard. It’s a tender love story between a 40 something, prickly blind woman called Marianne and a lovely man named Keir. The writing is just superb. And second, Balthazar Jones and the Tower of London Zoo by Julia Stuart, which is fabulously quirky. I think both are authors who should get a lot more attention.
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer these. It’s been a pleasure having you.
You can find Nicola on her Blog | Facebook | Twitter
Great to discover a bit more about my book ‘twin’ who is also starting to own up to her tbr after being coy for quite a while. She’s taken to blogging like the proverbial duck and is growing all the time. ☺
I really wasn’t coy about my TBR pile. I am honestly not bothered about it. It’s my Netgalley review list that I am coy about because I’m embarrassed by how many I have on there! Thanks for your kind comments, Jill.
2000 on TBR pile? That makes me feel slightly better, although I still refuse to count them too thoroughly…
Glad I have made you feel better today, Marina! 😉
Thanks so much for this feature, Rebecca 🙂
If you were already reviewing books, then it was a natural step. I was going to ask what genres but that finally came up in one of the last questions. (And by time travel, you mean science fiction?)
Time travel is in the science fiction genre but I definitely wouldn’t say I was a sci-fi fan. I just like certain aspects of it.
Such a fascinating series! I do like ‘meeting’ other bloggers. And I completely agree about the best thing in blogging. It’s the other wonderful people out there. Thanks for sharing.
At last a book blogger who only reads one book at a time – all these multi-book readers make me feel inadequate!! I also like Linda Gillard’s books so pleased that she got a mention in the ‘passed over’ book section.