Befriend a Book Blogger is back! Yay! And today I welcome Linda from Books of all Kinds to talk about her love of book blogging. So grab your blog reader and get ready to add another blogger to your reading list and get ready to add another little-championed book to your TBR.
Over to Linda.
Hi, I’m Linda and I’m a wife, mum, and book blogger from Ireland.
I have always been obsessed with the written word and studied English Literature in University. My work life has also centred around books as I managed and worked in bookstores throughout the years, and I now write my own stories along the way.
I enjoy romance, fantasy, thriller, contemporary fiction, classics and poetry (and almost everything in between). I started reviewing in 2014 for a large U.S. review site and decided to start my own book blog last year. I have never looked back. I review all formats – hardcover, paperback, and digital. Any reviews that I post on my blog, I will also post on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as Social Media platforms. So if you are an author who would like a review or a reader who cannot choose what to read next, please get in touch!
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 started Books Of All Kinds at the end of May 2016 and it has been a crazy year so far. I had reviewed for other review sites and I finally became brave enough to create my own blog and I am so glad that I did.
Tell us a little bit about your blog, what will blog readers find there?
Books Of All Kinds is for anyone who loves books. There are lots of reviews, guest posts from authors, author interviews, blog tours, cover reveals, and the odd rambling post about writing and blogging in general. I read all genres with the exception of horror and true crime, so there is something for everyone.
What’s your favourite part about book blogging?
My favourite part is spreading the word about really good books and being a small part of such an amazing book community. Books really bring people together and I have met so many wonderful authors, book bloggers, publishers, and readers through my blog.
What has been your highlight since you’ve started?
That is a tough one. I was chosen as book blogger of the month in November by bookollective.com which was amazing. Having a fellow reader get in touch and say they bought a book because of my review really makes all the hard work worth while. And seeing a quote from my review being used by the author or publisher is very special too. Chatting about books everyday is the best thing about book blogging!
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?
I’m not a computer expert so sometimes the fiddly parts of maintaining the blog can get very time consuming, so it would have to be that. I have improved since I started but I still have a lot to learn.
What advice would you give to anyone who is considering starting a book blog?
Do it your way. Read the books that you like, write about what you want, be honest, don’t take on too many books at one time as it can become overwhelming, and most importantly, do it for the love of books and not for any other reason.
How much time does it take up?
That is really hard to pin down but certainly 3/4 hours every day (sometimes more depending on what I have scheduled in for the week) and that doesn’t include Social Media!
What are your reading habits like?
I read everyday and mainly at nighttime when everyone else is asleep. I will read a book in one night if it really catches my attention, otherwise it could take me two nights.
What state is your TBR (To Be Read) pile in?
Pile is not a big enough word to describe it, lol. It is more like a mountain at this stage and that is just the physical books. I dread to look at my Kindle list!! If I had to make a guess it would definitely be 500+
What do you drink while reading?
Tea. Always tea. I’m Irish so tea is as necessary as water here, lol.
Where’s your favourite place to read?
My favourite place to read is in bed but during the Winter I love curling up on the chair in the sitting room with a blanket and getting lost among the pages.
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?
It is so hard to choose one book. From older books I am a huge fan of the classics and love Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and so many of those authors. So from that genre one of my favourites would be Middlemarch or The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot – they are compelling, different, and ahead of their time.
There are so many great authors but some of my favourite books are the Wanted Men series by Nancy Haviland which is an extremely well-written Mafia Romance series that definitely does not get enough exposure. These books are addictive, dangerous, with characters that take on a life of their own, and it always baffles me when someone has not heard of these books. They really are unmissable!
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer these. It’s been a pleasure having you.
It’s always so interesting to meet other bloggers! And I know just what you mean about the technical aspects of keeping a blog. I run into trouble, too, now and again. Thanks, both, for the introduction!
Five hundred? That sounds like my pile of books.
If it’s not a joy then it becomes a job and that’s no fun.