Befriend A Book Blogger – Caryl From Mrs Bloggs Books

Today we have Caryl from Mrs Bloggs Books talking about her love of book blogging. It’s another great post and another great book blog to get your blog reader following.

Caryl is an avid reader and a complete bookaholic. She’s a retired nurse and grandmother of four (soon to be five) she only reviews the books she enjoys reading and constantly flits about between genres. Books keep her relatively sane and help to take her mind off a lot of things, including a chronic illness and a rare syndrome. She also suffers from depression, so it’s fair to say that books (and her lovely family) have literally saved her life.

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’ve been book blogging for nearly two years now. I was blogging about other subjects prior to this, mainly the military history of my family but I’ve always loved reading and talking about books but nobody really close to me is as obsessed by books as me, so had to share it somewhere and a book blog seemed ideal.

Tell us a little bit about your blog, what will blog readers find there?

Mainly book reviews and blog tours at the moment because I’ve been a bit under the weather but I’m planning to carry on varying it a little bit with various projects and ideas for improvement that I hope followers will find interesting. I’m also taking part in the 20 Books of Summer challenge that I really enjoy and I can’t wait to read the books I’ve listed. I also do a #BuzzBook Of the moment feature too by listening out for a favourite amongst book bloggers, one they are all enthusiastic about. They never fake enthusiasm so you know it’s a good book.

What’s your favourite part about book blogging? 

I really love the community feel and the support and friendships from other bloggers. Even though I’m a good bit older than most of them, they all just accepted me as one of them and I enjoy reading their blogs too to see what they’re reading and their thoughts about the books. Also it’s a good feeling to help an author have more publicity for a book. It’s also a real buzz when someone tells me they’ve read and enjoyed a book that they heard about on my blog. I have to say that I also love having exciting #bookpost titles sent to me to read and review.

What has been your highlight since you’ve started?

Oh it’ll have to be when Peter James dropped by and left a comment on my blog! I’m an unashamed author fan groupie haha!  I also talk to (stalk) Val McDermid a bit on Twitter! But there have been so many other highlights such as being asked to be on blog tours for Orenda Books and others. Being privileged to read some fantastic books, often before everyone else.

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? 

That’s a difficult one. Think it would be blog tours in general. I’d be happy to stick with just Orenda blog tours at the moment. I enjoy those. I’m not 100% convinced that blog tours are a good thing, although have no idea if research has proved that they are of great benefit to the author, especially those that seem to go on for weeks.

What advice would you give to anyone who is considering starting a book blog?

Just be yourself and build your blog to suit your own needs. Don’t take on too much and learn to say “no”. Above all enjoy doing it.

Never lose sight of your love of books and why you first started book blogging.

How much time does it take up?

Perhaps a few hours on certain days

What are your reading habits like?

I tend to flit about between genres. At the moment I’m either reading a memoir, of the travelling, settling down in other countries variety or I’m reading crime fiction. For a few years I was obsessed with military history, particularly the First World War but it’s a relief to move on from that, although I’ll always be fascinated by the nursing or medical history of that time so may veer off now and then to read some new titles that appear. Prior to that I was a fan of historical fiction so Lord knows what’s next. Maybe politics that I find fascinating at the moment because we live in such strange times!

What state is your TBR (To Be Read) pile in?

Oh Christ it’s massive! My kindle is full of books I haven’t read yet because I can’t resist a daily deal, a Bookbub bargain or a freebie.

My bookshelves are overflowing but is more manageable because I can see the titles plus take the read ones to charity shops.

What do you drink while reading?

Tea! I’m an addict and have to drink copious cups throughout the day, especially when reading plus I can’t hold a conversation in the morning until I’ve had at least three cups of Yorkshire tea, so prefer to read at that time.

Where’s your favourite place to read?

In bed or in my reading arbour in the garden.

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?

I would love to see Frank Kusy’s Kevin and I in India become more popular. Frank Kusy is like a funnier Bill Bryson and has written a series of highly entertaining, hilarious memoirs about his travels to India. He’s brutally honest about his own shortcomings though which all add to the books in my opinion.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer these. It’s been a pleasure having you. 

Thank you for having me Rebecca. Any excuse to talk about books!

You can find Caryl on her Blog | Facebook | Twitter