Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Does a cluttered blog have you not returning? By cluttered I mean too many columns, small type, too many photos, difficult to follow, etc.

Well…the biggest reason I don’t return to blogs is sheer lack of time.  But that’s on me!  When I choose a blog to follow, layout could be a factor, but not a big one.  As long as it’s not so crowded or poorly formatted that physically reading is a challenge, I’m probably okay.  (A nicely formatted blog could be a plus, though.)

If it’s cluttered in a content way–difficult to follow, ideas pinging about, lack of coherence, that would certainly disincline me to continue.  That’s basically just a particular subset of “poorly written” though, and I can’t say it’s one I’ve seen too often.  Occasionally I see a book blogger with a very complex template (specific questions they answer every time, a series of rated categories like characters or plot arc, etc) but I’ve usually seen that done to good effect, not so much in a cluttered way.

The two big reasons I’ve had for not following a blog?  They don’t read books I’m interested in, and that’s just different interests, nobody at fault–or they summarize more than they review.  I’ve seen a lot of “book review” blogs that give four paragraphs of plot summary, then two sentences of what they thought about it all.  And I just don’t find that engaging!  I want to know something of the plot, obviously, but when I read blogs, I want to know what the blogger felt about the book.  I can find plot summaries on Goodreads if I want more detail.  (And sometimes reviewers put up the Goodreads summary, and then go into copious summarizing, which is sort of this issue squared.)  Considering how common this is, I guess that’s a normal review style?  Never one I enjoyed reading, though.

What causes you to not continue reading a blogger?  Is clutter a factor in your choices?

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: If you were stranded on a deserted island, which ONE book could you not live without?

Ah, the classic question!  Two answers come immediately to mind.  The practical: a book about survival on a desert island, obviously, with detailed instructions on how to make fire.  And the emotional: the Bible, for the inspiration of most passages, its sheer length and re-readability, and all those good stories in there too.

Two true answers, and both kind of cliches, I’m afraid.  So setting those two possibilities aside, I tried to think of #3.  And it’s very hard!  If I could bring one set of books, I’d bring the six volumes of L. M. Montgomery’s journal.  Not the spiritual inspiration of the Bible, but comforting, long, re-readable and very good for reading in brief snatches at the end of a hard day of island survival.

If I was forced to bring just one…  Walden would be a contender, because when Thoreau is good, he’s very good (though when he’s dull, he’s very dull) and it seems in the right spirit for seeking the silver lining in the situation.  Or possibly The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean, about a girl who survived being stranded in Antarctica, mostly by the power of her mind alone.  Not exactly the same as seeking a silver lining, but inspiring in a different way.

And if the question is really just asking what book I can’t live without, apart from the desert island scenario?  Still the Bible, to be honest, which I’ve been reading daily for…hmm, 13 years now.  And…I can’t pick another.  I have many, many beloved favorites, and to choose just one feels impossible.  Partially because, how could I discard the rest?  But also because all my favorites live in my head in some shape or another, and they would even if I didn’t have copies of them on hand.  Though I certainly wouldn’t like to give up my book collection anyway!!

What book would you want on a desert island?  And is it the same as the one book you’d want in your life?

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is…do you have an Instagram account?  And since the answer is no, that wouldn’t be much of a response!  So, I thought I’d answer a question I missed from earlier in June: You have just won a $100.00 Visa gift card. Will you spend the entire amount on a rare collector’s edition you have always wanted, or buy several newly-published books? Explain your choice.

Kind of…neither?  I don’t think I could come up with several newly-published books I’m interested in buying (well, until a few friends who are working on their next books come out with them!)  Also, new books usually turn up at the library.  I would probably look through the books I’ve read in the last couple of years (also from the library) and buy several of my favorites.  I’ve done that periodically.  I also might fill out a few collections that currently have gaps, and since they’re mostly very old kids books I would buy used, I could spin $100 into…probably eight or ten books, easily.

As to a rare collector’s edition–well, this will probably say something about my socioeconomic status, but…$100 isn’t going to get me a rare collector’s edition.  Off the top of my head, the ones I’ve been tempted by:

• $4000 copy of A Fighting Man of Mars, previously owned by the author’s daughter and personally inscribed
• $3000 copy of Winnie the Pooh, signed by the author (I looked at that in-person at an antiquarian book fair, and felt like I was handling a museum piece by touching it)
• Anything signed by L. M. Montgomery, can’t recall costs but undoubtedly in the thousands
• $300 signed copy of Auld Licht Idylls by J. M. Barrie, signed by the author, the only actual possibility and one I wish I’d bought!

So…with $500 to spend on books, I’d hunt up something signed by Barrie.  But $100 would get divvied up into favorites I haven’t added to my collection yet.  What would you do with $100 to spend on books?

Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: For all of you worker bees out there! How do you balance having a day job/career and managing your blog at night? Is it hard or easy to do, and what do people in your work life think of your blogs?

Well, I suppose it’s appropriate that a post about balancing my life is going up late…because things aren’t very balanced just now!!  Although it’s more because I moved into a new house a week ago, and we don’t have working internet at home yet.

I generally fit blogging in on evenings and weekends–a book review some time on the weekend to go up Monday, and the Friday post some evening during the week.  I do a lot of my fiction writing on my lunch break, a pause in the middle of my work day.  I’m happy to report on that front that revisions are still moving along at a pretty good pace, by the way, despite the craziness of moving.

Would this all be easier without a 40-hour a week job?  Yeah, I think so!!  (Ask me if I’m impressed that Stephen King writes every day.  Spoiler: No.)  But it’s kind of what I’m used to by this point.

My coworkers know about my fiction-writing, which they mostly think is pretty cool.  I’m not sure if any have read my blog.  In some ways I prefer to keep my life more compartmentalized than that.

Fellow bloggers, do you have full-time jobs?  How is balance working out for you?

Okay, back to revising–I have nine minutes left on my lunch break!