Category: Ruminations

Blog Hop: Perchance to Dream

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop1 Comment

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Have you ever had a bookish, nocturnal dream? If so, please share the story. If not, have you ever had a daydream related to books? If so, please tell us about it.

I have always found it surprising how rarely I have dreams related to books, especially my own, considering how much waking time I spend thinking about them!  For the amount of time he spends in my thoughts, the Phantom of the Opera ought to stalk through my dreams on a regular basis, and yet I think he’s appeared…maybe twice?  In twelve years.  I can’t say with any certainty that I’ve ever dreamed about the characters or the world of my fairy tale quartet.  Other people’s books have not shown up any more often.

As for daydreams–well, most of my stories play out in my head before they ever get onto paper, and I don’t mean while I’m sitting in front of my computer.  The more clearly a scene is imagined, the easier it is when I start physically writing (because the imagining feels like a stage of writing).  Some imagined scenes never get written down, and I never feel a desire to imagine a scene after it’s written–it’s like it’s locked in place then, and there isn’t the same range for mental playing.

Considering how much I imagine consciously, I’ve always found it strange that my subconscious doesn’t utilize the same characters and settings.  And kind of a shame–I think that would be fun!

Do you have dreams inspired by books, once you’ve read or written?  Have you had daydreams even if you haven’t had sleeping ones?

Blog Hop: A Blogger By Any Other Name

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Do you agree or disagree with this statement: A blogger’s first name should be in a prominent place on his/her blog.

I guess I must disagree, since my name is not particularly easy to find on my blog.  (It’s Cheryl, by the way.)  I guess I don’t see why it’s inherently important!  Some bloggers choose to blog anonymously for various reasons, which seems like a valid choice.  Some bloggers are building a brand, and in that case having your name, or easy links to the rest of the work you’re building/promoting is good marketing.  (This will become much better on my blog, once I do the redesign I’ve had in mind for, oh, two years or so…)

On one level it’s nice to know the person behind the review, but on another level, their name doesn’t matter that much.  There are a lot of people I know through the internet alone, who I think of by their username or blog name, even when I learned their “real” name somewhere.  I put “real” in quotation marks because…what we choose to call ourselves online is real, in a way, for the realm we’re blogging in.  So if you think of me as “Marvelous Tales” rather than Cheryl, that’s totally valid.  I probably think of you as “Bookish Reads” or whatever your blog or username is!

Do you like to know the “real” name of a blogger?  Do you think it should be prominently displayed?

Blog Hop: Congratulations?

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: What’s your proudest blogging milestone or achievement?

Huh.  So I had to really, really think about this one.  Because I did not (do not) find it easy to point to something.  I don’t think (that I can recall) that I ever got into blogging with number goals (however many comments, readers, page views, etc).  I have been and am proud of some numbers I’ve hit in that regard.  They went on my resume, in fact, but putting them on my blog feels…sort of like sharing my salary?  It’s that kind of weirdness, because I don’t know how other blogs are “performing” and it feels weird to talk about it in numbers.  And those aren’t my proudest accomplishments anyway.

I started blogging to connect with other bloggers, have a place to share about the books I read, and promote my writing.  And I do all of those things, so success!  But they’re ongoing, hard to point to as accomplishments.

I think I’ve worked it out though.  Two accomplishments, sort of.  I’m proud that, when my first book was first out, I contacted a number of bloggers I knew online to ask if they’d help me promote my book.  That was nerve-wracking.  Was I pushy, or asking too much?  And of course they were all lovely, and I got to be on a number of other blogs.  But I’m proud that I asked, and proud that I had built the relationships where asking made sense.

The biggest accomplishment though, that I’m most proud of?  Just that this blog is here.  And it’s still here.  Even in the last few months, at my lowest posting frequency over the entire eight years I’ve been blogging, I feel like I’m still here.  And that’s what I’m proudest of.  That I started a blog to begin with, and that I have stayed on it all this time.

A long while back I read this New York Times article that said 95% of blogs are abandoned.  (That was in 2009, but it probably hasn’t changed.  I somehow must have found it a few years later, because I was blogging when I read it.)  I found this extremely validating.  Staying with a blog, that’s far and away not the norm.  It’s a real thing to do it.

So my proudest blogging accomplishment?  It’s blogging.

Blog Hop: Clutter Everywhere…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop1 Comment

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’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?

Blog Hop: Stranded

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’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?