BBAW - Future Treasures

As part of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I am responding to a daily question about books and blogging. Please visit the BBAW website for more answers from other bloggers.


We’ve been visiting each other and getting to know each other better…now is your chance to share what you enjoyed about BBAW and also what your blogging goals are for the next year!

I've been too busy this week to really appreciate BBAW, unfortunately, but I'm looking forward to catching up on all the great posts stacking up in my RSS reader and finding out what I missed!

My blogging goals for the next year are simple: keep going! As many of you have already read, my husband and I are expecting our first child this December. I anticipate that my life is going to change dramatically when our little girl arrives. I'd like to keep blogging, though, so I will do my best to learn how to fit it in to my new schedule.

BBAW - Unexpected Treasure

As part of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I am responding to a daily question about books and blogging. Please visit the BBAW website for more answers from other bloggers.


We invite you to share with us a book or genre you tried due to the influence of another blogger. What made you cave in to try something new and what was the experience like?

One book I read recently on the advice of a fellow blogger was Dissolution by C.J. Sansom which I read after reading the review on The Infusion. That wasn't particularly outside of my comfort zone, though, as I really love historical mysteries.

I also read, this year, The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti, after reading many positive reviews about it from other bloggers. As you can see from my review, I wasn't terribly impressed with it, though.

If I had an "unexpected treasure" this year, it's not coming to me, unfortunately.

BBAW - Interview with Cathy of Kittling: Books

This year, As part of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I was paired for the interview swap with Cathy of Kittling: Books. Since Cathy has been blogging for a while and is, I know, pretty familiar in the book blogging world, I decided not to focus my interview on "getting to know you" questions or on general questions about her blog. Instead, I decided to focus on getting her advice to the long-time blogger (like, for example, me!). I hope you enjoy the interview.

I highly recommend a visit to Kittling: Books to read Cathy's interview of me - as I write this post I haven't seen what Cathy wrote and, based on how interesting her questions were, I am really curious to read the interview!



When and why did you start Kittling: Books?

I started three blogs in June 2008, Kittling: Books, Kittling: Travel Tales, and Kittling: Personal Observations. Kittling is a Gaelic word which means "anything that strikes [my] fancy", and I thought divvying my interests into three different blogs would suit them best. I was wrong.

It was very difficult to find the time to keep all three maintained. The more I got into my primary passion (books), I realized that the people who read blogs wanted to know something about the blogger's personality. So, instead of being a split personality, I shut down the other two blogs and spiced up the content on Kittling: Books by using the writing, humor and photography from the other two.

As to why I started down the blogging path... I had a book group on Yahoo groups with which I became very dissatisfied. I decided that, if I was going to talk to myself, I might as well do it in a venue that allowed me a bit more to play with: writing with photos and videos and the like. It turns out that I didn't talk to myself for very long, and I couldn't be happier. There are some wonderful people out in the blogosphere.


How has your blog changed since you first started?

When I first started, Kittling: Books consisted mainly of book reviews and little else. Dead boring. I started lurking in a few blogging groups at Library Thing, and the people there did a great deal in educating me about content, about what blogs were out there, about what sort of things were looked for in book blogs. I started visiting blogs to see what they were talking about, and I began experimenting to see what worked for me, and what didn't.

Now I'm not afraid to put myself out there, to let my personality out-- whether it's in the way that I word my reviews, or my photos that I share, or the occasional adventure out on the trail that I share. I think Kittling: Books is pretty much me... in Internet form.


How do you keep the blog fresh both for your readers and for you, as its creator?

I've found it rather amusing that, in the world of book blogging, the posts that generate the least amount of comments tend to be-- you guessed it-- book reviews.

It didn't take me long to realize that I really didn't want to talk to me, myself, and I on my blog. I didn't have a problem generating contact on my other two blogs with my photography and other posts. Kittling: Books was really my favorite child, and what I had to do to change it and keep it fresh was to turn loose of the fear.

What fear? That my blog had to be about books, books, and nothing but books. When I shut down the other two blogs and began using bits of their content on my book blog, things began to liven up. Then I began to see these weekly features on other blogs, and I wondered if I couldn't do something like that myself.

And then I began to get burned out because I thought I had to post every single day. I made the decision to take the weekends off, and also to schedule posts ahead of time as much as possible.
Now most of my posts are scheduled, so I don't feel "deadlines" breathing down my neck, and even though I'm not posting seven days a week, the number of people reading my blog continues to grow.

So... I would say that the best way to keep your blog fresh for you and for your readers is to do what's best for you-- and a lot of times that means getting rid of the fear. Be willing to experiment!


You have several features on your blog, the most well-known being Scene of the Blog. How do you decide to start a feature? How do you keep them going and keep them fresh?

Funny that you should ask me this, Lorin, since I've been playing around with the idea of starting my own reading challenge in 2011!

How do I decide to start a feature? With Scene of the Blog, I think I was inspired by an excessive amount of time spent watching Home & Garden Television (HGTV). I love floor plans, elevations, interior design... and one day I caught myself putting all this in context with book bloggers. So many of us tend to be introverts, much more comfortable working behind the scenes than out in front of the camera. I know I am! But would introverts be more willing to participate in a feature that asked them to show just the area in which they blogged... a feature that allowed them to stay behind the camera?

I thought that the answer would probably be yes, so I began doing research. I couldn't find similar features on other book blogs, and when I asked about it on Twitter, the response was overwhelmingly positive, and that's how it all began.

Scene of the Blog is still going strong, and its premise has so much structure that it stays fresh. No two book bloggers' spaces look the same!

I have tried other features, and they don't always work... or they work for a limited period of time. When the inspiration is gone and no one is responding to them, don't be afraid to let them go. The act of letting one tired one go usually sparks at least one new idea for me.

Many thanks to Cathy for being willing to answer my questions!

Please visit the BBAW website for more interviews from other bloggers.

BBAW - First Treasure

As part of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I am responding to a daily question about books and blogging. Please visit the BBAW website for more answers from other bloggers.


We invite you to share with us about a great new book blog you’ve discovered since BBAW last year!

One of my favorite blogs that I've discovered in the last year is My Porch. While it is not a new blog (looking at his archive, Thomas has been blogging since 2006) it was new to me this year.

The interesting thing is that I think there really is not much overlap in book taste between us. He tends to like older British fiction (lots of Persephone Press books, etc). His favorite childhood book was probably my least favorite! I read a lot of sci fi and fantasy; I don't think he reads any of either.

Yet, despite our differences, I really enjoy reading his blog. We do have a lot in common (a shared love of the Ivory Merchant film adaptation of Room with a View, for example) and a background in design (architecture for me, urban design {I believe} for him). I love his eye - I love the posts on wonderful illustrations and book jackets. And I love reading his reviews, even when I doubt I will actually ever read the book.

I you haven't read My Porch before, I definitely recommend checking it out.

Friday Update

What a whirlwind of a week! It was a little difficult to keep up with all the posts for BBAW, but there was a lot of great reading and I really enjoyed it.

Two new books came into my home this week.


The first was The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf. I bought this for my mom for her birthday in August. She enjoyed reading it, so she sent it back to me to read. I'll give it back to her when I'm done.

I also received Words @ Work by Lynda McDaniel, for an upcoming Blog Tour.

Happy weekend, everyone!

BBAW: Setting Goals

In 50 words or less, what do you like best about your blog right now and where would you like your blog to be a year from now?

The thing I like best is it exists! I've heard that most bloggers give up after 6 months. arch thinking is over a year old and, while I have days with nothing to say, I generally am still excited to keep going. In a year, I'd like to be blogging more and have more readers.

That's 54 words. Close enough!

Thanks for a wonderful Book Blogger Awareness Week, everyone! I've had a blast.

BBAW: How Lenore Made Me A Jasper Fforde fan

Today's BBAW "assignment" was to blog about a book you read only because you discovered it on another book blog. As you can see from the title of this post, it wasn't just one book I discovered from reading Presenting Lenore, but a whole new author.

Almost a year ago (yikes! time flies), Lenore had Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde as her "Waiting on Wednesday" pick. I thought it sounded fascinating and was really disappointed that it wasn't out yet. So I went off to Amazon to see what else this Fforde guy had written. Turns out: a lot. Since then, I've read several of the Thursday Next books and one of the Nursery Crimes books, and have enjoyed them all. The funny thing is, I haven't even read Shades of Grey yet!

BBAW: Reading Meme

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
I read while I'm eating dinner all the time, but I don't normally snack while I read.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
It horrifies me a little, though college probably cured me of that, mostly. No, I just rarely have a need to note anything in the book I'm reading.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
Usually, I use the receipt for the book as a bookmark. I love to pull a book off the shelf and find the old receipt, or some other marker that tells me where the book came from. It always brings back a good memory!

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?
Both - mostly fiction, but I also like quirky memoirs, food books, and popular history.

Hard copy or audiobooks?
Hard copy. When my husband and I were first dating, we lived 5 hours away from each other by car for a year. I made that drive dozens of times and I couldn't have done it without audiobooks. I don't think I've listened to a single one since, though.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?
Unless my eyes are closing from exhaustion, I always read to the end of the chapter - or the section break, at least.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?
No.

What are you currently reading?
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach, author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.

What is the last book you bought?
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. It is my next book club book.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?
I prefer to read multiple books at the same time. I especially like to mix it up - a nonfiction history and a YA fantasy, or an Agatha Christie mystery and a memoir.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?
Between the hours of 7 am and 11 pm, 7 days a week. Favorite place is my (new king size!) bed, with my husband nearby, also reading. Heaven.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?
I do tend to read a lot of series, and I think that's because if I like a character, I like getting to know them over time. Stand alone books are good, but series are a real draw for me. But I don't like it when series go on too long (15 books is too much, for example), as I just think the quality goes down.

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. It's just fascinating and funny. I'm also surprised when I meet someone who watches his show but has never read his books.

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)
By however they will fit on our poor, cramped bookshelves!

BBAW: Interview

As part of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I had the honor of getting to interview LaTonya aka Susan of Color Online! Color Online focuses on women writers of color, and is a community organization in Detroit dedicated to empowering young women.

Color Online has the interesting distinction among most of the book blogs I read of having both a physical presence and an online one. So, which came first? How do the two versions of Color Online interact? How did you personally get started blogging?

I founded Color Online as a lit studies group for at-risk youth in September 2005. I approached a local non-profit about working with reluctant and non-readers. One of my goals was to draw a connection between technology and literary studies, to teach the girls how they could use technology to express their own creativity and self-expression through blogs, web pages or other online social networks. (You can find detailed explanation of our history here.)

I’ve been online for more than a decade. Do you remember listserves and message board communities? I was an admin for a few online communities, active in many and even did some online publishing. Blogging was a natural progression. My ultimate goal was to create a formal online space and that’s why we were Color Online before we were actually online. In 2007, I created our blog. I didn’t do much with it until late 2008. The blog didn’t take off until this year. With the population I serve, I don’t have the same group of girls long and I had to make a decision about what I could do serving youth via Color Online. I chose to pursue what I thought could have a significant impact- shoring up our online presence, promoting multicultural literature and advocating for greater diversity in kidlit and YA publishing, and shifting my onsite focus from participants in prevention programs to young women living in the shelter.

Initially, I used the blog and our discussion forum as teaching and social spaces but with limited online access and constant turnover in population, I came to realize my target group was not in a position to grow with Color Online as I had hoped and I accepted that. I refocused on other ways to support those young women - maintaining the library and hosting onsite social activities while building an online community with the same core aims: to promote and celebrate multiculturalism and diversity in literature. Both our onsite group and our blog are communities committed to empowering young women, and reading opens doors to new worlds and knowledge, and knowledge is power. Our online group supports our onsite efforts, including building our library collection, and our online community is a space where members can share information and engage in meaningful dialogue.

What was your favorite book as a kid? Have you re-read it since and, if so, how does it hold up?

I was a sporadic reader as a child. I can’t really name a favorite. I do remember the book that made feel the library was a special place and the book made an incredible impression on me and that was Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. No, I haven’t re-read it but I am certain about the magic it held for me. It led to one of my reading streaks.

Do you re-read books?

I don’t re-read many books. I’m too busy playing catch-up. When I joined book social network sites, I discovered what a true late bloomer I was. This wasn’t entirely news to me but, prior to joining book communities, I was unaware how many adult readers were readers since childhood. I was a sporadic reader as a child. Read what I had to for school. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I became an obsessive reader.

What do you think about adults reading YA?

I become annoyed with adult readers who dismiss YA literature including educators who sometimes put an incredible emphasis on the classics and adult literature. While I think these should be required reading, I believe these works alone often aren’t the best way to cultivate a love of reading at least not among non-readers.

I think adults, particularly parents and educators, need to be mindful of how they approach the genre when reviewing it and discussing it with YA readers. Just as with literary works, how you process a work is going to depend partially on the perspective you bring to the read, and your perspective is based partially on the time in your life when you read it. You’re going to see different things, appreciate different elements in a work based on your life experiences. I think adults should be mindful of their adult lens.

I love YA, but I by no means try to process it the way I think teens do. My lens is shaped by my experiences as an adult looking back. The YA literature I enjoy most has to meet the same preferences and expectations I have for adult literature: quality writing, character development, and deft use of devices.

Without going off the deep end, I think there’s an incredible amount of diversity and quality in this genre that many adults would enjoy if they bothered to explore it.

What's your favorite genre to read?

What I enjoy most overlaps. For both YA and adult lit, I prefer realistic fiction. I read a lot of multicultural lit, written by women of color about people of color. While I read a lot of realistic fiction I have to mention sub-genres: historical fiction, speculative, dystopia, science fiction, fantasy and memoirs.

Where do you hope Color Online will be in a year?

In one year, we will be regularly publishing our e-zine at our website.. At the moment, we're thinking a quarterly schedule. I previously had a successful stint doing this so we're not reinventing the wheel with this venture. Publishing provides another opportunity to showcase the talent of teens and women of color.One year from now we will be hosting our second annual poetry and essay contests for teens.

One year from now, I hope we are closer rather than farther from achieving 501.3c status. Ultimately, I want to run Color Online full-time as a non-profit literacy and diversity organization. One year from now, I see Color Online as a recognized, grassroots, multicultural, and diversity in publishing advocacy group.

Any upcoming plans you want to share?

Very soon we will announce our first Colorwheel recipient. The Colorwheel Award recognizes individuals, communities, organizations or companies that demonstrate a clear commitment to diversity in their operations, staff, products or services. A Colorwheel recipient is an exemplary role model among their peers.

Stay tune for our Women of Color Writer Series. This series of profiles will introduce readers to emerging and recently published writers.

Thanks to Susan for allowing me to interview you!

Update: Find Susan's interview with me here: Building Bridges: Chatting With Lorin from Arch Thinking.

BBAW Welcome!

Today kicks off Book Blogger Appreciation Week! Book Blogger Appreciation (started and run by Amy Riley of My Friend Amy) is an event to recognize the contribution book bloggers make to the promotion and preservation of "a literate culture actively engaged in discussing books, authors, and a lifestyle of reading." All week, there will be blogger interviews, memes, and, of course, awards. Congratulations to everyone who was nominated for an award! There's no way I could read all the book blogs out there, and the shortlist just proves how many great ones there are.

I *heart* Book Bloggers

This is one of those real life gets in the way of blogging weeks, unfortunately. Unexpectedly, I have to go out of town this week, so I will probably not get the chance to post much, which is too bad for a couple of reasons. First off, I have several new books to review and I'm not going to get the chance to do so before I go. (In fact, I should be packing right now, not writing this post.) To wet your appetite, please see my previous "preview" posts here and here to find out more about what books I've been reading recently. Here are some ...

Adventures with Purpose by Richard Bangs
Mouse Guard Volume 1: Fall 1152 by David Peterson
Art Deco San Francisco: The Architecture of Timothy Pflueger by Therese Poletti

The second reason that I'm bummed that I won't be around this week is that its Book Blogger Appreciation Week! Start at My Friend Amy's for the fun, and enjoy getting to read lots of great bloggers and hear all about lots of wonderful books.

Have a wonderful week!

BBAW Giveaway

The kind folks at Bookroomreviewers's Weblog are doing an awesome giveaway to encourage readers to explore all the fantastic book blogs out there. Find the post here and enjoy! Oh, and the prizes? A chance to win one of three new books:

Sweet Life by Mia King
When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale
Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles

Good luck and let me know if you win!

Book Bloggers

As you may know, there are a lot of book bloggers out there. Amy (of My Friend Amy) has decided to start a Book Blogger Appreciation Week, to be held September 15-19. To find out more, read her post about it here.