It's the last day of Armchair BEA. It's been a blast, even though I didn't get around to meeting as many people as I would have liked. So then, onto the final topic, shall we?

Today's topic: Blogging about blogging!

There's so much to say about blogging, I'm not sure where to start. I haven't been book blogging for very long, but I have been personal blogging for about the last 8 years (wow, has it been that long?) and it's been an experience. I will say, book blogging is quite different than personal blogging.  It has a structure, a built in topic, where personal blogging really doesn't, which makes this a totally unique experience. So, rather than rambling on and on, I'm going to address a few of the questions for today's topic at Armchair BEA.

How do you utilize social networking in relation to your blog? What may be the pros and cons of doing so?

Because I'm still feeling my way around, and it's been a somewhat slow process for me because this blog sat dormant for a long time over at WordPress before I moved it here and started to really engage with it, I don't use a lot of social networking so far. I don't have a facebook page for my blog, but may do so at some point in the future. I do have a twitter account for this blog (@aturnofpage) where I share my posts, books I'm reading, etc. Oh, and I'm on GoodReads and would love to connect with other book bloggers there. I would love to hear any suggestions for social networking others have!

Share some of your favorite blogging technical tips.

This is a hard one for me. I feel like, technically speaking, that reviews should be kept to a manageable read. Here's the problem, I don't feel like I keep mine manageable. They're very long, but it's something I'm working on and have tried to account for with sub-headers. They're still really, really long and it's something I need to work on. Concise isn't my best talent by far. One of my professors told me I write really long, beautiful sentences, but I really should try to be more concise. It's never a skill I've mastered. On the HTML, technical side, I can't share anything because, well, I'm not terribly adept. I do okay, but most of it goes well over my head. Oh, I should add that I installed the LinkWithin widget to this blog on the suggestion of another blogger's post for todays Armchair BEA, so I've already learned something new!

Create a "rule list" of things you should and shouldn't be doing on a book blog.

Hmm... okay, one rule: Write what you're passionate about. We all blog because we love books. We're passionate about lit, or we wouldn't have gone to the trouble to start a blog to talk about it. So, carry that passion forward in every entry. I really try to make my reviews, for example, as meaningful as I can... which is why they're so long. I love blogging, I love reading, this blog is the natural evolution of those passions.

What are your tips for balance life and blogging?

I am 100% the wrong person to ask about this. I'm a graduate student, I work teaching classes, and I have a husband, which means there are a lot of people/things vying for my attention and I'm not terribly good at keeping all the ball in the air. I blog when I have time, to let down from the stress, in between classes, assignments, spending time with my husband, grading papers... the list goes on. I do it when I have time and something to say. Right now, I'm on summer break, and while I should be studying for the comps and working on my master's thesis, I still have more time right now than usual. When school starts back in August, we'll see.

What genre do you blog about and why?

I try not to restrict it to any one particular genre because I love all books. There're some genre's I don't read (memoir, western, Christian romance, technical, etc), so I don't talk about them. For the most part, what you'll find here is YA, romance, paranormal, historical, fantasy, dystopia, mythological, and horror. I love romance novels, for many reasons, so I'll probably start a feature for "Steamy page turners" which I'll label with some sort of banner or button so they're distinguishable as 18+.

How do you keep your blog fresh and interesting to your readers & yourself?

This is another thing I'm still working on. I do a lot of memes and hops, which are fun but I think I need more than that. I do reviews, and have been doing "reflection" posts where I talk about different things (so far I've done the evolution of YA and The Hunger Games casting), which I might make a weekly feature. Otherwise, I may try a contest here and there, but I don't know, they seem like a lot to coordinate. I welcome suggestions from others about how I might achieve this!

There are quite a few book blogging events out there. Which are your favorites and why? How do they affect your blog directly?

I do a lot of weekly meme's and hops, including:

• On My Wishlist (Saturday)
• In My Mailbox
• Teaser Tuesday
• WWW Wednesdays
• Follow Friday

Hi there! I just realized that I skipped right over Armchair BEA day three. No idea where the day went--it's not as though I didn't blog, I just managed to miss the Armchair BEA. But, today I'm back on track today and ready to discuss blogging relationships.

Today's Topic: Relationship you’ve formed with a particular publisher, author, blogger, or bookstore.

I've been contemplating what I'd say here, over the last hour. I'm really new to blogging (the year my blog sat dormant over on WordPress not withstanding), so I haven't formed a lot of relationships with publishers, bookstores, etc. That doesn't mean I don't have anything to say here, I'm quite talkative, you'd have to search long and hard to find a topic I didn't have something to say about!

There have been several blogs that have been quite inspirational or helpful to my starting this blog. I think this was actually part of yesterday's topic, but I managed to miss it, so I'm putting it here instead. Anyhow, I would have to say that the one blog that had the most influence over my decision to start blogging was Parajunkee's View. Her Blogging101 Series has been more helpful to me than anything I've read on blogging so far and I've been able to use many of her tips and suggestions along the way. Without them, I would have been quite lost. Also, she introduced me to NetGalley (via her Blogging101 stuff) and for that I'll be forever in her debt.

Since I started blogging, I've met a lot of amazing bloggers... too many to name here. I think the community, as a whole, is the most inclusive and helpful blogging community on the web. It helps that we all share a mutual love of books and reading, and without the book blogosphere, there's no way I would have met so many great people who share one of my greatest passions, books!

I don't think I can end this post without mentioning NetGalley. Of all of the things I love about book blogging, NetGalley is at the top of the list--Who doesn't love them?! I adore them, their service is amazing. They've shared so many amazing books with me, many of which I have yet to get around to reviewing. Harlequin, in particular, is my favorite publisher on NetGalley. I've had the opportunity to communicate with Lisa at Harlequin, through NetGalley (and I follow her on Twitter), and she's been very nice! They've been so gracious about approving me for Galley's. Thank you, NetGalley!

I hope everyone's having a nice Thursday!  If you're here from Armchair BEA, say hello, I don't bite! I enjoy meeting new people, and saying hello to those I already know.

Hi there!  It's day two of Armchair BEA and I had a good time stopping by and saying hello to some of my friends yesterday. I didn't get around to as many as I would have liked, this is a way to say hello to friends and make new ones, after all. Today, I hope will be better and I'll get around to say hello to more bloggers. Thanks to everyone who stopped in for a visit yesterday, it was nice to see you.

Today's topic Best of 2011 asks that we share our favorite books of the year, so far. Here're mine!






So far this year, these six have been my favorites. That said, I've recently gotten a whole lot of books from NetGalley (currently reading The Goddess Test), so who knows. I would really have liked to add The Girl with the Steel Corset to that list, but I felt like it was good, but not good enough--If you're interested, check out my review.  As a matter of fact, I've reviewed all of these books, here're the links...

• The Hunger Games
• Catching Fire
• Mockingjay
• The Vampire Voss
• The Vampire Dimitri
• The Vampire Narcise

Right now, it's a short list. I've read a lot over the first four months or so of the year, but most of it was for school and nothing I'd qualify as a fav. Mostly, just American Southern novels (Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, etc) and critical composition pedagogy. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't quite the thing I'd put here. So, since school's been out over the last few weeks, and I've had time, I've been devouring books left and right. The Vampire stories, I read during the semester, I read the other three last week.

I was going to list some upcoming books I'm interested in, but I think I'll leave it at this. I'm certain my lists of favorites will grow as I read books like Die for Me, Enclave, and Divergent. For now, I'm off to say hello to others who're Armchairing this week. Cheers!

Hi there! This is my first post for Armchair BEA and I'm so excited to be participating--I just decided today that I would! For those who may not know about Armchair BEA, click her for more information. If you're visiting me from the Armchair BEA site, welcome! It's always nice to meet new people, and say hello again to those I already know.

Today's topic is: Who are you, and how do you Armchair?

My name is Kristyn, I'm a graduate student studying English at Tarleton State University, in a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere Texas. I also earned my BA in English with a minor in history from TSU in December 2009, so Tarleton feels like home to me (I've been attending since 2004 and now, as a graduate assistant, I work there and teach classes). Let's see, I've been married for 11 1/2 years to my husband Matt, the most fantastic guy! Here we are just a few weeks ago...

Believe it or not, Matt and I met online in August 1998, before internet dating sites were a big, safe thing. We met randomly, on ICQ, a chat protocol that was once quite popular but has since fallen from favor amongst internet crowds. With ICQ, you can set the program to randomly search for people who are open to random chatting. I struck up a conversation and, in February 2000, we were married! We've been together ever since.

We don't have any kids, but are the parents of two sweet, cuddly little fur babies (read: evil furry demons) we love unconditionally...