Category Archives: Blogging

Happy Birthday BooksPlease!

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BooksPlease is 4 years old today!

I find it hard to believe that I’ve been writing this blog for 4 years. It seems like it was only yesterday I tentatively clicked on ‘publish’  for the first time.

Over these last 4 years I’ve read almost 400 books and have written about the  majority of them. I’ve also written about places I love to visit but my blog has stayed mainly about books.

The greatest change in my reading has come about gradually over the last two years or so, in that I now read a lot more crime fiction than I ever did before and that’s down to other bloggers, but also because I find crime fiction books are about so much more than crime. There is such variety in crime fiction – dealing with contemporary issues, historical crime (true and fictional), moral and ethical issues, personal and psychological crimes, and organised crime and so on. There are police procedurals, private detectives, amateur sleuths, serial killers and racial and political crime thrillers. And I love variety in my reading.

Books Please Me

I’ve also found that blogging isn’t a solitary pursuit, although it can be if you want. I’ve ‘met’ so many kindred spirits on book blogs and other blogs too. There are numerous reading challenges and memes to join and the opportunity to discuss books with people world wide. I’m very happy that I ventured into the book blogosphere. Thanks to everyone who reads my blog and especially to those who’ve taken the time and effort to make comments.

Margaret’s Miscellany: My New Blog

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Recently I’ve begun a new blog – Margaret’s Miscellany.

When I started to write BooksPlease I intended it to be the place where I recorded what I’d read and what I thought about the books. It expanded and became a place where I wrote about a variety of things as well as books.

So now I’m keeping BooksPlease just about books and all things bookish and everything else will be on Margaret’s Miscellany. It’s still very much a work in progress but this is the place where I’ll be writing about places I’ve been to, things I’ve done, cookery, gardening. walking, etc, etc. For example the most recent post is  ABC Wednesday – M is for Mushrooms.

Weekly Geeks – Overly Critical?

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This week’s Weekly Geeks host Tara asks if we are OCRs?

O.C.R. = Overly Critical Reader

Symptoms:

  • not liking characters in the beginning
  • needing the main character to prove themselves before you’ll respect them
  • rolling your eyes while reading
  • needing things to be completely realistic
  • shouting things such as “WTF?!”
  • needing every plot twist and turn to be foreseeable

I don’t think I’m overly critical. I’m quite fussy about what I read in the first instance, so many books just don’t get a look in beyond the first page. I want to enjoy what I’m reading so I don’t start any book that looks boring or as though it’s not well written.

I do get exasperated when I read a description or a fact that I know is wrong, but a book doesn’t have to be completely realistic – I can suspend my disbelief to a certain extent. And I certainly don’t want every plot twist and turn to be foreseeable because that would be far too predictable.

I don’t feel the need to like all the characters, in fact unlikeable characters can be more interesting and necessary to the plot. It would be terribly boring if every character was ‘nice’.

I like reading critical reviews because then it gives me another view from the gushing praise some reviewers give (on Amazon for example), so in my reviews I like to say why I don’t like certain aspects of a book if I’ve found it disappointing or poorly written and give an overall idea of whether I loved it or not. I don’t give ratings on my blog, but I do on LibraryThing, where my average rating is 4 stars (out of 5). I also rate each book privately as I read it; most are between 3.5 and 5, where 5 is excellent and 3 is average. I don’t put it on the blog because it’s very subjective. I’ve noticed that this varies from blog to blog and I’m wondering  if I should start putting my rating in the review?

Happy Birthday BooksPlease!

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Three years ago today I began to write regularly on this blog and this is my 846th post.

I started out very tentatively but now feel at home here. My intention at the beginning was to keep a more detailed record of what I was reading, but I soon realised it’s also a good place to record places we’ve visited; actually my first posts were mainly about places rather than books!

I also discovered memes. I had no idea what these were, ‘memes’ up till then were something I’d read about in Richard Dawkins’s books. Booking through Thursday soon became addictive and most weeks I still take part. Actually you could do a meme each day of the week if you want to and I then realised that this was taking me away from reading, so I’ve cut down on them.

Then there are the Challenges. I thought them too difficult at first and didn’t take part. But soon, when I realised that you don’t actually have to complete them I found that they’re a very good way of learning about new books and also of getting down to reading some books off my tbr piles.

So, after three years of blogging what has changed? I written about most of the books I’ve read – see the tabs above for my book reviews and indexes and I’ve learnt a lot, found many other book bloggers who share my love and enthusiasm for books and added loads of books both to my tbr piles and my wishlists, but most of all I’ve enjoyed it all immensely. I love the contact from all over the world and the comments I’ve had -I hope you all keep on visiting!

Awards

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i-keep-coming-back-for-moreThis summer I received two awards, which I haven’t acknowledged on this blog (my excuse is house-hunting, we may be near the end of that now, but I mustn’t say too much in case it all falls through).

Cathy of Kittling Books gave me the I Keep Coming Back for More Award. In her words:

The I Keep Coming Back for More! Award is for a blog you just can’t stay away from. If you’ve been busier than a one-armed paperhanger with the hives and your Google reader is over 1,000 unread posts, these are the blogs that you single out to read. These are the ones that are never victims to the dreaded Mark All As Read. There may be many different reasons why you can’t stay away: a taste in books that mirrors your own, the same sense of humor, always knowing the latest in the book world… for whatever the reason, these blogs are flat out addictive and you have no wish to be cured!

I like this award – thank you very much, Cathy, yours is a blog I keep coming back to! I also like your rules:

  • Enjoy the award. If you don’t want to put it on your blog, don’t. Just get the warm, fuzzy feeling that I’m sending your way!
  • You don’t have to reveal any deep, dark secrets about yourself or answer any sort of questions. You’ve already earned it!
  • You don’t have to link back to me.
  • You don’t have to give it to anyone else.

Simple, huh? Now, if you do want to give this award to someone else, that’s a whole ‘nuther kettle of fish.
If you do want to pass it along to some of those addictive book blogs in your reader, just follow the same four rules I outlined above. This is a pay-it-forward award. Nothing is to be expected in return!

As I ’ve been away a lot recently my Google Reader is overflowing, full to bursting in fact with so many posts to read. Actually I very rarely mark all the blogs in my Reader as read, although I do scroll down them when there are a lot. I wouldn’t want to miss a good post! I regularly click over to the blogs rather than reading them in the reader. I’m passing on this award to:

Thinking about it, I’m also passing it on to all the bloggers in my blogroll as they all write blogs I read and enjoy.superior scribbler award

Then Jane of Reading, Writing, Working Playing gave me the Superior Scribbler Award. I love this image and the idea that someone thinks I’m a “superior scribbler” tickles me pink! Thank you so much Jane.

Again if you’re on my blogroll I’m passing this award on to you.

Not So Wordless Wednesday – Eggsplosion

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exploding-eggs-3

To make exploding eggs:

  • Take two eggs and place them in a saucepan
  • Cover with water and put on the cooker to boil
  • Take a cup of tea upstairs
  • Sit down at computer to finish writing a post for your blog
  • Get completely engrossed in writing
  • Wonder what that funny smell is
  • Have a look out of the window to see if next door neighbours are having a barbecue
  • Can’t see them and decide someone must be having a bonfire
  • Go back to writing
  • When you hear an explosion run downstairs to see what the cat has broken
  • Find a burned out saucepan and the cooker covered in bits of egg

 

exploding-eggs-2

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Note to Self : Don’t blog and boil eggs at the same time!

Check out other Wordless Wednesday participants.