Archive for Time to Think

I’m a mood-driven person. I read when I want to (though that’s most of the time), and can’t be persuaded to even touch a book when I’m not. Usually, though, this distaste for books is genre-based. For example, there are plenty of times when I feel that, if I read another vampire book, I may turn into a violent, frenzied bloodsucker myself.

More often than lacking desire to read, though, I suffer from what I call Reading ADD. This is when I cannot settle on any one book. I’ll pick up title after title and lose interest after a chapter or two–if I’m lucky. My mind may be telling me that some fantastic books are slow-starters, or that characters change and evolve over the course of books (usually), and three pages isn’t enough to decide whether or not I like the MC, but my attention span isn’t listening. Thus does my (temporary) DNF pile grow.

Sometimes, when this happens to me, I’ll reread an old favorite. I’ll pick something that I know will capture my interest–after all, it did at least once before. And sometimes that works. Other times…not so much. That’s when I begin to think that I might need to be medicated. The only reliable cure for Reading ADD is time. Eventually–though it’s usually much longer than I’d like it to be–I’ll refocus.

Part of the problem, I know, is trouble identifying what I want to read. Am I in the mood for some steamy contemporary romance? Or maybe I want some light and fluffy YA? Because money is tight, and I have the kind of TBR pile that sometimes gives me nightmares, I no longer allow myself the luxury of buying ebooks. Occasionally, if I’m really desperate, I’ll scour the blogosphere for some recommendations on good, cheap indie titles. It’s rare for those books to have the kind of attention-grab that I need to get back on track.

So. My question is this: Do you guys ever suffer from Reading ADD? And even if you don’t, do you have any suggestions as to how to bounce back from this horrific ailment? What do you do when you run into trouble settling on any one read? Or am I alone in this phenomena? I may be crazy, but I’m willing to bet there’s at least one of you out there who can empathize…

‘Scuze me, have you entered my

2nd Blogoversary Bonanza giveaway yet?

Alright, confession time. For a while now, I’ve been flirting with the idea of monetizing my blog. Not because I set out to make money as a blogger, but because money is tight, and I’ve had to work more. Working more has meant fewer hours for reading and blogging. More than that, it’s meant less energy for them. I don’t want to stop blogging, and I admit that my issue could possibly be resolved once I’ve had a chance to sit down and figure out a new routine. So, is monetizing my blog really the answer? I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that it’s an avenue I want to explore.

Back Up a Minute!

Before I get into the ethical issues of making money through blogging, I want to state, here and now, that I feel I’m already compensated for blogging. I’m compensated in many ways, the most obvious of which is review copies. ARCs may not (technically) have any monetary value, but they do have value. To me, at least. More than that, though, I’m compensated through the friendships I’ve formed, and the community I’ve become a part of. Not to mention the sense of worthiness and satisfaction I get when my effort is acknowledged. This post is to explore whether or not I want to go the extra mile for the extra reward.

What Am I Thinking?

If I did decide to monetize my blog through advertising, any ads would have to be book-related. 

This may be a no-brainer, but it took me awhile to nail down this requirement. When I first thought of having ads on my blog, I imagined they’d be of the “Lose 50 Pounds in 5 Minutes” or “Make A Billion Dollars From Your Own Couch” variety. Then, I realized that might necessarily be the case. It just might be possible to have advertising while maintaining my integrity.
Check out Smart Bitches, Trashy Books for my ideal model. Their ads aren’t distracting, and they’re definitely content-specific. Do you see ads for Naked Russian Chicks Who Want to Chat With You? No, you do not. Of course, I’m nowhere near in the same league as the Smart Bitches, which brings up another issue. Would any book-related advertisers even want to advertise on my blog? Unlikely. Blog advertising must be like blogging–in the beginning, it’s a lot of hard work with very little reward.
So, it could take time to attract the kind of advertisers I’d like to have on my blog. And since time is something I want to have more of in order to focus on my blog, am I interested/willing in devoting some of it on a venture that may not help in the short term? This is where I go back to square one. Indecision is a bitch.

Any Thoughts?

And that’s basically why I wrote this post. Your feedback may help me to make my decision. So, help me out, kind folks. What are your thoughts about monetizing my blog? Do you have moral objections? Would you be disappointed to see ads pop up on this (or any) blog, whether or not they were content-specific? Do you have any advice, or words of wisdom to offer me?

     Once a month, usually on the first Thursday, I like to post discussions. For the last couple of months, I’ve been including a linky at the end of my posts, encouraging people to link to their own discussions around the web. I haven’t had anyone sign up (yet), so I thought I’d use this month’s discussion slot to talk about why I like them, and to make a formal announcement.

Here it is:

     I love discussion posts. Reviews are awesome, and I do like many of the memes out there, but discussion posts really bring me back to the reason I started blogging. I love books and I love reading and I wanted to find a community where I could talk about them.
     By creating a place where people can link to their own discussion posts, I have the following hopes:

1. That I will find out about some kick butt, epic, fawesome discussion posts I can contribute to. 
2. That my readers will find out about some kick-butt, epic, fawesome discussion posts they can contribute to.
3. That I will encourage other bloggers to discuss bookish things (in addition to all the other awesome stuff they already do). 
4. That I will encourage discussion, period. Always a good thing, IMHO. 

      Today I want to know why you think discussion posts are important. Or maybe you don’t, though I doubt you’ll be commenting if that’s the case! What value does discussion–particularly bookish discussion–have for you? Do you go out of your way to respond to discussions, or are you content to stumble across them at will?

Most importantly: Please think about linking up to any discussion posts you have written yourself, or that you have come across in the blogging community. 

Thank you!

     I don’t know about you, but I remember getting my own library card like it was yesterday. We had two libraries in my town, too. The little library near my house, and the “big” library I had to hop on my bike and pedal hard and fast to get to. In fact, I remember telling my parents that I was going to a friend’s house and riding to the big library instead. We won’t talk about the fall-out of that particular escapade.

The “Little” Library

     When I was growing up young adult fiction wasn’t the phenomenon it is today, so the books I borrowed were largely of the Sweet Valley High variety. Everything else–Nancy Drew, The Giver, The Goosebumps books–I read at school. There were a few gems that I remember to this day, but by and large? My memory of going to the library isn’t of individual books, it’s of the packed shelves, the hushed atmosphere and the promise of plenty to read.

The “Big” Library

     The library supplied most of my bookish wants through high school. During this time I read a lot of James Patterson–whom I can no longer stand. There was a brief intermission when I was ten. I lost a book and was too scared to tell the librarian about it, so I avoided the library altogether. During college, I was mainly preoccupied with required reading. It wasn’t until Spring Break of my junior year that I visited my university’s library to borrow a book to read on the plane ride home. It was the first time I’d gone and actually checked out a book. Even then, most research was online. It was with that book (Pride and Prejudice) that my love of libraries reasserted itself.

The Storytelling Chair at the “big” library.

     Right now, I mainly use the library for checking out audiobooks. I own so many unread novels that whenever I do check something out of the library, that the book is due before I’ve even gotten around to thinking about reading it. However rarely I might check out a physical book, I still had a panic attack when my library card expired, thus locking me out of my online account. To further give you a sense of the library’s importance to me, I report that I keep it between my driver’s license and my debit card. It’s still the same strip of plastic with the childish signature I painstakingly scrawled upon it when I was fourteen (the last time I lost my library card).
     In my classroom, I go into paroxysms of horror when my students tell me they a) don’t have a library card and b) never, ever go to the library. They–and I admit to having this problem myself–don’t think much of “renting” books. They want to own them, and with their childish lack of understanding about how money works, they can’t comprehend why everyone doesn’t just go to Barnes & Noble. I tell them I think libraries are awesome (I don’t use “fawesome” in the classroom). And that that’s why I continue to support them by racking up late fees.
     I didn’t conceive this discussion post as an ode to libraries, but that’s kind of what it’s turned out to be. At any rate, let’s talk libraries!

• Do you remember the one you went to as a kid?
• Do you borrow books often? 
• How often do you go?
• Do you take your kids? (If you have them, of course.)
• What’s the best library you’ve ever been to?

NEW FEATURE:
Do you have a discussion going on your blog? Or know of one you think others might be interested it? Leave a link to it here so we can check it out!
Suggestion: Include the topic under discussion in the link description or title.

     Lately, I’ve been thinking about names. I freely admit to an obsession with my own. I love my name with a passion that borders on insanity. When I was a kid, though, I didn’t love it. I wanted to go by my middle name so that people could call me “Sam.” Now, as a (mostly) mature adult, I give thanks to my parents for choosing the name they did, and it tickles me pink to come across fictional characters who share my awesome, illustrous cognomen.
     Which brings me to the subject of my discussion for today. Just how important a role do names play in the books you read? For me, they’re eternally important. Half the fun of reading the Harry Potter books was exploring the origin and significance of the characters names. I love that J.K. Rowling put that much thought into so small a detail. On the other hand, if I read another teen book with a hero named “Lucien” or “Damon” (or Damien or any other near-variation), I may scream my head off. But, I guess that’s another story.
     When I write (which isn’t that often anymore, honestly), I spend hours researching names. Actually, maybe that’s why I never finished anything. Huh. But–I want characters to have names with deeper meanings. They don’t have to, obviously, for me to an enjoy the book, but they can add to my overall experience. An author who takes the time to choose his or her characters carefully wins bonus points for me.
     On the other hand, an author who gives a character the same name as him or herself  is a pet peeve of mine. It automatically indicates a Mary Sue to me. I’ll be on the alert for any evidence to support the fact while I’m reading the book, so I prefer that authors avoid this trap. Which is not to say that this is always the case–Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennett has a sister named Jane–and in no way do I see Jane Bennett as the venerable JA inserting herself into the story. Because you know JA is more Lizzy than Jane.
     My last comment on names is the way they can affect how I feel about characters. For example, I like the name Jace. It’s a little bit different and it sounds kind of cocksure and swaggish (one who walks with a swagger), just like Cassandra Clare’s character. Uh–we all know I’m talking about Jace Wayland from the Mortal Instruments series, right? Okay, good. BUT. Yesterday, when I woke up to the announcement about the new Dark Artifice series in my mailbox, my first reaction was all, “Cool!” And my second? “Oh. His name is Julian?” Now imagine my face looking like this:

     I guess you could say it put me off. So, my questions for you guys are these:

• How do the names of characters affect (effect?–AMANDA, HELP ME!) your reading experience, if at all?
• Do you have names that never fail to turn you off or, alternately, never fail to get you excited about a character?
• What names do you hope NEVER to see appear in fiction again?
• How do you feel about authors who share their names with their characters?

Come on, ya’ll! Let’s get our discussion on!

NEW FEATURE:
Do you have a discussion going on your blog? Or know of one you think others might be interested it? Leave a link to it here so we can check it out!

• Suggestion: Include the topic under discussion in the link description or title.