Something a little different today.  I discovered I was nominated by Geoffrey over at High Tea Dreams to take part in the Secret Life Of A Book Blogger Tag which is appearing on many people’s sites.  I have 11 questions to answer and then some people to nominate – so here we go……….

1. How long have you been a blogger? – I completed my first blog post at the end of January this year- so almost six months and counting.  I think this will be my 90th post.   
2. At what point do you think you will stop? – I presume when I am too old and feeble to type on the keyboard (mmm.. that might not be too far away). Seriously, I haven’t given that one any thought before now.  I suppose it will be until other commitments tear me away.  I’m not planning to give up anytime soon.
3. What is the best thing? – I love the feedback, when someone says they are reading a book I have recommended or when an author or publisher gets in touch. I also feel that reviewing gives my reading more purpose.  I have reviewed everything I’ve read for quite a few years now but primarily for an audience of one – me.  Now I am sharing these opinions with a much wider audience and that is exciting.
4. What is the worst thing? What do you do to make it ok? – Sometimes I am thwarted by the technical issues.  I can struggle to manipulate text and images.  I work it out in the end, it just takes time.  The other day I had a broken link which had been working beautifully and try as I might I couldn’t get it back.  I did manage to find another way around it though and the link (my Netgalley membership badge actually) is back in position and looking lovely.
5. How long does it take you to find/create pictures for your post? – Most of the time I am able to find these quickly but there have been times when I have had to compromise. I’m much more prepared  to take and use my own photos than I was before I started.  I didn’t think I would be putting up any pictures which featured me – my first picture was of the back of my head with the cat sitting on my lap.  I still love that picture but since then I have been less camera-shy and there is the odd photo of me.
6. Who is your book crush? – Winnie The Pooh.  A great philosophy on life, an optimistic outlook and a love of good food.  What’s not to like?
7. What author would you like to have on your blog?- Any authors whose books I have reviewed I would love to have on the blog. This happened recently with Carol Branston who wrote “Murder! Hollywood Style” and started off my Author Strikes Back thread.  I have a couple of others in the pipeline.  This is an exciting and unexpected direction my blog has taken.
8. What do you wear when you write your blog posts?- Is there some dress code I’m not following? I would like to say I am dressed as a giant white bunny rabbit (I did do that once in my Headteacher days for a charity event.  A school inspector came into my office unannounced  to see a giant white rabbit telling off a small misbehaving child – I think her early retirement was not too far behind!!)
9. How long does it take to prepare? -I tend to draft my posts a day or so before I post them. I’m reading for my blog for an hour to an hour and a half a day.  Ideally, I like to be a couple of posts ahead of myself, in case inspiration deserts me.  I have to be strict with myself when I’m ready to post, otherwise I might just start reading what everybody else has been up to.  I’m allowed to do that once I’ve posted.
10. How do you feel about the book/blogger community/culture? I still feel a little like the new boy but everyone has been great, have given me ideas for reading and offered encouragement. I also think there are a lot of unread books out there – we all seem to have considerable numbers of books in our To Be Read piles
11. What do you think one should do to get a successful blog? Regular posts (I’m aiming at 3-4 times a week, usually on the same days). I think you have to accept that sometimes one post can have an avalanche of readers and attract new followers and sometimes not much happens.  I think it’s important to be true to what you are aiming to do with your blog and not compromise to get readers.  I think there’s the temptation that I’m trying to fight to write mainly about newly published books because that attracts the most attention.   However, the blog posts I tend to enjoy reading the most are from people who are discovering books that have been out for some time.  If I’ve read the books they are blogging about it brings back memories and those are the posts I’m most likely to comment on.

Right, there’s my answers now my turn to nominate the next set of people to have a go………

These are blogs I enjoy and so would like to see answers from the same questions(hope they haven’t already done it- apologies if you have,  I did do a quick search and it didn’t leap out at me!):

Fiction Fan’s Book Reviews

The Bookworm Chronicles

Cleopatra Loves Books

Northern Crime

The Captive Reader