Sunshine Blogger Award #2

The Summer Solstice is today, so happy summer! I can’t say I love the season, mostly because of the sun, the heat, and the resurrection of the worst of insect life. But enough about that.

I’m back with another blog award. Gayathri from Elgee Writes nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award a few months ago, though I have answered a different set of questions for this award before. You can’t beat the longest day of the year for a sunshine-related award!

Rules

1. Tag the person who tagged you and link their blog
2. Answer the questions asked
3. List the rules and tag 11 (?!) other people to do the tag.
4. Ask away 11 questions for them to answer

Answers

1. If you get to do over your blogging journey, what is the first thing you will change in your blog?

I would probably change my blog name, but I don’t know what I would change it to.

2. Tell us one of your earliest memories related to books or reading in general.

I remember my mom and I reading Cooper Edens’ If You’re Afraid of the Dark, Remember the Night Rainbow. It was one of those books that I often asked to read before going to bed. We read it so many times that I had memorized it.

3. What or who inspired you to start blogging? And what do you wanna achieve in terms of blogging?

I wanted to start a website when I was eight because the teens were doing it so easily (on free platforms, like MatMice Free Homepages) at Boys & Girls Club. I tried different website platforms to create websites, and it was fun. I didn’t discover WordPress until I wanted to blog.

The person who inspired me to start a book blog was Sara Grochowski at The Hiding Spot. I knew her when she worked at the local library and then at the local bookstore. She made book blogging look cool to me.

4. Teach us one secret life / blog hack that you found in the last year.

You can easily follow all of the non-WordPress blogs you want with sites, like Bloglovin’. I’m not the best at using it or curating it, but it has made it easier to keep track of Blogspot and Wix blogs. Shameless self-promo: You can follow Cat on the Bookshelf on Bloglovin’ here.

5. What is your favorite among the social media websites and why?

On a personal level, I love Facebook for its privacy settings and ability to post a bunch of random stuff.

For blogging purposes, my favorite social media site is Twitter. While there are basically only two privacy settings, I like that I can share a lot of things. I’ve been happy the last few months to better be able to keep up with events in the book blogging community through Twitter threads and generally immediate updates. I also learned about more Twitter hashtags for book bloggers when I wrote a guide for them.

6. If you can meet only one more blogger in real life, who would be that? And why?

Ah! This is difficult. I would want to meet Dani from Perspective of a Writer. I think we have similar reading interests, and it would be fun to chat about books, anime, or a lot of other things over coffee or a lunch. I would probably develop a love for K-Dramas after meeting her, and I should probably start looking for some to watch now.

7. What is that one productivity tool (app/website) you can do without for your blog?

Ummm… I stick pretty close to the WordPress platform. I don’t really use productivity tools online, so I could say that I can do without a lot of them.

8. What is the most recent book that made you stay up all night reading it?

I think that was This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp. The suspense is amazing.

9. What is the one thing you are trying to master w.r.t blogging and would love some help with?

I’m trying to learn how to make decent graphics. I know I can make them better. I would like to use more than book covers for blog title graphics. I know Canva exists, and I use PhotoJoiner for a few posts. How do you all make great graphics?

10. If you can change the ending of one popular book, what book will you choose and what will you change it to?

I don’t really like changing book endings. If I want to go to the trouble of changing a book, I usually want to change a lot of other things to.

Even though City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare was awesome, I don’t think it would have ruined anything for Sebastian to have died evil. I know it shows that there was a sweet, good little boy in that demonic blood, but I don’t think it would have been any less satisfying for him to be evil while his demon blood burned up.

11. Share with us three random facts about you and your awesome life.

1. I finished my B.A. in English last month.
2. I already read more than 500 chapters of fanfic for the Fanfiction Reading Challenge, and I don’t know what to do with myself.
3. I discovered an awesome ramen restaurant in town, and I didn’t know those existed until moving here. The food is delicious and I can sit at the bar if I go alone. You also get a large bowl for a good price. It’s awesome!

My Questions

1. Which bookshelf in your home contains the most books that you love?
2. What has been the most challenging moment in your blogging journey so far?
3. Name two good book-to-movie adaptations.
4. What is something you like to do the old-fashioned way?
5. How did your blog get its name?
6. Which genre haven’t you read?
7. Think about the last book you read. Then finish this sentence in three different ways: I wonder….
8. Which movie do you think is worth watching only once?
9. What do you think of literary magazines?
10. What would you like to achieve this year?
11. Give us one quote that inspires you.

I tag:

1. Sarabi @ Swallow Song
2. Cam @ Camillea Reads
3. Melissa @ The Reader and the Chef
4. Sam @ Spines in a Line
5. Shirley Cuypers
6. Erato @ BookittoCat
7. Suzanne @ The Bookish Libra
8. Adam @ Roof Beam Reader
9. Jenaca @ jenacidebybibliophile
10. Dina @ Dinasoaur
11. BookishOwlette

And if anyone happens to have a weather machine, let me know. I could really do with snow in June or July.