Saturday, October 25, 2014

Blogoversary Panel

I'm officially one! Happy blogoversary to myself! I had a live panel (on Google Docs) about eight days ago with Summer and Anne about blogging. To celebrate my blogversary read on:

Amelia: Hey! Would everybody like to introduce themselves? I’m Amelia a 13 year old from YA Bookologists who lives in the US.

Anne: Hey (: I’m Anne from Anne Books, I’m 14 and from Germany.

Summer: Hi! I’m Summer from MissFictional’s World of YA Books, and I’m from the US and 16 years old.

Am: So… I mean how cool is it to be able to a have live panel about book blogging in three different time zones?

An: It’s really amazing! And you two are even from another continent!

S: That is SO cool. Plus, Anne, I love Germany, just wanted to put that out there XD.
An: Haha :D Well. And I would love to visit the US at some point.

Am: I think everyone loves Germany. So how did everyone get into book blogging? I started because I was bored before Halloween.

S: You know when you search up a book, and the Goodreads page comes up? Eventually I made an account on Goodreads, and I noticed that a LOT of people had book blogs, so I was curious and during winter break I created my blog. :)

An: For me it was because I just started watching booktube at the beginning of the year and then through this discovered some book blogs like The Mile Long Bookshelf or Feed Me Books Now. And then I wanted to start myself (: So I did in June. (I think it was June)

Am: I have to say that TMLB and Feed Me Books Now were probably the first book blogs I found.
  
S: Oh! I love their blogs! Especially because they’re teen bloggers

An: Me too! So much inspiration for a newish blogger like me

Am: Out of curiosity how old (blog) is everyone? I’m turning one. It’s a blogoversary celebration.

S: Almost 2 years old in December!

An: About half a year now. Well. I know. Really new.

S: Also, happy blogoversary Amelia!

An: From me as well!

Am:Thanks guys. So Summer, you’re the oldest one here. How do you balance life and book blogging?

S: I feel like in the past month, I’ve been a really crappy blogger in terms of that, but it took me a while to get a hang of the whole balancing reading, blogging, and life. I’ve started to set times for blogging, (on the weekend) and try to read whenever I can (yes, in-school reading is hard but super beneficial). It took time, at least for me, to learn how to balance all three, but it just comes with practice.

An: For me it was hard as well at the beginning because of school but now I just do my routine: Manly pre-writing the post through the app because I can do that wherever I am, then finishing it on the computer and then mostly scheduling it.

S: I do that too (even though the app kind of sucks sometimes)! Just doing a few paragraphs on a car ride or whenever you’re free really adds up.

An: Yes. Or when I’m waiting for my friend before school :D e.g. I just wrote 4 reviews on Thursday and scheduled them all like the Star-crossed one which was published today.

S: Oooh, the scheduling feature is every blogger’s best friend.

An: Yup. You can SO say that.

S: But sometimes, if I’m feeling a blogging/reading slump, it’s kind of hard to muster up the motivation to write a post. I don’t know if you’ve felt it yet, but it’s a bit difficult to overcome. That’s why I downloaded the app-- so it doesn’t feel like a chore if I want to jot a few sentences down instead of stressing about writing an entire post all at once.

An: Yes I knew that once in my summer holidays. I read so many books but because why ever wasn’t able to just turn on the computer and write a review… So there went the app!

Am: Don’t get me started on slumps. But I prefer to write a couple of words when reading the books then expanding later in a post.

An: That’s great when you’re able to write while you’re reading but I’m so unable of doing this. Don’t know why… Probably because I would be forced to put the book down :D

Am: I do it just before reading or when I’m taking notes or checking twitter and just a write a word or two. Summer what do you do? Why do you all like book blogging?

S: I usually open up a word document and basically rant (especially if the book was extremely bad or amazing.)

Am: Word for the win!

An: To be honest? I don’t have an answer to this.. But I think it’s because of like everyone else’s answer: To share my love for books to the world and to get to know people who are fascinated by books like I am and share my opinions on books and bookish stuff to the community.

Am: I do it for the fact that I always wanted to be able to make my “mark” on the internet. I liked books and it was a way to convey my passion.

S: I think it’s because whenever I would want to discuss a book with one of my friends, they wouldn’t really be interested, even if they liked reading. You know that feeling when you just have to let your opinion out on something? Yeah, that’s what drove me to create a personal blog.

Am: I’ve found that everyone in the blogging world is very opinionated and that we all respect those opinions. Many of us are people sitting behinds books and laptops that come from normal households/families. Most of my friends don’t read a lot or much YA.

An: Summer I so know that. Most of my friends read books I recommended to them but when I finished them: Nobody even knew about that book because of Germany -.- And even I dragged my friends to read in English!

Am: Anne, you are phenomenal at English to be able to read and write at the level of blogging and reading YA. Do most of us hide our blogging? I know I do because only a few close friends know that I run a blog.

S: Yes, Anne, your English is perfect! Amelia, I think my family and some friends know about my blog now, but at first, it was a complete secret (only my mom knew). But one day I was at my cousins’ house and they Googled my name, and my blog came up. So that was an embarrassing day for me. XD honestly have no idea how my friends found out, they even found my blog’s Twitter account somehow. >.> <.<

An: Really? Thanks :* I know my family and friends say that I’m good at it but they are Germans.. So yeah :D And to the hiding thing: Yes. I think now after half a year of blogging only about one close friend knows it because I send her some time a link to one review because she was at the time reading this book (: And to be honest I don’t know how I should say them I have Anne Books…

Am: I mentioned it off hand to my friends and they just took in stride with what I did in my free time (though no free time exists).

S: My mom is bit annoyed that I have an online presence, but according to her it’s good on college apps so ;)

An: Well that’s great Summer! I don’t know if it’s something good for in Germany ._. (how much I hate it sometimes..)

S: Youshould come to America for college!

Am:College application- blogging is good experience in terms of responsibility,deadlines, and figuring weirder stuff out (coughs- html).

S: I agree. Just the fact that you’re so dedicated and that you write so much (which colleges love) makes you unique from other high schoolers.

An: That would probably great but I think the UK would be better because it’s nearer to my family.

Am:I was also thinking about maybe the UK for college. In  conservative parts of the US though there is still prejudice for World War II because of some strange reason (people in some the US don’t understand the concept of 70 years). The WWII historical fiction is also way over done in the US.

An: I now! In France it’s terrible! I heard you just need to mention you are from Germany and you get a face ._. But for the html part: I have computer science (just needed to look up that word) in school and we need to do a homepage  as our long term project.. Do you guys do your layout by yourself or how?

S: What ven?? It’s been years, people, get over it.

An: They hould. But France and Germany were enemies for so many years until the end of WWII I think so I don’t even know..

Am: I learned html from some websites that have a basic template that you can modify. The best way is to look at a blog’s page source.  I copy and paste it and then screw around with it to get what I want. I use basic Blogger templates though.

S: For html, I suck at it. Google is my friend whenever there’s something weird with my blog or if I want a new design, because I can’t for the life of me figure it out myself. Amelia, I also use the basic templates! I would much rather have my own design and be more in control of how my blog looks.

Am: It was really fun talking with you guys and I  think we should wrap up soon. SO to close everything up what is everyone reading right now? I’m reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum.

An: It was an amazing panel Amelia and you’re right that we should do this again! I’m currently reading two books: First Goddess (a re-read) by Josephine Angelini and second Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini as well.

S: Thank you, Amelia, for holding such an awesome panel, and Anne, for being such a cool panelist! Being a person with a very short attention span I’m actually reading 3 books at the moment: Crushed, by Eliza Crewe, Exquisite Captive, by Heather Demitrios, and I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak (a re-read!).



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