A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...

Today’s question: Do you have a specialized blog where you only review a certain genre or type of book? If so, what is your favorite thing about that type of book? If not, what is/are your favorite genres? What makes that genre(s) favorites? I don’t cater to a specific type of book, but since what I mostly read is historical fiction, most of my reviews are likewise. I’ve always been enamored with history, especially the way that people lived, though, and felt, and historical fiction feeds that. So I guess that’s my answer for #3 and 4.

Today’s question: How do you get your books for reviewing? (Feel free to participate in the poll below, you can check more than one answer). Do you track them somehow (excel, database, etc), or just put them in a tbr (To Be Read, for anyone that doesn’t know) pile? I get my books a variety of ways: through cold requests to publishers (most of the time I’m successful; some through Shelf Awareness; through Amazon Vine; and through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program (I’ve actually been quite successful with it). About half the books I read are ARCs, though I won’t request very much from the offers I get randomly through e-mail. It has to be a book I think I'll really like in order for me to request it. The other half of my reading material I get from buying (Amazon or Borders, mostly), though occasionally I go to the library. I track all my ARC requests through Google calendar, and I keep a TBR list on Library Thing.

Did you know that there are 1497 authors participating in LT Authors? If you haven't checked it out, head over for a moment and see if you can find out something new about an author! If you don't have time to go snooping, have you ever looked at the LT Author page before? Did you know that it is for authors and readers alike? Have you ever looked up a favorite or new author on LT to see what they read and if they have left any comments or reviews themselves? Have you ever told an author about LT Authors and encouraged them to check the site out? I knew that I had books by LT authors in my library (CW Gortner, Debra Hamel, Susan Higginbotham, David Liss, Kirsten Menger-Anderson, Richard Price, Deanna Raybourn, and Tatiana De Rosnay), but I had no idea that there were that many authors who participated in LT authors! The only time I’ve ever come into cotact with one of them was when David Liss left me a nice note on my profile page about his newest book (which makes me feel a lit...

Today's question: Here is a list of the main areas of Library Thing: 1. Home ( http://www.librarything.com/ , before you log in) 2. Home (once you log in, contains Your Home, Your Profile, Connections, Recommendations, Reviews, Statistics, Clouds, Gallery, Memes) 3. Profile (Recent activity, tags, comments, members with your books) 4. Your Library 5. Your Tags 6. Add Books 7. Talk 8. Groups 9. Local 10. Search 11. Zeitgeist (Stats, Top Lists) 12. Tools (Widgets, Store) 13. Blog What area are you most familiar with? What area is your favorite? What area are you curious about? Are there any that you have not really looked at? I’m familiar with pretty much all these areas, except home before you login because my computer automatically logs me in every time I use LT. Home after you log in is a good place to start from, because I enjoy playing around with the various features (I especially like Statistics). On my profile page, I like looking at the “reviews” page, because I enjoy lookin...

Today's Question: The LT Home Page feature. How are you liking it? Or not? Do you go here when you log into LT or do you use your profile page more? I always log into the Home Page feature. I like it a bit because that’s where I get a few recommendations for reading. Also, I can quickly search my whole library from there. I also use my profile page a lot; I have fun playing around with Statistics (just learned what median/ mean book obscurity means!). I also use the profile page to get to my Groups, where I spend a lot of time.

Most of us book bloggers like to write book reviews- if we don't love to write book reviews- but here's today's question. When it comes to LT (and your blog), do you review every book you read? Do you just review Early Reviewers or ARCs? Do you review only if you like a book, or only if you feel like you have to? How soon after reading do you post your review? Do you post them other places- other social networking sites, Amazon, etc.? I try to review every book I read, but sometimes I don’t, if I can’t muster up enough to say about a book. Sometimes I have very strong opinions about a book, and at other times I’ll read a book, leave it alone for a few days, come back to review it, and find that I can’t remember anything about it! I try to review all the ARCs I receive, especially since the publicist or author goes to such great length to send the book to me. I write reviews as I’m reading, and then I generally try to post those reviews within a few days of reading the book....

Popular this month on LT: Do you look at this list? Do you get ideas on what to read from it? Have you read any of the books on the list right now? Feel free to link to any reviews you’ve done as well. Here’s the list: 1. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 2. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron 3. Nation by Terry Pratchett 4. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini 5. Anathem by Neal Stephenson 6. American Wife: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld 7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows 8. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel by David Wroblewski 9. Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3) by Stephenie Meyer 10. Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland I’ve only read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society , which I enjoyed—it’s among my top 15 books read this year. I only read it because an ARC of it literally fell into my lap. I tend to be one of those people who doesn’t read just because everyone else is reading ...

Today’s question: Work multiples. Do you own multiple copies of any books? Which ones? Can you share your list? I have a number, but not all are listed in LT. I’ve got two copies of Confessions of a Shopaholic , one mass market paperback and the other trade. I own two copies of Grace Matelious's Peyton Place: a recent reprent and an 1950s hardcover that I bought at the Strand bookstore for $7.50. I own two copies of Jane Eyre ; one’s a Bantam Classics edition, and the other is a Wordsworth Classics. I’ve also got two copies of Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason . One is a British edition that I bought in an English-language bookstore in Spain before the book came out in the US. The other is the trade US version. I own two copies of Barbara Tuchman’s The Distant Mirror ; one edition was published in the ‘70s, the other more recently. I also own two copies of the same book with a different title: Alison Weir’s new biography of Katherine Swynford is called Katherine Swynford in the UK, an...

This week's question: Legacy libraries. With which legacy libraries do you share books? Tell us a little about a couple of them and what you share. I share books with 70 libraries. Here are 10 of them: Ernest Hemmingway: 74 Carl Sandburg: 56 Karen Blixen: 40 Sylvia Plath: 16 Alfred Deakin: 15 Marilyn Monroe: 14 Flannery O’Connor: 13 F. Scott Fitzgerald, 12 Theodore Dreiser: 10 Isabella Stewart Gardner: 9 As for specific books, Tupac Shakur and I share a few: The Prince, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Moby Dick, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance, and The Catcher in the Rye. Hemmingway and I share 74 books in common, including some surprises: Anya Seton's Katherine , Jessica Mitford's Hons and Rebels , The Gangs of New York , by Herbert Asbury, a number of Agatha Christie mysteries, Jamaica Inn, by Daphne DuMaurier, The Well of Lonliness, by Radclyffe Hall; and Peyton Place, by Grace Metalious.

Today's question: Series. Do you collect any series? Do you read series books? Fantasy? Mystery? Science fiction? Religious? Other genre? Do you use the series feature in LT to help you find new books or figure out what you might be missing from a series? I collect a few series: First of all, the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. Not only do I have the books as they were published in mass market paperback, I also have them in their trade paperback reprint form as well (the only exception being Shopaholic and Baby, which is in hardback). I'm the exact same as Shana at Literarily , except I also have Kinsella's other books as well. Can you tell I'm a fan? I'm also a collector of Deanna Raybourn's Silent series, featuring Lady Julia Grey ( Grave in mass market paperback, Sanctuary in trade). There are only two books out there right now, and I'll be excited when the third book in the series, Silent on the Moor, comes out next March. I also seem to have qui...

Today's question: Early Reviewers- do you participate? How many books (approximately) have you received through the program? Have you liked them generally? What's your favorite ER book? Do you participate in the discussion group on LT? I've been participating in Early Reviewers since August, and I've been lucky enough to get two books in as many months. I've been selected for Murder on the Eiffel Tower (review here ), and The King and Mrs. Simpson , which I have yet to receive. I thought that Murder on the Eiffel Tower was very lackluster; I'm eagerly anticipating the arrival of The King and Mrs. Simpson , since I love everything that has to do with British royalty. I occasionally participate in the ER discussion forum, but mostly I lurk, since most of the discussion is complaining about the Mighty Algorithm, or new people who ask the same questions over and over again (or they ask questions that can easily be found in the FAQ). Yes, I know I'm a newbie, t...