I know of Sally from her weblog Books and Musing from Downunder, on which she reviews, seemingly, everything she reads - and she reads across a range of genres. But, as this interview shows, she has yet
another weblog.
1. How would you describe your weblog to someone who wasn't at all sure what this blogging business is about?
It is really just a record of the books I have read and my thoughts on each book. It was started for my own personal use and I created it when my home computer crashed and I lost years and years worth of reading records. I use the blog to look back and see what I have read and to see if I enjoyed the author enough to read another one by them. Then
I discovered that other people actually came and commented on my thoughts so I would go off and look at their blogs and soon a whole new source of on-line friendships arose out of blogging. I don't go out of my way to attract people to my blog - and my heart is not broken if no-one visits. As I said, I set it up for my own personal use not to win popularity contests. I also write mystery book reviews for a couple of publishers - and the blog gives another medium for the review to be seen.
2. Have there been any major changes in your weblog's direction, theme or subject since you started?
No - It is cross genre and I read anything and most everything. I have started to get involved in reading challenges through blogging and now have a separate blog to keep track of the challenges - with links from that back to the reviews I write.
Other than that I recently put a counter on my blog to see if anyone actually visits my page - and they do - wow!!!! The only drawback is that each time I go to it to update or add new posts it counts me as a visit. So is not 100% accurate.
3. Do you have more books in your house than you can possibly read? If so, why?
Yes I do - I have over 200 fiction books - and over 500 non-fiction (the non-fiction are between me and my husband though). Why? The non-fiction are all research and various areas of interest we have - cooking, wine, history, archaeology, science, dogs and odds and sods. The fiction - well I have a problem - I can't help it - I see a book I have to have it - now - some call this affliction bookaholism, there is no known cure. I've tried to be strong but books whisper my name as I pass bookshops and cry if I walk away. Other times friends threaten me if I don't buy a book or two when I am with them
because it shows up their out of control habits - I cave in and buy, sobbing to my husband "The girls made me do it - they said I can't belong to the book coven anymore." The final argument I use to justify my stash is that while I am working full time it is not so much a problem - I am storing books like a squirrel stores nuts. One day retirement will arrive (sooner than I think) and I will have my huge stash to last me comfortably for years.
4. If there were three things you'd like to include in your weblog if you had more time/money, what would they be?
Time is my biggest enemy so I would either like the time to learn how to do more stuff to my existing blog - I understand you can add your own headings and do more columns if you are html literate. If I had the money the I would like my own web address so I could set up the page as I want rather than use templates. Maybe link up to a publisher and have competitions to give away books to lucky people. But really I am happy with what I have got at the moment - it is plain, simple and mine.
5. How would you eat an elephant?
One mouthful at a time - preferably stir fried with garlic, ginger and chillies - with some sweet soy sauce. I would use the bones to make a soup out of and the offal would get donated to the local RSPCA.
