Book Blogging Survey
If you haven’t seen it already, there is a survey about book blogging over at Literary License about how book blogs affect book-related purchasing decisions. It is a short survey, and I think the results (to be published February 13th at Literary License) should be interesting. If you haven’t done so already, pop on over and take the survey!

Interview Meme
The wonderful Dawn over at She Is Too Fond of Books recently posted a “reverse meme” in which she was interviewed by Serena over at Savvy Verse and Wit. Part of this meme is that if you ask to be interviewed, the person you asked will send you five interview questions. So I asked Dawn to “interview me” and here are the questions she sent and my answers.

Why do you blog?
This is an interesting question because I had no idea what blogging was until a few months ago, and now I feel I can’t live without it! I blog because:

1. I’m a stay-at-home mom who doesn’t get as much conversation with grown-ups as I would like, and blogging helps fulfill this void–way more than I realized it would in the beginning.
2. I’ve always wanted to be a writer and never really did anything about it. (My ideal job would be to write a newspaper column or magazine articles about anything I want, so this is my perfect venue!)
3. My husband isn’t a reader, and I like to talk about books I’ve read.
4. I’d like to document my daily life with my child so he has it to look at in the future.
5. It gives me a creative outlet that actually excites me more than the others I have tried (such as scrapbooking).

How do you navigate a bookstore (i.e., do you stop at the display tables or is there a section you make a beeline to)?
First, let’s assume I am at the bookstore alone and have no real time limit. (This so rarely happens anymore!) I am definitely a dawdler and a wanderer in book stores. I do usually start by browsing the new releases to see if there is anything new by any of my favorite authors or something that looks really exciting. I’ll then check out the bargain sections to see if there are any fantastic deals. I’ll then begin drifting about in the fiction section — looking for covers that call to me or checking out authors I like to see if there is anything I missed from them. (I keep a notebook in my purse with books I’ve heard about and want to look at in more detail, and I’ll usually take some time to find these books.) I always check out the memoirs and essay sections (if I can find them). Then it is off to the travel section to hunt for Bill Bryson-type travel narratives. I’ve found that I’ve enjoyed many books from the social sciences sections so I’ll also browse around there to see if anything catches my eye. Now that I’m a mom, I inevitably find myself looking at the parenting books and looking up stuff on specific parenting issues that are on my mind. Finally, I always end up in the children’s section, where I will look for books for my son and try to find books I remember from growing up. To be honest, I usually spend the longest time in the children’s section! I just love looking for books for my son. Getting him excited about reading is one of the primary parenting goals.

What is your favorite holiday and how do you celebrate it?
It is definitely a toss-up between Halloween and Christmas. However, I think I’m going to have to choose Halloween because Christmas — although fun and magical (especially with a child) — often ends up being stressful, expensive, and a disappointment after all the hype and build-up. Halloween is a much more simple holiday but so much fun! I love the whole dressing up as something else part of it; I’ve always adored coming up with costume ideas and the physical act of dressing up. As a chocoholic, I love the idea of getting candy, and I love any excuse for me to buy bags of candy. (We usually end up buying too early and then having to rebuy the candy again because of excessive nibbling!) I love seeing the kids come to the door all dressed up. I love going to my son’s Halloween parade at school. I love the sounds of the neighborhood on Halloween night — with all the kids going around and having good old-fashioned trick-or-treating fun. Our neighborhood seems most alive during Halloween night, and I love going with my son and getting to meet some of the neighbors we don’t normally see. Plus it is a holiday that you can have fun decorating for but without all the work that accompanies Christmas decorations. Darn — I can’t wait until October!

If disaster struck and you had to leave your home, what 3 things would you bring with you (assume all people and pets get out safely with you)?
Well, I’m going to assume that our “fire-proof” and “water-proof” safe containing all our important paperwork would actually work as advertised (plus I don’t think I could lift it anyway), so I would grab:

• our photo books we made from Shutterfly documenting our family vacations and my son’s first years of life
• copies of my old journals (dating from grade school through the birth of my son)
• our container of DVDs that contain the video footage of our son’s life.

Do you have any hidden talents from childhood?
You would think that seven years of piano lessons would have resulted in more musical talent than I actually have today, but I can read basic music and play the piano (although I am sorely out of practice). Also, during high school, I was on the yearbook staff and had the opportunity to take, develop, and print my own photos! It was such a great experience! Thinking back, I can’t believe they let us use the darkroom unsupervised! I got to do everything from rolling my own film canisters to developing the negatives to printing and cropping the photos.

So now you’ve learned a little about me, and now I’m interested in interviewing YOU. If you want to play along, here’s what you do:

• Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
• I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
• You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
• You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
• When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Thank you, Dawn, for the fun questions! This was fun to do!