Writing vs. Blogging

Earlier today, Jami at YA Addict posted a discussion about whether or not aspiring writers should be book blogging. The idea was that if you give someone a negative review, you're burning bridges in the publishing industry before you even get to them. I hadn't even thought about that as being an issue. Writing is a huge part of who I am, and so is reading. Most writers say that if you're going to write well, you have to read a lot - the two are related. So why would it be a problem to write and blog about books? Asking me to choose between the two would be like saying "Okay, you can cut off your right arm, or you can cut off your left arm. Ready, go."

If I had to choose between ever being a published author and continuing to blog about books, I'd choose being an author in a heartbeat. I blog about books because I love reading and I want to share the books I read with other people, but I can share books with friends even without a blog; maybe I'd only be sharing them with a few people that I talk to regularly in the "real world," but it's better than not being able to talk about them with anyone. But if I had to stop writing...that would be like cutting out a part of my soul.

What I don't get is why anyone should have to choose. I understand that no author likes seeing a negative review of his or her book, and most likely the publishers/editors/agents don't either - a huge number of people put a huge amount of time into that book, and then somebody has the nerve to go and say they didn't like it? It makes sense - I would be unhappy too. But the fact of the matter is, not everybody is going to like every single book. If everybody liked the same things, that would be...well, really weird. Very Brave New World. Scary. Not cool. If you have an opinion, there's going to be people who agree with you AND people who don't agree with you. That's how the world works.

Personally, I think that as long even the negative reviews are polite, there shouldn't be a problem. I for one don't like writing negative reviews; I wish I could enjoy every book I read and always be able to say "Yes! You should absolutely read this one too! It's excellent!" But that doesn't always happen. So my policy on that is going to be that unless I've specifically agreed to review a certain book and I end up disliking it, I won't review books that I don't like. And if I do have to post a negative review, I'll be as nice as I can about it. Just because I wasn't the biggest fan of a book doesn't mean that I can't understand why somebody else would be.

So that's my spiel for the day. It rather popped my "happy bubble" when I saw that maybe people who like to write shouldn't be blogging about books, I will admit. I was all excited because I've wanted to create something like Bookworm Boulevard for ages and ages and ages, and then somebody says "...you know that by doing this thing you love, you may be ruining your chances to do this other thing that you love." But I read something just the other day about a book blogger turned author, and I'm going to hold to the idea that the same is going to be possible for me someday.

I guess this has been rather more serious than most of my posts. But this is something that matters to me. What do y'all think?

~Bex

Insanity: A List

I have composed a list of several things that are insane. Enjoy.

1. My family. Spend an hour - no, half an hour - no, ten minutes around any of them and you'll know what I mean.

2. Summer homework. There's so much of it. There is no point.

3. Senior thesis. I've fallen behind, and I thought I'd never be able to catch up, but provided I keep up with the schedule I made the other day, I'll be able to catch up and have plenty of time for other things. (Of course, "other things" may in this case mean "struggling through the assigned summer reading books so that I can get to my very awesome stack of library books" or, more likely, "ignoring the assigned summer reading books and spending way too much time in the blogosphere.")

4. The number of books that I really really really want to read.

5. Me. Ask AF how many times a day I say something to the general effect of "I'm so weird." And "weird" only begins to cover it.

Love,
Bex

I'm an AP Student

...especially if AP stands for Advanced Procrastination. Over the next six weeks, I have to do...well, more schoolwork than I'm going to list here. I'm very behind. I have so much left to do, lots of which I was supposed to get done today but haven't yet, but am I working on schoolwork?

Absolutely not.

Instead I'm setting up my account on Goodreads and perusing reviewer blogs and author blogs. Oh, and I keep checking Bookworm Boulevard to see if I have any new comments/followers/etc., even though I realize that's probably not gonna happen until the site's been around for considerably longer than a day and a half. It's new. I'll calm down once the novelty wears off. Maybe.

It's just that books (especially fun ones) are so much more entertaining and, in my humble opinion, much more educational than schoolwork.

So three cheers for AP students. Advanced Placement AND Advanced Procrastination.

Oh, and if you need a song to listen to, check out "You Make Me Smile" by Blue October. It's a little odd at first, but it grows on you. And also, it's totally stuck in my head right now.

Love,
Bex

Bookworm Boulevard

Guysguysguys I have some really exciting news.

So, remember how I said I really wanted to make a book site? (Or, at least, I mentioned the possibility. I may not have let my enthusiasm and excitement creep through onto the internet.)

Well, it's here. And it's called Bookworm Boulevard.

The URL: http://bookwormboulevard.blogspot.com. It's still somewhat under construction; I'll be adding sidebar links and stuff like that over the next couple of days, and I hope to post the first review later on tonight. You should check it out! And if you like it, become a follower.

I hope you guys like it. I realize there's not much there to like just yet, but there will be. Soon. Promise.

Love,
Bex

P.S. Don't worry! The fact that Bookworm Boulevard is now officially in operation does not mean that I'll stop posting here. It just means that this is going to be more of a personal blog, while BB is all about books and a  lot less about me.

Some Stuff

Hello all!

I hope all of my readers in America had a great Independence Day - picnics, cookouts, fireworks, pools, all that jazz. And to my international readers (*coughcoughCHcoughcough*), I hope you had a lovely non-holiday mid-summer Sunday!

I spent most of today working on two things:

1. AP Spanish summer work. I've now done four of the requisite twelve grammar tests through StudySpanish.com. I think. Unless I did it wrong. Given the lack of precise instructions, that's entirely possible.

2. Blog design. I think I may have possibly mentioned (or not mentioned; I honestly don't remember) a blog/website thing dedicated solely to books. Reviews, interviews, etc. I'll still keep up with the Word Nerd over here as my personal blog and I'll probably post book recs here too, but once I get the other site up, it'll be a not-so-personal YA Books site.

And speaking of books, I reread Gayle Forman's IF I STAY last night. It is so, so, so good. It made me cry, it made me smile, it's just...fantastic. Basically, the premise is that Mia's family gets into a car wreck. Mia's parents are killed instantly, and a comatose Mia has a sort of out-of-body experience, watching her friends and family -- and herself -- in the hospital as she tries to decide whether or not to go on living. Such a sweet book. Definitely, definitely read it. (I especially love that Mia's relationship with her boyfriend is not perfect - it's nice but unfortunately rare to have a touch of realism in the romances anymore.)

That's it for tonight, folks. Much love,
Bex

Mini-Mini-Blog: Contest Link

Hey guys --

Alexa over at Hooked on YA Books is having a book-giveaway contest. Head over to her blog to enter and maybe win some really cool books! Click here for details.

--Bex

P.S. This doesn't count as an extra July 2 post, but I'm also not entirely sure it's going to count as the July 3 post. Depends how much I get done tomorrow. Er, today.

This Greenhouse Grows Humans

More reading material for you folks out there. A little while ago (I would've blogged sooner, but I lacked the time to write a coherent review), I read THE GARDENER by S.A. Bodeen. Science fiction + global warming + eco-cyborgs = a pretty intense mix of stuff.

The only connection Mason has ever had to is father is a DVD of the man, shoulders-down, reading The Runaway Bunny. So when a comatose girl at the hospital where his mother works suddenly wakes up when she hears the story on the DVD and begs to leave, Mason - who has a bit of a hero complex - rescues her.

The girl only remembers bits and pieces of who she is and what has happened to her, but Mason can tell that she's anything but normal. The circular scars covering her legs only add to the mystery of the girl's past. Add in that there's a tattoo on her arm that matches the one on Mason's father on the DVD and the fact that the least official police force Mason has ever encountered is chasing the girl he rescued. There's mystery and adventure brewing, and Mason may not like what he discovers.

This novel takes a real, present-day scientific crisis and gives it an impossible solution with just enough scientific backing that it just might happen. Add in two teenagers who are trying to figure out the truth behind the science and the mystery of the girl's past, and you've got THE GARDENER. I will say that I figured out the end well before I got there, but it was one of those books that was worth reading anyway. Not the best book I've ever read, but still definitely worth my time. I'm glad I read it. You should check it out too.

Love,
Bex