The Book Pixie

1. What's your favourite book of the year and the most disappointing book of the year so far and why?

Well I've had two books this year that run really close to being my all time faves for 2010 so far. The first is Paranormalcy by Kiersten White which was just such a fun, refreshing story with great characters, plot...well...everything.The second is Ghost Ride by Marina Cohen. It was short but full of suspense and a spine-chilling story. The writing was very beautifully done as well.

Most disappointing book so far this year would have to be Firelight by Sophie Jordan. (I see you all out there and don't give me that look.) I was expecting something far more original and exciting than what I got. Though the writing was well done, I felt the characters were a bit mediocre, the romance fell flat, and the plot ended up being more about Jacinda adjusting to a new school and life than about her and the Draki pride. I just expected to love and adore this book and only ended up liking it a little instead of even a lot.

3. Are followers important to you? Are you always aware of how many you have and do you ever set goals for how many followers you'd like to have or are you more relaxed?

I do pay very close attention to my follower count and feel followers are important to me. Whenever I lose a follower it kinda breaks my heart because you don't really have any way of knowing why they left. Then I get over it and just tell myself that I must just be too much awesome for them to handle. lol. Just kidding. Truth is, sometimes we bloggers do nothing wrong and people just leave our blogs anyway. That being said, I also do a happy dance every time I gain a follower because I love all you guys so much and appreciate the fact that you care about what I have to say! *hugs* I also always have a goal as I feel goals are what keep you striving to do better. Since I recently hit 750, my next goal is 800.

4. Are you one of these super organised people who writes their posts ahead of time and schedule them for the week or do you just post as and when you have time to write things?

Honestly it's a combination for me. At one time a few weeks a go I had about nine posts scheduled. I used to be bad about typing posts the day before or the same day as I planned to post them. But back in August, something changed. My gran died and maybe it was the stress that sent me into a post typing overload. Now I practically always have posts typed and scheduled ahead of time except for those occasional spur of the moment things or IMM which you can't really do ahead of time.

5. What kind of covers appeal to you? Do you like subtle, unimposing covers or do you prefer them garish and glittery? What are a few of your favourite covers?

I am a total cover whore and my taste in covers is very eclectic. Some of my favorite covers are: Her and Me and You by Lauren Strasnick; A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler; Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly; Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick; Steel by Carrie Vaughn; Montacute House by Lucy Jago. You can find a list of all my favorite covers HERE.

6. What are a few of your blog aspirations for the next few months? Do you want to hit a certain amount of followers or post a certain number of reviews?

Well let's see. By the end of the year I'm hoping to have maybe around 900 followers. I know, that's really ambitious since that means I'll need 150 more but we will see. I am also hoping to maybe post about 20-25 more reviews by the end of the year but I plan on reading way more books than that, I'll just have reviews of books I read this year end up posting beginning of next year since I don't like overcrowding my posts.

7. Do you do your own graphics for your blog? If not, where do you get your backgrounds, etc from? Are you good at HTML or do you find the whole thing to be a bit of a pain?

My blog is kind of a mixed bag of my own stuff and stuff from websites. My background came from a website called Pyzam and is the same one I've always had. My official blog button was created with a picture from photobucket and I just added The Book Pixie. Now, my header, page buttons, and post signature were all created by me using one of my own photographs. HTML can be a bit of a pain but I'm good with the easier stuff and some of the moderate as well. Some of my HTML I've done on my own and some I've had help with from other bloggers.

8. Do you normally request books you want to review or do you wait to be approached? How long had you been blogging before you requested a book/were approached about reviewing a book?

Ok so about 95% of the time I just wait to be approached because I have too many review books and would feel guilty for requesting them. The only book I've requested lately has been from Holt InGroup. The story of how I got my first review book is a tad embarressing. When I started blogging, I was very anxious and overly eager to start reviewing for people and had already gotten quite a few old reviews posted with most everything situated. A week or two into blogging, there was one book in particular that I was dying to read and I was so bold, and stupid, as to email the author. The book was Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle. She was very nice and polite and told me that once I'd been blogging atleast a month and/or had 50 followers, to email her again. It took me about a month exactly to get 50 followers and I emailed her back. She was impressed with my progress and thus, my first review book.

9. How do you organise your books? Alphabetically or by genre/TBR list? Or do you just throw them onto the shelves and hope for the best?

My books are first organized by format. My hardcovers are together, then my paperbacks, then my massmarkets. Then each format section is arranged alphabetically by authors' last names. Then books by the same author are organized by publication year, oldest to newest. I'm thinking of reintegrating my hardcovers with my regular paperbacks but still plan to keep the massmarkets seperate. XD

10. What are your other passions besides books?

I have one other very significant passion, one that just might overide my passion for books. I am an amateur photographer. I first became interested in photography a little over four years ago but only became really serious about it around three years ago. I have both a Facebook page and website, Briana McNair Photography, for my work if anyone would like to check it out.

11. What's your opinion of Twitter and what changes do you think it's made to blogging?

I absolutely love twitter and feel it is one of the ultimate tools to getting the word out about your blog, posts, and contests. I know a lot of my followers I've probably got from twitter from where either I tweeted about my blog or someone else did and I've found several new blogs to follow thanks to twitter. Plus, it makes it easy for me to chat with some of my blog buddies, author friends, and readers because while we may not share an IM messaging program, we practically all have a twitter. And it's a great way of staying up to date on bookish news. My twitter name is @thebookpixie

12. What exciting things do you have coming up on your blog that we can look out for?

Well I don't know about exciting really. I'll be turning 18 in November so I'll probably do something pretty big in celebration of that. Also, I got some great 2011 titles that I plan on reviewing soon and there will definitely be other contests.