One Year Blogiversary: Q&A Answers and Giveaway Winner Part One

So, the moment you’ve all been waiting for; my Q&A answers and more importantly the winner of the giveaway I was hosting.

Everything is below the page break but before you move on I just want to thank everyone for entering and for the questions you asked as well. I wish everyone could have won but I don’t have that much money so I limited it to only one person. It was amazing reaching my one year blogiversary so thank you so much for all the congratulations and for the wonderful questions you asked. I had so much fun answering them all and I hope you have fun reading my answers as well.

The winner of the giveaway is…

Niraja at Fantastic Books and Where to Find Them

If you send me an email with details – your name, your email and your address – then when January comes around you will have your very own copy of the January Fairy Loot box. My email address can be found on my About Me page. Congratulations Niraja, thanks for entering and I hope you enjoy.

Now the Q&A. This has been done in two parts because there were a lot of questions, my answers were long and in the end I felt it worked better in two parts than one long one. If you’re questions aren’t on this post they will be in tomorrows. Every question you asked has been answered.

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Stephanie at Teacher of YA’s Book Blog

• If you could have your pick of ANY upcoming ARC to read and own, what would it be and why?

Definitely A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab; because the Shades of Magic series is my all-time favourite, V.E. Schwab is one of my all-time favourite authors, and the second book ended on an insane cliffhanger. I have been waiting a year now for the last book and it’s just been too long a wait.

• What made you decide to scrap all the other blogs you started and stick with this one? I’m genuinely curious!

Honestly there are probably a few reasons but the main one is my terrible habit of procrastinating, I’d always mean to write new posts then put it off for another day and before I knew it weeks had past. I think some of the other reasons they failed was because I didn’t have a specific direction for any of them and I didn’t interact with other bloggers. I guess you could say my first three blogs were trial runs for this one!

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Jackie B at Death by Tsundoku

• What tools/programs do you use to take your photos?

For the most part it’s just me and my camera. I take tons of photos of the same books to try and get the angle and the lighting as close to perfect as I can. I use Adobe Photoshop for my Top Ten Tuesday header images, I’m not really brave enough to do any fancy editing yet but maybe one day. What I use the most though is Word Swag, an app on my iPad, to create header images for pretty much everything else; all my book tags and awards, my monthly recaps and book hauls.

• How do you decide what to read next?

I’m a mood reader so it’s literally just me browsing Goodreads, browsing WordPress and browsing my bookshelves until I find something that I feel like reading.

• If you could commission any author to write a book just for you, who would it be?

V.E. Schwab. Like I said in my answer to Stephanie’s question above she is my favourite author and her Shades of Magic series is one of my favourites, in fact everything she’s written has been a favourite of mine. Having a book written by her just for me would be a dream come true.

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Kourtni at Kourtni Reads

• What has been the hardest thing about blogging for you?

Probably the time management. I work full time so during the weekdays trying to find enough time to write reviews, reply to comments and comment on other people’s posts, and read can be challenging. I have a system which works well for me but that’s probably due to the fact that I never get enough sleep.

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Lashaan at Bookidote

• How do you manage your time to stay up to date in the blogosphere? What are the strategies you use to keep track of all your followers posts, while still producing your own posts for the days to come?

I dedicate a certain amount of time for drafting posts and then for commenting and staying up to date on the blogosphere. I normally spend around two hours each day replying to comments and then commenting on other people’s posts but more than that it’s just any free time I have dedicated to browsing what the blogs I follow are posting. Waiting in line for tea I have the WordPress app open on my phone, sitting eating lunch I have the WordPress app open on my iPad, finished my book on the train home and the WordPress app comes back out for the remainder of my journey.

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Lauren at Wonderless Reviews

• Do you have a blogging schedule? You’re always so wonderful when it comes to commenting which is something I struggle with so I would love some tips!

Not really. I try and plan what posts I want to publish when and what posts I want to draft each night but more often than not I end up changing that plan last minute, just because other things get in the way of blogging sometimes. However no matter what I usually try and dedicate at least two hours a day for comments, though it normally ends up being more than that. Plus I don’t get nearly enough sleep as I should!

• What’s something about blogging that you didn’t expect?

Definitely the time needed to blog. I’m not sure what I expected when I first started Reading Every Night but there is definitely a lot more work that goes into publishing posts as often as I do, and don’t get me wrong I have loved every second of this past year blogging but I wish I’d been more prepared for the time constraints.

• What’s some of your favourite songs that you’re currently listening to?

Bastille’s new album, Wild World. My favourite track at the moment is Send Them Off. Other than that my most played tracks are pretty much anything by Fall Out Boy, Cobra Starship, Imagine Dragons, Taylor Swift and Florence and the Machine. However given its December now I’m starting to get the Christmas music out again.

• If you could attend any Hogwarts classes, what would they be?

Can I say them all? If I had to choose just one though it would be Care of Magical Creatures. In the Harry Potter world my dream job would be the same as Newt Scamander’s, except without letting my magical creatures loose in New York City!

• What upcoming release would you read right now if you had the chance?

So so many; A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab, Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon. There are tons of amazing books being released next year and I just want to be able to reach through time and get my hands on them right now!

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Liz at Cover to Cover

• Has blogging for the past 12 months taught you a lesson of some sort? What I mean is, will there be some changes you have considered for 2017 when it comes to reading/reviewing/blogging?

Nothing off the top of my head. I’m thinking of adding discussion posts in the new year because I love reading them and I think it’s an amazing way to interact with other bloggers. I will definitely be creating more social media accounts as well; Goodreads is number one on that list. Recently I’ve been considering changing the theme of my blog but other than that there’s no big changes I’ll be making. Overall I’m happy with the way this past year has gone so I don’t see myself making any major changes to my blogging experience.

• If you had a chance to change one thing about blogging what would it be? I mean, an overall thing, that would go into effect across the whole blogging experience? Or, maybe you wouldn’t change a thing…

I don’t think I’d change anything actually. There has not been anything about this past year I haven’t loved. Ideally I’d like more time in the day to blog but unless I manage to change the laws of time and space that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

• A game of would you rather! Would you rather spend the rest of the year reading and blogging about books OR stop blogging for 12 months if it meant you could spend three days hanging with your favourite author? Who’s the favourite author in this case?

This is definitely the hardest question I’ve been asked so far! I think when it comes down to it though I’m going to have to choose continuing to read and blog for the remainder of the year. As amazing as it would be spending three days with my favourite author, and I can’t choose between V.E. Schwab and Marissa Meyer for my favourite author, I can’t imagine going a whole year without reading and blogging.

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Donna at Chocolatenwaffles’ Blog

• What’s your favourite tea?

I drink a lot of green tea, like a lot a lot, because I can’t have caffeine but my favourite would be the Twinings Apple and Pear green tea.

• If you were a plant or a flower, which one would you be?

I can’t think of a specific plant but I’d be one that doesn’t require a lot of care, like a cactus. A plant that can be left alone for long periods of time without dying and that thrives in the shade.

• Is there a song you hate? Which one and why!

There are a few songs I don’t like but only one that I really hate and that is Rude by Magic. I have no idea why I don’t like this song, even before it was seriously overplayed on every radio station in England I couldn’t stand it, and now it’s gotten to the stage where if I hear it playing on the radio I will change the station.

• You can summon three characters from books to start your army and fight whatever the apocalypse brings, which ones would you choose?

I would pick Kaz from the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo, because he’s always able to outsmart everyone who goes up against him and he has a knack for survival. Cinder from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, because having both a cyborg and a mechanic on hand during the zombie apocalypse will come in handy many times. Finally Kell from the Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab just because of his magic.

One of my friends actually has a decent step by step plan in place for what we’d do if the zombie apocalypse ever happened so I’m going to add her to my team as well. It’s a seriously intricate plan and you know it actually has a good chance of saving us too.

• Do you play The Sims? What’s your favourite way of killing them?

I don’t play anymore but I did a lot when I was younger. Me and my sister never had the Sims 2 or above editions but we did get all the expansion packs; Hot Date, Holiday, Unleashed, Superstar, Makin’ Magic.

Most of the time I drowned them, occasionally I’d let one of them cook without having any cooking skills so they burnt the kitchen, and themselves, down to mix it up. One time there was a pre-made house which I really wanted for a different family to the one already living in it, and seeing as it would take way too long to re-create it myself I decided to kill the family to free up the house. I created a small swimming pool and drowned them but then I left their gravestones in the garden because it added to the overall aesthetic of the house. Then, when I moved the new family in, they kept standing by the gravestones and mourning. I got bored and moved on to another house but when I went back the new family I moved in had mourned themselves to death because they hadn’t slept or eaten or gone to the toilet.

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Melissa at Book Nerd Momo

• If you could be any character in The Bone Season books which would you be and why? (Because of course I have to ask that)

Jaxon just because, and bear in mind we only have two books to go from here and my answer could change based on what happens to him in the future, he seems to be the one character who is able to survive anything life throws at him. I think living in the London that book is set in that’s a more valuable skill than his clairvoyant abilities.

• If you could travel to any book world which one would you travel to?

Other than Hogwarts, because that would be the standard answer for pretty much everything I think, I’m going to choose The Night Circus. One of the best parts of that book is the world building and I know I could spend hours wandering around the circus discovering all it has to offer.

• If you had to choose one villain to transport from any book which one would you pick?

AIDAN from The Illuminae Files. I’m not technically sure if I can refer to him as a villain although his actions in that book are dark at best but, well, he was my favourite character in that series so far to date.

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That’s all for today. Congratulations again to Niraja and thank you again to everyone for taking part and for your amazing questions. Stay tuned tomorrow for the rest of the questions along with my answers.