Monday, February 16, 2009

Bookkitten Basics: More about your hostess with the mostest

I've been meaning to compose an "About Me" post for awhile now, and here it is. My regular readers know a lot about me already, through my various memes, iPod playlists, book reviews, and what not, but I thought I'd go into some detail for those who are newcomers to my little corner of the blogosphere.

First of all, by day I work a regular ol' job, just like most people. In my spare time, I have many other hobbies: cooking, scrapbooking, reading, blogging, and writing. I try to incorporate many of my hobbies into this blog, with reading being the primary focus.

I started this blog in June of 2007. That year I had read a lot of books, and I realized that I wanted to keep a journal of what I read. My sister had a blog, and I thought that a blog would be a good way to archive my material.

I had exactly five posts in 2007. I lost interest, because I couldn't think of anything clever or witty to say in my book reviews. That, and I lost confidence, because my blog wasn't getting any hits. Most importantly, however, life happened. I had a series of personal crises that didn't allow me time to blog, so "The Bookkitten" was abandoned.

I came up with the name "Bookkitten" because I felt that "The Bookworm" was too boring of a title for a blog. The "kitten" half of the name came from my two cats, Maggie and Gabby. I loved books, and I love cats, so I decided to combine the two. Hence, "bookkitten."

I resumed blogging in May of 2008. I had started therapy, had gotten most of my issues worked out, and joined a book club. I remembered in the back of my mind that I had a blog, and wondered if Blogger had deleted it, because it had been inactive for so long. Well, it was still up and running, and I started posting again.

When I resumed posting, the book reviews got shifted to the side for a while. I found that I had a lot to say, and writing proved to be very theraputic for me. I really started getting into it. I put up photos, recipes, accounts of my travels, and put up a few commentary posts as well.

About six months after I resumed blogging, I found a friend's blog, and through that blog, found a couple of other blogs that I was interested in. From there, I found the Thursday Thunks meme and started getting commenters, thanks to the Mr. Linky that was on the site. Eventually I started finding other blogs to follow, and they started following mine as well.

At the end of 2008, I started re-evaluating the purpose for this blog. Yes, I was still reading, but not as much as I would have liked. I made it a point to try and read more during the year 2009. I signed up for various reading challenges via J. Kaye's Book Blog, and that has gotten me back on my goal of reviewing the books that I have read.

However, this blog has turned out to be so much more than I expected of it. It's a lot better, actually, than what I first envisioned. I need to balance out book posts with other posts about my interests and daily life. I have a lot of trouble writing solely about books, because, as I really got into blogging, I found that I had a lot to say.

I think I have a pretty good sense of humor, and I hope that comes through in my postings. If anything, I'm as open and honest as I can be without leaving my life wide open to the world. There are still some elements of my privacy that I need to maintain, just to protect myself (I don't want strangers who never leave me comments rapping at my door) as well as my family and friends.

That having been said, my immediate family gets mentioned quite a bit in this blog. To protect their identities, they have been assigned pseudonyms: Mama Cat, Papa Cat, and Sister Kitten. You can figure out which roles they have in real life.

The only two members of my family who don't have pseudonyms are my cats, who make semi-regular appearances here.


This is Maggie, my oldest, and my Gorgeous Grey Girl. She will be seven in human years this summer.


And this is Gabby, my Most Colorful Girl. She will be six years old this summer.

Mags and Gabs most often make appearances in the semi-regular feature, Friday Cat Blogging.

That reminds me, here is a list of regular features here at The Bookkitten:

Kitten's 2009 100+ Reading Challenge: A grand list of all of the books I have read this year.

Kitten's 2009 1st in a Series Challenge: A list of the books that I've read this year that are the first in a series of books.

Kitten's 2009 2nds Challenge: A list of the books that I've read this year that are either the second in a series of books, or are the second books by authors whom I've only read once.

Kitten's 2009 Support Your Local Library Challenge: A list of the books that I've read this year that I've borrowed from my local library.

Kitten's 2009 Chunkster Challenge: A list of the books that I've read this year that are 450 pages or longer.

Kitten's 2009 Dewey Decimal Challenge: A list of the books that I've read this year whose titles fall under the Dewey Decimal System.

In addition to my book features, here are my other regular features:

Thursday Thunks, Friday Fill-Ins, Saturday 9, and Sunday Stealing: These are the memes I participate in. I always look forward to them because they're signals that the weekend is coming!

Friday Cat Blogging: Featuring stories of Maggie, Gabby, and other creatures.

Cooking With Kitten: My favorite recipes, sometimes with photos.

And now...haiku time: I love writing haiku. Lots of things inspire me to write it...I never know where I'm gonna find it.

Writers Workshop: Every Wednesday, Mama Kat over at Mama's Losin' It posts some writing prompts. We get to choose one out of five possible topics.

Unconventional Lookalikes: Ever notice how some celebrities/famous people seem to like like...well, other unusual beings? This is an up-and-coming feature here.

And a few other notes...I live in Connecticut, aka The Nutmeg State, aka The Land of Steady Habits. Our fair state figures quite often in my posting.

I guess that's about it for now...

Oh yeah, one more thing...welcome! I'm glad to have gotten to know all of you! If you're a newbie, leave a comment so I can visit your place!

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogosphere! See ya real soon!

8 comments:

Marie Cloutier said...

Great post. Thanks for telling us so much about yourself. Your cats are adorable too! :-)

Anonymous said...

Since I'm pretty new here, I'm so glad you wrote that! Your cats are so cute!

drollgirl said...

love the info, and the kitties are adorable!!!

Lisa G said...

Cool learning more about you :)

Vickie said...

Thanks for the "about me" post. Your cats are cuties.

Jenners said...

I liked reading this and hearing the history of your blog! And how many times a day do you post, lady? I swear, every time I make my way over here I see like 5 or 6 new posts. You certainly do have a lot to say!

And Gabby -- cover up your privates!!! that was a very saucy little pose.

And did I tell you I gave you an award? If not here it is -- I'm forgetting what I'm doing right now: http://findyournextbookhere.blogspot.com/2009/02/kindle-2-and-big-thank-you.html

Melanie Gillispie said...

So, due to your teacher status, I'll be calling you Ms. Bookkitten now. You're so, so busy!! It's making my lazy head swim!

Jodi said...

Great post girl! Your baby girls are beautiful. I adore cats and books too - as you know. :)

Word verification - caticivi

just thought that was funny because cat is in there. LOL