Bookkitten Basics: More about your Hostess with the Mostest

I figured it was time to update the ol' "Bookkitten Basics" post. There's one in the right sidebar of this blog, and it contains features that were present a year ago, but not so much today. My little corner of the blogosphere has evolved, and I must update according to the changing times. I also need to update my blogroll, but one step at a time, kittens, one step at a time!

Welcome, dear kittens, to my humble little corner of the blogosphere! I am the Bookkitten, but you may call me "Kitten" for short. I address all of my readers as kittens, even if they are bipeds, puppies, hamsters, snakes, etc., etc. I love all kinds. I do not cater to one specific species.

So why am I "The Bookkitten?" Easy! I originally created this blog back in 2007 to post my book reviews. You'll still find those here, but this space evolved as a personal journal for me. I write about things that have happened in my life, such as my travels, my concerts, and other experiences. Sometimes I get philosophical. Sometimes I'm funny. Sometimes I'm serious. But I try to write as close as I can to my own personality, without revealing my identity.

Speaking of identity, there are a few of you regular readers who know who I am in real life. However, I prefer to blog, for various reasons, anonymously. Let's just say I have a very public job, and while I say nothing controversial here that could make me risk losing it, I would prefer that no one bombard me at work the next day about something I said on my space. I need to keep my work and personal life separate.

I do blog about several people in my life, but I use pseudonyms to keep their identities private. My family members make frequent appearances; they are known as Mama Cat, Papa Cat, and Sister Kitten. Some friends of mine make appearances, too; two of the regulars here are known as my best friend (BFF) and Chantal, who loves to sing. (Chantal comes from the French verb chanter, which means "to sing.")

I participate in a lot of memes, but I don't do it every week, only when I really, really like the questions. I also like to post a lot of YouTube clips when they catch my fancy.

What else do you need to know about me? Well, I love Glee and will admit I am obsessed with it. I have all of the songs downloaded to my iPod, and have the DVDs. Carol Burnett was my very first comedy hero, and I like to write about her a lot. And I am a major Conan fangirl. I try not to blog about either Glee or Conan or Carol too much, but these shows do get a lot of mentions here. (Glee, in particular, gets a mention whenever I post my latest iPod playlists).

So basically, in addition to books, you'll find music, television, pop culture, and philosophy here in this space. But why exactly am I known as "The Bookkitten." I love books, and I love cats. Simple. I have two cats, who used to get a lot of mentions in the blog during the early days, but I haven't blogged about them much at all lately. Call it evolution; I may return to writing posts about them one day, but I'm not sure when.

Not to mention, I don't post nearly as often as I used to. I have a very busy life. I used to post almost every day, sometimes three times in one day! These days, I'm lucky if I get to post once a week. But life, as you all know, has its ebbs and flows, and I pretty much post whenever and wherever the mood strikes.

So that's me in a nutshell! Thanks for stopping by my little space in the blogosphere! Please come back again!

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!