BBAW Blogger Swap

One of my favorite weeks of the year! Thanks to the BBAW interview swap, I met Amanda from On a Book Bender! As you will see, she is newish to the blogging scene but comes with some great experience behind her. She has a number of great features you should check out!

Me: Why did you start blogging?

Amanda: I've always loved reading, and I've been a blogger on and off for a long time.  But I never thought to combine the two.  Two years ago I was blogging about completing 101 goals in 1,001 days (I failed this challenge, but that is beside the point) and met a couple people who were doing the same.  They eventually started their own book blog as part of their challenge, and I decided I wanted one, too.  I love books and I love blogging so combining the two seemed like a no-brainer to me.  The only problem was that I was enrolled in grad school at the time and knew that there was no way I could run a book blog and go to school.  So for a while I blogged for Tara at 25 Hour Books occasionally, and then when my schooling wound down in May of this year, I took the leap and created On a Book Bender.  It has been a total blast.

M: What is a typical week like on your blog?

A: I'm pretty organized, so I have a set schedule:

• Monday: book review
• Tuesday: Top Off Tuesday (a meme that I helped create)
• Wednesday: book review
• Thursday: free or off-topic
• Friday: book review/blogging feature/giveaway/whatever strikes me at the moment
• Saturday: free or off-topic
• Sunday: Clock Rewinders on a Book Binge (my weekly wrap-up post)

M: Name your favorite book this year and a future one you are most eager for.

A: This one is tough because I just started reading a lot more than I have in the past two years and have played "catch-up" with a lot of popular books.  It's probably a toss up between the Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost because it got me into reading paranormal or Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison because her writing is phenomenal and her characters are even better.  To that end, I am really looking forward to Thea Harrison's third book in her Elder Races series -- Serpent's Kiss -- which comes out on October 4th.

M: Share a piece of advice you wish you were told when you started blogging.

A: I think I have been incredibly lucky, because I had some amazing book bloggers help me with my start.  I received a ton of advice right from the beginning.  I also watched and followed blogs before I started blogging myself, so I had a little time to decide what I thought worked and what didn't.  I think the best advice I could have gotten (or maybe I did and I ignored it) was that building relationships with other bloggers and building followers takes time, so just relax and have fun because in the end, that's most important.

M: What is your favorite aspect of blogging?

A: There is no contest on this: my favorite aspect of blogging is the book blogging community.  Technically, I have only been blogging for about five months, but everyone has been so welcoming that it feels like I've been doing this forever.  Not only are they welcoming, but they are also giving and supportive.  If I had known the book blogging community was that awesome, I probably would have started blogging a lot sooner.  I've met so many amazing people through book blogging (authors included) that have made my experience blogging what it is.

You can find Amanda on her blog On a Book Bender and twitter @BookBender