Jo Linsdell

Interview with Mohd Faizan Fahim from Bookaapi Book Blog #BookBlogger #BookBlog

Welcome back for another Book Blogger Interview! This week my guest is Mohd Faizan Fahim from Bookaapi Book Blog

Ritahay Worth Gilda GIF from Ritahayworth GIFs

Introduce yourself. Who are you? Where are you from? Where do you blog?

Hello everyone, my name is Faizan Fahim. I am a student, currently doing MBA in Marketing. I am from New Delhi, Capital of India. I am living here for my whole life.

I do blogging on my book blog, hosted on WordPress. Other than the blog, I post the review on GoodReads, I do have a Facebook page, and Instagram Account.

I make graphics for my blog and Instagram on Ms Publisher and PowerPoint.

Why and how do you blog? What made you start?

What made me start is the reason when I read a thread on Goodreads that they are deleting the negative reviews. There was a very big discussion on that GoodReads post, how GoodReads being unfair to the reviewers, so I thought, I should make a blog. And I did.

I used both now, GoodReads and Book blog.

At least I own my content and reviews now, GoodReads can have a part of it, but it is mine.

So, wanting to own my content make me start my own blog.

How long have you been blogging?

I am blogging for past 2 years, one year on wordpress.com, and then I brought the self-hosted plan of WordPress. It was so difficult in starting, with all theme and customizing, but we are readers, we can read and solve problems so that I did.

What advice do you wish you'd had when you started?

When starting, I filled up my blog with different widgets. There was a Twitter widget, and Facebook Page widget, Instagram Widget and also a Goodreads widget.

One day I thought about why I am making my blog so messy. So I started cleaning. Now there are not many widgets. My latest posts, and some ads.

That I wished to know earlier.

This is the advice I give to new book bloggers, keep your blog clean.

How much time do you devote to blogging each day/week/month?

I try to write at least one post every week. And if you see me some latest post, you will realise how much work I do in writing a single post. From creating good-looking graphics to writing a detailed article that would be helpful to the reader.

So yeah, it takes time to write a post.

Sometime even three days, because I don’t sit consistently.

I make time to do this between other works.

But I am thinking to give more time and post at least two posts a week.

How often do you post on your blog?

Already answered in Question 5 I think.

What motivates you to keep blogging about books?

Facebook Groups.

Let’s see.

I read the post on one of my Facebook Group that what WordPress Plugins a beginner book bloggers should use?

So I wrote the “Best WordPress Plugins for Book Bloggers” about this topic.

My Facebook book Blogging groups motivate me to blog, because they offer me the problem, that I solve.

And there are NetGalley ARCs that I like to review on my blog.

One more major motivation is the sense of creating something. It feels good when I see my published post.

Is there something you wish authors knew about your blog or blogging?

I don’t know what to say here…

I don’t have relations with authors or publication houses much.

They send me books and I review them.

What's your most popular blog post?

I am not a popular blogger, so there is no popular post.

But “Book Blog Post Ideas”, this post has more views than other posts.

I wrote a long post about what to write when you are out of ideas. 30+ Ideas, with an explanation.

Helpful for book bloggers.

Do you write reviews for every book you read?

No, that is not possible for me.

I write a review of only those books that I said I will review.

Like NetGalley book, and review Copies.

Other books I read, I write about them, not reviews, but Quote Post or Analysis of a Character or Situation.

I am trying to widen my book blog topics.

How many book reviews do you normally do a week?

One post, but that is not always a review.

But I am trying to write at least one review every week.

What genres are your favourites?

My favourite genre, this is my favourite question.

I like reading Y/A Fiction, teenage Stories, Coming of Age Novel.

I also like slow books. Slow books is not a genre, but I like books with prose.

Like Kate Atkinson, Carol Rifka Brunt. Fast books like Gone Girl, and The Girl on the Train, well, I want to protect myself from those type of books.

I also like reading short stories. Short stories say a lot of things in a few words.

Good writing is what I want from a book. Good writing with the Good story.

I don’t need lessons, motivations or jaw-dropping sequence. Give me a good metaphor, with prose, and sound story. That’s all.

What are you currently reading and why did you choose to read it?

I am reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I am reading it because a friend of mine said that I read crap and I should read some good fiction.

So my friend, who thinks reading y/a is idiotic, gave me this book.

But I am also reading a Me and Me by Alice Kuipers.

Do you have any plans for your blog in the future?

Yes, I am thinking of writing more, and make a helpful guide for beginner book blogger.

I am thinking of adding any of my friends to help with sharing on social media.

TBH I am not a planner, I do things randomly.

I also have to figure out that mail thing. I am a noob at that.

But it is a matter of time that I will solve that riddle too…

Thank You so much for giving me this opportunity.

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Book Review: Banana for Two by Ellen Mayer

Disclosure: I got sent a free copy of this book via Net Galley.

Mama, her toddler, and two stuffed bunnies turn a grocery store outing into an opportunity to talk, laugh, and learn a little math. As they fill their cart with items in quantities of one and two, Mama lets her baby hold them, connecting the familiar idea of one and two hands to concepts of one and two. But how will Mama share one banana for their snack? As she cuts the banana in half, her child proudly recognizes the two pieces, showing an understanding of the notion of two.

This playful story models talk and actions that help children develop a stronger understanding of quantities and how math is part of daily life.

https://amzn.to/2kqNydv

Interview with Neena Paul from Kindle and Kompass #BookBlogger #BookBlogging

For today's Book Blogger Interview join me in giving a warm welcome to Neena Paul from Kindle and Kompass

Party Time GIF from Themask GIFs

Introduce yourself. Who are you? Where are you from? and Where do you blog?

I am Neena and I currently live in Detroit area in Michigan. I moved here about 3 years ago from Bangalore, India. I am originally from the state of Kerala in India. I blog at a shared space started between me and my friend Rama Vani at www.kindleandkompass.com. We were friends since college and have known each other for the last 15 years. She lives in Chennai, India. We blog about books, travel and occasionally some personal/motivational writings. You can read more about us here (https://kindleandkompass.com/about/)

Why and how do you blog? What made you start?

We started blogging primarily because between us books and travels were a constant topic because that’s something that was close to our heart. We were also often asked by our friends on travel tips and book recommendations. So, we thought, why not we put it out somewhere for people to read if it helps them.

How long have you been blogging?

Our blog is relatively new. We started it about 10 months ago. Because we also work full time IT jobs, this is something we try to do during our extra hours.

What advice do you wish you'd had when you started?

I wish we had started this much earlier. We have been reading books from a very young age but it just took so long to put those into something useful like a blog. But then there is a time for everything!

How much time do you devote to blogging each day/week/month?

Like I mentioned, this is a shared space between two of us who also manage full time IT jobs. So, we mostly spend after work hours or weekends to get the content ready. We read on a daily basis, so between both of us, we manage to have at least 2 book reviews per month. And because there is two of us, it is probably a tad easier than having to do it all alone.

How often do you post to your blog?

Over the last 10 months, we managed to have about 50 posts up on the blog. We schedule our posts to go out every Thursday morning IST hours. Occasionally, we do more than one posts a week. That happens when we post about non- book/travel related posts.

What motivates you to keep blogging about books?

The fact that we are able to encourage more people into the habit of reading and providing book suggestions to enthusiasts is a great motivating factor to keep writing reviews. It is also a way to keep track of what we have read and what we liked the most. We also regularly post our reviews to GoodReads.

Is there something you wish authors knew about your blog or blogging?

It would be nice for us to have more opportunities to work with authors and fellow reviewers. We are new to this space and still learning the multiple avenues of blogging and author interactions. There is a lot to learn from established bloggers.

What's your most popular blog post?

We recently published our 50^th blog post which became an instant hit among our readers. We shared about how we find time to do all these things that we have come to love – books travel and fitness. It probably struck a chord with the readers. We heard a lot of feedback on how everyone loved it. Here is the link to this post - https://kindleandkompass.com/2018/07/05/finding-time-for-the-things-you-love/

Do you write reviews for every book you read?

We almost try to review every book that we read. If the books are small, we try to club them together into a single review or a wrap up post – like this one here https://kindleandkompass.com/2018/06/04/books-to-add-to-your-reading-shelf-this-summer/

We try to keep notes as we are reading about the characters and major twists and so it becomes easy for us to review them later on.

How many book reviews do you normally do a week?

We normally do about 2-3 book reviews a month. Because we stick to a weekly schedule of publishing on Thursdays we end up having drafts written long before but not published yet – something that we are trying to change.

What genres are your favourites?

We are both lovers of fiction. I started my reading journey with Harry Potter and since then there was no looking back. We also enjoy reading autobiographies, contemporary fiction and classics like Jane Austen.

What are you currently reading and why did you choose to read it?

I am currently reading “A Mid-Summer Night’sDream” by William Shakespeare. As for why, I don’t believe an answer to that is needed because it is one among the world greatest works by Shakespeare. I wasn’t sure if I will be able to read it, but now that I started I am totally used to the style with which is written and the characters are beautiful.

Do you have any plans for your blog in the future?

We are slowly learning the SEO techniques and the very large platform that blogging is – something we did not realise until we started out on this journey. We hope to learn and associate with fellow bloggers and continue creating content that is mutually rewarding to us and our readers.

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I missed updating you on my BookTubeAThon progress so here's my updates for days 3 and 4 of the reading challenge. So far I'm doing really well. In fact, I don't think I've ever done this well in past years of participating in the BookTubeAThon reading challenge. I think I might actually stand a chance of winning this year!

BookTubeAThon Day 3

BookTubeAThon Day 4

How are you doing so far? On track to read 7 books in 7 days? What's your favourite book out of those you've read for BookTubeAThon so far?

BookTubeAThon Day 2

The second day of BookTubeAThon was a much slower day as we went to the beach for the day. Three kids, relatives, dinner out... I didn't get as much time to read as I would have liked. It was an awesome day though and the break did us all good. Rome is very hot at the moment so staying in the city is a bit like staying in an oven on full heat.

Anyway I'm happy to report that I'm now on book 3. I'm currently reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

Here's my very brief vlog for Day 2: