Hoppy Friday

Hoppy Friday! It's time for another Book Blogger Hop, November 5 - November 8, hosted by the brilliant Jennifer from Crazy-for-Books. This weekly BOOK PARTY is an opportunity for book bloggers to socialize, to connect with other book lovers, support each other, discover new book blogs, and have some fun! If you'd like me to visit your blog, please leave a comment.

This week's question is from Vicki from The Wolf's Den: What are your feelings on losing followers? Have you ever stopped following a blog?

Excellent question! I do lose followers from time to time, and I feel a bit sad when this happens, but I try not to dwell on it. People are busy and pressed for time, and I realize that my blog is not for everyone. I appreciate the followers and readers that I do have. As for me, it's very rare that I "unfollow" a blog; I think I may have a couple of times in the past, before I realized that someone else's feelings could be hurt. But usually, if I follow your blog you are stuck with me for life. :) I follow many blogs and only wish that I had more time to visit and leave comments on each and every one of them.

Really Random Tuesday #11: Bookmarks, A Giveaway, ADHD and OCB

Welcome to another edition of Really Random Tuesday! This is a special Tuesday because it is an election day. If you live in the United States, please vote if you haven't already done so. Ninety years ago women acquired the right to vote, and it is still important to make our voices heard!

Shortly before the fires ravaged Southern California in October of 2007, I became a used book seller on Amazon. Very quickly, to my surprise, I made a few sales, and was ecstatic (the little things in life bring me such happiness at times!). I am very conscientious about mailing books out promptly, and when we evacuated our home due to the approaching fires, I brought some books to mail as I did not want the orders delayed. Luckily, we did not lose our home in the fires, which destroyed at least 1500 homes, and tragically took some lives. About a month after I mailed out my first book, one of my earliest customers, a student living abroad in Japan, sent me a real gold filigree bookmark. I enjoyed using it, and treasured this lovely trinket. Unfortunately, though, I left the delicate bookmark in a book, and I haven't been able to locate it. Although it wasn't a large or expensive gift, I was touched by the kindness of this gesture, and I'd really like to find this missing bookmark. I'm sure it is hidden in one of my books, between the pages, somewhere.

In the meantime, I've been using other bookmarks. Among those I'm currently using are a gold angel bookmark (peering out of Richard Lederer's Literary Trivia book), a gift from a friend, and a rug bookmark that I purchased from Barnes & Noble.


Do you also use bookmarks? I am having a mini giveaway for magnetic bookmarks from Barnes & Noble, called Letters From Paris and Classic Café, pictured below. This giveaway is open worldwide.

• To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment.
• For an extra chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower, or that you subscribe in Google Reader.
• For an additional chance, post about this giveaway on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Enter by 5PM PST on Monday, November 15. One winner will be chosen randomly and announced on Tuesday, November 16. Good luck!

****************

This type of Google ad keeps popping up on my blog:

ADHD Treatment for Adults - Get information about a treatment
option for adults with ADHD. ADHDTreatmentforAdults.com

I don't dare click on it, and I de-activated the links here (lest I get in trouble from Adsense), but it seems to be trying to tell me something. Apparently I have a short attention span, because I click around a lot (Google ads are related to content but now they seem to be related to behavior as well). But clicking is part of blogging. You may visit other blogs, look things up, check this or that, do some investigating; in short, you have to click away from your site (and hopefully not mistakenly click on your ads, if you have any!). If you're a blogger I think you know what I mean. Blogging involves much more than simply writing posts. You can spend a great deal of time on your blog, so much so that it seems like you have another affliction, OCB (Obsessive Compulsive Blogging). Truth be told, publishing a blog requires a great deal of work, maintenance, and commitment. It looks a lot easier than it is, but it's also a joy. As the saying goes, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it, and when you have a work in progress such as a blog, which is a dynamic entity, forever changing, growing, and evolving, this is certainly the case. Sometimes, I just want to be able to give my OCB free rein and spend the whole day blogging, in spite of all the other stuff I need to do. :)

****************

Really Random Tuesday is a way to post odds and ends--announcements, musings, quotes, photos--any blogging and book-related things you can think of. If you're inspired by this idea, feel free to copy the button and use it on your own blog. Leave a link in the comments if you’re participating and I'll add it to this post. Please be sure to visit the fun RRT post on Naida's blog, the bookworm.