Book bloggers love posting reviews of books… But it’s the posts about the other stuff that tend to get the most interaction. Or is that just me? Anyway, yesterday’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was not about books but about other random facts. Here’s ten things about me:
01. My Papa taught me how to clear a wave in the surf and then later, how to bodysurf. I still think of him every time I dive under a wave.
02. I loathe the colour purple. Loathe. But I love the smell of violets… (a shame so many things that are violet scented are also purple).
03. Once my husband asked me to rank my three favourite operas and it took me so long (of thinking aloud) that he called an end to the exercise (for the record, and still in no particular order: Lucia, Butterfly and either Fledermaus or Aida… See? I still can’t decide and he only asked the question 20 years ago).
04. I used to row and think often about getting back in the boat (my back and knees aren’t so keen).
05. I’m choosy about my trashy tele – we all have our limits, right? My all-time favourite is Gossip Girl.
06. Whenever I visit a new place on holiday I buy the most touristy souvenir tea-towel I can find. My collection is marvelous.
07. I’ve never eaten at Subway – that’s not a policy decision, it’s just that the smell of the place is revolting (I walk by our local one often).
08. I have a bird phobia. Actually, anything with wings near my head (so butterflies are out). I blame St. Mark’s Square in Venice.
09. I hate the cold, can’t even think about snow and yet the number one place I want to visit is Iceland (it’s the cliff/sea interface that attracts me).
10. I think a swim in the sea solves everything.
To be honest, I skip all posts that AREN’T book reviews or interviews or essays or reflections on a live author reading. I clicked on yours because I saw you asked if it was just you who finds that reviews don’t get as many likes as other posts. Things I skip: top-ten Tuesday, salon Sunday, book hauls, monthly or weekly wrap-ups, Monday what-are-you-reading posts, etc.. It’s no offense to the blogger, but it just feels like silliness to me to make the blog look more active than it is. I used to do top-ten Tuesday myself, but such posts ate up my time in a way that made it harder to read books! When I go through a new blogger’s feed to see if I want to follow them, I usually reconfirm that bloggers who do these “fluff” posts have very few book reviews (it tends to be once every 2 weeks, but this is anecdotal evidence).
Interesting! I don’t participate in all the ‘fluff’ but will do one or two posts a week that aren’t reviews – mostly as a way of recording my thoughts or bookmarking particular things. I never do book-haul kind of posts – only because I’m lazy!
If I’m deciding whether or not to follow a blogger I usually look through the books they’ve reviewed and see if we like the same sorts of things.
If people want to participate in such posts, I don’t stop following their blog, but I don’t read those posts. I’ve always felt they’re more fitting on Facebook, but other bloggers have said readers want know a lot about the blogger’s personal life. It’s all about preference!
I think I only want to know about personal lives once I’ve followed a blog for quite some time – I guess it provides insight into reading choices. Plus, I’m not a Facebooker so need an outlet 😁
Birds – ugh. Hitchcock got it exactly right!
A swim in the sea *definitely* solves everything 🙂
I think Isak Dinesen had it right – “The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.”
Subway. Ditto. Birds, Hitchcock. Ditto.
I mentioned Subway smelling gross to a group of people a few weeks ago and they all thought I was mental! Glad it’s not just me…
I’ve eaten once in Subway – I’d keep this one on your list of things you’ve never done if I were you.
*noted* 🙂
02. I have a similar problem. I love the colour purple, but I loathe (loathe!) the smell of lavender (violets I like) and when it comes to scented things, many purple things are lavender scented.
03. Aida and La Bohème are definitely among my favourites.
08. I don’t mind birds, as long as they stay far away from my head. I cannot stand anything flying around my head. (Once when doing field work we had to run and hide in the truck because a bird was attacking us – this didn’t cause my phobia but it definitely didn’t help.)
09. I’m always cold, no matter the ambient temperature. In spite of this, I don’t regret moving to Iceland. Taking evening walks along the shore, with the mountains in the background, is worth it all.
I actually don’t like lavender at all – whenever I have a massage or facial (or something equally ‘relaxing’) I always say “No lavender!” – it limits your options at a day spa!
I’m fine with birds if they’re high in the sky or atop trees 😀
I have SO MUCH Iceland envy. I’m sure you’ll take advantage of your time there.
Having been to St Marks Square, I totally get why it might give you an aversion to birds. I swear that place has the biggest, fattest pigeons I’ve ever seen in my whole life. You’d hate my house – I have four little budgies as my housemates.
Budgies… Nope. 😬
Ha! I can relate to many of these. Other than my weekly check-in posts, it’s my personal posts that get the most attention from readers and commenters. My usual book reviews receive minimal fanfare.
Interestingly lots of different book bloggers I follow and read have different readers though.
I also hate purple, but love violets (enough that I’m considering the name Violet). I also just commented on your Ocean Road show off post, but what I almost included was that we don’t have such sights in Colorado, but we do have snow from October-May. So…if you want to vacation in the cold…. 🙂