Well, 2016 is almost over and all I have to say is thank goodness! This year was crazy, and while I had some good times, I also had a lot of stress. Depending on how long you’ve been following the blog, you may or may not know that I moved this summer. We only moved an hour away from our old location but we made the move because the Mister’s job relocated him to a new office and that office was an hour away… in horrible city traffic. It was taking him at least two hours to get home every night. So, we decided to pack up our stuff, in the middle of the summer heat, and move. I’m pretty sure we moved during a heat wave. Anyways, that was brutal and not something I ever want to do again. Mainly because the Mister refused to drive the massive moving truck we got, which mean lil ol’ me drove that behemoth. And let me tell you, the people in SoCal do not like to use their garages or driveways for whatever reason. So I had to maneuver this thing through small residential roads with cars lining both sides. It was not fun.

One thing I LOVED about 2016 was the fact that I finally got to go to RT convention. I’d been following it for years watching it bounce all over the map but never making it to my neck of the woods. Then, when they announced it was going to be in LA, only a six hour drive for me, I bought a ticket and went. I had a blast. Granted at the time I was wondering why anyone in their right mind would do this year after year. I mean, it is stressful and oh so overwhelming. You had multiple classes, parties, and panels going on at the same time, then you only had like ten minutes to rush to the next event. However, if it was a party, there were people lining up for it like an hour in advance. So, there were a few times where I got in line for something only to not make it in, not get a goodie bag, or not get a seat. It was all about sitting in lines for parties. Which was the fun part because you got goodie bags with books and author swag. Plus, those goodie bags were reusable tote bags (which I love!), AND most of the time it was a way to interact with your favorite authors one-on-one. Not going to lie to you though, the most rewarding thing I found were the panels. Sitting in a small room while you favorite author, or maybe even an author you’d never heard of before (happened to me a lot since my roommates and I were mixing our schedules together), and you got to listen to how they created something that thousands of people now read. Anything from, how to write humor, where it comes from (lot of it they take from personal conversations), how to write a steamy scene that’s believable, how to co-author a book when you don’t even live in the same state, how to write suspense, how to write sports romance when you are not in fact a pro-athlete. I mean, there was just so much behind-the-scenes stuff I learned that I honestly found that to be the most rewarding.

I could go on and on about all that happened this year behind the scenes and that would probably explain why I’ve been a bit absent here and there. 2016 has been poppin’ and while I’m sad to see it go, I’m ready to see what 2017 has in store. However, I would like to take a moment to list some of my favorite books that I read in 2016. I mean, this is a book blog after all. I have to talk about books. 😉

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I’m curious how everyone follows their favorite blogs. There’s so many ways to follow a blog nowadays that the possibilities are kind of endless. That is, as long as your blog is signed up for that particular website/network. You can subscribe via email, follow the RSS feed, follow via Google Friend Connect, Bloglovin, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, and the list goes on.

I try to limit the website/platforms I sign up for because there’s just no way I can follow/participate on them all. So, for me, I follow blogs via Bloglovin, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I never sign up for email subscriptions because between the spam, my personal emails, and the blog emails, I would feel way too overwhelmed if I got bombarded by tons of emails a day.

I use Facebook to keep in touch with all my family and friends back home, so I like that I can also follow blogs/authors on there as well. It’s kind of a one-stop-shop for me. However, as we all know, Facebook has gone downhill and it no longer likes to show everyone the feed from the pages they’ve liked unless they interact with the page on a regular basis. I know this because I rarely get any interaction on my page and when you compare it to the number of people that follow the blog on there, the numbers just don’t add up. I also asked my sister, who follows my blog on FB, if she was seeing my posts and she had never seen a BSA post on her feed…Ever. So, she went to the page, liked a few posts, and now she gets the latest updates from my page. It’s also a bit wonky that whenever I like a page I have to hover over the “Liked” button on the page and edit the notifications for that page to make sure I actually get the page’s updates on my news feed. So, that’s why I don’t just solely follow my favorite blogs/authors on Facebook.

I also like Twitter because bloggers and authors usually posts short updates about their day, what books they are reading, pictures of where they are, and also link to their latest posts. Twitter is more of my chatting platform to talk to everyone. I personally use it for both blog and personal aspects. I try to keep my posts book related but sometimes I go off topic and will talk about things going on that day, post pictures of something interesting that I caught on camera, and then also post links to my blog posts.

Then of course I have my trusty Bloglovin feed that is strictly for me to go through all the blogs I follow. This is primarily how I follow a blog and comment on their posts. I just like that I can put the blogs in specific categories. Since I’m a foodie, I also follow a lot of food blogs. So, it’s nice to be able to click on a tab and only get the post updates from a certain set of blogs instead of getting them all at once. Plus, Bloglovin only shows you the website’s latest posts. It’s not a social network where you can chat with people. Another thing I like is that I’m a visual person, and Bloglovin doesn’t just list the latest posts from the blogs you follow. It will show you the top/featured pictures on the post, the title, and a snippet of the post itself. So, I’m able to cruise through posts and see what everyone is posting and a lot of the times a picture will snag my attention and I click to the post in order to read more, even if the title isn’t something that would normally hold my interest.

I actually just recently opened an Instagram account. I was honestly getting tired of all the ranting, complaining, and political stuff I was seeing on Twitter and I kept hearing about how calm Instagram was. So, I decided to make an account and share bookish photos. I can see why everyone loves this platform because I’ve spent quite a bit of time scrolling through all the pretty pictures on there. I’m completely new at Instagram so I haven’t really spent a lot of time searching for people on there. I kind of just stumble across other book lovers and follow them. Probably after the holidays, I will sit down and search for authors and other bloggers on there so that I can follow them on the Instagram platform.

Now, I’m not saying the other platforms are bad, it’s just I feel like, for me, that’s more than enough for me to connect with readers/bloggers/authors. I actually fought getting an Instagram account. Primarily because I don’t have a smartphone and uploading a picture on there is a bit more lengthy than just taking a picture on my phone and loading it up. I actually have to take a picture on my camera, load the picture up on my desktop, then transfer it to my dropbox account, and then fire up the Mister’s tablet, and then upload the picture onto Instagram from there. Which is why you won’t find me blasting Instagram with photos. I know there are a lot of other ways to follow blogs/authors, it’s just that these are the platforms that I use. They are not right or wrong. They are just what works for me. However, I would like to know…

How do you follow your favorite blogs/authors?