Category Archives: Ramblings

Blogging is not as easy as you would think. I have a food blog that I started many years ago but it is nothing like Book Sniffers Anonymous. I only post recipes when I have something to share and I only started it so that I could share recipes with my family and friends without having to send out multiple emails. So, when I decided to start BSA, I thought it would be the same, low key thing as Holy Cannoli Recipes. I was sorely mistaken. I mean, I could still have the same slow, on my time, posting schedule but you can’t really do that when you are accepting review books and taking part in tours. Not to mention that there’s a huge difference between spending a couple hours in the kitchen cooking up a recipe, and spending a couple of days reading one book. So, it’s safe to say that BSA takes up a lot of my time. It’s even more true considering that this blog is a one woman show. I don’t have other bloggers coming in and helping me out by posting, reviewing, or doing social media. Which is why some things fall through the cracks and I’m not always active on all the social media sites. I just don’t have the time to read, post, stop by my favorite blogs, make sure my social media sites have the latest review link uploaded, cross post reviews on bookseller sites, and post multiple pictures on Instagram every day. Heck, I’m lucky if I get one picture in a week on there. I just don’t have that kind of time. Seriously, how do some of you guys do it?

One thing I recently did was convince my sister to help me out on the blog. She’s a big reader and I figured if I could have her help me out with reviews, that would be some weight off my shoulders. If you’ve been with me from the start, you may have noticed that I have had a couple people help out over the years. I actually started the blog with a very good friend of mine. However, her life started to get really busy and she didn’t have the time to work on the blog with me and I felt bad that I was pestering her about reviews. After that I enlisted my best friend from back home to help out with reviews. She has a completely different reading preference than I do. She would read more self-help and non-fiction books and I loved having her on here to mix things up. But again, she was climbing the corporate ladder at work, buying a new home, and really just didn’t have time to read any more. So, I’ve been chugging along just trying to keep my head above water when I decided to practically beg my sister to help me out. Thankfully she said she would come on board and I’m really happy I was able to persuade her to help out. So, you will be seeing reviews pop up from time to time from Jodi. She doesn’t have any social media handles yet but if she decides to set something up, I will be sure to include them on the website. 🙂

I am curious though, for those of you that have book blogs, how do you guys manage to keep up with your blogs?

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I know I’ve been a little quick here over the last couple of weeks and I promise to pick it back up and stop by and visit everyone very soon. My parents flew out for a visit and they kept me rather busy during the two weeks they were here. It was my father’s first time visiting California, so there were things he wanted to do and see before they flew back home. We drove up to Santa Anita racetrack and got to see the horse races there. We went to La Jolla Cove to not only check out the pacific ocean but to also see the sea lions. The Backstreet Boys came into town for a summer concert and I took my mom to see them. My dad even came with my mom and I to a local winery village… and he doesn’t even drink. Needless to say, I was rather busy while they were here.

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Not only were my parents out for a visit but on their last day here I lost one of my furbabies (Weeble) suddenly. Some of you may remember Weeble from previous posts when she was diagnosed with cancer. We thought everything was fine, she even had a full check up with blood panels done recently and everything was looking great. However, on Monday morning I found her and realized that my little book sniffer was no longer with us. We’re not sure what happened or why she passed. So, bear with me for the next week or two. I’m slowly trying to get back into the groove but the inspiration to post on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and comment on other blogs just isn’t there right now. I hope that with the holiday weekend coming up that I will be able to get out of this funk and get back to work on BSA.

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Today I’m going to be talking about what makes me pick up the books that I do.

We’ve all heard it, don’t judge a book by it’s cover… but it’s so hard! I mean, they’re right. Some covers I’ve fallen in love with and the story within them weren’t my thing. Then there were covers that were lacking, in my opinion, that I absolutely loved! So, it is true that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but at the same time, that’s the first thing you see. So, I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say the number one thing that draws my attention when at a bookstore or browsing books online is the cover. The cover art is the first thing I see and I either instantly hate the book because the cover doesn’t jive with me, or I am in love with the book and then proceed to look at the synopsis.

However, there have been times where the cover hasn’t tickled my fancy but I notice the author and it gives me pause. Like most bookworms, we tend to be loyal to our favorite authors. I’m well aware that authors, at least the traditionally published ones, do not really have a say in the covers/titles/synopsis of their books. They write the material within and the publisher wraps it up in a pretty little package for the readers to enjoy. So there have been times where a cover has turned me off but the author themselves drew me back in.

Another thing that may grab my attention is word of mouth. If I hear about a book enough on the blogosphere, chances are I’m going to pick it up. That’s happened to me a bunch of times. I wasn’t blown away by the cover, the synopsis left me iffy, and I didn’t know the author. However, I kept hearing about these books over and over and over. Finally, I gave in and decided to give them a chance. Turned out that I’ve fallen in love with the majority of the books I’ve read this way. Maybe it’s because I went in with low expectations and a clean slate as to what to expect. All I know is that I’ve learned to listen to my fellow bloggers and readers when it comes to what they recommend and talk about.

And last, the biggest thing for me that sells me on a book is the synopsis. Ultimately, I’m not getting the book for the cover art or so that I can say that I have “so-and-so’s” book on my shelf. No! I get it because I want to read the material within all that good stuff. While the cover art is always a plus, and books with pretty covers get featured on my shelves by having their covers facing outward, it is not all there is to it. Sadly, a lot of book tend to get overlooked when I’m browsing the shelves in a store because I see the cover first and unless it catches my attention I skim over it. However, when it comes to blogging and getting review requests, I’m forced to kind of read the synopsis first and look at the cover second. Regardless though, even when it comes to my favorite authors or a gorgeous cover, I still read the synopsis and that helps me determine if I’ll read.

What makes you want to pick up a book and read it?

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This weekend I’m taking part in the Love-a-Thon hosted by Alexa Loves Books, The Novel Hermit, Super Space Chick,  and The Daily Prophecy. The Love-a-Thon is an event dedicated to spreading positivity and love. It’s time dedicated to visiting other bloggers/Instagrammers/BookTubers, leaving a comment or two, making new friends and fostering positivity among the members of our amazing community.

Now that we got what Love-a-thon is out of the way, I’d like to take a moment to tell you a bit about myself. Many of you know my story but for those of you who don’t know who I am, my name’s Kristin and I’m currently in the SoCal area. I love reading anything with romance in it. So, with that being said I read young adult, new adult, contemporary, historical, paranormal, fantasy, and urban fantasy novels.

When I was a kid my mom would bring me to the library every week to get new books to read. However, once I started school and had literary classics jammed down my throat year after year, reading sort of lost it’s appeal for me. I actually didn’t get back into reading until about seven years ago when I finally gave in and gave Twilight a shot. I had a bunch of friends who wouldn’t stop telling me to read it. So, I got a copy of the book from my local library and quickly read the saga within a handful of days, and I haven’t looked back since. I didn’t actually get into book blogging until a year later. I stumbled across a book blog one day and realized that there were a lot of books out there that I had no idea existed. Since I already had a food blog [Holy Cannoli Recipes] I decided to create a book blog so that I could share new books and authors with my family and friends back home. Book Sniffers Anonymous is actually a mash-up of two names (book sniffers/bibliophiliacs anonymous) for a book club that a friend and I had been contemplating starting before I moved away. However, the book club idea fell through and each of those names were already taken on Blogger, so I mushed them together and got Book Sniffers Anonymous. I’m not too upset about the outcome because I couldn’t imagine my blog being named anything else.

While the blog is my main focus, I do like to chat with other readers on Twitter and Facebook. I just recently opened an Instagram account and have been having fun both checking out all the amazing bookish photos as well as sharing some of my own.

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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?

It’s the first day of summer which means everyone’s going to want to be outside enjoying the summer and no one’s really gonna wanna be cooped up in the house. Well, at least I don’t anyway. 😛 I’m going to enjoy the time I have left here since we live right near the beach. I can actually hear sea lions barking from my house. It’s pretty awesome and I’m sad to say I will be moving away from it soon. So, things may quiet down here for a bit. The Mister’s job has transferred him to a different location which means that we will be moving… again. Ah! It will be two years in July that we moved to this house and we are already packing up and moving again. I’ve been slowly going through things and donating stuff to the local food bank/thrift store in town. I’m not going to lie, when the Mr. told me he wanted to move, I looked around at all of our stuff and sort of panicked. We tend to collect things over the years, throw it in a closet, and forget about it. So, I did end up donating a lot of my back-up giveaway books. Sorry, but I just didn’t want to have to lug them during the move just to store them for giveaways. I did hold onto a couple of ARCs of Recreated by Colleen Houck that I’ll be giving away below. 😉

Even though the next month will be spent packing, moving, and unpacking… hopefully I will have some time to relax and enjoy the summer months. I’m also a little worried about boxing up my books. Mainly because, what if I want to read a book but I’ve already boxed it?! Which is probably why I’ve already told the Mr. that the last thing to get boxed will be my books. Like, as the moving truck is pulling up, I will be up here boxing up my library of pretties.

I’m going to still try to schedule posts and be on social media but once things go into full gear and we’ve actually started the full on moving process where my computer gets packed up… well, there may be some down time until I get to the new place, unpack my dino computer, and get internet hooked. But, that’s all in the future since we don’t even have a place yet. We will [hopefully] be driving down this week to look at potential houses. So, keep your fingers and toes crossed for us.

Okay, enough rambling. 😛

Giveaway time!

I’ve got 2 copies up for grabs.

There’s a lot of different reading challenges out there. Some are geared towards certain genres, others are a test to see how many books you can read in a certain time frame, and I’ve even seen some that were strictly to help those of us who have fallen behind on reading all the those ARC’s we get. I used to take part in challenges when I first started blogging and they are a great way to get your rear in gear if you are looking to kick your reading into high gear. I especially like the challenges where you dust off those books that have been sitting patiently on your shelf for a while. However, I haven’t taken part in challenge in a while… until now! My friend included me in her family’s summer reading challenge. You may have remembered last year I was asking for recommendations for a bingo challenge I was doing. Well, this year her family decided to go with a passport theme and I have got to tell you, I AM EXCITED!

I looked through the passport and filled in a handful of books that I currently have that could fall under the different categories, but there are a bunch that I’m drawing blanks on. So, I am hoping you guys can help me out and recommend some books to help me complete my passport for the summer.

1.  A book published before 1986.
2.  A book by an author from an African country or a book set somewhere on the continent.
3.  A book that is set in or was written by an author from South America.
4.  A book that is set in or was written by an author from Australia.
5.  A book by a scientist or a nonfiction book that features science.
6.  A mystery novel.
7.  A book that has an award. (any award. I was even told it could be one given by a blog 😉 )

I prefer to read new adult, young adult, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and contemporary adult. Basically something with a little bit of romance in it. Obviously #5 is going to be a tough one for me since non-fiction isn’t my preferred genre of choice and science is like a foreign language to me. So I’m hoping there’s a scientist out there who wrote some romance or a shifter book for me to enjoy, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.