1,000 follower Q&A

Happy Saturday, everyone!! If you missed it, a few weeks ago, I reached 1,000 followers on this blog! To celebrate, I decided to do a Q&A, and today is the day I’m answering all the questions.

Thank you to everyone who asked questions! There were so many good ones and I had so much fun answering them!

Sarah asked: what post did way better than you thought it ever would? 

There are some posts that have done weirdly well and I don’t really understand why. For example, my best post is a Top Ten Tuesday on books by favourite authors I still need to read. But I think the one where I bitched about YA fantasy titles was the one I was most surprised by.

What’s your favourite thing to do outside of reading and writing (and blogging about them)?

I used to horseback ride, and it’s one of my favourite things to do. I also love rock climbing, skiing, photography, and watching hockey and baseball.

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Caidyn asked: what made you start blogging?

I was reading more frequently and had a lot of thoughts on the books I was reading and wanted to share them. I’d been thinking about reviewing books on my tumblr AGES ago and just never got around to it. And the summer before I started this blog, I tried starting a blog and just,,,, never did. So I finally decided to start it, and I haven’t stopped since!

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Alex asked: which is your favourite post?

I was really proud of the one I did recently on cancel culture in the book community. I also did one a while ago on medication and it’s portrayal in YA that I still consider one of my favourites.

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Pooja and Aurora asked: what do you love the most about blogging?

Honestly, interacting with everyone! I love when people comment on my posts and tell me their opinions on the things I wrote about. I also love all the recommendations I get from other bloggers.

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Meeghan asked: what are your top 5 underhyped books you recommend?

• I am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak: it only has roughly 120,000 ratings compared to Zusak’s other book, which has 1.5 million ratings. I personally enjoyed I am the Messenger more than the Book Thief.
• Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang: the titular novella in this collection is amazing and I cannot recommend it enough.
• Dream Factory by Brad Barkley and Helen Hepler: this book takes place at Disney World, what more do you want?
• Beka Cooper by Tamora Pierce: I think Tamora Pierce is highly underrated in general, and Beka Cooper is by far my favourite.
• Haters by Alisa Valdes: this book is honestly just a lot of fun and NO ONE knows about it. Please read it!!!

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Aurora asked: what’s the best book you’ve read this year?

I haven’t read a ton in 2019, but either Dreams of Joy by Lisa See or the Secret History by Donna Tartt were definitely the best.

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Sofi asked: if you could take the place of a bookish character for a whole day, who would it be? and why?

AHHHH this is such a hard question!!! I think I would love to be Lily Evans (Harry Potter’s mom) in her sixth or seventh year at Hogwarts for a day. I just love her and would love to experience Hogwarts as her.

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Katie asked: what book do you think you’ve hyped/written about the most?

I think probably Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I searched it on my blog and it turned up about 5 pages of results. I just love it? There’s so much to love?

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Nicki asked: what were your expectations when you started this blog?

Honestly, I had minimal expectations. I just wanted a place to share my thoughts on books I loved, and maybe meet some people while doing so. When I started getting followers, I expected to reach about 500 followers, if that.

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Sara asked: what has been your biggest surprise while blogging?

I think the sheer number of people in the bookish community. There are SO MANY blogs and booktube and twitter and instagram accounts, it’s ridiculous. There’s definitely somebody for everybody.

OH also how poorly book reviews tend to do stats-wise compared to other posts? Book reviews are consistently my worst posts in terms of stats, which I found surprising.

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Rachel asked: which of your blog posts are you the most proud of?

I kind of answered this above, but I think my post on cancel culture is the one I’m most proud of. It’s definitely my longest and the one I spent the most time on.

ALSO EVERYONE Rachel also recently reached 1,000 followers and is doing a giveaway to celebrate!! Definitely go check out her blog and giveaway if you haven’t already!

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Miscellany Pages asked: if you were hosting a dinner party and could invite any three authors (living or dead), who would you invite?

This is such a great question! I think I’d love to meet Celeste Ng, Neil Gaiman, and JK Rowling. They are all brilliant and I’d love to pick their brains.

Thank you all for asking your questions! And thank you, again, for all your love and support. This blog has consistently been one of the best things in my life for the past few years, and all your support means the world to me.

Ally xx