So excited to be a full participant this year!
Today is the day for INTRODUCTIONS
1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?
* My name is Emma. I’m married, and my teen years are way way back…
* After a few false starts, I seriously began posting book reviews here in September 2010
* I started book blogging because reading is a passion; and I always want to share about what I read and am interested in what others are reading.
I also discovered that if I don’t write about a book I read, sometimes I may forget a few weeks later what this was about, what I thought about it. So this is also a great way for me of keeping track of what I read and liked.
2. Where in the world are you blogging from? Tell a random fact or something special about your current location. Feel free to share pictures.
* I’m French but book blogging in English from Chicagoland! Well, everything is special in Chicago, isn’t it?
3. Have you previously participated in Armchair BEA? What brought you back for another year? If you have not previously participated, what drew you to the event?
* I participated briefly in 2011. May-June is usually a difficult time for me, with lots of other things going on. So glad I can fully participate this year!
* I came back because I enjoyed the contacts with other bloggers, and learned a lot about book blogging.
4. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2013?
* I’m currently reading
a great book on the life of this retired American couple in Provence. I’m also listening to
Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline, the best audio ever!
* My favorite book read so far in 2013 is probably
clilck on the cover to access my review
5. Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you
* I am also an artist, painting almost exclusively on rocks. See my works: Rocks By Emmanuelle
* May I add one more thing? I am also an English-French translator
6. Name your favorite blog(s) and explain why they are your favorite(s)
* According to my RSS Feed Reader, I follow over 300 book blogs, and I really like many of them. I will just mention Devourer of Books, because she was one of the first I followed, and I enjoy the quality of her reviews, the diversity of her reading, the presence of audiobooks; and her author seems to have a very courageous inspiring life. Plus she’s almost a neighbor, though I still have to meet her in person!
7. Which is your favorite post that you have written that you want everyone to read?
* I would like first to stay I’m really not proud of my first reviews posted here: they were not personal enough, with just a few notes added to the synopsis and reactions of other bloggers. My format has evolved with the months and years. I have now a rating system (based on nothing less than the Eiffel Tower!, French oblige), and then I present my own thoughts before the synopsis and links to other bloggers. I have noticed that the more I enjoy a book the better my reviews tends to be.
One of the most recent I like most is on
because of its special structure. Go have a look!
8. If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?
* Maybe Le Grand Meaulnes or his author Alain-Fournier, because they are so romantically inventive, creative, and so deeply in love with their countryside
9. What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?
* I’m going to answer with a real literary place: The Iowa Writers’ Workshop, because I have discovered several new great writers who had been through these workshops. It would be fascinating to go and talk with the teachers and young writers as they share ideas and discover their potential.
10. What is your favorite part about the book blogging community?
* The blessing and the curse for me: to hear about great books I did not know about. The curse part of it is that my TBR threatens to be as high as the Babel tower, and I would need 2 or 3 lives to read them all.
11. Is there anything that you would like to see change in the coming years?
* Even more connections with writers
* All bloggers to answer when I send them an email
* All bloggers to have a clear way of contacting them on their blog, and a clear page where they say what genres of books they like, and if they accept books for review.
Why? Ask in a comment and I will tell you!
Words And Peace 
I loved learning more about you in this intro!!! I have Ready Player One on my shelves, but I’m beginning to wish I’d sprung for the audio!
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yes, it was a very hot audio last year. go grab the audio at the library, you will not regret it! I think you can get so much more than on paper, the narrator is fabulous!
thanks for your visit, just went to comment on your post as well
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Thanks! I’ll definitely see if my library has it. Hopefully, a quick, easy digital download. I could use a new audiobook for my commute.
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oh, be careful, you might miss your stop, lol!
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This is my second year participating in ArmchairBEA and I love the contacts made and the tidbits I end up picking up about blogging.
I’ve heard great things about The Painted Girls and am hoping to read it soon.
Enjoy ArmchairBEA!
My Intro Post
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yes, it is a very neat book, well built.
thanks for your visit, I just dropped a comment at your place
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nice to meet you, Emma! hope you enjoy your second Armchair BEA!
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thanks for visiting, looks like you are one of my cheerleader of the day, lol. My group to cheer is not up yet, but I have visited and commented on others as well, yours for instance
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We are the same age in blogger years! I love day one of ABEA. So many new people to meet.
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cool, I love your post of the day, the nice pictures of your town. I prepared this post ahead of time, and stupid me, did not even think of including one book cover.
Now, that was really smart to combine the Top 10 Tuesday and the Classic post for BEA. Of all your classics, my favorite is The Hobbit.
thanks for your visit!
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Allow me to (completely in jest) call you an overachiever for answering ALL of the questions! But I am totally glad you did. I seriously thought about doing that too, honestly.
I am right there with you on following like, 300 blogs. I could not possibly pick just one. Never going to happen. And you voiced my exact concern that the TBR pile shall become insurmountable!
Lisa @ Just Another Rabid Reader
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for the overachiever, you are almost right: I did NOT do a post for the Classics today, lol!! Actually I wrote the Introductions post last week, when I was not in a rush, that’s why I took time. And finally I just added a few pictures to it right now, because this post looked so dull.
Ah the curse of the TBR…
One of the bloggers I follow mentions how many books they added to the TBR during the past month, in their monthly wrap-up. So I got the idea to check also and mention it. It is basically 35-40 every month, insaaaaaaaane
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Omigosh…Totally insane. I had to stop requesting on Netgalley. It was getting out of hand!
I didn’t do a classics post yet, need to do that still. But I can’t decide how to do it.
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I saw a blogger combining this with the Top Ten Tuesday meme, I thought that was cool
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Oh wow, interesting. I don’t really do too many memes. Wonder if I should, but sometimes too many is not a good thing, either, you know?
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I agree. I do the WWW on Wednesdays, and when I can my own: ‘I Love France’ [Thursday] – where you can post anything connected with France
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Those sound like fun. I know nothing about France so I would be lost on that one! I infrequently do feature and follow friday, though.
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there are so many memes out there, yes we can get overwhelmed so quickly
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I agree. But they do help to generate traffic and to engage readers. I just passed the 10,000 page view mark, and have a grand total of maybe 600 comments, if that, on my blog, with about half being me replying to comments others have left.
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I definitely grew some of my readership through them. I’m over 42,000 this minute, but thanks to Armchair BEA, it will grow quickly this week, lol!
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Now if I could just get people to hit the follow button in a manner that I can track! I have only 35 or so direct followers and all of my others are through third party like linkyfollowers or Networkedblogs, and just a handful through bloglovin.
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you can: at the very bottom of this page: http://wordpress.com/#!/my-stats/, you can see who follows you through wordpress, email, facebook and twitter – if you of course linked them.
you can also try this free service: http://statcounter.com/, it gives you syndicated views, that is, if they hit your blog thru another platform
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Well, I am not a wordpress.com, mine is self hosted, so not sure if that is the same for me, but I will take a look. And thanks I will check that other one out too.
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sorry, it shows wordpress for the comment. anyway, on any blogging platform, there will be something like dashboard or whatever you call it to add these widgets
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Yeah, my blog started as a WP.com blog and then I moved to self hosted, and I use WP’s interface for my blog. on my dashboard, it does show my direct followers (35..terribly low), and then I have Networkedblogs and Linkyfollowers, plus Bloglovin. I wish they had a way to centralize it a bit and track all of that. There are services that will do it but they all cost money. My friend who hosts my blog on his server is inputting the code for that Statcounter thing for me this evening, though.
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great!
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“Everything is special in Chicago, isn’t it?” Yes, indeed! It’s such a great city!
Wonderful post – nice to learn more about you. I’ve also been following Jen’s (Devourer of Books) blog for a long time. I think it was one of the first I connected with, when I started my book blog.
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and Jen, you and I are in the Chicagoland! I dream one day we will all meet
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Nice to meet you! I love your Eiffel Tower rating system — now that’s unique! I’ve been wanting to read The Painted Girls for months now. Nice to hear that you enjoyed it so much!
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thanks for the Eiffel tower comment!
if you have a chance to LISTEN to The Painted Girls, go for it!
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Hi Emma. It’s nice to meet you. What a wonderful introduction post. I’m really enjoying learning a little bit about other book bloggers.
I love how you’ve incorporated the Eiffel Tower into your rating system.
PS — My TBR pile is totally unmanageable thanks largely to book blogging, too 🙂
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thanks for the Eiffel Tower comment. I don’t think we can find 1 book blogger who does not suffer from tbrititis, lol
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I loved The Painted Girls, definitely one of my favourites of the year. It’s nice to meet a French book blogger. My daughter goes to a French school so she’s bilingual, I’m almost passable in French but brushing up on it now so I can speak it more with her. Right now, I know just enough to know when the people in Quebec are being rude to us Anglos 😉
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lol!! Yes, The Painted Girls was a really good one. thanks for visiting, I just left a comment on your post
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Hi Emma,
It is so nice to meet you and I am glad I found your blog. I adore your rating system – I haven’t seen anything that clever in a long time. I also really enjoyed The Secret Keeper. I would love any suggestions for books about France.
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hello co-cheerleader! I just left a comment on your own post.
Thanks for your sweet comment on the Eiffel Tower.
If you click on France in my categories, you will find tons of things, or click here: https://wordsandpeace.com/2012/11/15/books-on-france-2013-reading-challenge/
you can see what books I and the bloggers you joined my Books on France reading challenge reviewed. My Goodreads shelf on France [Emma Cazabonne] is also big. If there’s a particular genre you would like, tell me.
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How fun to be a cheerleader! I’ll try to sign up for that next year. So interesting to learn about your painting artistry, too! Ready Player One was the best audiobook, I agree!
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Thanks Laurie. though you need a lot of time to cheer, lol!
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I have read several Kate Morton books and have enjoyed them all. I will have to check out the recommendation you left me. Don’t you just love meeting all the new people through ABEA?!
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I love the sharing during Armchair BEA. And I am a cheerleader this year, so get to meet tons of bloggers unknown to me
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I like your rating system (:
Very unique. And your paintings are beautiful! I’ve always wanted to learn French but no one really uses it for what I’m studying to do the rest of my life.
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thanks for visiting even my rocks.
what are you studying, if I may ask?
I just went and dropped a comment at your place, enjoy the end of BEA!
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I really liked The Painted Girls as well, great book. I love me some historical fiction 🙂
I hope you’re enjoying the ABEA! Happy reading!
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I’m having a blast. just visited you, added your book to my TBR, and entered your generous giveaway. thanks for stopping by
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