Blogger Detour {2}

Blogger Detour is a brand new interview feature at Mint Tea & A Good Book. Basically it's a great way to get your blog promoted and it has a fun little road trip twist added as well.

This Week's Blogger Detour Contestant Is...

Ashley from Books from Bleh To Basically Amazing!

How old were you when you learned to read?

First grade. I actually cried on the way to first grade, convinced I just couldn't go to class because I didn't know how to read. But, I learned. Fast. My mom got a note from the teacher asking if I could move up to the second grade reading class because I was so advanced, and because how fast I read in the out-loud reading time was too fast... 

What is your earliest memory of reading?

 This is tied into the above answer. I remember being so proud to bring home the note from my teacher to my mom, and my mom allowing the teacher to move me up. I had to bring home both the first and second grade reading book over Christmas vacation, so I could get caught up to where the second graders were, and I was so excited. I remember just sitting on my bed and reading the stories in these books. It never really felt like work to me either. I just camped out for hours at a time reading and being Oh so very happy. :)

Was there a specific book that really turned you onto reading?

Nope. I've always just loved books. Even as a very little kid. I'd sit for hours 'reading' my books when I couldn't fall asleep (we are talking toddler age) so when I learned how to actually read, I was hooked.  

What made you decide to start blogging?

Mostly my sister. She had been talking about blogging for a while, trying to convince me to start one and it was never something that interested me. But she started talking about how I could be a book blogger and I was intrigued, since before I'd only known of personal blogs. Then, I started noticing that some of my favorite people on Goodreads had book blogs and I thought they were awesome. So I started one too.

Are there any blogs/bloggers in specific that inspire you?

I don't know about inspire... Inspire is such a hard word to pin down, since everyone describes it differently. But, April from Good Books and Good Wine, and Misty from The Book Rat were the two bloggers I noticed with blogs on GR that made me want to start mine, and I still read their blogs regularly. As for a few other favorite blogs/bloggers both to talk to and to read? Shannon from Books Devoured, Allison from the Allure of Books and Katelyn from Katelyn's Book Blog are all pretty much amazing. :) 

What else do you do besides blogging? 

I read. Duh. :P I work full time, and then spend the rest of my time reading, hanging out with friends, spending time with family and lately, a lot of my time has been spent trying to figure out what to do with my future. O_o

What are your goals for blogging? And what do you hope to see from blogging in the future?

 My goals for blogging are really pretty simple. I want people to read my blog- I don't care if it's 10 people or 1000 people. I want people around who are interested in books so that I can share my favorites, talk about the books I love and get people excited. Pretty sure the greatest feeling right now is getting a comment/tweet/email/etc from someone who says- I picked up this book because of how much you loved it and OH MY GOODNESS! HOW AMAZING! It makes me insanely happy every time. 

My only other real goal for my blog is honesty. I get really frustrated when I see, what I consider to be dishonest bloggers or reviews. I will admit right up front that when I first started blogging, I was very careful to phrase my reviews completely positively. Review copy or not, I was very careful to make sure even my criticisms were soft. And I hated it. I was never happy with those reviews. Ever. I'd look at them and cringe, because even though they were technically completely honest, it's like an equivocation- where you tell the truth intending to mislead. Because while everything I said about them was true, it left people thinking I liked them better than I did. So, I decided that it was no longer about other people, it was going to be about me and my opinions. I was never that careful on Goodreads when I reviewed books. I said exactly what I thought. So that's what I do on my blog now and I can't tell you how much better I feel. 

So no more faux honesty for Ashley. I wish that more people would embrace it too. 

As for what I hope to see from blogging in a year? Just that I'm still here and hopefully that the people I really enjoy blogging with are still around too! It always makes me sad when a blogger disappears. :( But I want to keep doing what I'm doing. I have a few ideas for features and things that I'd like to get going, and I want to do what I can to make sure it never feels like a chore... That if I want to skip anything for a week, so what. I'm getting there now, and it's quite freeing. :)

If you had to go on a road trip- where would you go and who would you go with?

In my opinion, on a real road trip, the destination is not important. Not really. It's the drive and the company that is most important. I'd go with my best friend. We've taken short road trips before (4 hours) and it's awesome. And, we go for drives all the time. Just drive around the rural back roads where we live, chatting and talking. It's awesome. So, I'd take lots of junk food and lots of music and we'd jump in the car and go!




     Thanks so much to Ashley for letting me interview her!! :) Don't forget to check out her amazing blog, Books from Bleh To Basically Amazing!