Tagged again!

1. When did you start blogging and why?

My first post was on August 26th, 2002, so my 4th anniversary is coming up in a month or so. Ancient, eh?

I originally started blogging purely to practise my written English. I'd noticed that it had been deteriorating from lack of use since I'd left school (writing even the most straighforward, two-paragraph email in that language took me an hour!), so I decided I should practise writing a little bit every day.

The next step was deciding what I should try to write, and since I was already writing a few lines of comments in my book spreadsheet about my reads, I decided I'd polish that up a bit (what I was writing until then was just kind of stream-of-consciousness stuff, in an extremely ungrammatical mix of English and Spanish) and write a bit longer. Plus, if I wanted to be able to keep it up, I knew I needed to choose a subject I was very interested in!

I kept writing only in my spreadsheet for a couple of months, until I saw LLB's blog (then at a different addy). She'd just started it, and I liked the idea, so I got one of my own.

2. What don’t you talk about?

These days, I keep to books. Mostly book reviews, with a few book- or blog-related memes and some round-up ("Best books of 2005", "New authors tried so far this year", etc) posts mixed in. I do sometimes put a bit of my private life in here, but usually inside a review, if something about my life is relevant to my reactions to something in the book.

I used to do some diary-style posts when I first started blogging, but I don't anymore. I just didn't feel comfortable writing them, not like I do with book posts.

3. Are you and your blogging persona the same person?

I don't know. I think I'm probably much more soft-spoken here in my blog, I don't know why. I had to laugh when Kristie joked about being shocked at me using "those words" in my review of Lisa Valdez's Passion. Offline I usually curse like a sailor, and I hadn't realized I was changing my language in my blog.

4. How do you use blogging to build friendships?

Well, as I mentioned above, my blog wasn't originally intended to build friendships, it wasn't even intended to be read by anyone! And at first, it wasn't. I don't think more than 10 people visited during the first year, LOL!

These days, though, it has helped me build some friendships I value tremendously. I'd noticed some of the people I now consider my friends because some of them posted at some of the message boards I frequent, but it wasn't until they started their own blogs (where I could leave comments) or until they started commenting on mine, that we became friends.

5. How would you describe your writing style?

Well, I'd love to be snarky, because I LOVE reading snark (and IRL, I am pretty snarky), but that's just not my voice. Sooo, how would I describe it? Messed up. Sometimes I read old posts of mine and some roundabout, badly constructed, comma-stuffed, loooooong sentences make me cringe. I write very well in Spanish... at least, when I reread my stuff, I like it. My English, on the other hand, I hate to reread. I manage to get my point accross, but it's not pretty.

What doesn't change from Spanish to English (and it's something I recognize as very "me") is my constant and excessive use of parentheses. My mind does tend to go on sidetrips!