* Last week many of you took part in Bloggiesta, which was hosted by Maw Books. Although I found the previous Bloggiesta in January very productive, I decided not to participate this time because I knew last weekend was going to be too busy for me to commit enough time to make it worthwhile. During the week though I’ve had a sort of personal mini-Bloggiesta of my own and made a few improvements to my blog. Here are some of the things I’ve done:
Created Read in 2009 and Read in 2010 pages.
Improved navigation of the A-Z Reviews Page.
Created a Short Story index page.
Updated my About page. This also satisfies the requirements of this week’s Blog Improvement Project task. The task asked us to think about blog branding and building a consistent identity across our blog title, subtitle and about pages.
There are still a few other things I need to do – including moving my completed challenges to another page to keep them separate from the ones I’m currently working on – but those can wait for a while until I have time.
* Did you know 14th-21st June was Independent Booksellers Week here in the UK? I didn’t hear about it until it was too late, as it ends tomorrow, but it made me think – there are no independent booksellers that I know of anywhere near where I live. There are some charity bookshops, second hand bookshops, and chain stores such as Waterstones and WH Smith, but I can’t think of a single independent bookshop. Isn’t that sad? I suppose it doesn’t help that so many people, including myself, are buying most of our books online these days. Are there any independent booksellers near you – and if there are, do you try to support them?
* You may have heard that the author Jose Saramago died on Friday at the age of 87. He became the first Portuguese-language winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998. I haven’t read any of Saramago’s work but over the last few days have been hearing a lot about how good his books are. Have you read any of his books and would you recommend them?
* Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl has been voted the all-time favourite Puffin children’s book according to a poll on the Puffin Books website. The other six choices were The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White, Stig of the Dump by Clive King, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian, and the Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Dog by Jeremy Strong. Have you read any of these? Which is your favourite? My vote went to Charlotte’s Web.
I’m going back to my books now. Enjoy your reading this week!
She Reads Novels 
I never participated in Blogiesta, but have been making improvements on my own. The Read in xxxx are a great idea. Enjoy your week also and happy reading!
Thanks Jenny! I’m hoping I’ll be able to participate in the next Bloggiesta, but I’m quite happy with what I’ve managed to achieve this week on my own.
My vote probably would have gone to Charlotte’s Web as well, I loved that book growing up. There is a great independent bookstore in Iowa City, but it’s so expensive since everything is usually full price. I do try to purchase books there on occasion and I always buy my textbooks there if the professor lists that as the preferred store. I just can’t afford to do it all the time. There is a used bookstore in Iowa City that visit much more frequently.
I can’t afford to buy full price books all the time either – that’s why I usually buy them online or used. If there was an independent bookstore near me, though, I would be happy to occasionally buy books there too.
I have tried to read Artemis Fowl once, and I didn’t like it at all. I did enjoy “Benny and Omar” by Eoin Colfer though. I guess I would vote for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, although that really isn’t my favourite Roald Dahl either. I haven’t read any of the others.
The only ones I’ve read are Charlotte’s Web and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – and I think we might have read Stig of the Dump at school, though I can’t really remember it.
I love the blog Helen. Reading is an intimate part of my life too. What’s this Blogiesta though? 😀
Thanks FowlStar, I’m glad you like it! Bloggiesta is an online event for bloggers which takes place twice a year and involves tasks, challenges and advice to help us improve our blogs. The next one will be on January 21st-23rd.