Feature & Follow Friday: I'm a Featured Blogger this Week!!

I'm featured!! Oh my goodness, thank you to both Alison and Parajunkee! *tackle-hugs*

Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Check out their posts for all the guidelines and info!

Feature Questions:

When did you start blogging?

I created my blog at the end of January of this year (2014), but I didn’t start fully committing to posting until about a month later, toward the end of February.

I’m a complete newbie to blogging and I had only basic knowledge of coding (and I mean basic!) so it felt very overwhelming back then when I first started. I wasn’t very confident or happy with the layouts of things on blogger (plus, I’m a bit of a control freak…) so I decided to bite the bullet, so to speak, and learn a little on how to HTML customise and compose posts etc. I’m settling in a bit now, and really loving it.

What is your favorite part of book blogging?

The community. Before I started blogging, I could sense the close-knit vibes, but I didn’t really believe or understand it fully until I joined in. The friendliness, support and openness is incredible. I’m not the most outgoing person in the world, and to feel comfortable hopping from blog to blog is amazing.

What types of books do you mainly blog about?

I read all types of fiction, so it entirely depends on what mood I’m in at the time. I love anything with a paranormal or fantasy twist, so Sci-fi, Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic, Urban Fantasy, Horror… I’ll read and blog about them all. I’m noticing I’ve starting to read more Contemporary fiction lately as well, so I guess I subconsciously decided I needed a change of pace!

What is your favorite book(s)?

This is a tough question to answer accurately, as I never have the same answer twice. My favourite classic would be Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and that would be my most consistent answer! Everything else depends on my mind-frame on the day… so right now I’d answer The Hunger Games Trilogy by Susan Collins, Easy by Tammara Webber and Angelfall by Susan Ee.

What has been the best thing that has happened to you because of book blogging?

I’m really new to blogging, so it’s hard to answer this. My answer is probably silly to a lot of the more established bloggers, but… the first time I got NetGalley approval to read an ARC. That was an awesome feeling!

And Onto This Weeks Question:

Share! Tell us about one of your hobbies that is NOT reading.

Apart from my not so little obsession with Chelsea Football Club, I have quite a few passions that aren’t book or reading related but the easiest to write up about is my love of music and photography.

Music:

I love music, who doesn’t? My musical tastes are pretty varied, but just like my books, I’m very picky about what I listen to. As long as it’s from the heart and you can sense the bands’ sincerity, passion and love for their lyrics and the music they create, I’m happy. I’m not into pop or hip hop, not my thing. To each their own, but I love old school music: the more guitars and drums the better! Rock; Metal; Grunge; Punk; Alternative… that’s me!

Surprisingly, (and I know someone who will faint if she reads this, as I keep it hidden!) but I actually like classical music. Serious! Yeah, I listen to Black Sabbath, Metallica, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Blur, Oasis, Slipknot, Katatonia, Nirvana, Evanescence, Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Manson, and anything involving Chris Cornell… and Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, and André Rieu.

*Shrugs* I guess I'm not the easiest person to figure out. ;-)

Photography:

My other passion is photography. I love wandering around with my dog, snapping random pictures of things. Living in Ireland, the weather doesn’t always agree with me, so any time we have dry weather I try to make the most of the camera.

My favourite subject to photograph is, well, my dog! I think she hates the camera and getting her picture taken, as I end up getting the evil-eye any time I try to take her picture! Or, she'll do exactly what she did when I took this picture: look away every time I go to snap a picture, and look back at me when I lower the camera. True story!

I personally prefer bloglovin', but my Twitter, email follow, and RSS links are in the side bar, pick your preferred poison, thanks :)