Tag: books

31 Days To Find Your Blogging Mojo

I love blogging. I’ve had this blog since 2004 and before that I had other sites I used for writing. The number one reason I love it is the community…that’s you. The awesome people who read, comment, “Like” and share on Facebook and Twitter are a great community. In case you were wondering, I don’t blog for the money. I have a need to write, to take photos and share them, to express myself and share everything I learn in life.

I’m always seeking ways to improve this here corner of the Internetz so that you, my community, will get the most out of it. I read a ton about the art of blogging, so I naturally gravitated towards Bryan Allain’s new eBook, 31 Days To Find Your Blogging Mojo. I’ve heard Jon Acuff speak highly of Bryan before and his book was recommended by my friend Sara Mae, so it had to be good…right? (That right there, my friends, is trust capital that Jon and Sara Mae have built up over time with their blogs. But that’s for another post.)

Bryan’s book released on Amazon today but I was fortunate enough to get an advanced copy last week and I dove right in. My first impression? It is hilarious. I absolutely love writing that combines fantastic humor with hella useful information. I am not particularly funny but I love to laugh.

31 Days To Find Your Blogging Mojo has short, easy, specific, actionable chapters for each day with a snippet of pure unrelated humor in between each chapter. Every day has a particular assignment. I admit that I have not completed every assignment…I just got the book a few days ago after all! However this was what I tweeted after day one:

What hooked me? The assignment was to write down what you wanted your blog to *feel* like when someone visited it. That word is key to me because I am an ENFJ and so many other books and articles on blogging are pretty analytical and logical. They want you to think your way into a better blog. Bryan is appealing to my preference for making decisions based on how something feels. Score! 
That’s just a small taste of the great advice in this terrific little book. It’s available via PDF and for Kindle at Amazon now.  If you want to find your blogging mojo…go pick it up now. 

Why I Love My Kindle

My BIL, Matt, is a huge reader and
loves his Kindle too.

When I was a little kid I loved to read. I have vivid memories of participating in the library’s summer reading program and checking out stacks and stacks of books every week, then carefully writing their titles in the big paper log book. (No computers back then!) My mom has always been a pretty big reader too and she ensured we had lots of books around our house. Then in high school I mostly lost interest in reading anything for fun…I contend that in those days there was a major shortage of decent books written for teens. Engineering school effectively killed my ABILITY to read for pleasure. After college whenever I would attempt to read a real book, I would find myself reading the same page three and four times…the slow and laborious process I learned from studying engineering books full of formulas and equations.

It wasn’t until after my first baby that I rediscovered a love (and ability) of reading for fun…I credit the entire chick lit genre with that. The Nanny Diaries was the first book I picked up and read so fast and laughed so hard that I finished it in just a few days and immediately went in search of more books like it. I found Jennifer  Weiner’s Little Earthquakes, and as a new mom I was thrilled to read something moving and funny that I could relate so closely to. I discovered authors like Jane Green and Sophie Kinsella and promptly checked out every book they ever wrote from the library, filling my maternity leave with laughter.

Over time life got busier and the internet rapidly blew up with awesome blogs and news articles that were worth reading. I was still feeding my brain but my interest in novels dropped off and my attention span for books waned. My eyes became accustomed to reading on a computer screen and picking up an actual book was something I only did when there was no computer or phone around.

When the Kindle first came out, I didn’t get the concept. I didn’t think I read enough books to make an expensive gadget like that worth it. I didn’t see myself toting an extra gadget around. But people I knew raved about them. The price of a Kindle plummeted as competing models were launched. My husband asked for one for Christmas last year and got it, so when we needed to buy The Hole in Our Gospel for our church small group, he simply downloaded the Kindle version. No waiting for it in the mail or driving to the store for it, and since it’s a thick book carrying the Kindle around was much easier for reading it on the fly. I started using his Kindle and I loved it! I loved the larger print (I swear I’m old) and shorter pages and I loved the page turning buttons.

So my husband bought me my own Kindle for Mother’s Day. After all, now they are only about $115. It slips so neatly into my handbag and goes with me almost everywhere. I love that books are so much cheaper for the Kindle, and they don’t clutter up house! My first major test of how much I liked the Kindle was on this past vacation. I used it on the plane and on the beach. In two flights and a tiny bit of beach time I read Seth Godin’s book Graceful all the way through and got halfway through Stephen Pressfield’s The War of Art. Both are GREAT BOOKS!

So I’m actually making a dent in my summer reading list and I feel smarter. I strive to be a continuous learner, always improving the way I live and interact in this world. I believe reading is vital to success in life and the most intelligent and insightful people I know are voracious readers. I want to be like that and I love my Kindle because it is definitely encouraging me in that direction.

So do you have a Kindle or other e-reader? Do you prefer paper books?