As I mentioned in my initial question-submitting post, I didn’t exactly get to answer many of your questions.  In fact, I only ended up answering one, which you can find using this link.  So I wanted to go back and properly answer all of the questions I didn’t get to last year.

Harliqueen asked me:

What made you want to start a review blog and what keeps you going on with it?

If I’m being completely honest here (as I try to be), I have no idea what made me want to start a review blog.  I’m serious.  One night I was lying awake in bed with an unusually bad bout of insomnia and it just popped into my head that I should start a book blog.  Then, the next day when I got seriously thinking about things I thought it would be a great idea.  I could connect with fellow readers, something that never happens in my small, geographically isolated village.  And I could get free books eventually.  Wouldn’t it be cool if people actually wanted to read about my thoughts on books?

Fast forward to now three years later where 1,220 people wanted to read what I write about books enough to click the follow button.  My large-to-me readership is part of what keeps me going but it fundamentally comes down to a love of books.  I love talking about books, writing about books and sharing my opinions about books with other readers.  We have some great debates here on The Mad Reviewer and I really couldn’t be happier about the awesome commenting community I have.  Not everyone comments and that’s cool with me as well; some of you just lurk, some of you like to tweet or retweet links to my posts, some of you are authors waiting for a review from me.  It doesn’t really matter to me why people read my blog, I just love the fact that they do and I get to share my love of books with so many people.

Emily Guido asked me:

That was a great question but my question is kind of weird. I just want to know as a reviewer, like to actually just read to read. I write, yes… but I review books or beta read for other struggling authors. But sometimes, I just like to download a book and just fall into it and not think about reviewing or beta reading or anything else. I guess that keeps me sane and I escape! I’m a big fan of yours! Great blog! Lots of love, Emily

Yep, sometimes I just love to download a book and not even think of reviewing it as well.  I review a lot of the books I read but there are certain types of books that I really don’t like reviewing on my blog, so I don’t.  The number one thing that comes to mind is erotica and/or trashy romances.  Sometimes I just want a guilty pleasure read and so I download some (usually) pretty awful free erotica novels and short stories off of Amazon or read some of the fifty cent romance books I picked up at the local bookstore before it closed.  In the latter books, the heroine and the hero of each novel is pretty much interchangeable with not much character development and sometimes that’s just what you need!  So yes, while I review 99% of what I read, that 1% can be some pretty awful writing and I absolutely love it once in a while.

Mark Lee asked me:

Ooh, how about this: what’s your all-time favorite book and why?

I think the book that is my all-time favourite in the sense that I’ve loved it for years would be any of the Harry Potter series.  It had a huge impact on my childhood!  (I distinctly remember being 11 and waiting for my owl from Hogwarts to come…)  And now as an adult I went back and read the series and completely understand why my mother loved reading it and watching all of the movies with me.  It’s great!  It truly is magical and unique!  The amazing thing about the Harry Potter series is not just how unique it really was when it came out but also how easy to relate to it was for people of all genders, races and age groups.  Both myself and the boys in my class read the series in the third grade and loved it (of course not all of the books were even out then, so the series up until that point).  And considering how little many of the boys in my class read, that was simply amazing.

Harry Potter just has a magic all of its own that has captivated almost everyone who reads the series.  I happen to be one of them.

Now I feel much better about myself for finally having answered the questions you guys posed to me over a year ago.  If you have any new ones or any follow up questions, head on over to my call for question submissions here and ask away!