Guest Blogger - Readings of a Teenage Tree!

I've always been a reader. Everyone in my family reads, so I've always been surrounded by people who could easily spend the entire day in Borders or Barnes and Noble. We all read different things, though. My dad reads horror, my mom reads fantasy, my older sister reads classics and retellings of classics, and my little sister reads chick lit. Me? I read whatever I can get my hands on (with a few exceptions). The differences in our preffered genres, however, meant that there wasn't really anyone that I could talk to about what I read.

Then, I got to high school and became friends with someone who read as much as I do, though not always in the same genres. She was the one who first introduced me to book blogging. I figured, what the heck, I'll start a book blog to keep track of the books I read. And thus, Readings of a Teenage Tree was born.

The first book I reviewed was Homefree by Nina Wright (http://readingsofateenagetree.blogspot.com/2009/02/homefree-by-nina-wright.html). It's a short review, and doesn't even have a summary of the book! I didn't even start adding summaries until my third review, and I still don't have an "official" grading system. I just say what I liked or didn't like about the book without worrying about structure or anything. In a lot of ways, my blog is still about me, instead of catering to other people, and my reviews really show that at times.

I've had a couple of people ask me how I can so many books so quickly. The answer? A horrible guidance counselor. No, seriously. My school schedule for this past year got messed up so I ended up with a full-year study hall. This left me plenty of time afterschool to read. Not to mention that I would read between classes, during classes, during lunch, and on the bus to and from school. I guess my trick is to just find any spare second that I can to get a few more paragraphs read (though being a fast reader does help!).

I haven't gotten any ARCs yet, unless you count one from Random Buzzers, but that's fine by me. I didn't start my blog to get free books so I'm not annoyed that I'm not being sent any. Most of my books are library books or I buy them myself. I think I have an advantage over other people because I'm on the YA book selection committee at my library, so I can usually guarantee that my library will get the books I want to read, haha!

In terms of my blog itself, I'm still really at the point where I'm stunned that people read what I have to say! But I suppose that that's one of the great features of the book blogging community. People tend to pick up on new blogs and really encourage them, at least in my experiance. There's no feeling of having to live up to the expectations of others, because it's just about what you think.

I'm so glad that I started Readings of a Teenage Tree because its just been such a great experiance to be involved in a community like this. My parting words of wisdom would have to be to just forget about what others think or expect and read what you want, review how you want, and run your blog the way you want to. Good luck and happy readings to you all!

-Willowe