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My week of Spreading The Blogger Love continues.  I love how bloggers are there to encourage each other.  When I first started this blog, I didn't know the first thing about blogging and had tons of questions.  Thankfully, several bloggers came to my rescue.  Other bloggers have been very kind in encouraging me through their comments.  Here are a few more blogs that make me smile.

1.  Mikayla's Bookshelf:

This blogger loves YA, Fantasy, Dystopian, and Chic Lit.  I like her blog because her reviews are fun and filled with cool GIFs.  It doesn't hurt that I happen to have very similar tastes in books (Queen of The Tearling is one of my favs, too).  She has regular features such as Top Ten Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, and Feature & Follow Friday. I also appreciate that she takes the time to come to my site and comment on a regular basis.  This makes me feel like people are actually reading my blog and that I am getting to know them, which is why I started a blog in the first place.

2.  The Innocent Smiley:

When I first started my blog, I would go to other blogs and look with envy at all the cool gadgets on their pages.  One of the things that caught my attention on The Innocent Smiley's site was the Blog Roll on the side of her page.  I liked it so much, I got up the courage to email the blogger, named Valerie, to ask her how she did it.  Could she direct me to a website or reference that would explain how to do the coding?  She not only quickly replied, but explained (in a lengthy email) exactly how to do it.  She gave me example code and even offered to further explain it to me.  Such generousness  of spirit touched me greatly.  She gave me a great tool to show off the blogs I like, but also made me feel like I wasn't stupid.  Her site includes Top Ten Tuesdays, Reviews and posts about her life.  Her site shows how you can find ways to share about your life and connect with your readers (and be super nice along the way).

3.  Milky Way of Books:

Run by Alexandra, from Greece, this blog focuses on Paranormal Romance, YA Fantasy, and Dystopian books.  She is very active with blog tours of new releases, so if you follow her blog, you are sure to be in the know for all the latest books.    Her blog has a very lovely design which will make you want to just explore and explore all the goodies on her site.  I really appreciate Alexandra because she is another blogger who takes the time to comment on my site.  The more often you can visit and comment each week, the more you can get to know your fellow bloggers.

Where do I begin?  I am still a newby blogger, getting my bearings and trying to create a blog that people will see as a representation of what I like and who I am.  For weeks, I have noticed all the lovely blog buttons people have up with the heading,"Grab my button".  I was intrigued but had no idea how to incorporate the buttons into my blog without overwhelming the site with too many graphics.

So I took a long look at some other blogs I admire.  I saw a cool looking "blog roll" on The Innocent Smiley blog and took a chance.  I wrote to Val, the blogger, and asked her how she did this?  I thought maybe she found a widget and she could direct me where to find one.

Well, may I say that VAL IS A ROCKSTAR!  Not only did she answer me back, but gave me a super detailed explanation of the code, what to look out for, and sample code.  She could not have been more gracious and kind.

Making my own button has been more of a challenge.  First I needed to make a button that gave a feel for my site.  Thankfully my daughter is a wonderful artist (she designed the cat at the top right corner of my blog) and designed a great button.  Next, I needed to create a side bar post that would have the button and a grab code.  This is where things got sticky.

I am NOT a computer person!  I run, screaming, when I see code that I am supposed to manipulate into something useful.  Again, I am so glad for the help of others.  The webiste GEEKALICIOUS  was instrumental in explaining the code needed.  I also had the help of my Husband, Jeff (who just happens to be a programmer) to fine-tune everything so it would work.

The results:  two cool features on the right side of my blog!   So grab the PONDERING THE PROSE Button please!  When you are done, check out some of the other blogs I follow on my super cool Blog Roll!

I have got a unseemly amount of TBR books staring at me on my bookshelves.  Luckily, I started reading the wonderful blog of The Innocent Smiley and saw this challenge.  Here is how it works:


Look at the books you own, either physical, e-book or ones you've borrowed from the library and pick out a few you really want to read, or feel like you should read. It’s up to you how many you pick, personally I'd pick a few more than you expect to be able to read in a week. Example: if you think you’ll only read two, pick out five books or if you think you can read seven, pick out ten.

Make a list of these books on your blog, or make a video, or a Goodreads shelf or post a picture on Instagram—whatever is easiest for you. Then get friends, other bloggers/booktubers etc. to vote on which books you HAVE to read.

When the read-a-thon comes along, you read the books in the order of most votes. For example, if one book gets 10 votes—you read that first, then the one that got 7 and so on. If there's a tie, then it's your preference. The goal is to read as many as possible. 

So here is a look at the wonderful books I need to read:




Which one will you make me read first?  Do the Poll and see me obey your command!  There will be a tag #makemeread!
Polling ends On July 20th, at 8am.