While the official Armchair BEA 2011 site offered me numerous prompts to create this post, I still have little to say.  Why?  Excellent question.  Let me provide some of the prompts and give my answers, or what I hope pass for answers.

1) How do you utilize social networking in relation to your blog? What may be the pros and cons of doing so?

For the most part I do not.  I am detest Facebook (I know, I should probably embrace it, but I do not).  I visit Twitter, Tweet new posts and follow along if a topic interests me, but for the most part, I truly have no time to be on Twitter, let alone reading the copious Tweets per day.  The second part I cannot answer.  I choose not to use most social media sites because I like my life to remain mainly private, I lack time, and there are a lot of social media sites.  For those who use them, I have no idea where they find the time.

2) Share some of your favorite blogging technical tips.

I have none.  Seriously.  I am hoping to learn some from fellow Armchair BEA bloggers.

3) Create a “rule list” of things you should and shouldn’t be doing on a book blog.

I blog what I know and what I enjoy.  I do not have any rules besides one: if it becomes stressful, it is time to move on.  I do not take myself too seriously.  I adore books and sharing books with others, but this is in reality a hobby (non-paid).  I have a husband and three children which take priority over everything else.

4) What are your tips for balance life and blogging?

My family comes first, it always has and always will.  I am grateful blogs were not in existance when my boys were young, I would not be here blogging today if I had small children.  Even though my boys are closer to adult than teen, I do not blog when they are home.  My boys and husband are a priority, my computer is not.

5) How do you keep your blog fresh and interesting to your readers & yourself?

I have no idea.  I just post my reviews and engage in three memes.  Whether I keep my blog fresh or not is up to my readers.

6) There are quite a few book blogging events out there. Which are your favorites and why? How do they affect your blog directly?

I participate in; The Sunday Salon, It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?, and Teaser Tuesday.  The first allows me to recap the week and read recaps from other book bloggers.  The second is great fun and I not only get to share what I have read and will be reading, but I get to see so many books I might not have ever known about.  The last meme is always fun.  I like sharing a book teaser every week, but more importantly I enjoy reading others. Every Tuesday my TBR pile grows at an alarming rate.

The topic for today is community and nurturing relationships.  The official Armchair BEA 2011 site asks one to write about a specific relationship that has grown through book blogging, however I feel that is too limiting and I would rather not single out any one blogger, publisher, publicist or author.  Rather, through book blogging and the community that surrounds book blogging I have come to “know” many in all the aforementioned areas via blogging, Twitter, and reviewing.  The book blogging community is huge and I have merely scratched the surface.  I participate in three bookish memes, and these allow me to visit book blogs I may not have found on my own, have opened up new dialogues, and avenues I could never have expected when I first began to blog about books.

To learn more about community and nurturing relationships, The official Armchair BEA 2011 site has these two events coming up today!

Connect and build your relationships on Twitter during the Armchair BEA Twitter Parties! Yes, two parties! One from 10-12 am EST and the other from 8-10 pm EST to hopefully accommodate everyone that wants to participate.