Today marks a new feature for us: interviews with Weblogs.us bloggers!
Without further ado, here is our Q&A with Kate from KateReads.com 🙂
- How did you start blogging and how has your blog evolved over the years? I started “blogging” with LiveJournal back in middle school! Then I moved to Blogger, because I was spending the year abroad in Argentina and wanted a place my family could follow my adventures. After a while, I wanted to use a platform where I could have more freedom than Blogger, and at the time, to use WordPress or TypePad (the two options at the time) you had to pay for hosting…..something a broke high school student couldn’t do. So I applied for a Weblogs.us blog and got one, way back in 2005! I was an angsty teenager who clearly had a lot to say. (I have since taken that down….the world doesn’t need to know what a whiner I was). Now I have a blog where I document my crafty adventures (though it hasn’t been updated in forever) kateminasian.com, and my weblogs.us blog, which I’m trying to get off the ground as a book review blog, katereads.com. My blogging is so much more focused now, obviously, with specific topics. I don’t feel the teenage need to broadcast everything that I’m doing in my life. That’s what Facebook is for, anyway! 😉
- What is your favorite book and what sets it apart from all the rest? I don’t have one favorite book, per se, but one current favorite is Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. It’s kind of a vampire book, but about as far away from a vampire book as you’d imagine. Robin McKinley has a very distinct descriptive tone when she writes and I really enjoy that. Also, another perennial re-read is Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones– a great read aloud to kids, but fun for adults as well.
- When did you first start using the internet? I can’t even remember when I first started using the internet. My dad has always been really big on having the latest technology, and we had a computer for as long as I can remember with the first one being a Mac. (Spelunx, anyone??) But we first got connected to the internet with dialup, on a giant Compaq desktop- we used NetZero for the longest time. I remember taking a class on building websites one summer when I was in middle school- my first introduction to HTML!
- Favorite websites that you read daily/hourly? 😉 I’m always on my email, but also The Old Reader (an RSS reader), Goodreads, and Facebook and sometimes Twitter. In The Old Reader, I most frequently read lots of book blogs and I like Slate and Cnet. (Find me on Goodreads: goodreads.com/katereadsblog)
- Computer(s) your currently use? (phones/tablets included!) Oh man…..Well, I have a MacBook Pro at work, a Lenovo laptop, Chromebook and iPad Mini at home, plus I have an iPhone for personal and an Android phone for work. Plus a basic Kindle… Gosh I have a lot of technology!!
- Any suggestions for improvements to Weblogs.us? Nope! Everything is great. 🙂 I couldn’t ask for better. And because my blog has about two readers (me, and J.D.) I’m not worried about anything anytime soon.