Why Do You Blog Meme

Mzmazzola, who is an English teacher, has her AP Literature and Composition students working on their seniror project. One of her own projects is about blogging, and she asks some questions which I have decided to answer here as a blog post. Check it out yourself on the State of Denmark blog.

1. How long have you been blogging? Since 2006
2. Why did you start blogging? I wanted to review and talk about books.
3. What have you found to be the benefits of blogging? I have met many great bloggers.
4. How many times a week do you post an entry? That varies a great deal. Sometimes only once, sometimes every day. But usually a post or two a week.
5. How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis? Many!
6. Do you comment on other people’s blogs? Yes, I try to comment on every blog I visit.
7. Do you keep track of how many visitors you have? Is so, are you satisfied with your numbers? I wish I knew how to keep track, but I have no idea.
8. Do you ever regret a post that you wrote? No, not really. My blogs are not controversial.
9. Do you think your audience has a true sense of who you are based on your blog? I hope so, even though I rarely blog about personal things. But through comments and the odd personal info here and there, I hope so.
10. Do you blog under your real name? Yes, but not under my last name. I am not blogging anonymously though.
11. Are there topics that you would never blog about? I don't think so. But I try to keep my blog as close as possible to the main subject of the blog.
12. What is the theme/topic of your blog? Books, literature and book related subjects.
13. Do you have more than one blog? If so, why? I am Danish, so I also blog about books in English. I am also an Egyptologist and blog about Ancient Egypt in Danish, and have recently begun blogging about Egyptology in English as well.

A Giveaway & The Cutest Book Cover Ever

Beth from Beth Fish Reads is having a give away which you can read more about on her blog by clicking the link above. The book, Secrets to Happiness by Sarah Dunn, of which Beth has two copies, has the cutest book cover I've seen in a long time. Since Beth's giveaway is open for all worldwide, I am definitely going to try and win this book. It is supposedly for readers who like chick lit, and I do like that from time to time. And I just want to KISS that cover ;o)

Books for Southern Reading Challenge

I have now picked some books to be read during the Southern Reading Challenge. You can see the list a bit down on the sidebar to the right.

Midnight in the Garden of the Good and Evil has been on my shelf for years (I adore that cover), so that one was easy. I tried to find a cheap copy of Eudora Welty's collected short stories to purchase online, but she is one expensive lady (remember, I am in Denmark and cannot buy from North American sites w/o paying heavy taxes). I also tried to find used copies and they were even more expensive. So I went to the library's website and found a lot there, luckily. I immediately ordered two books, and here I am hoping that some of you are able to help. I could not get any of her works in English, so it had to be in Danish. Any of you know which of her works it could be: The first one is called, when I translate the Danish title directly, "Small Narrow Souls" and the other one I am borrowing is called, translated directly, "Uncle Daniel's Good Heart". Any ideas?

While I was at the library's website, I also ordered Richard Wright's Black Boy and Uncle Tom's Children.

Then I bought Mudbound by Hilary Jordan, which a lot of bloggers are talking about and Joshilyn Jackson's The Girl Who Stopped Swimming online, and am now waiting for them to arrive in a week or two. I am SO excited to begin reading, and have decided to study the American South all summer, specially the literature. That is why the image on top is from the tomb of Marie Laveau in New Orleans, which i visited some years back, although none of my books are about her. But I think that Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is also a bit about voodoo, so the photo is ok to illustrate this post....

Its Monday! What are you reading this week?

"It's Monday! What are you reading this week? is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being reading, and the books to be finish this week. Feel free to join in this weekly event if you'd like as well as use the photo/pic/button above. The Mr. Linky widget box will be set up to link your blog post. If it's out of order for some reason, post your link in the comment section."

J-Kaye is hosting this.

I haven't completed any fiction in a long time, except for a Swedish thriller, which has not been translated to English as far as I know and thus not reviewed here, but on my Danish version of this blog.

I am reading two books right now, and they are A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and Heaven's Prisoners by James Lee Burke. Incidentially they are both books which can be used in the newest challenge I am participating in: Southern Reading Challenge, hosted by Maggie. I hope to finish them both this week, but I also have my thesis to deliver in a week, plus a wedding for which I have to go out of town, so not sure there will be much time for reading. I will try though.

Inspiration needed

It feels good to be back here. Much is happening all the time (and everyone are such pros with Twitter and Techonrati and much more and I am feeling stupid, and not sure I even know how to Tweet "correctly") and I have cleaned up a bit now on the blog. I removed the challenge-buttons, and now only keep the book-lists. Am not doing overly good, though, but will get through. I also removed the Weekly Geeks-button with the tree, which apparently we were not supposed to use due to a copyright-question. Now the sidebar has a cleaner look, I think.

I haven't been back here for many days and am still playing catch up on my fave blogs. And since I have around 100 fave blogs, it does take me some days to visit all of them. But I'll get there. Today I went by Eva at A Striped Armchair and stumbled upon this post. A Southern Reading Challenge! Wow, I just had to sign up for that, so I went to visit Maggie, who is hosting this challenge and who has a fresh looking and beautiful blog.

Now I know just a thing or two (it isn't much) about Southern literature and actually think that the books I am reading right now (A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and Heaven's Prisoners by James Lee Burke) and some of the books I have on some of my other Challenge Lists (Jesus out to Sea by James Lee Burke, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Absalom, Absalom! by W. Faulkner) would qualify for this challenge.

But what I am asking for here is of anyone has any suggestions of what other books I could put on my Southern Challenge List? Below is a short abstract of "the rules" of the challenge.

"You may choose to read any style of Southern book such as Appalachian tales, Civil War sagas, Gothic myths, Grit lit, and heart-wrenching biographies. Just as long as you read three (fiction or nonfiction) between May 15th and August 15th."

Thanks a lot in advance - I am looking forward to your suggestions, even though Maggie of course also has a list of suggestions. Anf come to think of it, what really makes a book "Southern Reading"?

Cleaning and organizing and a new blog as well

Now that I have a bit more time on my hands, I have begun cleaning and organizing a bit here and there. I am stille eagerly awaiting Beth putting op her link on how to make tabs on Blogger, cleaning up labels and clutter, and inspired by both Beth, Jackie, and other bloggers, I am trying to organize my blog(s) this Sunday afternoon.

I never really got into my Egyptology Weekend feature. For some reason, I don't think that it belongs here, where I will, for the most part, try to talk about books, literature and related subjects.

I have a Danish Egyptology blog which I maintain with a colleague of mine, and since I am writing posts for that blog from time to time, I thought I would set up one in English also. This way I only have to write one post and then translate it to the other language. So you can say, that the Egyptology Weekend feature is moving there, and disappearing from here.

You are all, of course, more than welcome to check out the new Egyptology blog here, and I will also link to it here when there is something new going on. You are also welcome to ignore it completely ;o)

The image is from the website of Oriental Institute.

Wordless Wednesday

Reflections in indoor pool in Hearst Castle, California, 2007
For more Wordless Wednesday click here.

Back in the loop

I have completed my thesis - almost. I still have a few images to scan and my last meeting with my advisor (Monday), but its written, I have made my conclusive remarks and I am beat! It has been some long months, where I have been working day and night (so it feels) writing this thesis. It is being delivered Tuesday June 2 at 12.00 and then I have to wait two months to get the result, but right now I don't give a damn about the result, I just want to get it over and done with ;o)

I shall spare you the details, but my subject has been a certain genre of mummy portraits from the Roman period (circa 30 BCE - AD 400) in Egypt. You probably know those portraits from museums around the world - they are painted in this style:

One of these days I shall be happy to talk more about these portraits, but not now ;o) I have set up an Egyptology blog for those kinds of things, but also more about that later.
Right now I am dying to get back into the loop and will begin this evening by visiting blogs. And I can barely wait!
I want to thank all of you who has been commenting here while I've been gone. I really appreciate it and will visit all of you over the next days. Cannot wait to see what is going on in the book-blogger world. I have missed you all!