Saturday Spotlight - Story on a Page

Today I have with me a college student blogger who just got back into reading and decided to start a blog up. Find out more about her below!

Name: Angel
Nickname and/or blog name: ninefly @ story on a page
Blog URL: http://angeltyuan.blogspot.com


Tell me a bit about yourself:
I'm a university student majoring in media theory with a minor psychology. I love stories in all its different forms, whether it's books, tv shows, movies, or even song lyrics.

When and why did you start your blog?
I started my blog late October of 2009. Around that time I was waiting for a new laptop to arrive and was without the Internet to distract me, so I picked up a few novels I've been neglecting and started to become addicted to reading again. This blog was basically somewhere I wanted to archive all the thoughts I had on the books I've finished because I'm a hopelessly forgetful person.

What is your blog all about? Any cool features you want to share?
My blog is mainly a place to dump my slightly lengthy book reviews (I offer an "overall rating" blurb for tl;dr readers though). I participate in weekly memes for almost every week of the day in order to share titles from my wishlist and TBR pile.

One feature I have recently started on my blog is called "Cover Cravings", where I post 5-10 cover images every Friday that fit a specific weekly theme - could be art style, artist, or colour schemes. It's basically a meme that celebrates book covers as pieces of art. If people would like to participate/contribute their own additions to the weekly theme, I may put up a Mr. Linky, but for now comments are open for links =)


What are some of your favorite genres and/or books currently?
I love books of all genres, mainly because I am a fan of "stories" in general. I like fantasy, sci-fi, mystery/thriller, historical, urban fantasy, slice-of-life, superheroes, graphic novels...the only genre I tend to avoid is pure romance (though not including paranormal romance). Half of what I read is probably considered adult fiction, but I'm starting to really enjoy YA novels as well.

How do you find out about the books you read?
I find a lot of recommendations from fellow book bloggers that participate in memes like Wishlist Wednesday or In My Mailbox. Other times I prowl goodreads or Amazon recommendation lists.

Any tips or advice for those starting or thinking about starting a blog?
I personally think a very important part of maintaining a good blog is to make the content easy to access and read - in other words getting a good layout. It doesn't need to be fancy, just organized and with a readable font. Be especially careful with colours too, don't scare readers away with too much brightness or contrast (ex. incredibly bright reds).

Another thing is to visit other blogs and leave insightful comments that might interest the blog owner to visit your site, rather than saying "that's awesome! now look at my blog!" Participating in weekly memes like I've mentioned before also helps visitors find new books and brings traffic to your site.

CONTEST ALERT
Angel is having a 50 follower contest! You could win a $5 Amazon gift card or a custom layout! Check it out over at Story on a Page.


Great advice Angel! I've really enjoyed Angel's blog personally, she's got a knack for design, so even though she's fairly new her site looks fantastic!

Are you a new blogger too? Or just getting back into the swing of blogging? Do you want to be featured on my blog? Shoot me an email at dragonzgoil (at) gmail (dot) com.