Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is my top ten favorite book blogs. My current favorite blogs are always over there --->, in the Blog Stalker. Please click on them! (Well, click on them after you read this post.) Since my favorites are already in the sidebar, I thought I’d talk about what makes me love a book blog.* *Please remember that these are my opinions. I’m not trying to criticize anybody’s blog. Feel free to ignore me. Ten Things That Will Make Me Love Your Book Blog We have similar reading tastes This is the biggest thing that will make me love a blog. If we’ve both read the same books, we’ll have something to fangirl about. Luckily, my reading tastes are pretty eclectic. We’ll usually have a few books in common. Your blog is high-contrast and low-clutter I have eye problems. If your font is rainbow colored, I probably won’t be able to read it. I need dark font on light backgrounds. Light pink on white and light gray on white seem to be popular right now. Sorry, I can’t read them unless I use the zoom button or smash my face against the screen. I do my blogging on an elderly laptop. I appreciate it when websites load quickly. Ask yourself if you really need fifteen gifs in your review. Or if you really need that mailing list pop-up. (Hint: nobody likes pop-ups.) You reply to comments and/or comment back I know that this is difficult. I live with a permanent case of comment guilt. There are so many comments and so little time! But, if I leave a bunch of comments on your blog and never get any response, I’ll probably stop commenting. I might still read your posts, but I won’t bother with comments. I joined the book blogging community because I want to be part of a community. I don’t want to talk to a wall. (I can do that perfectly well without the computer.) You’re not a robot My favorite bloggers write lots of original content and show their personalities. Any robot can copy/paste a cover and synopsis from Goodreads. Those posts are okay sometimes, but I want to know that there’s a human running your blog. I love discussions, reviews, brief life updates, photos, artwork, whatever shows off your personality and opinions. Your comment section requires minimal clicking I want to scroll to the bottom of a post and leave a comment. I don’t want to click a link, check a thousand boxes, squint at a captcha, or prove I’m not a robot. I’m lazy and have a lot of blogs to read. Remember when I said that I have eye problems? A lot of comment systems have small fonts or hard-to-see colors. That’s why I type all of my comments in Microsoft Word and copy/paste them into the comment box. Sometimes when I do this, the blog has a pop-up that says it doesn’t allow copy/pasted content. I understand that you’re trying to protect your work and reduce spam, but if I can’t copy/paste my comment, you’re not getting a comment from me. Your social media buttons are easy to find and functional If I like your blog, I want to follow you everywhere. (Not in a creepy way. I promise.) Don’t make this challenging! Put your social media links where they’re easy to see. Also, test your buttons to make sure they link to the correct place. I recently clicked on a blogger’s Pinterest button, and it went to a profile that clearly does not belong to the blogger. (Unless the blogger is secretly a boy-obsessed twelve-year-old from South Korea. In that case, I apologize. You seemed much older and much less obsessed with shirtless teens on your book blog.) I understand what you’re talking about I recently clicked on a blog post, and it was just a bunch of book covers. No words at all. Not even a title for the post. Okaaay. What is this post about? Why am I looking at a bunch of random book covers? You don’t have to write a long introduction to every post, but I appreciate knowing what I’m looking at. You don’t post a million times a day If I like your blog, I’ll follow it on Bloglovin’. That’s the site I use to manage my blog-reading life. If you flood my feed with posts, I’ll quickly unfollow you. I used to follow a blogger who loved taking photos and posting them on her blog. She put one photo in each post, and she posted a lot of photos. Then my whole Bloglovin’ feed was just her photos. I had to scroll forever to get past them all. If you want to post photos, put a bunch of them in one post. Then I won’t get a notification for each photo. Because that's annoying. You start conversations The best blog posts introduce a compelling question and spark a conversation in the comment section. That’s why blogs have comment sections. So people can share their (angry, uninformed) opinions. Give me something to have an opinion about! I want to participate in the conversation. (Or in the rage-fueled mudslinging, whatever.) You keep your posts under 1000 words I bet you’re skimming this post right now. That’s because it’s getting very close to 1000 words. You’re getting bored. I don’t blame you. People on the Internet have short attention spans and don’t concentrate deeply on what they’re reading. I like blog posts that get to the point quickly. Short posts with graphics and white space are better than giant walls of text. (And . . . I've just hit 1000 words. This post is done.) What will make you love a blog?

Explore Heath_barzzz's 105 photos on Flickr!

Better than a kick in the ass.

Who doesn’t know that feeling when you just want to hide from reality and indulge in your dreams a little? Self-taught artist Andrés J. Colmenares created a cozy, cartoonish world where anyone can rest with their heart and soul. He posts his colorful and cute comics, that are full of humor, under the pseudonym wawawiwa.

Need some funny quotes to get through your week? Check out our collection of 22 super funny quotes sure to get you laughing out loud!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week, I’m putting on my armor and confessing my unpopular book-related opinions. Please don’t hate me! I swear I’m a good person! Unpopular Book Opinions 1. Super-popular authors whose work I can’t seem to get into no matter how hard I try: Cassandra Clare, Veronica Roth, Gayle Forman, James Patterson, Brandon Sanderson, Marissa Meyer, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce. 2. I like the Game of Thrones TV show more than the books. I know the show has (many, many) problems, but I can re-watch the TV series without getting bored. Reading the books will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. They’re too long. Each one takes me a month to read. The show gets to the point a lot faster by leaving out minor characters and plotlines. 3. I’m not bored with young adult dystopias. Remember the dystopia craze that happened 5-10 years ago? There were suddenly a billion YA dystopias, and everybody got burnt out on them and begged publishers to stop? I’ve recovered from my burn out! Please bring back all of the dystopias! Make them unique, though. My burn out happened because the books became too similar. 4. The house system at Hogwarts is a terrible way to organize a school. It’s unnecessarily divisive. Before Harry starts school, Hagrid—a Hogwarts employee—tells him that evil wizards come from Slytherin. Ron also says negative things about Slytherins when Harry first meets him. When Malfoy and Harry meet, Malfoy bashes Hufflepuffs. Harry is prejudiced against Slytherins for his entire school experience. Also, the students complain that some teachers give kids from their own houses preferential treatment. The house system causes pointless drama. Teenagers manufacture enough drama on their own. They don’t need a school or its employees giving them superficial reasons to dislike each other. 5. Dear Martin and How It Went Down are better than The Hate U Give in every way. All three books have similar themes, but The Hate U Give gets most of the hype. I think Dear Martin and How It Went Down are more innovative. 6. I actually enjoy reading classics (most of the time). Yes, they’re dated. Yes, they’re challenging. I like them because they helped shape our current culture. I feel like I understand storytelling and modern literature better because I’ve read so many old books. 7. Art, music, and sports are boring to read about. These things are great in real life, but they don’t translate well into writing because they’re meant to be experienced firsthand. Reading about a game is never as fun as sitting in the stadium with your friends. When you’re reading descriptions of art, music, or sports instead of living through them, they lose their excitement. 8. People shouldn’t rate/review books they haven’t read on Goodreads. I’ve seen this happen a few times: Someone reads an advanced reader copy, hates the book, and posts a long rant. Then other people post reviews that say, “This reviewer hated the book, so I hate it too.” Maybe you should wait for more reviews before you parrot the first person to post a rant. Your perspective might change if you listen to more people. Or, focus your energy on boosting books you love rather than tearing down books you haven’t read. 9. The romances in many young adult books are unnecessary. There seems to be a secret rule that YA books need romances. This sometimes leads to books where the romance feels like an underdeveloped afterthought. It’s okay to be single! I would rather read about a single character than a half-baked romance. 10. If you’ve read J.R.R Tolkien's books, you’ve read pretty much every high fantasy book. Historical settings, kings and queens, good vs evil themes, magical quests, wars, prophesied “chosen one” characters. Every time I read the synopsis of a high fantasy book, I get déjà vu. They all sound the same to me. Do you have any unpopular book opinions?

The truth will set you free!

Today we look at 28 funny memes that any ENFP will relate to. Always chasing deep connections, ENFPs are one-of-a-kind as you’ll see from these memes.

The Home Office and EU Commission are among authorities using an automated analytics tool that claims to recognise sarcasm.

Übersetze niemals deutsche Redewendungen wortwörtlich. NIEMALS! HÖRST DU!

16 Sassy 'Kermit The Frog' Memes We Definitely Didn't Find On 'The Muppets' - Funny memes that "GET IT" and want you to too. Get the latest funniest memes and keep up what is going on in the meme-o-sphere.

Approximately one billion years ago, Renée @ The Global Bookworm tagged me for The Sunshine Blogger Award tag. I’m not going to follow all of the rules for the tag because there are too many, and I’ve done this several times before, but I’ll happily answer the questions that Renée asked. I love questions! The Sunshine Blogger Award 1. Why did you start a book blog? Because I had thoughts! Actually, it was an accident. I wanted to write a journal-style blog about my life, but then I discovered that I have no life. I started writing about what I was reading instead. I didn’t know there was a whole book blogging community until I discovered Goodreads Groups in late 2014. 2. What is the best book which has been written in your country? The whole country? In all of history? But there are a gazillion books published in the US every year! My first thought was In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. That book helped create the narrative nonfiction genre. It’s not the most widely read American classic, though. Maybe I should choose To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee? That novel is very readable, and it gets forced upon pretty much every American school child at some point in their life. 3. Which book is your guilty pleasure? All of them? Reading is kind of a luxury hobby. You can only do it if you have book money (or library access) and free time. A lot of people in the world don’t have those things. 4. What is your favorite non-fiction book? Well, I already mentioned In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. My childhood favorite was Winterdance by Gary Paulsen. A recent favorite is Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt. 5. When would you say that your blog is a (big) success? When it makes enough money to support my book buying habit. 6. Which book do you believe should be mandatory to read at all schools worldwide? So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. Social media sites should hand out free copies of this book to everybody who creates an account. If you use the internet, you need to read this book. It might make you reevaluate your behavior online. 7. Would you rather buy your books or get them from the library? Buy them. I like libraries, but I don’t like reading deadlines. Also, if I love a book, I don’t want to give it back to the library. I want to keep it forever. It’s my precious! 8. Which mistake did you make when you started blogging? Choosing Blogger as a host. Don’t do it, new bloggers! The comment system is infuriating, and you don’t get much control over how your site looks. There are zero cool plugins. Also, I’ve seen several people say they only follow WordPress blogs. 9. How do you take care of yourself and your mental health? Poorly? I don’t know. I’m not good at it. I try to get enough sleep. I go outside every day and exercise 5 times a week. I pet a lot of dogs. I read a lot of books. I ignore a lot of trolls. 10. From which country would you like to read a book? Ann Morgan read a book from every country. I’d love to do that. Can I answer this question with “all of the countries?” I want to read all of them. 11. If you could give advice to a blogger who starts today, what would it be? Interact with the community! Most of us only bite during the full moon. You can’t just lurk in a corner of the internet and expect people to find you. Create social media accounts, join linkups, participate in readathons and challenges, and comment, comment, comment. Do you want to answer Renée’s questions? Go for it.

Blog post at Odd Loves Company : Parking ... It’s a well-known fact in my family that I’m a ninja parallel parker. I can park any car, in the middle of rush hour traf[..]

You might remember HipDict, the crowdsourced dictionary that defines what we’re really saying when we use everyday words, or maybe you’re already following it. The account on Instagram is still going strong with over 2 million followers and enough submissions to post every day.

15 Classical Art Memes For All The Cultured Snobs - Funny memes that "GET IT" and want you to too. Get the latest funniest memes and keep up what is going on in the meme-o-sphere.

I visited one of my clients today and it inspired me to write this post. Why, well since they rebuilt their website for “Organic SEO”, implemented a blog and engaged with Social Media since January 2009, his Google search page has gone from a “page eight” ranking on search to “page one”, also their enquiries have increased by nearly 300%. What do they […]

Relatable Tweets & Memes About Seasonal Depression - Funny memes that "GET IT" and want you to too. Get the latest funniest memes and keep up what is going on in the meme-o-sphere.

When Animals Are Going To Therapy (Comics) - World's largest collection of cat memes and other animals

You might remember HipDict, the crowdsourced dictionary that defines what we’re really saying when we use everyday words, or maybe you’re already following it. The account on Instagram is still going strong with over 2 million followers and enough submissions to post every day.

hilarious!!!

The devil speaks German.

If a tree falls in the forest will monkey troupes far and wide hear it? Yesterday there was a crash across the river behind our western mountain. I thought, landslide? But Rusty saw the big tree falling. We could hear the crashing destruction of the under-story trees and brush as the big tree fell toward the forest floor. Thirty-six hours later the monkeys are still complaining. Well, perhaps that’s too judgmental. Perhaps they’re not complaining at all. Perhaps they’re initiating a monkey recon to locate new digs. Or, perhaps their monkey tradecraft is so perfected that they maintain assets throughout the montaña, and Plan B is already in place. In any event, they’re very loud and visible today. Monkey business . . . probably not as random as it appears. I went on a semi-covert recon of my own today . . . picking up intel on a pet spay/neuter clinic for Samara. The clinic will be my first volunteer assignment. Costa Rica is blessed with traveling vets who do nothing but spay/neuter pets to keep the dog and cat population under control. The aim, obviously, is the reduction of homeless pets. And what intel did I uncover? I discovered that there are nearly zero beach dogs near Samara, this issue having been resolved in the past through adoption programs. I discovered that I need not reinvent the wheel as this project periodically comes to Samara . . . we just need more volunteers (and funding, always funding, right?). Speaking of trade craft, Rusty cleverly installed a pet door in one of the terrace screen doors. I couldn’t wait . . . simply could not, would not wait to purchase a proper door especially made for screen doors. Oh no. I just pulled the trigger and purchased the first cat-only size door that I found . . . leaving Rusty to retrofit it into our screen. I believe that wood-carving was involved, so he probably had a grand ol' time. Since Rusty possesses better than average intelligence (he's a natural at his craft), I believe that he revels in these little operations, which I graciously bestow by my willy-nilly decisions. He indulges my OCD nature by stowing suitcases above the laundry room in a manner such that they are nigh invisible from any part of the home . . . by organizing as much as humanly possible his 800,000 pounds of tools on the southern terrace. He genuinely loves these little challenges. Or maybe I’m drunk or on drugs, or both . . . or need to be. I have a sister-in-law who prides herself on accomplishing about a zillion tasks on a Saturday morning. If you speak to Patti around noon on Saturdays, she'll rattle off about a million and one things that she has already accomplished. I've skimmed the pool, trimmed the shrubberies, vacuumed and washed the cars, cleaned the baseboards with a toothbrush, and re-roofed the house. And I always thought, you little tradeswoman, you, I don't care! I don't need nor do I want to hear your list of accomplishments. I had mimosas and watched a hummingbird. That was my big morning. Well, I still don't understand Patti's boundless energy around the house. Patti, is there a pill for that? Was her insane list of achievements Patti's crafty way of challenging me to be a better homemaker? Who can say? Now however, here at Mil Colinas, I do appreciate the pride that Patti feels from her myriad morning tasks. My nesting is almost complete. Almost. So much so that I may need to take-up Dr. Freddie's offer to volunteer with women's and children's groups. That, or start soap and candle making. Yesterday I planted ginger, birds of paradise, blah, blah, blah. . . you don't give a care, and I won't bore you. Suffice to say, the home is taking shape. Most of the artwork is hung (Rusty did that), the Africa photos are on the wall in a special place of honor surrounding some of the gifts from African chieftain pals. Yes, animal skins abound -- so sue me, PETA. Now before I go off on my whiny tangent below, let's look at some of the came-with-me-from-the-US-and-I-refuse-to-let-'em-go items. I concede that I'm as guilty as the next expat . . . I simply don't pine for what's not here (except for that pot rack). We'll start with my Tin Tin books and posters and move on to the bed linens. Tin Tin books? I know . . . who am I to judge (keep reading). I'll tell you who I am. I'm the gal who made a show-place from a mud hut in Burkina Faso. And did it largely with locally re-purposed items. Here’s my other recon observation of the day (you’ve been holding your breath, right?): There are too many expats in this land who never seem content. Not in Samara . . . I wouldn't suggest that any of you live here in Samara . . . but you know who you are. Did you folks really come all this way to demand a grocery trade in Oscar Meyer bacon, Bumble Bee tuna, and Starbucks? Can I offer you some Fox News and a BigMac? How about a dry-cleaning bag so that you can totally isolate from the Tico culture? Whoops. Someone needs a cocktail . . . maybe get out of the blog trade until someone develops a better attitude. Lo que hay.