The Secret Life of a Book Blogger Tag

November has arrived and with it comes the first dose of really cold weather and Christmas decorations in the shops. If I'm honest, I'm incredibly excited; this is one of my favourite times of the year and I can't wait for it to be December and we can get into the full holiday spirit. For now, I decided it was time for a fun book tag, so today I'm sharing my answers to the secret life of a book blogger tag!
How long have you been a blogger? I actually had to double check this and I posted my very first blog post here at 'A Spoonful of Happy Endings' on 17 March 2013, so I guess I've been blogging for about 3,5 years now. At what point do you think you’ll stop blogging? I have to admit I've been thinking about that exact question quite often lately. My job is demanding more of my time, just like other things that are going on in my life, and reading and reviewing quite a lot of books each month also requires time and attention. I guess the main question is whether I'm still enjoying blogging and I am at the moment; as soon as that changes, it's probably time to switch things up a bit or decide to leave the blogging world for a specific period of time.
What is the best thing about blogging? One of the best things about being a book blogger is receiving books for free; I'm not going to lie about that! I also love that my blog managed to get me into touch with some of my favourite auhors and I've also met some other great publishing people and book bloggers along the way, which has been pretty amazing.

What is the worst thing? What do you do to make it OK? There are quite a number of mean people around who can't help but make you feel horrible about what you're doing. I wish those people would just disappear, and usually they do after a while, luckily. I also hate writing negative reviews of books, but that's part of the business and I wouldn't feel comfortable lying if I just really didn't enjoy a particular book.
How long does it take you to make/find pictures to use? I wish I would have the time to make my own pictures, but I just don't. I've never really been into photography/art, so it's also not something I want to spend a lot of my time on, to be honest. I always use images from the internet, making sure to not steal other people's images if there's a particular copyright on them. Who is your book crush? I don't develop book crushes that easily, unfortunately, but I think I will always have a soft spot for Laurie from 'Little Women', even though I still don't understand why he didn't end up with Jo, the way it was supposed to be...! What author would you like to have on your blog? In an ideal world I'd love to have Jane Austen on my blog, but since she's not been around for quite some time, that's not likely to happen...! However, I've had the pleasure of having some pretty amazing authors on my blog, like Lisa Dickenson and Lindsay Kelk, so I have nothing to complain about! What do you wear when you write your blog post? Whatever I happen to be wearing at the time, I don't need any special clothing to write...! How long does it take you to prepare? A few hours per week? I usually write my reviews while I'm travelling from and to work, and then spend time in the evenings or weekends actually preparing the blog posts.
How do you feel about the book blogger community? Overall it's a lovely community and one I'm proud to be a part of!
What do you think one should do to get a successful blog? I think that depends on the definition of the word 'successful' blog. Is a blog successful when you get tons of page views, or is it successful when you have a dedicated group of followers who love to interact with you? I think a successful blog is a blog you love spending time on and one you're proud of, no matter the page views of readers.