Sunday Salon 26 IX 2010: a return to the Salon

Good morning, fellow Salon Members! Can it really have been so long since I last posted a Salon post? Almost a year? Unfortunately, it is all too possible and all too real. I've had a long year, so far. No excuses, that's just the way it is.

Several things have changed for from my bookshelf... this year; a new look and a new domain name (www.frommybookshelf.com) among the most notable. I'm just trying to streamline my blog and make it more user friendly. I had an interesting discussion with a friend about my blog the other night, and he was wondering how much money I made off of this, and I told him nothing. I use the Amazon links at the bottom of every post (and will begin using an independent bookstore's links as well), but in the 2+ years that I've run my blog, I've received one $10 payment from Amazon. I don't do this for any kind of money. I do it for me. It's a way for me to keep track of what I'm reading and to connect to other readers out there and to authors and to share my feelings about books, and that's always been the sole reasoning for this blog. And lately, I've been wanting to make it better.

So, to that end, I'm running a contest right now to gain followers, and you can read more about that here.

Another feature that I added just last week and one that I'm going to try to keep to every week is the Fragment Friday meme hosted by James at Book Chic Club. You can see my first contribution here and read more about Fragment Friday.

So, then that's about it for this Sunday Salon. I'd have far too many great books to talk about since my last Salon (which was almost a year ago, I'm ashamed to say). I'd love it if you checked out my reviews (there is a list of all books that I've reviewed so far this year in the column on the right) and share your thoughts with me if there are any books that we've both read this year. I'll also be posting up a recap of getting to meet Emma Donoghue from earlier this week later today.

Until next week, everyone, happy reading!