Portobello Book Blog

I’m very pleased to welcome Sharon to the blog today. She blogs at Shaz’s Book Blog Thanks for agreeing to be part of my Blogger in the Spotlight feature Sharon. First of all, would you tell me a little about yourself?

Thank you Joanne for inviting me to your blog.  I hate selling myself, although I might have to get used to that soon if the threat of redundancy comes true and I have to start job hunting!

I’m Sharon, a forty-something singleton who lives and works in Salisbury, although I was born in Northern Ireland and spent most of my childhood living in Germany as an army brat before we eventually moved to Wiltshire.   

I’ve been fortunate, although some might say sad/mad, to have worked for an insurance company Head Office through its various metamorphoses for over 26 years in various roles.  Reading has always been a way of escaping from the stresses of everyday life so even though I work full-time there’s always a book close to hand which I’ll grab the chance to read whenever I have a spare 5 minutes. 

What books/authors did you enjoy as a child?

My earliest memory is reading Beatrix Potter books, then I got into the Sweet Valley High series.  As a teenager I discovered Patricia Cornwell books which is strange as now the thought of reading anything too gory doesn’t appeal at all so maybe I overdid it when I was younger!

What made you want to start blogging?

A friend suggested that I start writing reviews for books I’d read as a means of keeping a record of the books I read as I’d started reading a book I’d bought but then realised I’d read it before.  So the blog was born and it’s grown considerably since I set it up over 4 years ago. 

What do you enjoy most about blogging?

I love the whole being part of the book community, interactions with fellow bloggers,  authors and publishers and of course discovering books that I might otherwise have missed.  The problem is that everyday you hear of so many fantastic books but there’s never enough time to read them all.

What’s your favourite book you’ve reviewed in the past year? Or favourite three if you really can’t choose.

This is a tough question to be asked as I’ve read so many fantastic books within the last 12 months but one of the ones that springs to mind is The New Woman by Charity Norman.

What are you reading just now? 

At the moment (early April 2016) I’m reading a debut from Victoria Walters, The Second Love of My Life.

Tell me about your reading habits:  book or kindle, bed or bath, morning or evening?

I’m someone who grabs the chance to read whenever I can.  At work, my Kindle is always in my bag so that when I’m on a break I can pick up and read, and it’s generally my Kindle I take with me whenever I’m travelling by train.  However, when I’m at home I love nothing more than curling up with a physical book although I prefer paperbacks to hardbacks as I find it painful to hold heavier books after a while due to fracturing my wrist a few years ago which has left it weaker.

How can people follow your blog or connect with you on social media?

Blog: http://shazsbookblog.blogspot.co.uk

FB: https://www.facebook.com/ShazsBookBlog

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShazsBookBlog