Armchair BEA/ Day 2 Its All About the aesthetics

Armchair BEA
Good Morning and welcome to day 2 of Armchair BEA.
Today is all about aesthetics!
The Books: How often do you judge a book by its cover? How often are you surprised by what you find? Do you strategize and make sure every book in your series has the same cover design (as far as you are able to) and type? How important is it for the visual art on the outside of the book to match or coordinate with the literature art on the inside?
The Blog: As a book blogger, in whatever form that takes, branding is important. Your colors, your fonts, your style of review, all of these things come together to make the “brand” of your blog – something that makes your reviews and posts and websites, all your various content, immediately recognizable to the people looking for you. What do you do to create a brand on your site? Do you think about these things?
The Blog:
When I first started blogging back in August of 2008 I have to admit that I didn’t really put a lot of effort into my blog and branding and I went with what I thought was cute and fun at the time. During the time I think I went through blog themes and designs like it was tissue. I was constantly changing it. Fast forward a few years later and I realized that I really enjoyed blogging and sharing my thoughts about books etc so I invested in my blog and purchased my very first design which I am happy to say is still here. Then shortly after that with much poking and persuading from my old high school friend, he convinced me to make the leap into self hosting and I have to say I am so happy I made that leap.
I am so happy with the design and the way things look now. I don’t think there is anything I would change. Its made me who I am and its set me apart from everyone else. No one has a design like me and its unique to who I am.
I know what I like and what I don’t like when I visit other blogs and I try to reflect that here. A blog has to be fun, easy to read and engaging and I hope that you find that here.
The Books:
I have to admit that I don’t always base picking up books based on the cover but sometimes I do. Its so hard not to especially when you walk by a display that is showing casing a book that has a pretty cover or even a ugly cover.
Sometimes the cover can be a catch 22. It could have the worst cover but an incredible story  and then you have this beautiful book and its got a crappy story.  How many times has that happened to you? I have encountered it many times over the course of 8 years of blogging. So I try not to base it all on the cover alone.
When it comes to having books in my collection I am usually not specific about the look, version etc because I tend to pass on the books when I am finished reading them but for the rare ones that I do keep, especially when its a series I do like to have my books all look the same in version and size and style. So its rather annoying when publishers change the format (ie comes out in paper back first and then other books in the series comes in hard cover) and design (you start the series with one look and then half way through they revamp them).
Do you have any book pet peeves? What about blogger pet peeves?

Armchair BEA/ Day 1 Introductions

Armchair BEA
Hi everyone. Please allow me to introduce myself in case you are new to my blog. My name is Cindy and I have been blogging from my little city in the burbs of Montreal (Quebec/Canada) since August of 2008.
This year I am not at #BEA16 which I have to say is a bit sad but I have to say that it just wouldn’t worked for me because of the exchange rate, flights, hotels, and shipping books back to Canada unless I had won the lottery so I will just have to hold onto #BEA17 in NYC.
I have actually been lucky to attend #BEA in NYC in 2010, 2012, 2013 and then 2015. In between those years I didn’t attend the actual #BEA I took part in the #ArmchairBEA. They are also so much fun and I am so happy they came up with this idea.

1.  Do you have a favorite book? If you cannot choose a favorite book of all time, pick your favorite book today – just this second. Remember that favorites are allowed to change if something affects you deeply enough. My all time favorite books are Anne of Green Gables because growing up on the east coast of New Brunswick everyone read them from the school library, then in high school I had to read Wuthering Heights and that was my favorite book out of all the reading we had to do and then it was the V.C Andrews because thats when my sister shared her love of reading with me and she would always send me a ton of books.

2.  What is your favorite genre and why? I tend to read alot of YA books but I have noticed that in the last few months (actually since Januar 2016) I am reading a mix of fiction, romance (I have always read some romance but it seems like its more) and mystery.
3.  Which day of ABEA are you looking forward to the most? I have to say the introduction day is my favorite day because you get to discover so many bloggers on this day.
4.  How do you arrange your bookshelves? Is there a rhyme or reason? Or not at all? (#ABEAShelfie) Whenever I rearrange my bookshelves I always try to come up with a way to organize them but it just never works out so there is actually no rhyme or reason to them. Their is actually only one shelf that has a rhyme or reason to it and that is the books I have bought this year. I have cleared a complete shelf and that is where I am keeping track of the books I bought so I know they have to be read. I am hoping that will curb my spending.

5.  What book are you most excited for on your TBR? What are you most intimidated by? I think I am excited for all the books on my TBR. I think this year there has been a ton of great books that have come out and the rest of the year is looking amazing. None of the books I have really intimidate me because I go in with a completely open mind. When I read them I just hope that I will like.

6.  What is the most interesting thing that you have learned through your reading this year so far? I think one of the most interesting things I learned so far this year is that its okay to dip into other genre of books and to expand your horizon. I have been reading books that I never thought I would and that is a good think.

I look forward to connecting with other bloggers this week. If you are new or even returning be sure to leave me a comment so I can pop over to your introduction.