Fuel My Blog and Light my Fire!

The past few days I have been spending a disproportionate time on this blog. You may well ask what on earth have I been doing as there have been no new posts.
Well after I couldn't find my blog in Google search results even though I was searching the exact titles of my posts. I became a bit disturbed.  Previously, (think a year ago), after a bout of recent posting I could usually find my blog entries pretty high up on In Google search result. Apparently, blogs are growing faster than the world population and mine has been lost in cyberspace due to inactivity.

Hence, I am going through a blog makeover, new templates, new widgets, joined fuel my blog to encourage traffic, and general research on SEO and how to gain followers. I thought I needed a dummies guide to blogger, I discovered  blog like that and I found that even a bit difficult to follow, maybe because the blogger has been upgraded, but it made feel very stupid, once I get the hang of this I'll make a how to blog for non geeks.  Reading what's out there, in terms of writing style, technical ability, and content, both written and multimedia, it seems I have stiff competition.

Although, I can write about what is not being written, I am not sure I have the confidence to do so, and I feel like if by the odd chance an acquaintance comes across the blog they will easily know its me, and I'm not ready for that not yet anyway-maybe when I'm famous. An alternative way is to play the devil's advocate, but that's just not me, and knowing my luck will probably land me in some sort of trouble. 

Its very late so I think  I will just end from a quote from the film, 'Inception':

"Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange." - Cobb

 

 

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella- SeriesBook Reviews

Yet another book review of sorts. Intellectual snobs be warned. I am not about to review any heart breaking ground shattering or profound books, I'm afraid I was in the mood for instant if somewhat fleeting gratification. (After reading 4 books by the same author in the space of a short time I'm now  bit fuzzy on the details)

This summer I finally got around to reading The shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella, as well as 'Can you keep a secret?', by the same author. What can I say? Embodiment of perfect chic-lit! If a book were a chocolate with caramel and nougat center it would be the Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Any girl that loves shopping can relate. Any quarter lifer stuck in a  so-so career can also relate. Any girl who manages to land find herself in socially embarrassing sitations, sometimes of her own doing can relate. To conclude, nearly any girl can relate, or at least laugh at Rebecca Bloomwood's shenanigans. As some one who has trouble packing- (think the night before the flight teary, hair-pulling, suitcase-kicking and weighing nervous wreck) I thoroughly enjoyed her travel packing dilemmas.

You don't want to put the book down, because you are enjoying yourself so much, and if you have the next one in the series you will jump at it.  But unlike books of substance you don't find yourself thinking about the characters or events and running through bits in your head again. But then again this is chic lit, a short and sweet affair.

Incidentally, I was looking for by the latest book by the same author Twenties Girl, at Heathrow Airport and I found out that the titles are slightly different. There are different titles for the same book  sold in the UK and US.The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic in the UK is sold as Confessions of a Shopaholic elsewhere. ( I thought that was only the case for  the first Harry Potter, which was titled Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone in the UK while it in the US it was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.)

I would really like to know why they feel the need to change the title, maybe its a legal issue. Do American writers/ publishers also feel the need change to titles of their books when they sell them in the UK and Europe?  Both of these are examples of British writers, but I guess the US market is far bigger and more important commercially, to warrant such a change when compared with the European market.

I feel I may have over-linked this post, but I am an amateur blogger, and I am trying to experiment with one new feature with each post maybe in time my post will improve in quality of content and formatting. Here's to hoping and having faith!