Tag / community

by Erik McManus | Breakeven Books

Guest Post: Michael Clark

Awhile back, I put a feeler out on Twitter to see if anyone wanted to do guest posts for each other about being a blogger. Michael Clark saw the blogger signal high up in the sky and met me on the roof of a large building on a dark and stormy night to interview each other.

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We came up with 10 questions and answered them on each other’s blogs. His blog is http://MichaelClarkWrites.blogspot.com and he will be writing up a post with my answers sometime in the next couple of days! You can also find Michael on Twitter at @Michaelbigchees. I will let you bookworms know when it is posted. But for now, I will deliver his answers on my blog post so get ready to learn a bit about Michael!

ERIK: What is your top read of 2018 so far? 

MICHAEL: My top read of 2018 so far has been the Robot Geneticist series by J.S. Moran, he is a true genius.

ERIK: Most anticipated book release of 2018?

MICHAEL: My most anticipated release is the continued black ocean series also by Moran.

ERIK: How many books are in your TBR Pile?

MICHAEL: I have more books in TBR than there are sand grains in Georgia.

ERIK: Who is your favorite author? 

MICHAEL: My favorite author is either myself, Walter Mosley or Moran.

ERIK: How did you start blogging?

MICHAEL: I started blogging after spending 4 months waiting for an editor to get submitted to A magazine, and I started blogging to get my stories told.

ERIK:  Where is your favorite reading spot? 

MICHAEL: My favorite spot to read is my back porch.

ERIK: How long have you been a blogger? 

MICHAEL: I have only been blogging since April of this year.

ERIK: What do you like about reading?

MICHAEL:  I love the experience of being a different person for a while.

ERIK: If you had to describe yourself in a book title, what would it be?

MICHAEL: “A Gentleman and a Gangster”.

And that it for our blogger interview! If you wish to be in a blogger interview with me, comment below and I will send you the list of questions to fill out. It is a great way to open up to your readers and let them know a little bit more about you! I look forward to many more of these with my fellow book bloggers!

Cheers and have a great Sunday!


Up to 40% off Bestselling Books

by Erik McManus | Breakeven Books

Book Review: Practice Makes Purpose by C. Paul Schroeder

A new book review of Practice Makes Purpose: Six Spiritual Practices That Will Change Your Life And Transform Your Community by C. Paul Schroeder. This book was a short read at only 198 pages and had some good insight into life and how to approach it.

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Synopsis: The Six Spiritual Practices are a new formulation of a very old set of teachings and disciplines. If you apply them regularly, you will have more energy and vitality, more focus, more compassion, more clarity, and more joy. And these effects will ripple outward into your marriage and family, your parenting, your workplace, your friendships, your neighborhood and city. These practices will change your life and transform your community. They will connect you and the people around you to Purpose, the experience of belonging to something infinitely greater than ourselves.

This book was interesting. It has a lot of good values and it teaches you to gain purpose through 6 spiritual practices. It is kind of like a self-help book but for re-evaluating your day to day decisions on how to interact in different situations. I mainly found that the 6 practices help a lot with self-control.

The author uses examples of how these steps can help in family life and work life so it makes it relatable. It is a great book for someone that wants to gain access to another side of themselves.

I’m not a big fan of self-help type books but this one was a decent read and easy to get through. If you are looking for some spiritual evaluation, take this book for a spin.

You can find the book on Amazon.

Book Rating: 3/5

Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the author to read and give an honest review.

GeekBuying.com

 

by Erik McManus | Breakeven Books

I have been nominated for an award!

Hey book bloggers, guess what!?!? I have been nominated by Ari Augustine from Ravenous for Reads to win the 2017 Liebster award! If you get a chance, go check out her blog. She is an avid book blogger and does fantastic reviews along with interviews and content for writers. She has a book tube channel which is also really cool and something I hope to get to myself someday.

Now you may say, what is a Liebster? I am not too sure either but it sounds cool right? I checked it out and here is more info on the 2017 Liebster Award. I also grabbed the image from Ari’s blog because I didn’t know where else to find it but this is the official badge for the award.

Liebster

So in the rules, it tells me that I should write about my favourite blog/blogger. That would have to be Kathy @ Books & Munches because she basically started talking to me when I started blogging (which was only a month ago) and has made me laugh with her hilarious comments. She also takes the time to comment on almost all of my posts which was the whole reason I started blogging; to be able to talk to others about books and overall just geek out (plus review books for authors). She is a great book blogger and shares a lot about her reading lists, hosts contests and brings the book community together through conversations and even card exchanges 🙂

Alright so Ari left some questions for her nominees (the questions are in bold and my answers are italic):

  1. Do you judge a book by its cover or give the blurb the benefit of doubt? I tend to give the blurb the benefit of the doubt as I have read so many books that turned out to be fantastic even if they had a crappy cover. I do really enjoy a beautifully laid out book cover though 😛
  2. What are you reading at the moment? Right now, I am currently reading the last book in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series. It is called the Library of Souls.
  3. If you could only take one book with you, what would it be? Hmmm this is a tough one. If I had to choose one, it would be The Glass Castle as it shows and teaches you that no matter where you come from or what happens to you, you can always move forward and live a happy life if you make it for yourself. Pretty much look after yourself because you are who you live with for your whole life (if that doesn’t make sense then we have reached the inner workings of my mind and I have started to babble).
  4. This one is a two-part question: Favorite villain? Favorite hero?My favourite villain would have to be the Jackal from the red rising series and my favourite hero would have to be Daredevil (no making fun….unless you want to, I won’t be offended)
  5. What do you enjoy most about blogging? The part I enjoy most about blogging is the different conversations I get to have with likeminded people about books that we have read. Talking about books and their fictional worlds is so fun and you get to see how others interpreted something in a novel that you may have seen differently in your imagination.
  6. What’s your blogging routine like? My blogging routine is generally done at night as I work 9 to 5 as a web developer. I will write my posts between 10pm and 11:30pm to be published next day around 10am.
  7. When did you begin your blog and where do you hope to take it? I began my blog about a month ago and I plan to eventually get to a point where I am following a lot of book bloggers and have attained a following so that my reviews will be seen by many and maybe companies will approach me to represent them in the book blogging community.
  8. Tea, coffee, or cocoa? Coffee all the way but mix some cocoa in and you have yourself a Mocha.
  9. Hardback or paperback? Paperback (not as heavy and easier to read with one hand while brushing your teeth or cooking or whatnot)
  10. If you could visit anywhere in the universe, in or out of time, parallel or present, where would it be? This is going to sound lame but I would just go to Australia. It has been my dream to go there ever since I wrote a speech about the country in grade 4.
  11. You’re going on an epic adventure to save the world. Name two characters who would help you succeed. Katniss Everdeen because she is badass at rebellions and Gandalf because he proves his loyalty and is an excellent mentor/friend.
  12. What’s your favorite word? Potential.

 

My nominees for the award are as follows and you guys can answer the same questions that I did because I really liked them:

I hope you guys can participate by writing your own posts to keep the love going and I look forward to reading all of your posts!

To finish it off, it says to write 10 random facts about yourself so here you go:

  1. Chocolate Oranges are life in my eyes.
  2. I like music better on vinyl (nothing like that scratchy sound).
  3. People say my spirit animal is a giraffe (it’s because I slap people with my neck lol jk)
  4. I play a lot of League of Legends (if you play, my summoner name is Krundor so add me up)
  5. I eventually want to have a Golden Retriever and a Border Collie.
  6. My preferred beer of choice is Pabst Blue Ribbon.
  7. Scary movies and awesome.
  8. I am a huge comic book fanatic (ask me about my collection, I dare you)
  9. Arkells are a great band (take a listen, you will like them)
  10. My favourite movie of all time is Its A Wonderful Life.

And that’s all for now! Talk to you later book worms and I will be resuming with the book challenge tomorrow!