topic: originality in blogging

I thought of doing this weeks Feature and Follow Friday blog event and then realised the promise I made to myself a while back: to not be obsessed with getting new followers. Plus, I didn't have the time to hop around, hehe :D

Is Originality Gone?

As I was on Parajunkee's website, I saw here post "Blogging 101: Is Originality Gone?" in which Rachel said:

"There is nothing but Book Blitzs, Promo Pieces, Cover Reveals and Memes in my Google Reader! And it just exploded. It wasn’t that bad a few weeks ago and now that is ALL IT IS! Is it the holidays? Is everyone stressed out, so they can’t think of anything CREATIVE to post about?"

 I'm a bit smug to say that I haven't done any of these. If you remember, I stopped/never did post of these for these reasons that I mentioned in posts ages ago:

• No More In My Mailbox: I thought it was people just bragging about all the books they have/ showing off all their ARCs and such. I as a reader don't really care what books people bought for the week, just the reviews. So I stopped doing this.
• No Cover Reveals: I may have done once so long ago that I don't remember, but I was never up for making posts entirely on a new cover. I personally don't like many YA covers and don't think their "swoonworthy" (anorexic, airbrushed girls in fancy dresses in fantasy backgrounds? nah)
• Few Promo Pieces: When I do the occasional author interview/giveaway, I do promote the book in the post with a summary and cover, but they're either spaced out over long periods of time or posted all at once at one time. Thinking of it....I kind of do think I need to do some interviews/giveaways...
• No Advertising Books for Publishers: I get lots of e-mails from Indie-authors or e-book authors asking me to post about their book and they'll give me a copy to reivew or link my website to theirs and so on...but if I don't like the book, then I say "no". If it's a paranormal romance, then it totally doesn't fit with the theme of Pages. I do what's best for this blog :)

Of course, there are some negatives of what I do:

• I Babble: on whole post complaining about my life
• I post funny Tumblr pictures that have nothing to do with books (well, I did have the Harry Potter funny picture posts, those were nice :D)
• I don't post often
• I'm usually in a constant state of apologising

Do I Feel Original? Is Pages really original?

Sometimes, I feel bad. I see all these blogs with their memes, cover reveals, interviews and everything and wonder if I should be like them. After all, blogs that those are really involved and get connected to the community of writers, readers, authors and publishers. 

 I have this idea that if I haven't read an author's book, then I have no right to ask for an interview. After all, what shallow questions could I ask said author? And why should I, one who hasn't read the book, have the privilege of hosting an interview when someone else out there who loves said book and has bazillions of questions doesn't? It is my own fault, since I'm going through a "must read only books I want" stage. Most of the authors I like are so untouchable, like high-up there and adult-ish and have no time for a little blogger like me.

But I do like to keep things on this blog honest and worthy of reading. I want to filter in only the good, meaningful content and want to write book reviews that people will want to read. I do feel original.

What About Other Blogs?

As I scroll down my feed, I look mainly for reviews and cool-sounding books. I almost always skim over the glitzy YA covers and romances, the steamy romances too, and many memes like IMM or variations of that like book hauls. (I hauled in a massive lot of books that is far superior to your spartan collection). It sounds cruel, and if I follow your blog, I'm following it because I like it. 

Also, I went back and found some of my most favourite Harry Potter funny pictures because I mentioned them earlier in this post and kind of want them back :)

OK the Turkey one :D I could NOT stop laughing after this one, for the longest time. Ahahaha

I used this last one at my lunch table a while back and I had this goofy smile on my face the entire time, whispering "Come for pie?" in a husky voice. Ahh.

But yes. I'd like you're input on this topic. Do you think originality in blogging has dimmed? Do you think your blog is original, or are you guilty of de-original-ising? Let me know what you think!