Mystery Blogger Award!

Hi guys, welcome! Today I am here because I was nominated for the Mystery Blogger Award. I actually got nominated for it twice. The two bloggers who nominated me for this award are Esther@Cozy With Books and Nehal@Nehal Says. Go check out their blogs first, they are both just awesome!

Now, let’s begin. I will be answering both of their questions in this same post.

The Rules

• Put the award logo/image on your blog.
• List the rules.
• Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Mention the creator (Okoto Enigma) and provide a link as well.
• Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.
• Answer the questions provided by whoever nominated you.
• Nominate 10 – 20 people.
• Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog.
• Ask your nominees any 5 questions.
• Share a link to your best post(s).

Three Facts About Me

Okay, let’s see what do you people not know about me?

1. Hopefully by this time next year, I would have become an Engineer. I am currently in my 4th year.
2. I have a pet Beagle. His name is Droopy.
3. I am multilingual. I know three languages, Bengali, Hindi, and English.

My Best Posts

Recommending Books For Each Letter of My Name

Why I love Mystery/Thrillers?

In June I celebrated my 6th Month Blogging Anniversary. I celebrated that by making a post about how much I love Book Blogging.

Now onto the questions.

Esther’s Questions

How did you come up with your blog name?

Okay, to tell you the truth, I named my blog after the first bookish name that popped into my mind. Look at my blog name, it is not very imaginative! I was just thinking about what to name my blog and suddenly ‘Bookshelf Life’ came into my mind, and I named it that.

Do you have a favorite flower? What is it?

My favourite flower is this one. It is called Rajanigandha in my language. I think it’s english name is Tuberose.

What was your dream career or job as a 10 year old. Have you reached it or in the progress of reaching it? Or has it changed?

When I was 10 years old I wanted to be a doctor. And now 11 years later, I am in the process of becoming an Engineer! If I went back and said that you’re going to be an Engineer, my 10 year old self would not have believed me. I wanted so much to be a doctor at that time, that I never thought I would be anything but that. Actually the transformation in me took place when I was 16, I realised that I love Maths a bit more than Biology (in my country that is the only subject which is different in the two entrance exams). So I went ahead and choose to prepare for engineering entrance….

What is your favorite type of blog post to write (reviews, daily blogging, hauls, polls, etc.)?

Book Lists. I love love love writing book lists. Be it TBR list or rec list, I just love writing them.

If you could be pulled into any fictional world (books/movie/anime/etc) which world would it be?

I really want to go to the star court of Star Daughter!!!!

Now, Nehal’s questions…

Nehal’s Question

What inspired you to blog and how did you decide upon your content and can you recommend 3 other good bloggers (Sorry, that’s a lot in one question)?

I think the simple answer to why I started this blog is I wanted to do something. It was a really bad time in my life, it still is kind of, but that was much worse. I felt useless and I wanted to do something. So, I decided to blog. Actually I considered contributing articles for various websites before I made this blog, but I never was able to write something that perfectly fits all their criteria. Once though, I was able to write one up and I also sent it in. But it didn’t make the cut. I was really sad and heartbroken after that, so I never tried again. However, that desire to write always remained, so I decided I would make my own website and be my own boss!

To be true deciding on the content for my website was the most easy job, because believe me I don’t have any other talent. I did try my hand on poetry and short stories when I was in my 12th standard, but after I graduated high school, my writing talent dried up. The only thing I continued to do even after school was read books, so that is what I decided to talk about.

Okay, this is always a tough question, I follow over 300 bloggers, so it is really difficult to narrow down the list to only three. I guess like my Mid Year Freak Out Tag, I will just select three bloggers randomly from my favourites list,

Kay @ Hammock of Books

Virginia @ The Sassy Library Fox

Charvi @ Not Just Fiction

What advice would you give to those bloggers who feel that they deserve more recognition?

I think best tool for increasing your views is following other bloggers and engaging with them, like commenting and liking their posts. Another thing that really worked for me in terms of growing your audience, was opening a Twitter account. A lot of bloggers post weekly self-promo threads there. Here you can leave your website links or latest post links, and other bloggers and blog lovers can visit your websites from there. I have got a lot views and followers from these threads. I have also heard Pinterest is very good in terms of increasing your views but I have personally never used it, so can’t comment much about it.

Okay, so I want to add something which I think is really important. Don’t let blogging become just about numbers. Don’t get me wrong a blogger NEEDS readers, that is atleast true for me, but if you are only concerned about how many followers you get or how much views your post gets, you will just get frustrated, because there will come a time when things will get kind of stagnant. This happened to a few months ago actually. I gained a lot of followers in the previous two-three months, but then it all became stagnant, if I was lucky, I got only 1 followers in a whole week and my weekly views also stopped increasing with each week. That hit my self-esteem. I became really unhappy and lost all motivation to blog. But I recovered from it and when the same thing happened to me last month, after a month of steadily gaining a lot of followers through Twitter, I was better prepared, so it didn’t affect me that severely. There is only so much you can do about followers and views, especially if don’t you have a lot of time to devote to blogging, hence it is really important that you don’t worry about it too much. The point is don’t let the number of followers you have discourage you from publishing your content, because you are good and most importantly your voice matters.

What one song fits your current mood perfectly?

Currently I can consider my mood to be an amalgamation of Cardigan by Taylor Swift, Believer by Imagine Dragons and Amar Mawte by Lopamudra.

What Hogwarts House are you in (if you have ever taken any such quiz)?

I was a Gryffindor.

Name a guilty pleasure (You can’t say you don’t have one).

Reading and Watching all the controversy posts and videos. (yay! I said it!!!!)

---

My Questions

Okay, I will be stealing some questions from Nehal and Esther, please forgive me!

1. Why did you start your blog?
2. What is your favourite book to movie adaptation? And why?
3. What kind of posts do you love writing the most?
4. I am a full time student. What about you, what do you do?
5. Name a thing that can get your book lover card revoked.

I nominate:

There is no pressure at all! If you don’t want to do accept this award or you don’t want to answer my questions, feel free to ignore it!

The Sassy Library Fox / Hammock of Books / The Journeying Bibliophile /  The Inharmonious Heroine / My Bookish Banter / Love, Em / Shelves of Starlight / Ella’s Books Corner/ And anyone who would like to answer my questions!