What to do if another blogger came up with the same idea and posted it first?

A while ago I had this idea to make a feature on my blog with my favorite quotes. The general idea was to choose one quote at a time, share with you why it affected me so much, and tell you my thoughts about the book in a short format.

So I searched the blogs to make sure there wasn’t similar feature, and I found out that Maja at The Nocturnal Library had Nocturnal quotes, though her posts were a little different from what I had in mind. I contacted her and asked if it was ok for me to make a quote feature, and she said go ahead.

Me being me, I decided I should make some preparations. Firstly I needed a feature name; secondly I wanted to select quotes. I planned to start this feature in November.

Then last weekend Jamie at The Perpetual Page-turner posted “From My Quote Notebook”.

My first thought: OMG, it’s exactly what I planned to do for my quote feature. Funny how the same idea came to mind to different people.

My second thought: OMG, now if I start my feature everyone would think I stole the idea from Jamie. Because she did it first, and because she is a very popular blogger.

And this made me sad and a little bit angry. Angry at myself that I waited so long. Angry at Jamie, because she posted it first (I know it’s petty and totally uncalled for). Angry at book community, because everyone is obsessed with plagiarism.

Of course I calmed down, but I still don’t know what to do. Should I start this feature as I planned? Should I abandon the idea completely? Should I contact Jamie? I’m lost.

My dear fellow bloggers, I reach out for you. I need your advice. Have you ever been in such situation?

Should foreigners write reviews in English?

After some contemplation I finally decided to write this post, because this incident really bothers me.

A couple of weeks ago I received a comment where I was told that my English is awful and my reviews are full of mistakes, so why I even bother to post anything, nobody want to read my stuff. I’m sure many of you have your share of hateful comments and I usually ignore them. The thing is this comment really hit a nerve. You see, I’ve always been self-conscious about my English level. I am weary to make a mistake, misspell a word or use wrong tense. Actually this is the reason I’ve been a silent follower on GR and blogs for a long time. But lately I was relaxed, I found many fellow booklovers and was happy to chat with them and write my own reviews. While I know my English is not perfect I thought that it’s not that bad, that I can write a coherent review, which people can enjoy. So this comment made me upset, mostly because it was so unexpected and I wasn’t in my happy place anymore.

Those of you who follow me probably noticed that I wasn’t very active lately and didn’t post my reviews for a while. The reason is that I was somewhat depressed and wasn’t in the mood to do chat and review.

But you know what? I realized that I don’t want to let one hateful comment to rule my life. I love reading and writing reviews. I’ve met so many wonderful people who have the same passion. So I start reviewing again.

Why I wrote all this? I think I just wanted to let it all go, and it seems like a good way to do it. Also I want to open a discussion. DO REVIEWS WITH GRAMMAR MISTAKES AND MISSPELLINGS BOTHER YOU?

PS. I also want to say big THANK YOU to Rachel from The Readers Den, because you accepted my friend request when I had about five friends and a dozen reviews and actually began chatting with me, read my reviews and left comments. You were a big support for me. After that it was not so scary to send friend requests and comment. Now it seems funny, but then I found many reviewers very intimidating (I’m looking at you, Feifei).