Saturday, February 7, 2009

And then there were awards...

Wow have I been a crummy blogger (and reader) this week (too). Or wait, maybe this is just a return to my typical blogging practices after a much more impressive January. I have, at long last, finished another book, which despite my total lack of inspiration to review, I'll have to since it happens to be a Library Thing Early Reviewer book. This is what happens when you are swayed from your informal reading plan that is really working out quite well by a purely tantalizing paragraph of a newly arrived book...that turns out to be, well, kind of lame. But yes, more on this later. Rather than dwelling on what a dreadful blogger I am, how busy I've been, and how it's been much easier to put down my book than pick it up of late, I'm going to turn my attentions to gratitude and giving! Yay!

Really awesome bloggers have been giving me awards and I've left them in the lurch for far too long bereft of my lengthy acceptance speech (inevitably cut off by orchestra music before the commercial break) and the further giving of awards. Thanks for all the awards, ladies, not only does it make me feel all warm and fuzzy and accepted to get them, it also gives me something to write about on my blog during a week when I've pretty much got nothing. *orchestra music, commercial break while I take my parents out for dinner because they're whining - that's right my parents are whining at me to take them out for dinner, have the tables turned already?*

And now for the awards. I've got three...


The Blog Friends Award from Lexi



"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

The Premio Dardos award from CJ



"The Dardos Award is in appreciation of the merits - culturally, literary and individually- of every blogger who expresses him/herself on his/her blog."

The Butterfly Award from Elizabeth.




Yet again, thanks!

Now, these come with all sorts of tagging rules and whatever, and I was going to be all organized and give certain awards to certain people. Instead I'm going to love and link totally at random in the spirit of the first Weekly Geeks post of the year that I totally missed (because I'm such a bad blogger, right?). So, if you aren't reading these blogs, you should be. If you own one of these blogs, feel free to take the award of your choice and pass it on at will, but if you don't I won't be offended. I'm also going to link some bloggers who may not have the faintest clue that I exist and heart them and then inevitably be too shy to go and say, "hey, I'm a creepy lurker who just gave you an award," so if you folks happen to notice and stop by, uh, hi, nice to meet you. Sorry if this list is a bit lengthy. I'm still leaving out a bunch of people whose blogs I read that I think are awesome which is ever the pitfall of giving out awards. I'll get you other nifty people on the next one - I mean, if someone ever gives me an award again, you know?

Really - on with it now....

Eva at A Striped Armchair because her blog not only entertains me and makes my wish list grow and grow....and grow, it makes me feel smarter for having read it.

Nymeth at Things Mean A Lot and Chris at Stuff as Dreams Are Made On for making me desperately want to read books that I would never think to pick up on my own if I were browsing in a bookstore.

Wendy at Musings of a Bookish Kitty and Debi at Nothing of Importance for really showing who they are on their blogs, for their genuine reviews, and for their ever so regular presence here that is always so appreciated.

One right back at CJ at My Years of Reading Seriously for, and maybe this is a weird reason but, seeming like a lot of the people I know and love in real life except for the fact that I feel like I can, on occasion, respectfully disagree with her and not have the smack laid down on me. If that makes any sense? It makes sense to me and seems like a fantastic reason to give someone an award! =D

Raych from Books I Done Read and Chartroose at Bloody Hell! It's a Book Barrage for their talent for nearly always making me laugh even though I'm all by myself sitting in front of a computer seeming insane.

One right back at Elizabeth at As Usual, I Need More Bookshelves who writes great book reviews, but who really caught my eye by weekly doing this Sleeping With Bread meme that encourages people express gratitude to God for for the good stuff and turn to him for solace for the bad. Not only did this help me get to know Elizabeth - it kind of made me take a closer look at my own life, too!

Lexi and J.S. Peyton get awards, too. Because we're all apparently in a friendly (if unrealized) competition for the "slowest reader" in book blogging title. Lexi reminds me of myself with being easily distractable - you know, a Wii will do that to you, as will many other things.... J.S. has an uncommon talent for talking about books even when she hasn't finished reading one lately, thus I would have never have pegged her for a member of the "slow reader" club if she hadn't mentioned it herself! Would that I were so good at talking about books in between finishing them and maybe this space wouldn't be so vacant so often....

Bookfool/Nancy for (sending me a big box of awesome history books!) those always amusing reviews where she has conversations with herself and all the great pictures!

And how about a couple of newish discoveries for me - S. Krishna's Books for a stunning quantity of book reviews that are of equally stunning quality, and The Book Lady's Blog again for such high quality reviews and for that great Adventures in Bookselling series that never ceases to make me laugh and simultaneously makes me want and not want to be a bookseller again.

All right, there you have it. Bloggers, consider yourself awarded. You all have fantastic blogs that you should be proud of. Thanks for all you do to make the book blogosphere a great place to be. =D

8 comments:

  1. Congratulations on all of your awards!

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  2. Megan -

    You've just paid me one of the best compliments I've ever received. I try very hard to be the sort of person you described - one you can talk with about anything without fear of anything - and I appreciate knowing that I've at least managed to pass that on to you.

    Thank you very much.

    cjh

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  3. Thanks so much Megan!!

    Sorry the book wasn't as good as you hoped. I hate it when that happens! Especially when it's a review copy!

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  4. Thank you so much, Megan! And what nice things to say. I am familiar with most of the other blogs you mention, but not all. Looks like I have some visiting to do.

    You definitely deserve all of these awards.

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  5. Congrats on your awards, Megan! And thank you so much for including me :D

    You know, you remind me so much of myself. There are so many bloggers I silently stalk :P Except you're actually a few steps ahead of me, because I wouldn't be brave enough to pass awards on to them. I almost highlighted some for that Weekly Geeks tast, but then, well, I didn't :P

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  6. Thank you, thank you. One of these days, I'll conquer my ADD and get back to reading seriously...

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  7. Bermuda - thanks!

    CJ - I'm so glad you "got" my compliment! I was writing it thinking "this sounds kind of strange," and hoping you'd get where I was coming from. You're such a great contrast to, well, most of the people I know that I'm dreadfully afraid to speak my mind to! Thank *you*!

    Eva - you're quite welcome! Yes, not-so-good review copies are no fun. I've written the review and it's even more bluntly negative than my normal review - I was going to go back and tone it down because I hate the old "all negative" review, but I can't quite bring myself to change it... ruh-roh.

    LF - you're so welcome! Hope you find some more juicy blogs to read. =D

    Nymeth - thanks and you're welcome! And you know, it's happened in the past that giving awards to blogs that I creepily stalk has resulted in my making more bloggy friends. So, I suppose going out on limb like that once in awhile can be a good thing as soon as it stops being, well, creepy. ;-)

    Lexi - when you beat back the forces of ADD, let me know how you did it, so I can read seriously again, too! I feel like I'll never be as good of a reader as I was when I was a kid...which is oddly ironic, no?

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  8. Hey! How did I miss this? Congrats on the awards! (belatedly) And thank you! (again, belatedly).

    Are you sure we're in a competition? I thought for sure I pretty much had everyone beat in the "slowest reader" heat. lol.

    Blogging about books I haven't even finished isn't so much a talent as it is an act of desperation. Otherwise, I'd only post, oh... once a month. =)

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