BBAW: Spotlight on Book Blogs!

At long last, the much awaited and much prepared for Book Blogger Appreciation Week has arrived. In honor of the first official day, we're spotlighting and celebrating blogs and bloggers that for one reason or another (the 1000 or so nominations? the fierce competition?) didn't manage to make the official BBAW award short lists but are super awesome nonetheless.

I find myself in a bit of a conundrum because several of my usual suspects - you know, the bloggers I just love to sing the praises of - were actually honored with spots on shortlists. Ah, but hey, we all know of my love for Eva, Nymeth, Chris, and Raych. Good news, I've got plenty more book blogger praises to extoll, and I'm sure I'll be leaving a bunch out despite my best intentions, as is always the case when doing these sorts of things.

First, the other usual suspects. I would be remiss if I didn't mention some of my long time favorites...

Wendy the Literary Feline of Musings of a Bookish Kitty who has a knack for rekindling my interest in mysteries and crime fiction and is a great commenter. It's always a pleasure to hear from her both at her blog and in the comments at mine and others' blogs!

Debi of Nothing of Importance. I would be beating a dead horse to mention the complete inaccuracy of Debi's blog's name. I love Debi's chatty posts, her weekly blame game (someday I'll be on that list...I hope...), her book babbling, and her obvious pride in her three great kids. When she went on vacation, I honestly felt a little bereft.

CJ of My Years of Reading Seriously. I've "known" CJ since I was but a baby blogger, or at least it seems that way. She writes excellent reviews, but more importantly, sometimes it's just nice to check in and see what's going on her life and read about her adventures with her furkids. =)

I gotta mention Becky of Becky's Book Reviews, too. Even though she did grab a short list mention for her blog's design, which is great, I was a bit disappointed to see that that was the only one since her abundant and quality content is what lights my fire about her blog. I totally rely on Becky's great YA reviews. They're honest and to the point and have introduced me to a great number of books that I would otherwise be ignorant of.

Someone I don't mention enough that I've been following for a long, long time is Tara at Books and Cooks. She writes great reviews, has weekly pictures of the most delicious looking farmer's market produce, and her memoir week was just to die for.

Now for a few of my newer discoveries...

I was a little surprised to see that The Book Lady's Blog didn't manage to snag a spot on a short list. Rebecca's reviews are detailed and heartfelt, her Adventures in Bookselling posts are a laugh riot, and just about anything she writes is something I'm bound to find interesting.

Likewise with Jackie from Farm Lane Books. More great reviews of books that I'm nearly always interested in(are we noticing a trend here?). I've been particularly enjoying reading her reviews as she's been reading through the Booker Prize long list.

I've only just discovered Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea. I think we share some of the same reading tastes, and I'm convinced that her great reviews will be putting books on my wish list for a long time to come.

Likewise with Claire at Kiss a Cloud. After repeated mentions of this blog on several others that I read, I finally clicked over and saw what a great blog Kiss a Cloud is. I love Claire's bookish talk, her scrumptious bookish pictures, and her fabulous knack for picking the best passages to share that make me desperately want to read what she's reading!

Lastly, I don't even know how I happened upon it, but I greatly enjoy reading Gaskella. I can always count on great, thoughtful reviews here, often of books that I might never have heard of otherwise. Definitely one of my favorites of my more recent discoveries.


As I'm finishing up, I'm thinking of others I wish I had mentioned, but alas, this, like all of my posts is probably too long already. I'm still holding out for the debut of the BBAW award for "Most Needlessly Verbose." I mean, there's a "Most Concise" award - what about the rest of us that can't help getting carried away?

*sigh* I know my losing battle with Google Reader (which will undoubtedly become worse after this week's festivities) makes me a rotten lurker and lousy commenter, but I do appreciate all 10 of these and the many more blogs I (attempt) to read. All of you - please keep up the great work making my wish list grow and making the book blogosphere the best place to be!

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