BBAW: Who Makes a Community

Today is the first day of the fourth year of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, an annual celebration of book bloggers and the role they play in "the promotion and preservation of a literate culture actively engaged in discussing books, authors, and a lifestyle of reading." I'll have a few of the daily post topics for you this week, but if you want to get closer to the action, head over to the BBAW website for more.

Today's blogging topic is all about community...

While the awards are a fun part of BBAW, they can never accurately represent the depth and breadth of diversity in the book blogging community. Today you are encouraged to highlight a couple of bloggers that have made book blogging a unique experience for you. They can be your mentors, a blogger that encouraged you to try a different kind of book, opened your eyes to a new issue, made you laugh when you needed it, or left the first comment you ever got on your blog. Stay positive and give back to the people who make the community work for you!

It takes all kinds to make a community, and I do so hate to single some out at the expense of others, but so it always goes. I think all of us who make the time to be a part of it have something to offer the book blogging community, but for the purposes of this post, I'm going to give a random sampling of bloggers who I think, off the top of my head, are exemplifying some great aspect of being a book blogger.

Power Commenter - Kathy at Bermudaonion's Weblog. Kathy is the kind of commenter that I can only wish to be. It seems like every blog I venture to comment on, she's been there already, and whenever I have a post that seems like it's going to get only a chorus of crickets as a response, Kathy's comments reassure me that I'm not just talking to myself. I'm continually impressed by how she is a rockstar when it comes to being engaged with the community of bloggerdom.

The Meme You Like to See in Your Google Reader - In a blogosphere riddled with weekly memes, Top Ten Tuesday at The Broke and the Bookish has got to be the best meme I've seen since Dewey's Weekly Geeks was in its hayday. The gang at The Broke and the Bookish does a fantastic job of cooking up great weekly topics, and the posts of the people that participate are always interesting, and I love that they often start conversations instead of just those "Oh, that sounds good" comments. From what I've seen, Top Ten Tuesdays are great for the community!

The Dystopian Diva and the Small Press Princess - Lenore at Presenting Lenore and Marie at The Boston Bibliophile are two ladies I'd love to single out because they show just how much buzz even one book blogger's voice can generate for a genre or a publisher when they're willing and able to put the time and effort into sharing something they love. Lenore, whose own dystopian YA novel will be published next year, just wrapped up Dystopian August where she reviewed many dystopian stories and interviewed countless authors to preview their upcoming books in this "genre," one I happen to love.

Marie showed her enthusiasm for Europa Editions, a great smaller press, with a two week Publisher Spotlight that included reviews of Europa titles as well as interviews with Europa authors and Europa's editor-in-chief. She then followed it up this summer by pioneering a Europa Editions Challenge.

The Thoughtful Reader - Amy at Amy Reads stands out as one of many bloggers who writes the sort of posts who make us think twice about taking books or publishing at face value. Her posts are the sort that start and continue conversations about things like diversity in publishing and authenticity in books.

All these bloggers are bright, shining examples of what the rest of us book bloggers are doing on a more limited scale on a daily basis - engaging with each other in community, sharing our passion for the books and publishers we love, and thinking critically about what we're reading, why and even how we're reading it.

Thanks, ladies!

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