BBAW: Spreading the bloggy love

A day late and probably a few dollars short, but a) that’s pretty typical of my blog (and honestly, my life) these days… stupid semester starting bringing classes and an increased workload! Also b) better late than never, and there’s enough bloggy love going around to spread it out over more than one day.

There are tons and tons of excellent book blogs out there, some of which were nominated for various BBAW awards, and many of which have been featured in other people’s BBAW posts today (well, yesterday. Shhhh.)

There’s no way I could possibly feature every blog that I love in a single post. There are an embarrassing number of blogs in my Google Reader, and I honestly look forward to reading posts from each and every one of them – otherwise they wouldn’t be there! But I want to feature a few blogs that I will always make a point of reading whatever they have to say, even when my unread list is up in the neighborhood of 1500 posts (*ahem* – not that that’s happened to me any time recently, nope, nosiree!)

Bloggers Who Share My Tastes – These are the folks who read what I read, or what’s more typically the case, read stuff that, upon reading their reviews, immediately becomes what I want to read next.

– Memory of Stella Matutina gets a big nod here. She reads a ton and writes a ton, and it’s always very insightful and fascinating to read. We’ve got very similar tastes in books, if not always identical reactions, but I know that if she liked a book, it’s going to be worth my time to check it out.

– Meghan of Medieval Bookworm is I think primarily known as a historical fiction blogger (I’m sure the blog name and the graduate study in history don’t hurt), but she sneaks a fair amount of other stuff, including a healthy dose of fantasy, in there too, and her reviews are always really well done. I think we agree about a lot of books, plus she’s my go-to historian for double-checking suspected inaccuracies in my fiction.

– Darla of Books and Other Thoughts reads a huge variety of books, and is really, really good at describing books in a way that makes me want to read Right Now. Plus, she includes excerpts from other bloggers’ reviews in her “Other Reviews” section, which I think is a wonderful touch.

– Darren of Bart’s Bookshelf always seems to be reading something interesting, either a YA fantasy book I’ve always wanted to check out, or maybe a sci-fi novel I’ve never heard of but that looks really intriguing. He also gets points for practically ordering me to go read Wicked Lovely… which of course I then promptly got hooked on.

Blog Buddies – These two women and I don’t always have a huge overlap in what we read, but they’re two of my earliest bloggy friends, and they both have fantastic blogs, to boot.

– Jen from Devourer of Books is a hugely prolific blogger, especially considering that she just had a baby! Her reviews are always really informative and very concise – straight to the point, which is a skill I’ve always admired but never acquired.

– Jennifer from The Literate Housewife Review is my co-host for The 4 Rs Challenge, writes wonderful reviews, and is an all-around inspiring member of the book blogger community.

New Blogs – Last but not least, I wanted to highlight two blogs that are relatively new additions to my Google Reader, but who have already been dangerous for my TBR pile.

– I came across Gavin’s blog, Page247, through the 4 Rs Challenge, and I was hooked. She writes lovely, intelligent reviews on a bunch of books I normally wouldn’t look at twice.

– Jenny of Jenny’s Books has been blogging for almost exactly as long as I have, so it makes me kind of sad that I only discovered her blog a few months ago! Her reviews and other posts are informal and funny, and really feel like you’re just sitting down with a good friend to chat about books.

Also, before I forget, if you’re new around here, please, please go make sure you’re on the list for the Book Blogs Search Engine. There are tons of new book bloggers out there, way more than I can keep up with, and I’d like the search to be as comprehensive as possible. And if you *are* on the list, if you could maybe mention to your readers to come check if *they’re* on the list sometime during BBAW? That’d be most excellent, and you’d get first crack at the unicorn rides at my next party. Promise. :)