It's Book Blogger Appreciation Week and what better way to celebrate than to, well, I don't know what's a better way to celebrate. Cake and ice cream? Ice cream cake?
The BBAW awards is a great way to find new blogs to read, and there are categories like Best New Blog Blog, Best Blogging Event, Best Written Book Blog, Best Author Interviews, so on and so forth.
I got into YA when book blogs were just coming around and it's been amazing to watch the scene grow. What did people do before there was such a varied forum for readers, authors, and industry folk to share their perspectives, opinions, and inspirations?
"By giving readers the opportunity to engage in significant and regular conversation about literature and reading, book blogs are fundamentally changing the reading landscape. Reviews and criticism no longer come just from above, but from all around us; readers of every age and race, male and female, from pretty much any place you can find on a map, are contributing to the literary conversation. Readers are allowed, even encouraged by other bloggers, to explore any section of the bookstore to which their interests or curiosity lead them.
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Some people may criticize book blogs because their authors aren’t professional. Some may criticize them because bloggers aren’t well-versed in literary theory or history. Some may criticize the quality of reviews, or the focus on a blogger’s personal life, or the exclusion of a blogger’s personal life from reviews. These, in my mind, are some of the best things about book blogs: that while some of us have studied literature, or work in an industry that keeps us around books for eight hours a day, we AREN’T professional; we are nothing more, nothing less, than average readers.
It is remarkable that so many people devote their time to writing about books, and there are few better responses to those who fear a decline in reading than the number of readers who every day record the things they value and seek in the books they read."
-Why Book Blogs Matter, And Why They Should Matter to More People-
