BBAW 2012: A Little (Overdue) Appreciation!

It was actually yesterday’s blogging topic for Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW), but as I was exercising a personal agenda then--and I’m not participating in today’s Interview Swap--I’m coming to this one a day late, but with no less sincerity:

Monday: Appreciation! There are no awards this year, but it can still be hard to navigate the huge universe of book blogging. Share with your readers some of the blogs you enjoy reading daily and why.

This is the fifth BBAW (I haven't missed one, even if I don't always participate fully) and I’ve been blogging primarily (but not exclusively) about books for 5.5 years as of this week (!). I subscribe to an awful lot of book blogs (several hundred--I’d rather not know the exact number). Some have left the scene for one reason or another, and I don’t add new ones as regularly as I used to. I don’t always get to read everyone’s posts every day, and I have become a sadly sporadic commenter. But these are some of folks who make my book-blogger world a better place--and if you don’t know them already, I hope you will soon!

I did get in shout-outs to my Armchair BEA teammates on Twitter yesterday: Danielle (There’s a Book), Michelle (That’s What She Read), Tif (Tif Talks Books), Emily (Emily’s Reading Room) and Chris (Chrisbookarama). I interact with some of these folks more on Twitter and Facebook than I do through their blogs, as in some cases our reading tastes are very different. That said, they comprise one of the best, most functional groups I’ve ever worked with in the online or offline world, and we are committed to improving the Armchair BEA experience every year!

As founder of Book Blogger Appreciation Week (and instigator/participant in many other projects), Amy (My Friend Amy) is a friend to many of us and the one who makes this week possible. She’s also one of the book bloggers who lives relatively close to me but I don’t get to see often enough, along with Jill aka Softdrink (Fizzy Thoughts), Ti (Book Chatter) and the aforementioned Danielle.

I’ll be honest: I make an extra effort to keep up with bloggers I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with offline, and I'm extra-fortunate to count some of them as friends now, too. (A lot of bonding goes on around conferences and conventions, and that’s a better reason to go to them than free books and other swag.) Among others, I’ve been privileged to enjoy some of these events with Melissa (The Betty and Boo Chronicles, until she makes a decision about re-naming it), Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness), Teresa (Shelf Love), and Jill (Rhapsody in Books). They’re all thoughtful, thought-provoking writers whose opinions and bookish recommendations I take seriously (and the first two are also excellent roommates!). I want to include Kathy (BermudaOnion) in this group too. She was my interview partner for the first BBAW, and without her faithful commenting, many posts here (and on other blogs too, I’m sure) would feel quite unloved--I think many of us owe her some appreciation for that!

Of course, if I confined my feed reader to the blogs of people I’ve met in person, I wouldn’t have several hundred blogs in there! So I’ll wrap this up with appreciations of a few book-blogging folks I haven’t met (yet!):

Andi (Estella’s Revenge), who continues to influence fellow bloggers after more than seven years; Sandy (You’ve GOTTA Read This!), who has influenced my explorations into audiobooks over the past year (along with Jennifer (Literate Housewife) and Candace (Beth Fish Reads), both of whom I have met); and Bryan aka UnfinishedPerson, who takes the title “book blogger” on and off like a hat but seems to remain one of us at heart (and in many of his posts).

Blogging in general has enlarged and reshaped my life; blogging about books has opened up my eyes, my mind, and my circle of friends. I appreciate that more than I can say.