It stands to reason with the book blogging community having grown so rapidly in the last couple of years that most of us will never cross paths with one another unless an event such as My Friend Amy's brainchild, Book Blogger Appreciation Week or its accompanying book blogging directory (which isn't online yet, as far as I can tell), serves as a central hub. I was happy last week to see that a few of my long-time favorites had made the short list and I quickly added a handful or more new blogs to the old google reader. But I must confess to hoping that next year's short list might include a British blog or two, or an option to vote for "None of the Above" in the Best Book Published This Year category, and that, instead of vanishing into the ether, the long lists might be left online as a resource for those of us whose preferences seemed underrepresented in the short lists.
My personal list of bloggers who are worth their weight in gold would have to include:
A Work in Progress
Biblioaddict
Book Girl's Nightstand
Book Puddle
Box of Books
Classical Bookworm
Eve's Alexandria
Girl Detective
Kate's Book Blog
Magnificient Octopus
Mental Multivitamin
Naked Without Books!
Necromancy Never Pays
Of Books and Bicycles
Shelf Life
Shelf Love
So Many Books
Tales From the Reading Room
And I would also like to celebrate my wonderful readers, who aren't always necessarily bloggers, some of whom recently recommended their favorite historical biographies:
Margaret WV at Surface-Mined --Edward Rice's Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Biography
Jane GS at Reading, Writing, Working, Playing - Doris Kearns Goodwin's No Ordinary Time; Jenny Uglow's Elizabeth Gaskell; James Shapiro's 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
Kathleen at Boarding in My Forties - David Herbert Donald's Lincoln
Becky - Nancy Milford's Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Fay Sheco at Historical/Present - Mary S. Lovell's The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family
Stefanie at So Many Books - Herodotus' Histories
Sherry at Semicolon - David McCullough's John Adams
Lauren - Mary V. Dearborn's Queen of Bohemia: The Life of Louise Bryant
Elizabeth at Charlotteville Words - Stephen B. Oates' With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln
Bryan C. - Anna R. Hayes' Without Precedent: The Biography of Susie Marshall Sharp
Ann S. - David McCullough's Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt; Nancy Milford's Savage Beauty: The life of Edna St. Vincent Millay; and Reeve Lindbergh's No More Words: A Journal of My Mother
Both Lesley at Falling Into Words and Stephen at Eskypades - David McCullough's Truman
Melissa at Mental Multivitamin - Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
Mike B. at Liquid Thoughts - Richard Norton Smith's Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation; Walter Issacson's Benjamin Franklin ; and Charles Nicholl's The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe
Thanks, everyone. For being there and for being you.
I am going to check out those that I don't know. Thanks for the list!
ReplyDeleteBBAW: My very own shortlist
I feel deeply honoured to be on your list. Thank you. I have to say this is a cunning little site, because with only a word or two here and there, or a delicious quote or a photo, I so often end up adding a whole host of books to my tbr list after visiting! Long may it continue! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for including Shelf Love on your list! (You're on ours, too.)
ReplyDeleteMany of the other blogs you've listed are among my absolute favorites, which means I must check out the rest because if you like them, they must be worth reading!
And thank you for being here. You always have something interesting going on.
ReplyDeleteI'm so proud to be on your list. Like Teresa says, I'm going to check out the ones on your list that I don't already read.
Thanks for the mention!
ReplyDeleteThank you for including me in such august list! Happy Book Blogging!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for the recognition here Susan! I'm thrilled to be on your list and accompanied by such great blogs. Thanks for reading my writing, and I'm so glad you're out there blogging too!
ReplyDeleteThank you for mentioning me in such great company, Susan. You are a book-blog treasure.
ReplyDeleteMelissa
Also I have "splashed" you this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteA few of the ones from your list are new-to-me, so thanks for sharing! I'm happy I found you through BBAW. Keep up the good work! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the nod, but mostly thanks for your blog. As litlove said, you're concise, but you've made more contributions to my TBR list than almost anyone else (besides perhaps litlove herself!)
ReplyDeleteAh, Susan, thank you so much! You know you'd make my list too :)
ReplyDeleteNo, thank YOU. I feel very fortunate for all my virtual pen pals and book friends.
ReplyDeleteGreat choices - some I know... a few I dont. Well - more blog adventures for me :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for including me on your list! You are worth TWICE your weight in gold. =)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love Herodotus' "Histories." I'm rereading this along with "Travels with Herodotus" and I'm enjoying both of them.
My list would pretty much mirror yours (though a few are new to me blogs so must check them out)--though you can add yourself to my list of course! You were one of the very first book blogs I discovered when I started and I was thrilled when you added me to your blogroll (and then when you switched over and I thought my name was gone was a little bit crushed---I totally shouldn't notice these things, especially when someone is in the Middle of doing something and not quite finished!:) ). Agree with you on the other sentiments--where were the British blogs, but all in all a very nice thing to do and certainly they must have spent lots of time organizing it all!
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