Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2011: On Community

Happy Book Blogger Appreciation Week, everyone! This year's theme is Cultivating a Community of Bloggers and Readers. Each day, I'll be posting about the suggested topic for the day. I'll also have my usual posts: several book reviews, a Thursday TV post, and a Short Fiction Saturday post for you. 

Today, we're encouraged to highlight a few book bloggers who have made book blogging a unique experience. As I thought about how to answer this question and which bloggers to highlight, I realized my answer to this question would have been so different over time. I'm grateful for all the book bloggers who have been a part of this incredible journey. For me, the book bloggers who have made it a unique experience are those whom I feel I know best, both through reading their blogs and through their comments on mine. These four women feel like friends, and I often find myself thinking of them when finishing a book and wondering "who do I know who would like this book?" I have their blogs in my "Favorites" folder of Google Reader, and I read their thoughts first.

Jackie from Farm Lane Books

Jackie manages (much more successfully than I do) to read the longlists for both the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize each year. Our taste isn't always similar, but Jackie is among the best at articulating why she did or didn't like a book, and having read her blog for several years now, I like to guess which books she'll love if I beat her to reading one from the longlists. Although we like to read the same types of books, we often have quite different reactions to them, and that diverse dialogue is representative of what I love so much about book blogging: sharing our individual reactions to books.

Wendy from Caribou's Mom

Aside from books, I fear Wendy and I have very little in common. She's a quilter and an animal lover, and it's safe to say I love to read under a quilt instead of make them and am happily pet-free. Still, she and I have quite similar taste in literary fiction. I truly think of Wendy as a kindred reading spirit, and I love that our similarly excellent taste in literature may be one of our few shared commonalities; it's a true testament to the power of literature. Wendy also writes incredibly eloquent and thoughtful reviews, and I always enjoy reading them.

Audra from Unabridged Chick

For awhile I got complacent and thought I knew all the book blogs in existance. Then I discovered Audra's blog and was aghast I didn't know about it sooner! I love the way Audra writes reviews by asking herself questions. She reads a lot faster than I do, so I rely on her to weed out a few of the less-than-stellar reads from my TBR pile, especially historical fiction. Her reviews are informative, fun, honest and often appropriately hilarious! Audra also shares my love of literary fiction and low-brow television, which is a lovely combination!

Heather from Raging Bibliomania

Heather always make me feel good. She leaves the most encouraging, heartfelt and sincere comments on my blog posts. Her book reviews are beautifully written, thorough and engaging too. Her writing is eloquent and thoughtful, and her lengthy reviews truly engage the material. 

All the rest...There are countless others who have inspired and encouraged me over the years. I've read books I may never have heard of because of book bloggers. I did not name you all individually, but I do believe the collection of book bloggers includes us all. Happy Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2011!