Today, the first day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, you are supposed to talk about great new blogs you’ve discovered in the past year. This is problematic for me because I have a wobbly relationship with time and can’t remember when I discovered anything, and also because there are so many wonderful blogs it’s hard for me to pick one, or two, or even eight or nine, of which I am especially fond. But I will try to tell you five blogs that I am pretty sure I have found in the last year.
Stella Matutina – I think Memory is fantastic, and I do not know how I struggled along without her blog before this year. She has an awesome name; she was in a plane crash like a badass; she tells me wonderful books like Purple and Black and the Jo Walton series I swear I will review soon; and, a really sterling quality in a book buddy, she obligingly reads what I tell her to read. Dear Memory, pls move to Louisiana and be my real-life friend, Kisses, Jenny.
The Literary Omnivore – I started reading Clare’s blog during the Lord of the Rings Readalong earlier this year, and I’m so pleased I did. She writes excellent, thoughtful reviews, and I love her Sunday Salon posts. Plus, she made me feel better about the soppy Mary-Sue-y fantasy stories I used to write.
We Be Reading – Actually, I have been reading Kristen’s blog for longer than a year, but I think I only started commenting in the past year or so, shortly after I realized she likes Doctor Who, which made me feel less intimidated. Kristen is cool and funny and nice, and–a sure way to my heart–participated with enormous enthusiasm in Diana Wynne Jones Week last month.
Villa Negativa – Trapunto makes my life happy, and you want her to come comment on your blog because she’s great. (fin)
Necromancy Never Pays – I have historically not been the world’s biggest poetry reader, and I often feel like I don’t know where to start to learn about poetry. But Jeanne frequently posts amazing poems and gets me hunting for more stuff by those writers. She also keeps me humble with her bookish Trivial Pursuit questions, which although I consider myself a moderately well-read person I never get more than two or three of. Plus, how much do you love her blog’s name?
Ack! I want to do like sixteen more! There are so many of you that I love! This is basically just me glancing at my Google Reader going “Oh my God! Memory! How good is Memory? And Kristen! Lovely Kristen!” It sort of skews to the end of the alphabet, because that’s the section of Google Reader I was looking at. Please just take it for granted that I love y’all. I want to go back all through my Google Reader to find more of you to mention, except I know it’s a slippery slope and once I started I wouldn’t be able to stop. Book Addiction! Amy Reads! Raging Bibliomania! Sophisticated Dorkiness even though she supports the Colts! (I have to stop this. PUBLISH, WordPress, PUBLISH!)