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Today marks the start of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, a time to celebrate the hard work of bloggers from around the world.
The book blogging world is growing all the time so it is increasingly hard to feel part of the community. Luckily there are a few bloggers out there doing everything they can to build relationships between bloggers.
My post A Beginner’s Guide to Joining the Book Blogging Community explains some of best ways to form bonds with other bloggers, but today I’d like to highlight those doing a fantastic job, making our online experience warm and welcoming.
Beth Fish Reads
Beth and I started blogging at a very similar time and so I have enjoyed watching her blog grow and blossom into the amazing place it is today. We don’t really have the same taste in books, but I love the way she does everything possible to unite bloggers of all reading tastes. She is always helpful and encouraging to new bloggers and is a constant source of bookish information on twitter (@bethfishreads).
She links bloggers from a wide variety of genres with her weekend cooking feature and always seems to be encouraging bloggers to join in with community events. She is at the heart of the book blogging community.
Leeswammes’s Blog
Judith is the centre of the European book blogging community. She organised the Book Bloggers Abroad feature that showed how life is different for bloggers from around the world, started a Literary Giveaway Blog Hop and is a member of the Independent Literary Awards.
She is always a positive voice on twitter (@leeswammes), encouraging friendly interaction and unity. And the best thing? She has an almost identical reading taste to me, so I trust every single book recommendation she suggests.
Kittling: Books
If you want to know what is going on in the blogging world then I recommend following Kittling: Books. Every week Cathy does a fantastic weekly link roundup detailing all the major events of the past week. She also seems to know just about everyone, thanks to her wonderful Scene of the Blog feature. I recommend following her!
International Reading Challenges
I also love anything that encourages people to read books from outside their own culture. Hello Japan!, The South Asian Review Database and Nigerian Literature Fridays are some of my favourite current initiatives.
Blogging is a wonderful hobby, but it is so much more enjoyable when we all work together, sharing the joy of books.
Thank you to Amy and all those who organised the wonderfully positive Book Bloggers Appreiciaition Week!
46 replies on “My Favourite Book Blogging Community Builders”
Blush! Thanks for the extremely kind words, Jackie! So nice that you appreciate my blog as much as I do yours.
I actually also follow Beth Fish, especially for her great Weekend Cooking feature, but also for her great book recommendations. Kittling books I like for exactly the same reasons as you and I try to never miss an episode of Scene of the Blog (every Wednesday).
Judith, You have persuaded me to read lots of books this year and I have enjoyed them all. I look forward to discovering many more of your fantastic recomendations over the coming months.
I adore Beth Fish Reads and Leeswammes. And Kittling: Books is fantastic too! I love her Scene of the Blog feature. Great picks! Have a great BBAW!
Heather, I’m pleased to hear that you are already aware of these fantastic bloggers 🙂 Happy BBAW!
great choices Jackie ,all the best stu
Thank Stu 🙂
I read all of these blogs, and they are all marvelous!
Enjoy BBAW!
Marg, Great news! Happy BBAW!
A Few names I’m familiar with here & also a couple of the challenges, thanks for the intro to those I don’t & hope your enjoying Iain Banks
Parrish, I’ve finished The Wasp Factory and I loved it! Just have to try and work out how to do the review so I do the book justice. 🙂
I agree that international blogs and events are worth their weight in gold (if blogs had weight anyway!). I’m especially a big fan of Tanabata and all of her Japan-themed work 🙂
Tony, Yes – I really should become more involved in her Japan projects – I tend to admire them from afar too much.
What a great list! I heart Beth Fish Reads. And I believe I began following you because of her!
Sandy, Yes – she introduced us to each other. Yet another reason to love her!
Wow. I am so touched and I’m blushing. I love the other blogs you mentioned.
It’s one of the great things about the book blogging community — and you in particular — that we can have such dissimilar tastes in reading, and yet I’m here pretty much every day to see what you have to say and find out what you’re reading. Somehow, we get to know the people behind the blogs and can feel a connection no matter what the other blogger’s tastes are.
Beth, It is amazing to think that we have been following each other for nearly three years now. It is impossible not to build up a relationship over that length of time. I won’t care if you go off and read nothing but cereal packets- I’ll still follow you.
I follow almost all the blogs you follow and the reading features as well. I just love the diversity that we have in the blog world.
Aths, Yes – there is something for everyone out there!
Your post on the beginners guide to joining the book blogging community was the one single thing that helped me the most when I first started book blogging. A very belated thank for that.
Alex, I’m so pleased that you found it useful.
Coming to you via the BBAW2011
I agree working together as a community is what keeps us all going.
Have a great week
carol
Carol, Thanks for commenting on my blog for the first time! I hope you enjoy BBAW!
I agree about the statement of the growing community. In a few short years, the blogosphere has grown by leaps and bounds. There are so many blogs that I cannot keep up even with my special niche, and I finally decided I shouldn’t even try to. The Less Stress= The Best!
This year, I selected the two blogs that I find myself returning to whenever they post.
Find out who here.
Marie, I gave up trying to keep up a long time ago – I agree that blogging should be as stressfree as possible. Thanks for commenting on my blog for the first time.
I couldn’t agree more about Judith! She’s awesome.
Trisha, I’m so pleased I’m not the only person who thinks she’s fantastic!
Wonderful list you got here!
I had a hard time choosing. But I opted for totally unheard of blogs. Isn’t that the intention of community? To spread far and wide!!
Here is my post:
BBAW 2011: Community
gautami tripathy, It is surprising who has heard of who. I often come across blogs with loads of followers that I’ve not noticed before. The community is so big these days that fantstic blogs can easily be missed. I also think that those doing a fantastic job should be thanked, no matter how big they are.
I love your selections though – Parrish Lantern is one of my favs too 🙂
You and Judith are two of my favourite bloggers, I love the European perspective you bring to the book blogging world.
Shan, Thank you for the kind words. It is nice to know that you like what we do.
I stopped by today after reading Judith’s post. I know I’ve been by in the past but I’m going to make a better effort now! Have a great week.
Kristen, I’m sure I’ve been to your blog in the past too. I’ve just added you to my google reader, so I’ll ensure I come back again. 🙂
That’s a really fantastic post, the beginner’s guide. So helpful for new bloggers I’m sure. Thank you for that! Also, thank you for listing the Nigerian project I’ve been running. Happy BBAW!
Amy, I’m looking forward to joining your Nigerian project – I really hope it goes well. Thanks for organising it.
Great picks! The community is such a wonderful part of book blogging, and I love that you highlighted those who help bring us all together!
Carrie, It wouldn’t be as nice a place without them. They deserve a lot more than a blog post mention. 🙂
I think your post A Beginner’s Guide…. has terrific info for beginning bloggers but also for other bloggers looking for reminders and ideas to improve their blog and get more out of the book blog community.
I love the blogs you highlighted, they’re all filled with great info about books and related things and they’re a lot of fun to visit. I always visit Cathy’s blog Kittlings for the book articles and posts and for the bloggers she highlights every week in Scene of the Blog.
Beth Fish Reads is a terrific blog for all kinds of book info as well as for the Weekend Cooking which s a really fun meme whether you cook or not!
I love Judith’s taste in books, it’s very broad and yes, a lot like yours although this didn’t occur to me until I read it just now and thought hey, yeah! So that brings me to my final comment..
Your blog is fantastic, Jackie! Not only do you write great posts about books but you have posted fantastic info about the blogging commnity and how to get the best out of it and a blog. I refer to your blog posts frequently. Thank you!
Amy, Thank you so much for the kind words. *blushes* I hope you continue to enjoy my blog. Have a wonderful BBAW!
I love that, for the prompt highlighting community, you spotlighted bloggers who are really good at creating community — perfect! I hope you are having a wonderful BBAW so far!
Erin, Thanks – I’m having a great week so far. I hope you are too. 🙂
Oh, such good choices!!!
🙂
Great choices! I love Beth Fish Reads – especially her Imprint Friday feature. I never even thought much about imprints until she started talking about them. I love Judith’s Literary Giveaway Blog Hop, too. It’s a great way to meet new bloggers who share my taste in books and maybe even win a few!
Megan, I’m a bit scared of imprints, but Beth has done great work in highlighting some – I just wish she’d come and explain some of the UK ones for me. 🙂
Fantastic list! The two that I am familiar with you described to a t!
Thank you so much, Jackie. You’ve placed me in rarified company!