BBAW: Favorite Book Blogs

I love that Book Blogger Appreciation Week is a celebration of book bloggers. And I've been enjoying many people's posts on today's topic: "thanking and spotlighting your favorite blogs that didn’t make the shortlists". And yet ... I've always found it painfully difficult to come up with a list of my "favorite blogs." Fortunately, as is often the way with blogs, one of my blogging friends has paved the way, by managing to articulate what I was vaguely thinking about this. 

At A Chair, A Fireplace, and A Tea Cozy, Liz Burns said:

"A favorite can depend on many things. Who are my favorite bloggers? Those I link to. Those I comment at. Those I follow. Those I email and tweet with. The ones I read and don't comment at, but my reading shows in your statistics. Basically, it's those I read.

Those I read. And who do I read? Those I know. Have I shared my blogosphere as cafeteria analysis? Different bloggers eat at different tables in the caf. It's not about cliques; just about who you know and have fun with and talk with. But it's important to remember that there are many tables in the lunchroom and many lunchtimes, and maybe even the caf is open for breakfast and dinner so there are those times and tables, also." (She continues the analogy - click through to see)

Colleen Mondor said, in related vein:

"Awards come and go but faithful readers, we're the real achievement. I know I have a few and I appreciate you all, each and everyone. That's who I'd like to give an award to - the ones who have been with me all along and keep coming back to support my writing. I appreciate my readers, and I hope all of you do too."

Charlotte from Charlotte's Library talked about bloggers that she has "emailed with to continue conversations that started on line". [Full disclosure, I am happy to be one of those bloggers for Charlotte.] She also mentioned "bloggers whose taste in books marches hand in hand with ones own", and I know we can all relate to that.

Liz, Colleen, and Charlotte all hit on common themes about "favorite bloggers." They are the bloggers we read faithfully, and interact with, and, over time, become real friends with. My favorite book blogs are the ones that I link to regularly in my afternoon visits posts and literacy round-ups. They are the blogs that prompt me to click through from my reader, so that I can comment. They are the blogs whose reviews inspire me to want to read the books. They are blogs of people I have worked with on the Cybils and Booklights and Kidlitosphere Central, trading many, many emails back and forth. They are the people I already know when I meet them face-to-face for the first time at Kidlitosphere conferences.  

I love Liz's cafeteria table analogy, too. I was always a bit of a floater - I didn't have a regular cafeteria table in high school. I liked having a few places I could go, in different moods. I liked having backup. It seems, in thinking about this question, that I'm still like this today. Within the Kidlitosphere I have my Cybils peeps, my literacy / Booklights / Share a Story - Shape a Future peeps, my book recommendation kindred spirit peeps, and my fellow Red Sox fan book blogger peeps.

These are overlapping, ill-defined groups, of course. But they're all people I'm happy to hear from when they post, or email, or Twitter. They're people I look forward to meeting face-to-face, if I haven't already. They're people who inspire that moment of connection when they write exactly what I was trying to say, or have the same reaction I did to a book. They're my colleagues, in this book blogging world. And they are my friends.

But I'm not going to name them here (because I'd be bound to miss someone important, and then I'd feel terrible). You all know who you are, don't you?