BBAW Day 1-Two Bloggers That Have Influenced Me

BBAW Begins First  in Asia, New Zealand,

and Australia

Welcome to Day One of BBAW 
on The Reading Life

I will follow back all who follow me-either via GFC or Twitter-

This is my 3rd year as a participant in Book Blog Appreciation Week (BBAW).   I have found the event to be a great networking opportunity, highly educational and a lot of fun.   There are also lots of give-a-way contests and who among us does not love a free book!   The awards process is exciting and always produces some controversy.   Maybe this year will be different.

The organizers of BBAW have setup "themes" for each day and asked us to write a meme related to the topic of the day.   Here is today's topic (From the webpage of BBAW):

Monday September 12th:Community
While the awards are a fun part of BBAW, they can never accurately represent the depth and breadth of diversity in the book blogging community. Today you are encouraged to highlight a couple of bloggers that have made book blogging a unique experience for you. They can be your mentors, a blogger that encouraged you to try a different kind of book, opened your eyes to a new issue, made you laugh when you needed it, or left the first comment you ever got on your blog. Stay positive and give back to the people who make the community work for you!

This was a very tough question for me and I not just saying that!  I follow five hundred plus book blogs.   Some I have more in common with than others but I enjoy and profit from  following  each one.   Even if a blogger posts on something far from my normal area of reading (and it is good to get out of your comfort zone once and a while anyway) they might have some great design ideas or have beautifully written posts.   I have come to appreciate that a book blog is much more than just a collection of "book reviews" (one of my least favorite terms now).   A book blog can be a developing work of art that takes on a life of its own.  

Not to long ago on The Book Blog Hop, a very good question was proposed.  It was "do you have anyone in your life to talk about what you read with?"   Some of the answers were from people who grew up in families where everyone was a reader, some had a reading spouse or close friend but one third of the people answered "No One".     This was my answer and it did hurt to think that  these other bloggers had no one to share one of our very most important interests with.  Many never in their lives ever have had someone to talk to about one of their deepest passions.    That is one of the reasons book blogging and the international book blogging community means so much to me.   I no longer feel like I am alone in my passion for reading but part of a very real every growing and adapting network.   

Two Bloggers That Influenced Me

Suko of Suko's Notebook was one of the very first commentators on my blog when I started it in July 2009.   I was so happy (as I still am) to see a comment on my brand new blog that I at once went to her blog to see who had left me this comment.  I found a beautifully designed blog with a deeply artistic sensibility behind it.  In some blogs you can feel the person behind it is very honest and sincere in their posts and I felt that on her blog. I have gotten a lot of good reading ideas from her and enjoyed her frequent author interviews.    Her biggest (and I mean it was big!) influence on me was when she suggested I join a reading event on short stories (I am still big into reading events).   Like the vast majority of bloggers I never read short stories because I felt they were not "substantial enough" for me.    Now 18 months latter I have read over 500 short stories and posted on many of them.   I think as result of this I have gained a lot of readers (and also homework help seekers from around the world).   I love short stories now and they are and will always be a big part of The Reading Life.    I am always glad when a new post from Suko comes up in my Google Reader. 

Dolce Bellezza opened up a vast new world of reading and learning to me. When I first got into book blogging, I joined a lot of reading challenges.   When I saw a post for the Japanese Literature 3 Challenge and saw you had only to read one book I decided to join.  In truth I had never read a Japanese novel prior to then.   It was not from prejudice or anything  like that it is just that when I was in college there were basically no Japanese works of fiction in translation available and by the time they were I already had a full "reading dance card".   I simply fell in love with the Japanese novel and will be reading them from now on.   The more I read the more I think I appreciate and understand them (my Japanese literature posts).   Dolce has great posts on all sort of literature and often talks about her experience as a teacher as well.   I totally endorse her blog to any and all.   She is the very epitome of a Reading Challenge Host.   

There are at least a dozen other blogs I could mention but I am secure in the two I have picked.   

Please join in with us for BBAW.   The more people that join in the more fun it will be.   

Mel u