Cheesy post title is cheesy, I know.

Anyhoo, I’m a bit late to the party, but I’d like to take a moment to appreciate some awesome book blogs in honor of Book Blogger Appreciation Week!  Since I like lists, I shall now list, in no particular order, five of my favorite book blogs, and under each, one of my favorite posts from that blog.

Insatiable Booksluts (closed)

These ladies have such a fun sense of snark (sure, there’s quite a bit of salty language), and I love that they’ve gotten me interested in reading more indie lit.  Also, their book ratings are funny.  And also their comment awards/warnings.  Like the Spam-tastic and Troll awards.

• “Top Five: Characters I’d like to punch in the face.”  Susie’s rant on Claudius from Hamlet is hilarious.

Book Snobbery (closed)

Home of SJ and Meg.  And the Dodisharkicorn.  Who, by the way, now has his/her/its own t-shirt and tote bag!  Awesome book reviews, funny trashy book summaries, Lord of the Rings Read/Drink-a-longs…sounds like a good time to me!

• “Review Haiku for Those with Short Attention Spans (now with mini reviews!)”  I love this concept in general — the review haiku.  It’s like the IB ratings in that it gives me a preview of the book’s voice/tone/imagery that either makes me giggle and think, Nope, I don’t feel like reading that book, or Electric Sheep, what? I’m intrigued!

Adventures in Borkdom

Book + Dork = Bork.  Mandy discusses all sorts of books — classics, contemporary, Juv/YA, fantasy, horror, and more!

• “Inspired Adventures: The Return of the King and LARPing.”  Having completed SJ’s Putting the Blog in Balrog LOTR read/drink-a-long project, Mandy decides to visit San Diego’s Morley Field, where Live Action Role Players do battle.  The snippets of conversation are funny 🙂

A Room of One’s Own (closed)

Jillian reflects on her first-time experiences with the classics, as well as some contemporary works (she is currently exploring the Harry Potter books.  As a number of her commenters have said, it’s really nice to see a fresh perspective on the series.  It totally takes me back to my first time reading them).

• “In Which I Give Up…”  A defense of right-brained reading.  Some people are linear, tidy, reading one book at a time.  “Meanwhile, I race through the house with my hair flying behind me and one sock off, one sock on (because I forgot I was changing my shoes!)  …  stacks of books half-perused all over the floor, thinking — today! Today I will learn how to read like everyone else!”

Following Pulitzer

James Rosenzweig’s journey through all the Pulitzer Prize-winning novels, from 1918 onward.  What’s interesting is seeing what these novels say about the U.S. at that point in history — what ideas, viewpoints, etc. we apparently wanted to emphasize.  What do books like Margaret Wilson’s The Able McLaughlins, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ The Yearling, say about how American society viewed women in 1924 and 1939, respectively?

• “Poetry Friday: Ouroboros Revisited.”  In between his reflections on the Pulitzer novels, James often discusses poetry.  In this post, he discusses a form developed by Shane Guthrie — the Ouroboros.  Inspired by the mythological serpent that swallows its own tail, Shane’s format is “a cycle of 32 poems, in which each poem begins with the last few words of the poem previous.  The 32nd poem, in fact, is written so that it ends with the first few words of the 1st poem, thus completing the circle, so that an Ouroboros can be read starting with any poem—it has no beginning or end.”  I think that’s one of the coolest ideas ever.

Happy BBAW, everyone!