The current Weekly Geeks theme revisits one of Dewey’s original topics for the meme: Ten Things About Books and YOU. Here are mine:
- The current population of TBR Purgatory is 326.
- I give up book-buying for Lent every year, and this year it’s been surprisingly easy to stick to it. For one thing, I’m getting better about wish-listing books so I won’t forget I’m interested in them, but I think the bigger factor is that I’m really aware of how big TBR Purgatory is now – and feeling the weight of it!
- There really aren’t as many books in the various TBR stacks around my house as there are in the bookcases, but sometimes it feels that way.
- What I’d really like for my birthday (next week!) is a new bookcase or two, but I don’t know where we’d put them, so I think the stacks are sticking around.
- I don’t think I’ll ever manage to read more than 60 books in a year, but I’m very glad I read more than 50 last year.
- I don’t count e-books in my TBR numbers because I’m less physically aware of them.
- If I’d known about LibraryThing first, I’m not sure I would have started a book blog at all; it does a lot of the things I thought a blog would do, and it does some of them better.
- If I leave a bookstore with only one new book, it feels like a wasted trip.
- I don’t like shopping in most used bookstores because it can be hard to find anything I want, but I’m very happy to let them have my own used books for people who DO like to shop for them.
- I don’t like to be “in between” books for long; if I go more than a few hours between finishing one book and starting another, it makes me anxious – and therefore, the giant TBR collection is a sort of security blanket.
In her comment on my Blogiversary post last week, Word Lily asked:
What’s been your favorite experience as a book blogger? (Or you could make a top 10 list, instead of picking just one.)
Choosing the option that didn’t require as many limits, I went with the Top 10 List. These may not be the TOP 10, but they are ten favorite experiences as a book blogger, in no particular order (so they’re not numbered):
- Meeting up with fellow Southern and Central California book bloggers (and an occasional out-of-state visitor) at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in 2009 and 2010 – an experience I’m afraid I’ll miss in 2011. The LATFoB is relocating from the UCLA campus to USC this year, and has shifted the date by one week along with that – and I have a schedule conflict with the new one. Can we plan an alternative get-together for some time this spring, folks?
- Discovering the fun of attending book signings (and actually getting my husband to go to one with me!)
- Participating in the founding of Armchair BEA in 2010 – it all came together in a relatively short amount of time via the cooperative efforts of an excellent team, and it was a thrill to see how well it was received. I’m glad it’ll be back this year, and even though I will be in New York City for the “real” BEA this year, I intend to Armchair it too!
- Book Blogger Appreciation Week, every year (2008-2010), but providing daily recaps of the events and awards for She Writes in 2010 added something more to my participation
- The 24-Hour Readathon, every time – I’m planning to be reading (and probably cheerleading too) again on April 9!
- Being offered my first book for review, after almost a year of blogging – and it had never occurred to me that I could actually ask for review copies. There are a few things about book blogging that I didn’t learn very quickly! (Interestingly enough, this is also my most-viewed review post, according to my analytics – I have no idea why.)
- Preparing my annual Reading Year in Review posts (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) is always fun and thought-provoking for me, and I’m glad I supplemented that with my Books of the Decade list (2009), highlighting favorites from pre-blogging days. That led to…
- Re-reading two of those books, The Sparrow and Children of God, as part of co-hosted group reads where I could finally discuss them with other people (and introduce them to a few new readers)!
- Technically, this experience hasn’t been fully realized yet, but just being invited to moderate a panel at the 2011 Book Blogger Convention was one of those affirming, “it’s an honor to be nominated” moments.
- I did get to talk about book blogging as part of a panel at BlogHer’10, but visiting New York City bookstores with my roommate Melissa was probably the high point of the weekend, to be honest.
Now you go – what’s one of YOUR favorite experiences as a book blogger?
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