Monday, July 5, 2010

Spreading Some Mid-Summer Book Blogger Love

I love writing about books — and The New Dork Review of Books has been an endless source of fun and intellectual challenge. It's also created an opportunity for discovering others passionate about reading and writing about books, and that's something I hadn't really expected at all when I started this blog back in October 2009.

It's been as much fun to find other great book blogs, and learn about novels and authors that hadn't crossed my radar, as it has writing about books myself. So I thought I'd take a post to pass on a quick Top 5 list of my favorite "amateur" book bloggers.

All of these blogs have a few things in common: They mostly focus on contemporary literary fiction. They're incredibly well written. And they consistently make me laugh, think and go scurrying to amazon or BN to find the book they've just reviewed.

Enjoy!

1. The Reading Ape — Consistently witty and fun to read, the strength of The Ape's blog is challenging his readers to think and read beyond his posts, no matter whether he's reviewing a novel or explaining his take on some literary happening — like the dearth of male book bloggers or the e-reader wars. His take on the Book Expo America was one of the finest blog posts I've read. 

2. A Home Between the Pages — Rachel's style is a nice mix of humor, a great conversational tone and review rigor — which gives her blog a really unique, fun flavor. Plus, you can always count on one thing at A Home Between the Pages: You'll have no trouble figuring out where she stands on a novel. A good example is her review of the The Help.

3. The Ken — This fellow Chicago blogger is a whirlwind. Simply take a peak at his multi-part review of Roberto Bolano's 2666 to discover that for yourself. Ken is a very smart writer and an excellent reader — and both qualities are always on full display in his posts. One of my favorite features of his blog is that he frequently points out stupid reviews on amazon — and takes quite a bit of pleasure in dressing them down.

4. Primo Reads — Janna and I seem to have similar taste in books — like me, she's recently discovered the joys of Jonathan Tropper and, also like me, she's a big Richard Russo fan. Her well-written reviews are short and to the point, which makes it easy to get a gist of the book and her opinion of it quickly and simply.

5. Entomology of a Bookworm — Kerry posts on a wide variety of book-related topics, including reviews, quotes, and general musings about her reading life. I loved her recent post about "to-read" lists. She's quite the prolific blogger — usually posting several times a week.

So, there you have it. Who is on your list of favorite book bloggers?

17 comments:

  1. Great post. Thanks for giving me even more blogs to read. LOL And I wonder why I can't get any reading done. :)

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  2. Thanks for the shout-out :) I was only reading The Ape from your list, so I'll definitely check out the other three. (And thanks for not mentioning the extended breaks my blog unintentially takes ;).

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  3. Thanks for the great recommendations!! One blogger I think you might like based on the recommendations listed here is Connie at Constance Reader's Guide to Throwing Things with Great Force. http://www.constance-reader.com/
    She's hilarious!

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  4. Thanks for sharing these blogs. I am familiar with some of them, but will go and check out the rest. If you are ever looking for other good blogs I feature a different each week on a thursday

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  5. Great list! And just in time too. I've been in searching for some new blogs to add to my blogroll. Thanks for the recommendations.

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  6. thanks for highlighting these wonderful book bloggers... I've added them ALL to my Google Reader!

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  7. Thanks for the mention, Greg! I'm off now to check out the others you recommended.

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  8. I'm going to have to check these out because they're all new to me!

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  9. My gratitude is a little late here, but no less genuine. Reading several of these before, but will be reading ALL of them now. Cheers, Greg!

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  10. Thanks for the recommendations! They are great blogs! I have added a few to my list.

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  11. Wow. That's greatness. Thanks a lot, Greg. Now that drink at the bar is a sure thing. I'll let you know when we open the doors.

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  12. Thanks for sharing. I love The Ape and will be checking out the others on your list.

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  13. Thanks for the recs! I'll have to check these out.

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  14. Thanks for your recommendations, I'll have to look into them, Greg. I do have you on my blogroll permanently... and once in a while when I notice you've been blogging, I'll click on it and have a good read of your blog. And sometimes you give me good ideas to put into My Reading List... and that's another thing; I gotta say thanks for giving me some good ideas to write about while I'm reading the books I'm going to review.

    http://continuousreader.blogspot.com/

    is the url to my blog; and it's also where I have a long blogroll of other like-minded bloggers who also review books too.

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  15. Thanks for the heads up about all of these blogs. I found myself sort-of overwhelmed by YA blogs, which are good and fun, but it's been over-influencing what I've been reading. I need a little blogger diversity, and these blogs seem like just the thing.
    just reading some posts from the ken, and I think I'm going to love it!

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  16. Thanks for listing my blog in this post!!

    I've already been following The Ape, and will now follow the others.

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  17. These are great links for someone just getting started like me.

    Thanks for this.

    Cheers

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