The Competition
There’s been an explosion of Book Blogs on my reading list over the summer and thank god for Google Reader otherwise I’d never keep up. And if you haven’t looked down the sidebar for a while I thought I’d give some of them a shoutout. I can’t list everyone but I hope these will get you started. There is wonderful wide range of tastes here so you should find a couple of dozen books to read each month.
Firstly there is John Self’s Asylum, which always has a surprising selection of literary titles. Then we have dovegreyreader who now has a book deal for a book about reading. Both are currently helping me decide if I’m going to be reading anything from this years Booker selection.
Moving on we have someone after my own heart, Fantasy Debut has a whole host of new voices in fantasy that you might want to check out. Speaking of fantasy there are a bunch of brilliant reviewers including (and this is in no way an inclusive list) Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review, Fantasy Book Critic, Bookie Monster, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, The Book Swede & His Blog, and there are more great ones on the sidebar but that’ll overload you for now.
Other people I have to mention are Katie’s Reading, Booklit, the kingfisher scrapbook (who is slowly tackling the booker) and finally, well not finally are there are still more great ones, the original reviewer who got me into the whole book blog scene Books Wot I Have Read.
Thanks for the mention Gav. Slowly but surely getting there. But already deciding what I’m going to do with the blog once the Booker is done - I dont really want to shelve it for a whole year. So I might share some of my other reading experiences from there on.
By the way - I heartily approve of the way you often make reference to the cover art of a book - a good cover can always earn an extra star for me.
Thanks also from me. Since the shortlist my interest in the longlist sort of waned. I was reading Darkmans to get it out of the way but found it so annoying I started The Gift Of Rain to read alongside. The latter is around the same size as Animal’s People but it feels like double, if not triple it. Just as well I’ve got loads of other books to pass the time with.
Thank you! I always enjoy these shout-outs so I can make some new discoveries myself. I’ll have to spend some time tonight exploring those blogs that you listed that I have not visited yet.
You’re all welcome.
jem - go for it! I’m always interested to what people are reading.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying that bad cover art can put me off but great cover art can make me pick up a book that I wouldn’t normally consider. The cover does set up so many expectations like Murder Most Fab, which I’m reading at the moment, has a bright pink fluffy cover implying that’s it light and airy and so far it’s not living up to the laughs. So the expectations don’t match the reality.
Stewart - I think this short-list caught a lot of them by surprise. I’ll keep on eye on your blog to see how you get on with those then!
Tia - I hope you find a few you want to spend more time with.
Hey wow, thanks for the mention!
Delighted to see I am constantly surprising you, Gav! And thanks for the mention. I too have found my reading list of book blogs has swollen dramatically since the Booker longlist thing.