Catablogue: Book Blogs

Yep, not one but three blogs are featured today! Considering that I'm married to a librarian, that I used to be an English teacher, and that reading is pretty important in our family (I submit this and this as supporting evidence), I'm a little surprised to look back and note that I have not offered any literature-related blogs in the catablogue until now. If you are a reader, a promoter of literacy, someone who desires to read more but doesn't know where to start, or some combination thereof, you'd do well to check out any of these blogs.

The Book Lady's Blog

I like the straightforward title. Books are this blogger's profession and passion ("I'm on a mission to share the love of reading and keep the written word alive in our increasingly digital culture" [citation]). Along with book reviews (a standard component of many book blogs), the Book Lady shares information on undertaking reading challenges, facilitating book clubs, entering book-related giveaways, and listening to/meeting authors at book signings or public readings. Two recent posts to sample:

• Did you know that Book Blogger Appreciation Week is coming up soon? Let the Book Lady tell you all about it.
• If you wanted to raise someone's interest in a literary classic, what contemporary (and theoretically more "accessible") work would you recommend to be read along with that classic? The Book Lady has some ideas for possible pairings.

Everyday Reading

This blogger is a librarian who originally intended to use the blog as a means for sharing her book reviews but who has, over time, added posts about whatever topics strike her fancy. She sounds like a fun person both in those "You know, I've been thinking about . . ." kinds of posts as well as in her reviews, which are written in clear language and a conversational voice (e.g., "There was one literary device in this book that made me kind of crazy" [citation]). Two non-book-review posts to sample:

• The blogger offers a possible life motto for herself ("Live Light") and tells how getting her reading materials from a library rather than a bookstore enables her to enjoy books without being obligated to store, move, dust around, sell, or dispose of them after reading them--just return them to the library and be done.
• The blogger recommends a heart-tugging article she has read that reminds her "of things that are painful to remember" but that she "want[s] to be reminded of anyway." The one-two punch of reading her post about the article and then the article itself reduced me to tears.

Maw Books Blog

This blogger calls reading her "great escape from being a stay-at-home mom"(citation) and writes reviews of every book that she reads. And she reads all kinds of books, so when perusing her blog, you're as likely to read about memoirs or adult fiction as about children's literature or parenting books. Maw Books Blog offers book-related contests and giveaways, book- and author-related news, reader polls, book lists, etc., with the occasional post about events or people from the blogger's personal life. She even shares her "library": what she has read recently, what she's reading currently, and what she plans to read next (an impressive list). Two interesting posts to sample:

• She shares the movie trailers for current and upcoming movies that are based on books, possibly increasing both viewership and readership.
• She reflects on her penchant for owning lots of books when, in fact, she rarely rereads books, speculating that the joy of keeping books comes from being able to reminisce about a pleasant reading experience when she sees a particular book title.

(What is a catablogue?)