105 Ways to Give a Book

ForeWord and BBAW

Today I’m guest blogging over at ForeWord, talking about library summer programs, reading lists, and prizes. Come by to talk about what your library does to promote reading in the summer. Share your thoughts on prizes as incentives for encouraging reading or trinkets that devalue the book experience. Or somewhere in between. How about reading lists? Does your area have required reading for summer or lists of suggested books? Head to ForeWord and unload your Summer Reading angst.

Today I’m also deciding what blog posts to submit for consideration for Book Bloggers Appreciation Week. It’s been very interesting going back over this calendar year of posts while thinking about what writing best defines me and my blog. Honestly, I’ve learned so much in forcing myself to select my favorites and get a good sampling of what I write. It was a great exercise in seeing what direction I’ve been taking, what books are driving my best writing, what features are filling my pages.

I realized how few book reviews I’ve been doing lately. Now, part of this was a conscious choice — I was feeling overwhelmed by keeping up with the books, and rather than let myself burn out, I backed off for a while. But I think I backed off from reviews more than I thought I had, which surprised me.

I stumbled on posts that I thought were great only to find that they had no or few comments, making me question whether I know what my readership is looking for. If I know what I’m looking for. And yes, along the way, I also cracked myself up with my own little bits of funny or whole posts.

KidLitCon 2009 - Washington DCWith some new insight under my belt, I’m more excited than ever for the KidLitosphere Conference. I can’t wait to talk to other bloggers in person, and with more than 140 characters. I always come away energized and ready to try new things, and I’d highly suggest the conference to anyone in children’s or Young Adult literature who blogs or would like to learn about blogging. More information and the registration are available at KidLitosphere Central.

3 comments:

Charlotte said...

I know what you mean about the comments...I am doing the same thing for BBAW, and some of my best reviews have a pitiful number (ie, 0 or 1) comments.

Would it be in poor taste/inappropriate, do you think, to share which ones you pick? I'd be curious to see what you thought were the five posts that best summed you up.

Anonymous said...

Was your Las Vegas post this year? I loved that post.

CindyD said...

Your two most memorable posts, for me, were the one about your last day on your job, and the first one about the ethics of blogging and reviewing. And you should include one about the 48 Hour Challenge, because that is your niche.