Sharing the blog love

Awhile back I thought I'd do regular posts about blogs I enjoy and think others should check out. Of course, as things tend to go with me, I can't actually stick to any sort of schedule. So here is my sporadic when-I-think-about-it post with some other blogs that I love and I want to share the blogging love.

Lifetime Reading Plan - This is a blog for discussion of the classics. I don't spend enough time reading the classics and I can get easily intimidated by them. Lifetime Reader generates interesting conversation around complicated topics. The last couple weeks have centered around The Iliad and have been wonderful. Make sure to check out the comments as well as the posts. There's always an interesting conversation going on down there.

Cynicism 101 - Dr. Cynicism has a hilarious, sarcastic blog about a little bit of everything.  Some involve interactions with his students which can both crack me up and make me fear for the future. (I'm pretty sure the person in that post is the same type that calls me up at work complaining their username is too complicated to remember, even though the username is their first name...) He'll also examine graffiti for its greater message and I've actually driven past this piece of artwork. I'm glad I was able to read his piece before experiencing this masterpiece first hand.

If you'd like to check out some past posts with other blogs I like, check out the links below
Fellow Book Bloggers
Bloggers you should follow
Check out these bloggers
Blog Hop X
Top Ten Literary Couples and Fellow Bloggers
A Couple More Book Bloggers You Should Check Out

A Couple More Book Bloggers You Should Check Out

I haven't done a post about bloggers you should know in awhile so I was planning on doing a post this week.  Normally on Tuesday I would take part in the Top Ten Tuesday meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish but this week's topic is Top Ten Characters with Awful Names and while I usually don't make it to 10, this week I couldn't make it past one.  Rather than embarrass myself* I figured I'd skip the top ten and instead get around to listing other blogs that I think you should take a peek at.

Pens with Cojones - First and foremost, don't you just love that blog name?  Makes you jealous you didn't think of it first, doesn't it?  Mayowa is a literary writer that focuses on the literary world.  Every once in awhile he has a post reviewing a book but mostly the posts are about the writing industry.  The Case for Censorship and Literary Protectionism? and Writing Social Commentary: Do Words Still Have Power? are 2 of my favorite posts.

Entomology of a Bookworm - This is a book lovers blog.  There are some book reviews, some great book accessories, funny book-ish comics and web images, and general book topics. The site has a little bit of everything, which is great if you have blog ADD. (I have totally self-diagnosed myself so I have no idea if this is actually a better site if you do have ADD.  But really, only one way to know...)

*I embarrass myself all the time, so why stop now.  The only character name I could come up with is Renesmee which means, yes I have read the Twilight series.  (Stop judging me.) Meyers seems to have known that this was a stupid name since she has pretty much every character make fun of it.  

Top Ten Literary Couples and Fellow Bloggers

The good people over at The Broke and the Bookish have a weekly top ten meme and this week's topic is Top Ten Favorite Fictional Couples.

1. Beatrice and Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare.  I love these two.  They're quick witted, they're sarcastic, and they are far more interesting than Hero and Claudio. 
2. Mr. Darcy and Lizzie Bennet from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by  Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. I would have said these to from P&P but since I haven't actually read that one yet (I know I know, I'll get to it!  Promises) I went with the version I have read.  And besides, the relationship has the same dynamic, there are just more ninja/zombie fight scenes. 
3. Hermoine and Ron from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Hmm, another couple I love that bickers all the time.  I'm seeing a theme emerging.  I wonder what Boyfriend's take on this is.  Anyway, I love not only do these two already have the old-married-couple-constantly-bickering down pat, but they are both so different they make such great sense together.  
4. Thursday Next and Landen Park-Laine from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. See here's a couple that actually likes one another. Alright, maybe it wasn't so simple in the first book but the conflicting emotions come from a deeper place than the cliche of they-hate-each-other-but-really-love-one-another.  Don't get me wrong, I love that cliche (see examples above) but it is nice to see a change.
5. Bottom and Titania from A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare. I know they're not really a couple or not a happy-ever-after couple but I love these two.  And really their love is no more or less real than what the fairies leave Helena and Demetrius with.  While we're at it
6. Helena and Demetrius from A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare.  OK so as I just said above, these two are only together because some fairies squeezed "the aphroditic juice of a hermaphroditic flower" into Demetrius' eye (thank you Complete Works Abridged) but I get a kick out of Helena's awful character and really the scene of Helena chasing him around the forest is great.
7. Biff and Joshua (Jesus) from Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. Not a romantic couple sure but a couple nonetheless.  Biblical bromance?  (My blog is going to get burned at the stake now, isn't it?)

I'm having trouble coming up with more and don't want to force this so I'll stop there.  There are a lot of couples on that list that have fairly contentious relationships.  I wonder what that says about me...

I have been totally slacking on my fellow bloggers post and I want to fix that.  I've found so many fantastic blogs so here's one more you should check out cos she rocks:

Literary Musings - I've been following Brenna over at Literary Musings for awhile now and I don't know why it's taken me so long to bring her up here.  Her blog is a nice mix of a meme here and there, lit related posts and comics and reviews of all styles.  My recent favorite post of hers is "That bookstores are such places is always hoped for..." which mentions the Strand in NYC and it's literary counterpart.

Book Blog Hop X

Once again it's Friday and time for the blog hope, hosted by Crazy-for-Books.  I missed the hop last week due to lots of travel but I'm around this weekend and ready to find some new blogs.  So this week's question is: In honor of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, let's take time this week to honor our favorite book bloggers and why we love them!

I actually started a post about this the other day so this hop seems like the perfect reason to post it.  That and it means I've pretty much already answered it, so less work for me!  Below are some blogs I love checking out, though this is far from an extensive list.  I will get back into the habit of following up the Hop with a list of blogs I love to read but if you'd like to see my previous entries about other bloggers you should read check out my posts here, here and here.   And now onto some other bloggers:

When I first started blogging I saw all of these book blogs getting these snazzy awards.  Anytime I saw someone get it I would scan their list of blogs to see if I was one of them.  When I finally was I did a little happy dance.  I know that these awards are pretty much chain letters: you don't have to do anything special to win, other than to be awesome in one of your reader's eyes. I still get this little blogger high when I see an award but I have been failing in terms of thanking people on my blog.  I want everyone to know how thankful I am for the awards so I wanted to do that here!  This list will hopefully also give some of my other readers some other amazing blogs to check out.

A Thousand Books with Quotes - This is great collection of quotes from books.  I love that this isn't the typical book review blog and I always enjoy checking it out.  You find great quotes and new books to check out.

My Reader's Block - She participates in some fun memes (read: ones I actually enjoy reading instead of ones I sigh and skip over) and her reviews of mostly mystery books give me a whole new genre of books to look for!

Sarah Reads Too Much - Sarah reviews some books I wouldn't normally pick up but her descriptions make the book sound like something I would enjoy.  I've added The Nanny Diaries to my unofficial TBR list.

The Far Too Important Blog - Geophrie's blog covers a little bit of everything.  At least a little bit of everything that I like to read about.  The book reviews are fun and I love the Project Runway recaps and the post about how bachelorette parties need to get out of the gay bars.  Wonderful funny stuff!

The Book Stop - CurleyGeek mentioned me as part of the Blogger Appreciation week and I was so flattered I sent Boyfriend to read the post so he could see people do seem to like my ramblings. (Not that he didn't believe me but he made me blog so he wanted some credit.)  Her reviews are very thought provoking and she opens up intelligent conversation.  It's always a treat when I see she has a new post.

Check Out These Bloggers

The last few weeks I've posted about other bloggers you guys should check out.  My original intention was to post this stuff on Mondays but the second I try to give myself some sort of schedule I break it.  But I had just finished What's My Name, Fool? and wanted to get my thoughts down and out there.  Now I know I'm obviously the main voice you listen to when trying to decide what else to read, so I didn't want to make you go too long without telling you what to do.  I'm kind like that.  Anyway, here are a couple more blogs you should check out. 

Coffee Tale Reviews - I just recently started following Ms. C's blog but I've already gone through her past posts and found interesting topics.  She reviews some contemporary novels, some classics and she includes some cookie recipes which I've yet to try but look delicious.  You should check out her latest entry Hitler's Private Library and what our library collections say about us if anything.

The Reading Ape - Check out this blog if you are looking for intelligent, interesting, well-thought out posts about books and the book world.  He's had a couple posts recently about Amazon questionable business practices that make me reconsider where my book money goes and also tackles topics about the gender divide in the book blogging universe.  I have a general tendancy to enjoy posts about general topics but his review of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake appealed to me and gave me a better idea of what to expect with this book (or not in my case since I don't plan on reading it) than other reviews have.

The Sassy Curmudgeon - Una isn't actually a book blogger and at this point I can't even remember how I stumbled onto her blog, but I am loving it. I do know the first entry I read was about her trying out the Wine Rack, which is a sports bra with special pouches to hold a bottle of wine.  Wheee! Plus Bill watches over her blog at the bottom of the page.  Double score! (I know his name is actually Martin Starr but he'll always be Bill from Freaks and Geeks to me.)

Enjoy!  And if you know of any other awesome blogs leave a comment and tell us about them!

P.S.! If you're curious about other bloggers I've deemed awesome, check out my previous posts
Fellow Book Bloggers
Bloggers You Should Know

Bloggers you should know

Last week I followed up my Book Blog Hop post with post spotlighting some of the great blogs I follow and that you should check out. Crazy for Books is working on tweaking the current hop format so it's easier to find the blogs you're interested in but while she works out those details (and most likely after she makes the change as well) here are some more blogs that you should probably check out because I have deemed them awesome and I am obviously an expert in these sort of things.

The New Dork Review - It was the books that Greg reviews that intially caught my eye.  Like What You Read, I found this blog relatively early in my book blogging career when I was still wading through all of the YA and chick lit blogs.  His review for Tropper's How To Talk To a Widower was a breath of fresh air.  I still have that book on my to-read pile but I swear I will get to it.

The Tower of Stories - I would personally find it hard to write a blog that was specifically about any one genre or style of writing so I appreciate this blog dedicated to short stories.  When I'm not sure of what to read I like short stories.  They work well for me: if I don't like the story it's going to be over quickly and I can move on to the next tale.  I especially liked his review of the story "An Honest Exit" and the link so I could read the original story myself.

The Curious Reader - It was the blog entries about Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series and Shakespeare that drew me in.  It's easy to appreciate someone's tastes when they match yours, isn't it?  I love the tone and style she used and even if I disagree and happen to enjoy Titus Andronicus (because even with the classics I seem to be drawn towards the trashier examples) I think she makes a fairly convincing argument. 

I hope you check out the blogs above and find something you like!

Fellow Book Bloggers

As many of you may know, I take part in the weekly blog hop hosted by Crazy for Books.  It's a great way to find other book bloggers and introduce my blog to a wider audience.  Joanne over at Booklover Book Review takes the hop an extra step and includes links to some new blogs that caught her eye.  I think this is a great idea, and not just because she mentioned by blog (although it certainly helped. Thanks for the shout out!).  So here are a couple of the blogs I enjoy and you should check out

What You Read - This was one of the first book blogs I started reading when I began blogging not so long ago. I not only enjoy his posts about specific books but he also has a lot of entertaining book related posts, such as all of the random barking dogs that show up in literature or his book buying obsession.  Check out To Watch or Not To Watch: A Reader's Dilemma

Dead White Guys: An Irreverent Guide to Classical Literature - Initially it was the name and the promise that this blog was not going to be filled with chick lit and YA stories that seemingly make up the majority of book blogs.  Her tone and humor are what keep me coming back to her blog; it's never pretentious and it's usually sarcastic.  Plus her rating system is is # stars out of your mom.  What's not to love there?  Check out her post What is a Classic? which gives you a good taste of the blog's content and tone and includes an Eddie Izzard clip.  Double win

The Raven Paradox - The internet loves lists.  Check out the top stories on Digg and you'll see lots of countdowns.  I also love lists and this blog provides.  The last countdown was was top 10 twentieth century novels and he's currently has a new list of the top 10 twentieth century non-fiction books.  Classic works and some new finds.  Check out his post on Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels. 

And one non-book blog Hyperbole and A Half.  I found this blog a couple months ago and read all 2 years of posts back in about a month.  There are a lot of posts about the author's childhood, which is far more interesting than anything my childhood included.  It's hard to say what the blog is about overall since it doesn't really have a theme.  It's just Allie Brosh's thoughts, drawings, whathave you.  I find myself laughing out loud (literally, not in the lol internet way) while reading her stuff.  If she ever writes a book I'll definitely post about it on my blog.  Sneaky Hate Spiral is one of my favorite posts, even if I end up with La Bamba stuck in my head after reading it.