This year I’m going to go easy with the reading challenges. Selecting particular titles I intend to read is almost a guarantee I won’t read them, of late. So I am going to do more free-form and spontaneous reading, letting my interests lead me along the way.
However, I came across a new challenge I want to join: Support Book Bloggers hosted by Pages Unbound. The lovely Briana says this “very casual” challenge is intended to help us “work together to read blog posts, share them, comment on them, and boost book bloggers in other ways.” I try to do this anyway, but I’m all in favor of some reminders and community support.
Briana includes 12 ideas for supporting book bloggers on the challenge page. There’s no need to do them in order, so I’m going to pick and choose. This month, as it’s a new year, I intend to find 10 new-to-me blogs to follow. I’ll keep track of them here:
EDIT: rather than adding MORE blogs to my already overstuffed feed, I’ve decided to give a shout-out to the last 10 blogs I’ve followed. If I can remember what
Find 10 New-to-you Book Bloggers to Follow
Follow 10 new book blogs. They don’t need to be new blogs, just new-to-you. Optional: write a post, create a Twitter thread, etc. sharing their URLs with others.
- Reader’s High Tea – I connected with a review of The Mountains Sing, one of my favorite reads of 2020.
- Lioness at Large – ThemisAthena encouraged me to read Die Kleine Hexe last year, for which I thank her.
- Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau – How could I resist a blog with this title?
- cas d’interet – “Reflections of a Francophile” are always of interest to me.
- Gallimaufry Book Studio – simply lovely book and art reviews and musings.
- Plucked from the Stacks – one of the hosts of Nonfiction November last year
- Unsolicited Feedback – also discovered this largely nonfiction blog through NonFicNov.
- nicktomjoe – Musings on landscape and fantasy especially drew me to this one.
- Wordy Witterings – frequent reviews, lots of books that look appealing.
- Lisa notes … – thoughtful reflections on books, life and spirit
Will you join in the challenge? How would you like to support book bloggers this year? Or what kind of support do you most appreciate?
What a lovely idea! I appreciate comments that engage with the review most, like we all do. One thing that creates engagement is reading the same book, so maybe part of this challenge could be follow-up reads (as opposed to buddy reads) where you read something another blogger liked a lot so you can comment months after the fact, which is just as fun for me as someone who comments right away.
Follow-up reads, I like that. I’m usually too uncoordinated to do buddy reads. I love it when someone comments on an old post! (as long as it’s not spam)
I do like this idea. When I first learned about blogging, I was told to try to publish a post a week and to visit ten blogs a week. I still aim for those two things.
Good goals. I am less disciplined about it (though I try to publish at least one post per week, sometimes more). Visiting is more haphazard, I tend to do it in spurts.
A wonderful idea for a challenge, I love finding book or art blogs that I haven’t come across before and feeling a connection with them.
Yes, that’s always a great feeling.
A worthwhile challenge, all the best with it.
Thanks, I hope to have fun and make some new connections.
It’s a great inititiative! I do follow a *lot* of bloggers, more than I can reasonably deal with tbh, but I shall keep my eye out for new ones – always love a good book recommendation or several!!
Yes, I can’t resist even though there are a lot on my list already. I’m continuously amazed at the size and diversity of the book blogging community.
I appreciate the sentiment — it’s such a lovely generous initiative — but I won’t be joining this. If that sounds cold here are my reasons. 1. I seem to be already following 90 blogs, and while not all in post regularly it’s already a commitment to assiduously read, like and possibly comment on them when they do post. 2. Over the years I actually have on occasion promoted blogs, and will doubtless be doing so in the future, but right at the moment my anxiety levels are quite high so I won’t be adding to them! But I can’t fault the thought behind this.
Dear Chris, you already support lots of blogs with your thoughtful reading and comments, including mine. Hope you can maintain the balance and definitely not add more stress in any way through what should be a pleasant leisure activity. Nobody needs that!
I also already follow lots of blogs. I don’t visit and read all of them regularly, though I scan through all posts in WordPress Reader. There tends to be a smaller group with which I interact more often … usually because they interact with me. So although merely “following” might seem to be a somewhat empty gesture, it’s still supportive if I find a blog I like, might potentially engage with, and want to boost their follower numbers (which matters to some, especially newer bloggers).
I think I’m going to set my goal at 10 new blogs through the year, though. 10 in one month is a bit much and would probably cause me to stress out about finding them 🙂
I love this idea of supporting book bloggers. I have several book bloggers that I follow as I’ve slowly discerned who likes the same types of books that I do. 🙂
It’s great that we can connect online with others who share our interests.
Thank you so much for linking my blog! And I’m glad we were connected by The Mountains Sing – loved the book, such a beautiful story and educational journey!
It was, wasn’t it?
This sounds like a great challenge! I’m also trying to go easy this year, though I found way too many things I was interested in. I love the idea of focusing on supporting other bloggers. I hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing more.
“Way too many things I’m interested in” is a familiar refrain amongst us book bloggers. Hope this will help spread the love a little bit anyway.