book-blog-spotlights


Thanks to Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise I discovered that Weekly Geeks is up and running again after its creator Dewey passed away in October. A bunch of book bloggers have pulled together to keep Dewey’s various endeavours, including Weekly Geeks, going. And people say the internet is destroying society…what tosh. You can read more about Dewey here where you’ll see a short history of her life in the blogosphere as well as a swag of links to posts in memory of her and her tireless and creative efforts to bring book bloggers together.

However, to the task at hand. The first new Weekly Geeks challenge is, fittingly: 

In the spirit of the amazing community building that Dewey was so good at, tell us about your favorite blogs, the ones you have bookmarked or subscribe to in your Google Reader, that you visit on a regular basis. Tell us what it is about these blogs that you love, that inspire or educate you or make you laugh. Be sure to link to them so we can find them too.

I am currently subscribed to about a hundred blogs but the majority are not book related (I do have other interests you know). So, below are the book blogs I’m currently subscribed to in the order they appear on the book blog tab in my internet browser which is how I choose to keep track of the book blogs I am subscribed to (and yes I know I should put all of these in my Links tab).

Aust Crime Fiction is an amazing website, database and blog that opened my eyes to a swag of new Australian authors and is responsible for at least three quarters of my rather alarming book-related expenditure last year.

Mysteries in Paradise belongs to the aforementioned Kerrie who is a fellow Adelaidian and the only book blogger I have met in the flesh. She partly inspired me to start this blog

Crime Scraps reviews crime fiction set outside the US (mostly) and is the product of the inimitable Uriah whose sense of humour appeals to me

At the Villa Rose provides longer, more thoughtful posts mostly relating to older mysteries.

Lou’s pages is the blog of a Danish student who is bilingual (I’m so jealous). She reads all sorts of books including some mysteries and we share an interest in Scandinavian crime fiction. 

Beth Fish Reads is the blog of a voracious reader with a daunting enthusiasm for reading challenges. I am always curious to see how she’s progressing in her various challenges (and secretly wonder if she’s mastered the art of human cloning just to keep track of them all). Beth is also a wonderful blog commentor and has inspired me to be more diligent in my own commenting.

Euro Crime is the blog that annoys me the most because it’s always full of news about wonderful BBC shows that will be on air here in Australia in about 5 years…but I torture myself by reading it all anyway. She also has lots of information about audio books which I like to listen to as well so her reviews of those help me manage my audible wishlist. 

Kittling: Books is the blog of yet another person who seems to inhale books at the speed of light. I’ve given up tyring to keep pace with Cathy but I do enjoy her reviews, polls and the general book-loving tone of her blog

Scandinavian Crime Fiction is about exactly what you might think from the title and provides early reviews of books that are going to be released here in many months time which gives me time to save up. Ahhh who am I kidding I go straight from there to bookdepository!

Sunnie’s Book Blog is another Aussie book blog which I follow because she might kill me if I don’t (you have to click the link to see what I mean…she’s posted her prison intake passport photo right there)

weekly-geeks-buttonThis week’s Weekly Geeks challenge is to snoop around the blogs of five other Weekly Geek-ers that I don’t know and find something in common with them. I chose 5 blogs at random and found the following:

  1. On At Home Wtih Books I discovered that the blog’s host Alyce isn’t normally a mystery novel reader so I thought we might not have a lot in common because that is my favourite genre. However Alyce is a fan of Alexander McCall Smith, an author I discovered to my delight only this year. In her 22 November post Alyce highlights his new online novel Corduroy Mansionswhich I have been listening to via podcast since chapter one.
  2. I wouldn’t have predicted that I’d have a lot in common with a 20-year old student from Belgium but at at Pink Blue Whale I discovered that Skodder and I both started our blogs this year and both enjoy the humour and wit of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey.
  3. At Worducopia it only took me a nanosecond or two to discover that I share a love of the movie Monty Python’s Life of Brian with Ali. It’s one of my top ten favourite movies of all time and my friends are sick of me saying “He’s not the Messaiah – he’s just a very naughty boy” at odd moments.
  4. In an October post at She Reads Books I discovered that Christine is a fellow BookMooch fan. She also offers a dozen other ways to rid yourself of books you no longer need.
  5. At A Striped Armchair I found we’d both reviewed A God’s Spy by Juan Gomez-Jurado. It was the only shared review I discovered during this challenge but, given I’ve only reviewed 7 books, it’s amazing I found any at all. Her thoughts about the book are here while mine are here and it seems we both found it entertaining.

This was a fun challenge for me but it made me hope no one comes to my blog looking for things in common. As I’ve been book blogging for less than a month there’s not much source material to snoop around in.