Book Review and Review-like Blogs/Sites
- Nancy Pearl and of course her Twitter account. As a librarian I definitely give props to other librarians. What can I say, we know books and Nancy is one of the best.
- NPR Book Notes is an excellent source for people who like non-fiction. They pick some of the most interesting books. Some of their fiction selections are a bit unusual, but for the most part they seem to be best-sellers or other widely talked about works.
- Age 30+...A Lifetime of Books. It's a great title for a blog and she has some wonderful selections.
- Presenting Lenore often has very interesting titles. Not too heavy on the contests and sometimes there are pictures of kitties and a glimpse at who the author is, which is sometimes nice.
- Spine Label is another librarian blog run by Julia K. Riley who I met at ALA 2010 in DC. She focuses mainly on teen reads and picture books. I have a not-so-secret love for picture books.
- I interviewed Devourer of Books for Book Blogger Appreciation Week in 2010 and love reading about her books. Sometimes I even throw a few of her suggestions on my list.
- books i done read is sometimes snarky and always opinionated. I love that she uses caterpillars to rate books.
- eclectic/eccentric is run by Trish and she reads all sort so stuff. I like seeing new and different things, so it works for me, and if it doesn't I wait a week for something else.
- I have a small intellectual crush on The Reading Ape. He reads things I have almost no desire to read because they are a bit too high brow for my tastes, he even tackles some of the issues of the literary world.
- A Literary Odyssey. Started reading this one not too long ago, so nothing to say just yet.
- Vulpes Libris caught my eye when they were doing an Audiobook month and I've kept them on my blog list because they give some really qualitative reviews.
- New Dork Review of Books, because who doesn't love dorks?
- Ready When You Are, CB, once again he's somewhat more literary than my tastes are inclined to, but when I do want to read something literary I usually love his suggestions. I also enjoy hearing what books his dog, Dakota, has slobbered, chewed, or otherwise destroyed.
- Better Book Titles is often funny and witty. They replace the original titles with one that best describes the content of the book. Somewhat hit and miss, but worth watching.
- Caustic Cover Critic compares and contrasts book covers. This is fun for those of interested in the inside AND the outside of the book. While judging books by their covers is not always the best way to pick a book, there is often a reason why the publisher/marketer presents the book the way they do.
- The Daily Show and The Colbert Report often have amazing literary guests and authors. I am often quite pleased with the books I read and it's kind of a nice way to get my news aggregated. I do not take it seriously, but sometimes it points out news stories I want to know more about. I highly recommend watching it because they do a great job of pointing out how ridiculous news media is on any side.
- Unshelved could technically go under two categories. They have a library-related webcomic, but they also do some excellent bookreviews. Go to their website and check out both! Oh, and their t-shirts are fabulously book nerdy.
Dayna Ingram
Neil Gaiman
Gail Carriger
Other Stuff I Like
- Worldcat, it a catalog for the world. It's also a great way to find out where the hell your thesis is.
- Goodreads helps keep track of your reading, offers giveaways, lists, and other ways of finding new things to read. I like this one because it allows you to download your reading list into a useful, if somewhat messy spreadsheet.
- Post Secret is an amazing project where people send in postcards. Many of them are beautiful and touching and creative, while others are just plain hilarious. It's also a project aimed at preventing suicide by giving people an outlet for confession, etc. and they support a lot of suicide prevention programs.
- Hyperbole and a Half is sick and twisted and I like it. Actually, it's not all that sick, but if a squirrel was turned into a person, it would draw and blog like this artist does.
- Two Lumps is a webcomic about cats. We all need more kitties in our lives.
- Questionable Content is a webcomic all about being an awkward 20-something going on 30-something.
- Do you like stories? Do you not have time to read? What if they're only one sentence? One Sentence stories, read something, you have no excuse.
- LibraryBIN is an eBook vendor where you can buy eBooks and a portion of the proceeds go to your local library. You just confirm which library you want the funds to go to at check out.