BBAW: Community

The first prompt of BBAW is here and it's perfect! "While the awards are a fun part of BBAW, they can never accurately represent the depth and breadth of diversity in the book blogging community. Today you are encouraged to highlight a couple of bloggers that have made book blogging a unique experience for you. They can be your mentors, a blogger that encouraged you to try a different kind of book, opened your eyes to a new issue, made you laugh when you needed it, or left the first comment you ever got on your blog. Stay positive and give back to the people who make the community work for you!"

I find creating a list a bit disingenuous. I don't have the time to honor the many, many blogs I have fallen in love with over the years. After some serious paring down last month, I am down to 199 blogs I subscribe to through Google Reader, and each one captured my fancy in one way or another. I figured you guys wouldn't want a list of 199 blogs, so I had to think of a way to narrow it down. So here are some kooky categories which helped me make a short list: (the pictures were selected randomly by who had pics and what fit after typing up the post):

Same Name
Trish (pictured left) from Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity gets first place in this category. First of all, we share a name - Trish (-a in my case, but hey close enough). Second, she is one awesome woman: one of the first bloggers to comment on my blog, and a big reason why I joined the book blogging community to begin with.

Same Books
While there are many bloggers who enjoy the same books I do, Ana from things mean a lot shares my very specific (and obsessive) love of Neil Gaiman, so she wins out in this category. She also writes thought-provoking, intelligent, and insightful posts about a wide variety of books with a wonderful emphasis on fantasy-based novels.

Role Models
I have three in this category. First, Amanda (pictured right) from Ramblings is my role model in that she consistently writes intelligent posts on a variety of topics. She has also been rocking out the weight loss this year. Second, Amy from Amy Reads shames me with her focus on women and minority studies type books which are important, intelligent, and downright interesting. Finally, Sandy of You've Gotta Read This has to be the busiest but most on top of things blogger out there. Seriously, that woman leads one awesome and hectic life but still manages to read great books and write great posts.

Goal Setters
Two bloggers stand out to me for this category: Allie of A Literary Odyssey and Erin of Erin Reads rock my world with their ability to set and keep goals. These two make lists of books they want to read, and then they *gasp* actually read them! I am notoriously bad at this, so I'm really impressed by people who can stay on task!

Funny Girls
Humor is something I love but struggle with. I hate to admit it, but I am not exactly a funny person. I have a great sense of humor, but an inability to translate my thoughts to the funny. Jill (above right) of Fizzy Thoughts and Jenners (above left) of Life...with Books, on the other hand, are absolutely freaking hilarious!

The Writer
Heather of Raging Bibliomania writes amazing book reviews. They not only review the book but also add a bit of analysis or social commentary to the mix. When I (and many others) do this, the commentary can overrun the review - which is, of course, not a problem - but Heather manages to do both without rambling on for dozens of paragraphs and wasting readers' time.

The Professionals
There are two professionals I love to read: Neil Gaiman (below left) and Stephen  Fry (below right). They rock. Nuff said.

I could keep going, but here are 10 book bloggers and two professional bloggers that I love to read. I hope you check them out and start following them too.