Thanks for your suggestions on the previous post, do keep them coming - only one suggestion so far that is actually already in my links on this page, so you're doing well (!)
I'm afraid this week has not had much blogging time so far (I was power-reading Villette more or less every spare moment I got, so more on that another day.) As usual when time is scarce, I'm going to put forward a question for your delectation... (and, before that, a completely irrelevant piccie of some books I bought about a year ago... only one of which I've read in that time.)
I've asked about favourite blogs and blogs I might not know about, but I'm interested as to the blog you first read - where did you first find out about blogging and, if you keep your own blog, what made you start?
The first one blog I read was my brother's, but the first specifically bookish blog I read was Elaine's - Random Jottings. A few of us were in a book discussion email list, which has brought the world a dizzying number of bloggers old and new. After about a year, I decided to take a step into the blogging world myself...
first blogs read inside books and rob around books blogs ,wanted to pass on passion for lit ,all the best stu
ReplyDeleteWow! That's a tough question - *first* blog I ever read? I'm not sure, but it may have been www.challies.com - in conjunction with a Together for the Gospel conference in 2006? (He also edits a blog called discerningreader). As far as a strictly book blog, I was "googling" one day thinking surely there are "book people" out on the internet (having just seen a wonderful book club dissolve due to busyness) and found Eva at AStripedArmChair. She had lots of links to other book bloggers, which led me to others, etc.
ReplyDeleteI do have a blog, but it is just a storage bank for my memory (loaded with spoilers) to help me as I guide my kids through their high school years and a Great Books study. Every now and then I toy with the idea of starting a public blog, but time constraints keep me from it. Who knows? Maybe when my last chick leaves the nest I'll take up blogging and travel together. :)
My first bookish blog was Chasing Bawa. I was first interested in quilting blogs!
ReplyDeleteWith Sakura of Chasing Bawa I was really hooked!!!
The first book blog I read was A Striped Arm Chair, which is still one of my favorites. I read lots of feminist/social justice blogs before that. I started my blog so that I would have to spend some time processing each book I read, in hopes that it would stick better and not just go in one ear and out the other (in one eye out the other?...) So far, I really think it's working.
ReplyDeleteA tough question indeed. I was in that same online book discussion group with you Simon which I joined via a printed publisher's newsletter.
ReplyDeleteI suspect I started to read 2 or 3 blogs at the same time but giving myself poetic licence I will have to say DoveGreyReader. It is either DGR or my middle child's blog that I visit first every day, followed by a religious ritual of 5 or 6 others, nearly always in the same order, from my bookmarks menu bar. It is something I do when I first come downstairs in the morning and either immediately i come in from work, or later in the evening but definitely before i go to bed.I may miss someone out if I know that they are away in somewhere like India (that's you Harriet) but even then I usually can't resist a quick look, just in case a few words have been posted.I visit a mixture of book & craft blogs but the book ones are higher up the hierarchy because I have met several of these bloggers and I consider that I am visiting friends. Simon, I haven't yet had a close encounter of the third kind with you but I actually find that hard to believe. It has so nearly happenned several time. i could have been at a meet-up, you could have been there. You have grown so much from that charming schoolboy that I first "met"that I almost feel I have had a hand in your upbringing. I have met some of your erstwhile surrogate mothers so I hope that I am at least a surrogate aunt, or cousin.
The blogs that I read are not erudite. They are not rants. They all show the real person behind the words. They all have that knack of publishing an image that breaks up the raw words and helps me imagine that I am n the room with the person behind the words. Your pile of random year-old TBR books with the wallpaper behind is ideal. I think back to your asymmetric bookcase and wonder if this pile is anywhere near that bookcase. is the strong monochromatic paper your choice? Did it come with the accommodation? Am I mistaken and have you bluetacked up a sheet of wrapping paper to brighten up a dull flat? Has your flatmate chosen th epaper? Who are you sharing with at the moment? Who does the coooking?
And all this from just one blog post!
The first blog I read was mattwaruszynski.blogspot.com a really cool animation/art blog.
ReplyDeleteThe Babbling Bookcase
I think the first blog I read was dovegreyreader. Then Random Jottings, Cornflower, SIAB (of course), A Work in Progress etc etc. I started my blog as a kind of reading diary, to make me think about what I was reading & 9 months in, I'm enjoying it very much, especially the kind comments from readers who drop by. There are so many people out there with our taste in books, Simon!
ReplyDeleteDitto, Lyn -- I also started with dovegreyreader, I think after I had read something about it in the Sunday papers. I also moved onto Cornflower and Random and SIAB -- but it was Lynne of dgr who encouraged me to start my own blog after I had been commenting on hers for a while.
ReplyDeleteI too started with Dovegreyreader, and then Me and My Big Mouth, and it just snowballed from there. It took about six months for me to decide I could write my own blog too - I'd been keeping notes on books read for ages, and now I've just reached my blog's second birthday.
ReplyDeleteI honestly can't remember why I started blogging - I just did really. I found cornflower and you and paperback reader first.
ReplyDeleteIn the quest for books that appealed to me I found 'Brit Lit blogs' and clicked the link. dovegreyreader and your blog, Simon became fast favourites. My blog began because I had the day off work and started fooling around on the computer! Attempting to string sentences together has been a great way to keep up my spelling and grammar skills. Connecting with such wonderful people in this blogsphere has been the cherry on top.
ReplyDeleteI have absolutely no memory of the first blog I read, though it must only have been a few short years ago. It's all a blur. However, thanks to this post of yours, I've just seen your brother Colin's for the first time, and I was charmed by his opinion of Orlando, which happens to coincide with mine! Now "Do not beat me," as Mrs. Gardiner said to Elizabeth.
ReplyDeleteThe first blog I read was Book World - Sandra hardly ever posts now. I found her blog whilst looking for more discussion about Peter Rushforth's Pinkerton's sister. I'd never heard of book blogs before. she had an excellent blog and blog roll where I found lots of other book blogs
ReplyDeleteThe first book blog I read regularly was yours Simon. and then Random Jottings, both of which have a tone I really like and cover books I tend to like too. It was a conversation with Elaine Random-Jottings which made me think it might be fun to have a go myself.
ReplyDeleteMy husband introduced me to blogging in general, but the first bookish blog I discovered was (is!) written by a fellow librarian (and at the time fellow library student). http://maggiereads.blogspot.com.
ReplyDelete'power reading Villette' - I like that!
ReplyDeleteThe first blog I read was one of my friend's food blog Pig Out Diary (http://www.potatomato.com/seat/) then I stumbled upon some book blogs including Danielle's A Work in Progress (http://danitorres.typepad.com/workinprogress/). After that it snowballed and I started blogging probably after a year.
p.s. Thanks Mystica!
Of course it was Mrs. Weston who said "Do not beat me" to Emma. What was I thinking? I deserve a beating!
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what the first blog I read was, but I'm sure the first book blog I read was yours.
ReplyDeleteThe first book blog I read was Books Do Furnish a Room. From there I blog-hopped (finding you via Harriet Devine) and have been hooked ever since.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember the first general blog I read but and I probably don't remember the first book blog I came across. But (sounding a bit like Gertrude Stein), I do remember the first book blog that I actually remember and that was Stuck In A Book.
ReplyDeleteStu - I don't know those.. will have a hunt!
ReplyDeleteSusan - Little did you know the paths that Google search would take you down! I'd love it if you started blogging books one day...
Mystica - we definitely have Sakura to thank, then!
Emily Jane - Eva's is great, isn't it? And it's definitely true that I think about books more when I'm blogging about them, and thus remember them more - and have the archives to explore too!
Amy - another new one to me! So many to explore...
Lyn - I know! I thought it was a miracle finding the doves, but there are doves hidden everywhere around the world, it seems... Having the doves was great for a ready-made blog audience too :)
Harriet - I'm very grateful to Lynne then :)
Annabel - I know, I was reading blogs off and on for a year before I took the plunge - so glad I did, and that you did!
Naomi - I remember the lovely email you sent me when you'd just started up your blog! I hope I was sufficiently encouraging :)
Darlene - aww, thanks! I always love seeing your name come up in the comments. Surprised you found me on Brit Lit Blogs though, I am very tucked away in the corner!
Diana - whoever said it, I shall not beat you ;) Col's been blogging twice as long as I have, though not normally on bookish topics.. latest one is all about football, for instance.
Margaret - and then we started, almost exactly the same time!
Hayley - oh lovely :) And I'm so pleased Elaine convinced you to start one - it seems almost mandatory for a dove now! Barbara hasn't cracked yet...
Tiffany - there are quite a few librarian bloggers out there, aren't there? In fact, I'm typing from the library right now... (!)
Sakura - and it defintely was power-reading in the end! So many pages in so little time...
Anna - oh lovely, how nice!
Rhian - blog-hopping is the best! That's how I tend to find my favourite blogs.
Thomas - really? Oh how nice of you to say so! Oh I do love bloggers :D