Blogs, Blogs, Everywhere

So, at the urging of the 23 Things masters I have gone wandering in the blogosphere looking for library blogs of interest. Or failing that, just blogs of interest. I'm sort of a hard sell for blogs. I frequently feel behind on all the various media that I am already trying to keep up with, so anything that gets added to the stack had better deal with a topic that I am passionate about and it had better be entertaining. In a pinch, I'll settle for just entertaining.

Certainly I am passionate about libraries, but I am not passionate about every aspect of libraries, so blogs that focus on medical libraries or services for children just aren't going to hold my interest. My professional passion is readers' advisory, but I can only read so many book reviews before my head explodes, so a blog devoted exclusively to reviewing isn't going to make me a regular reader either.

I already frequent the readers' advisory blog run by Libraries Unlimited (the publishers who bring us the Genreflecting series), which can be found at http://www.readersadvisoronline.com/. This is great one-stop shopping for readers' advisory news. Readers get regular updates on newly released titles, book awards of all kinds, and discussions on a variety of readers' advisory topics. The posts are usually fairly short, and written with enough flair to keep me from getting bored.

While toodling around the Internet today, I discovered a nice little blog called A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy. The blog seems to focus largely on YA lit, so I don't expect to become a regular reader - I'm sorry YA fans, I just don't have time to keep up with adult fiction and the teen stuff too - but I did enjoy the post about the current state of book reviewing and why we need it. If that is a topic that interests you at all, check it out: http://yzocaet.blogspot.com/2008/10/we-dont-need-no-stinking-book-reviews.html. Also, any blog that takes its name from a Buffy the Vampire Slayer quote gets points in my book.

I will mention one last site that isn't exactly a blog, but feels awfully similar. Award-winning author Orson Scott Card (best known for his 1985 novel Ender's Game) writes a regular column for his local newspaper in North Carolina called Uncle Orson Reviews Everything. He then posts that column on his website at http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/index.shtml. The column is true to the title, and he reviews everything from television shows to sock brands to, of course, books. Card isn't afraid to call 'em like he sees 'em, and even when you disagree with him his column/blog makes for entertaining reading.