Book Blogger Appreciation Week - Community

Today marks the kickoff of the fourth annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week. For those of you who don't blog, particularly for those of you who don't blog about books, this week might go one of two ways for you. Perhaps you'll largely skip over most of the posts from your favorite bloggers. But maybe, just maybe, a little bug will bite you. You'll start to think "Wow, this is so much more than just writing about books. These people really have fun with this. Maybe I should give it a try." You'll be right. Blogging is about so much more than writing book reviews and we really are having fun. A huge part of the reason that blogging is so much fun is because of the wonderful sense of community that book bloggers have.

When I started blogging in May of 2009, I had no idea who might actually read my little blog. I hoped that my family might, I suspected that some of my book club friends might, and I was fairly sure that some of my friends from Goodreads would. But would anyone else every see my work? Imagine my surprise, on my second post (and I hadn't even written a book review yet), when I got an email notice that Mel of The Reading Life had left a comment on my blog. Someone I didn't even know and had never communicated with before had actually read something I had posted. My confidence soared.

One sentence, one little acknowledgement that I had written something that was interesting enough to respond to - sometimes that is all it takes to change a person's life. Mel did that for me. If that bug should just happen to bite you this week, if you should decide that maybe you'd like to jump in and join this community, know that there are people out here who will be more than happy to leave you that one sentence, who will become your first follower, who will be more than happy to mentor you along the way. Let us know you've joined us and this community will reach out and wrap its arms around you.