Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie!

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where a new topic is given each week by the host blog and participants write up a corresponding list of ten things. Simple, fun, and great for those obsessed with lists. This week's topic is: Freebie! Since it was a freebie I decided to scroll through the backlog and choose an old TTT that looked like fun. I decided on: Reasons Why We Love Book Blogging.

(1) THE COMMUNITY! I've never had many readers in my life which was why I was so drawn to book blogs in the first place, I loved getting to read the thoughts of other devoted readers myself and eventually decided to take the plunge and do the same. To this day the community is one of my favorite aspects of book blogging.

(2) Riding in on the coat-tails of the community, THE RECOMMENDATIONS! I have so many new favorites now thanks to all of the recommendations, whether they be to a general readership or personalized for me by my blogger buddies. I guess I see this the most on my contemporary shelf; you guys know I'm a fantasy girl, Sarah Dessen was pretty much my only venture into contemporary and now I have FOUR entire shelves devoted to the genre, still not caught up with my fantasy collection but we're getting there!

(3) And where would book blogging be without THE FANBASES! I've always been a fangirl when it came to reading; I would get so into a world and no one else would understand it. Then I started finding "rabid fangirls [and boys]" online through these blogs and was able to let loose my own inner fangirl amongst them. I just love how if you love something, chances are you're not alone and there's a fanbase for it. It's just amazing.

(4) THE FRIENDS! I've met some of the most awesome people ever through blogging; not going to go through and name everyone here because I'd be bound to forget someone and would feel terrible, but you guys know who you are. You amazing people who are always there to chat, who have helped me with Typing Tiara, recommended me books, even loaned me awesome titles or just passed them along to me, and so many other awesome things. And you're just awesome. Love all of you guys!

(5) THE GUILT-B-GONE! Okay, that one sounds insane. But give me a chance to explain. I am what my family refers to as a book hoarder, I have a GIGANTIC collection that is over-growing. I thought the amount of books I have but have yet to read was totally insane...then I started book blogging and talking to the bloggers and suddenly, my pile didn't seem nearly so bad...I wasn't alone!

(6) SOCIAL BUTTERFLY! Okay, maybe not yet, but I'm getting there. You guys may not have noticed but I am INCREDIBLY SHY. Like, it takes me forever to work up the courage to tweet someone, e-mail them, or comment. Any assortment of things. But I'm working on that and blogging is helping me to get my voice heard, and not just online! I'm finally starting to get less shy offline too. Someday, I may even get over it entirely. Someday.

(7) I WANT TO READ THAT! Okay, not me saying it so much as hearing or reading someone else said that because of a review that I WROTE. There is nothing more awesome then writing a review and getting a comment at the end of it from someone saying they rushed to the library, went out and bought the book, or added it to their wishlist purely because of your review. There is just really nothing better and I'm psyched ever time I read that.

(8) THE AUTHORS! Whoever came up with the saying that authors are rockstars seriously knew what they were doing because that is exactly how I feel about them. And though incredibly shy, I'm totally in awe of how many I've gotten to talk to through tweets/e-mails/comments/etc. I mean, these people are seriously amazing and they took a few moments to talk to me. These people are my IDOLS. Getting to interact with them even just a few times a month makes it all worth it. :D

(9) NERDOM! Being a blogger has really helped me to embrace my inner geek so now that geek is just all over the place. I'm totally thrilled to claim nerd/geek as one of my titles. And now I'm happily back in the world of comics, books, video games, anime, manga, and all sorts of other nerdish pursuits that I had set aside way back when. I feel like I've really come into being me through blogging and that's pretty awesome.

(10) GIVEAWAYS! Whether I'm hosting one or winning one I love them equally the same. One of my favorite things to do, when I have the money on hand, is to send out bookish care packages to my friends/bloggers/readers. I love sharing the books. For that reason I love it when I'm able to have giveaways for you guys, I'm really hoping that sometime soon I can be more stable and have more of them...hopefully monthly if not more often because I love sending awesome books your way and getting those groovy tweets/e-mails/etc later on when you rave to me about how awesome you found it. Books belong to readers and if I can help get them there, that's pretty amazing.