I had a good weekend catching up on some books and web reads. I finally got a chance to peek at the latest issue of Estella’s Revenge. If you haven’t checked it out yet please do so. Lots of great reviews and author interviews. I still have to finish reading it but I have already added a couple of books to my TBR list, especially Marie, Dancing.

I’ve also spent a bit of time over at Dogeared which I found via Eva’s blog. Isn’t that a great project?

And, guess what I pre-ordered Eclipse. I can’t believe I’d almost forgotten it was coming out this month. I’m so ready to see what happens next in this series.

Finally in reading news I finished The Book Thief. Wow, did that book make me cry. I finished it this morning and even though I’ve had a chance to read I somehow haven’t been able to pick up another book. I’ll post a bit more on it later but right now I just want to keep all thoughts of it to myself. I’m actually meeting with my book group on Tuesday to discuss this so I’m looking forward to hearing what the rest of the members thought of it.

Stefanie tagged me on the 5 Reasons Why I Blog meme and at this point I’ve seen it going on around the blogosphere and many of you have answered with such thoughtful answers that I don’t know if I can do this justice. I think I’ll be repeating a lot but here it goes.

Some of the first blogs I read were blogs written by illustrators and/or graphic designers. I really enjoyed the way they seemed to infuse creativity in not just their work but their lives. I wanted to do something like that and then it just sort of clicked, I would blog about how books have enriched my life and so my blog started in June 2004. I quickly realized that there was already a growing book blog community and I knew I’d found my place. Some of my first blog must-reads were the wonderful blogs by Stefanie, Susan, and Patricia.

When I started this blog I didn’t think I’d keep it up for such a long time. Really the list of the hobbies I’ve had over the years is crazy. I can’t seem to stick with one but blogging about books is fantastic. Sure, there are times when I think I’ve said it all with regards to books but then a new book is discovered, a bookstore find must be talked about, etc. You know how it goes. So really there is always something to say about books and that keeps me going.

I like to journal. I know I’ve shown you pictures of my journals, I even make journals, and blogging is just another extension of keeping a diary. I’ve journaled about my books before but now it’s so much nicer because I actually get to hear what you have thought of the same books.

It’s a lot of fun. I enjoy doing the memes, taking part in the challenges (even if I don’t finish them) and adding new authors and books to my TBR list. If I ever felt that blogging was becoming a chore then I’d give it up.

Finally, I do it for the community. I get to talk about books with blog friends from all over the world. What’s not to love about that. I dream of one day getting us all together for a big book fest. We could read poetry to one another, go on a bookstore field trip and end the fest with a book swap. You’d come right?

Thank you for the tag Stefanie! If you haven’t done this one yet then consider yourself tagged.

Happy weekend all!