"What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake...."
Hello my blogger buds. Welcome to today's Sunday Salon.. where we talk about books. And blogs, and stuff.
So if you have had a chance to read your favorite blogs this week, you know that there is a little blog controversy brewing.. Lit bloggers (so-called wave 1 blogs) vs. the socially active book blogger (Wave 2 blogs)... and well.. are you confused already? The controversy started all because there was a Book Blogger panel at The Book Expo America in NYC last weekend.
Hmm. So apparently the Wave 1 blogger didn't like the panelists selected to be a part of the Book Blogger Panel because the all powerful mighty Wave 1 blogger never heard of any of them. And then of course because she doesn't know anything about them she goes about attacking their point of view. And then she assumes she knows what book bloggers in general are ALL ABOUT period.
Do you know what I'm all about?? No you don't. Because this blog is an evolution in general. I don't know what I am going to write next. I don't what I'm going to read next. So I am not a blog you can classify me as. I am GENERAL. YAY. I'd prefer to NOT be classified, because I am going to read a Historical fiction book one day, then I am going to do a silly meme the next, then I'm going read a chick lit book.. you get my drift.. OH And I MUST say that I do not read just Advance Readers copies, I don't read just new releases, I do not read just one genre. I accept ARC's, I visit my library, I purchase books online, I purchase books at my local used bookstore, I swap books via Paperbackswap...oh, I win giveaways too.. Does that NOT make me qualified as a "critical' "professional" book blogger? Yep. Because I am not here to be critical. I am not here to be professional. I am not comfortable being classified even as a Wave 2 blogger. I am not comfortable being classified. In reference to this blog, I am a book blogger, that's all there is to it.
In response to another post I had written before a WHY I BLOG post. Just in case you still had questions, that can be found here. Simply put, I blog because I enjoy the social interaction between readers. Sure I would love to have a worldwide fantastic audience. But I am not going to look at how many subscriptions I have, or how many hits I have a day.. because if I have a comment on a post I am happy for the interaction. If someone comments on my review, I am happy. If an author comes by to visit because I'm doing a blog tour, that's extra special too. But because it has been asked let me say that I looked when I set up my Blog Patrol button at the end of my blog, and since its installment on March 23rd I have had 3,653 hits to date as I write this post. What does that mean in reality? You decide. I just like watching the numbers increase.
There are too many people trying to classify a bulk of us into one thing, and everyone is trying to get a handle on what is pretty much a social evolution with the future of technology and how it all melds into the literary worlds of publishers, authors and readers. I am venturing a guess of thousands of Bookish Blogs out there... THOUSANDS of people simply cannot be classed into anything other but one thing: BOOK BLOGGER. Why is that so hard to stick to? Why do we have to further promote disintegration of social acceptance by attempting to divide us?
OK so if you have NOT read all the hub-bub and have no idea why I am venting (again)
Here are the Links that I've visited where some of this came from:
A Book Publicity something is here with lots of comments
Colleen at Chasing Ray posted her thoughts on the BEA Panel
My Friend Amy then responded to those thoughts
A Novel Menagerie attempts to make sense of the controversy gets caught in the middle when she was just trying to make some sort of sense in the mayhem..
And then apparently there was some 'real-time' twitter discussion Friday night, which I can never keep up with.
Ok so enough of all that.. I posted my comments there as well of course because I love to kvetch. And this is probably all old news to everyone so I apologize if I'm bringing up bad memories :) I love everyone I've come across through my blog, and I really treasure your thoughts and comments that you all have given me.
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Some of you may remember from previous mentions that I've felt like royal poo poo lately. For almost two months I've had strange stomach pains, and I finally relented and went to the doctor and he confirmed that I have Gastritis, an inflammation of the stomach lining. So now I have Nexium and let's hope it kicks in. The symptoms for me also cause nausea so I was getting pretty sick of feeling sick, and half of the reason or more behind it is STRESS due to NY Family members. But enough of that crapola they don't deserve the mention even on my fabulous blog. So that's mystery solved, and I also have very high cholesterol, thank YOU McDonald's, Taco Bueno, and both sides of the genetic ladder. At some point I'll read something productive that tells me how to combat that. But I doubt it.
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Today is the last day of The Twitter Background Contest. I entered simply because I want more books, the winner gets 25 credits to Paperbackswap!! Isn't that awesome? Since I am not some awesome graphic designer with training or resources, I am not doing so well.. so I am begging you all to have mercy on a fellow book blogger and take this opportunity to vote for me.
Click this link, and select the 5th star.. that's all :)
I know that some of you already voted, and thank you for that, really appreciate it! If you haven't voted, hurry and go do it because it ends today.
As a final effort to get many more 5 star votes, if I win the First Prize in that contest (you guys gotta get people to vote.. do a blast Email to your entire address book, tweet it, blog it etc.).. If I win the First Prize- of which there are 2- I will do a giveaway immediately of all the books listed in the poll on the right in the green, plus I'll throw in another three so it'll be an even ten winners for a giveaway from me at The Burton Review to you. The book to be released in August, "Of Bees and Mist" by Erick Setiawan will be one of the additional ones to add to the giveaway.
This is the last chance folks, so do it now! As soon as I find out the results of the contest, I will post it on my blog. Fingers crossed!!
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OK on to the meaning of the true Sunday Salon; I have read via the Barnes & Nobles First Look Program, Of Bees and Mist, by Erick Setiawan. Awesome book, my review will post this coming week. I also reviewed a crime novel The Osiris Alliance by TV News Anchor and debut author, Jack Ford.
I've got another giveaway coming courtesy of Irene Watson of Reader Views.. she is touring her book The Sitting Swing that she wrote in 2005 and has done a revision on. I enjoyed the book and will be giving away an autographed copy on June 8th, so come back and visit me then and hear her inspiring story.
I have just begun Georgette Heyer's chunkster/tome My Lord John courtesy of Sourcebooks, and it is going to be awhile! Lots of people to discern, tons of titles of lords and ladies and it always confusing when reading about England's Medieval times, with the different political factions within families. So I am going to take it slow and google names and all that fun stuff so I can understand what the heck is going on. I also have to be able to concentrate, and well.. that happens about a half hour before bed and I fall asleep. So yep, this is going to set me back as it lulls me to sleep. But I am determined to enjoy it at least during lunch breaks. I hope it meets up to my expectations, I can't tell if it will or not.
And I hope you enjoy your book adventures this week also. What have you read this week?
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