Blogger Appreciation

Today is just a quick post to highlight a few of the blogs/bloggers I really enjoy following and interacting with. I’ve chosen two males and two females and, I’d like to say it was a conscious choice because I’m being super-fair and calling it down the middle. In actuality, it was just a happy accident.

The following four bloggers are responsible for some of my favourite recommendations and just conversation in general. I’ll start with ladies first, me being an upstanding gentleman and all.

I’ll just finish by saying that I have so many other bloggers that I interact with and enjoy talking to on a daily/weekly basis … but I kind of left this post til last minute so whittled it down to a handful. Rest assured, if I interact with you on a regular basis, not only would you have made this list, but you’ll make the list in the future when I get around to doing more of these types of posts.

(All blog names are clickable links and will take you to these awesome places of literary goodness):

Rine Reads

Rine has very similar tastes to myself as far as reading goes. That fact in itself would make you think ‘must pretty much agree on everything’ … Sadly, that’s not the case. I’ve let her down in the past by thinking ‘The Priory of the Orange Tree’ is one of the worst contributions to the fantasy genre in my reading/listening memory, and she’s returned the favour by not being a fan of Nighteyes from the Farseer books (cut me deep with that one. And some wounds will just never heal).

Still, the lack of total agreement with everything the other enjoys makes the conversations way more enjoyable and it always feels like an actual discussion rather than just a literary love fest. She has, despite our occasional lack of agreement on what’s hot and what’s not, pointed me in the direction of some of my favourite books. So, long may that trend continue.

Her blog is primarily novel-review based and she tends to go for fantasy, science fiction and thrillers most of the time. These are all genres I love and, due to this, she is constantly keeping my TBR well-stocked. On the plus side it means I’ve always got someone conversation-ready when I finish a novel/audio book. She’s way quicker at getting through things than I am so I can only thank her for not dropping accidental spoilers.

I Swoon Over Fictional Men

Contrary to what the blog name might have you thinking; no, I do not get weak at the knee, nor am I prone to bouts of fainting when names such as Edward Cullen are mentioned. Nor are my book cases filled with romance novels featuring an array of topless male models.

Jazz used to pretty much read exclusively paranormal romance and, thankfully for me, I stumbled across her blog when she branched out into a wider variety of genres. So there’s pretty much something for everybody on there from romance to thriller, and non-fiction to horror.

The name of her blog stuck, though. A fact my internet search history will cling to if ever questioned about my ‘preference for fictional men’.

It was on her blog that I stumbled across a podcast called ‘Astonishing Legends’. And it was on said podcast that I became aware of one of my all-time favourite reads ‘Dead Mountain’ which is the true account of a man trying to piece together just what happened to the hikers of the ‘Dyatlov Pass’ incident. It’s not only one of my favourite non-fictions, but one of my favourite books in general and, in a round about way, Jazz is the reason I discovered it. She’s also good to chat to about the books we’re reading (Dead Mountain, Six Stories etc …) when she’s not got her nose buried in paranormal smut, obviously 😉

Raistlin0903

Now, on to the gentlemen.

We start off with one of life’s true gentlemen; Michel.

Michel is the only blogger to feature on my little appreciation post that comes from outside the UK’s shores (he’s based in Holland). I first began interacting with Michel a couple of years back (I think?) and despite the issues with his health or ongoing negative aspects in his day to day life, he’s always been upbeat and enjoyable to talk to. I’d also be willing to bet my house that there’s not a nicer man walking the earth.

Michel’s blog focuses predominantly on film, anime and tv shows with the occasional bit of bookish or board game goodness. He’s currently running the reading marathon that is the Horus Heresy (Black Library’s 50+ novel series telling the history of their universe). If ever you fancy a good film or tv recommendation, his blog is well worth checking out. He is fairly diverse as well, as he often reviews various different language films or shows (Korean, Japanese & English/American to name a few).

The Tattooed Book Geek

From a true gentleman to a true degenerate.

Drew was always going to get a spot on this page due to it being entirely his fault that I started blogging in the first place. We used to work with each other about a decade ago, back when we were both handsome young men (now we’re slightly older, even more handsome men, obviously) and we just clicked based on the fact that everyone at work other than ourselves were of that sort that didn’t read or only read the genres we had zero interest in. So it was good to have someone to talk to about books, games etc … to make those tedious early morning shifts speed by.

We share pretty much the same taste in books and, other the Malazan Books, I don’t think there’s ever really been a book that Drew has suggested to me that I didn’t enjoy. I remember seeing a status about him getting free books from a publisher on facebook and asked him what devilry he worked to get that sort of treatment. He introduced me to blogging and I’ve pretty much been rambling on the internet to total strangers ever since.

His blog features mostly novel reviews and discussions. He’s also the creator of Music Monday (something that, considering I have next to no interest in music, just astounds me that it’s become so popular).