Weekly Geeks 2009-01

andThe Weekly Geeks meme took a break after Dewey's untimely death in December, but it's back now and the first mission, appropriately enough, is to take a look at the blogging community.

In the spirit of the amazing community building that Dewey was so good at, tell us about your favorite blogs, the ones you have bookmarked or subscribe to in your Google Reader, that you visit on a regular basis. Tell us what it is about these blogs that you love, that inspire or educate you or make you laugh. Be sure to link to them so we can find them too.

I have so many blogs and journals in my Google Reader that it just isn't funny. And I keep on asking more. So here are a few of the ones that I enjoy the most. Some are part of the book bloggers community, some are not, but they are all good reads.

• Dear Author
  This is primarily a romance review blog, but it is equally strong in providing news on the publishing industry, a lot of information on ebooks and ereaders (I like these posts) and book commentary. While I do read romances, they aren't one of my reading staples, but I really enjoy reading about romances and their themes and tropes. Dear Author provides exellent, well-thought out essays that are generally followed up by interesting and detailed discussion in the comments, with both authors and readers joining in.
  
• The Book Smugglers
  Ana and Thea run a wonderful book review blog that focuses on genre fiction, mainly romance and fantasy, with some horror and often graphic novels thrown in. Their reviews are excellent, always detailed and thoughtful with clear reasons for their reactions, favourite quotes and general commentary on the book in question. They also have author interviews, themed weeks and some silly stuff thrown in for good measure. They both have a clear sense of fun and the comment threads can be almost as much fun as the posts themselves.
  
• Marg's Reading Adventures
  I feel a great sense of kindship with Marg. I'm not exactly sure why, as we don't read the same sort of books (she reads a lot of historical fiction, while I'm more a genre girl myself) but her posts are always interesting and her book reviews fascinating. She's an Australian and I'm a New Zealander who has lived in Australia, so that may have something to do with it. I just kind of feel like we'd get along well.
  
• Tor.com
  This site, put together by SF publishing imprint Tor, features all sorts of intersting things including discussions of books (not necessarily published by Tor), a look at SF art and the making of book covers, free fiction and other commentary. Not everything they post appeals to me, but it's always worth checking out what each post is about.
  
• And then there's I Can Has Cheezburger
  Who doesn't like some LOLcats in the morning - or the afternoon, or the evening, or any time really?

So let's finish with a LOLcat, doing something any reader with a cat will immediately recognise...