Weekly Geeks 2009.38: Book Blogging Explained

I wasn't really sure how to approach the Weekly Geek assignment this week because it's all about blogging goals, and I've talked about that quite a bit lately. I have done a fair amount of redecorating on my blog, and adding a more detailed About Page, and a couple other things. (However, I still just don't get that meta tag thing. Whoosh, right over the head!) So I didn't want to rehash all that stuff about goals and such.

But then I saw Care's post where she wrote specifically to a new visitor to her blog, and perhaps a person new to blogs in general, and new to book blogs in particular and I thought, that was really kinda fun, so I'm sort of copying her with my own bit of a twist.

*******************************************************

To those people new to my blog, new to blogs, or new to book blogs,

Welcome to my little spot in cyberspace where I have fun talking all I want to about my most favorite hobby: reading. I've loved to read since I can remember, but it's just been in the last ten years or so that I've embraced this love and taken it to a completely different level. I used to try to reign myself in, so to speak, and curtail my enthusiasm. I learned that people in the real world, most of them, don't get it, so I just wouldn't talk about it.

Then I discovered online groups. Then in real life groups. Then reading challenges. Then blogging. It hasn't been the same since.

Here on this blog you will find lots and lots of lists. Lists of my favorite books, lists of things I've been reviewing (where to me review means to share my reaction to a book, simple as that), lists of challenges I'm trying, lists of other book lists, and so on.

Lately, the book blogging community has exploded, and suddenly, we've realized we have our own little jargon going on. So for most of this post, I'd like to make yet another list.... a list of terms that book bloggers find themselves using a lot, that the new person may find confusing.

Book Blogging Glossary

(but not in alphebetical order because I'm too lazy today)

ARC or ARE: short for Advanced Reader Copy/Edition is a version of a book that is printed up before the "real" book is printed. (Also called galleys or review copies.) Often, it will have a plain cover, and there will be typos, or other temporary problems that will be fixed by the time the final book is printed. The purpose of these preview books is get them out in the readers hands ahead of time, to create a buzz for the release of the book itself. They are given away to librarians, book sellers, authors, professional reviews, and of course, book bloggers. Sometimes book bloggers will ask publishers or authors for them, with a promise of sorts to review the book on their blog, and sometimes publishers will just send them out unsolicited, with the hope that they will be reviewed. (Lately there's been much hoopla about a new law mandating that bloggers disclose what books they get for free.) Some bloggers live for these ARCs and others would rather not add them to their already overflowing TBRs. Where do I land on this issue? Right in the middle, I love getting ARCs, but I don't want too many because I don't want to lose sight of reading what I want to read, for fun.

TBR: stands for To Be Read. Most book bloggers have a huge pile of TBRs and will never, ever, ever run out of things to read. That statement that we sometimes hear from our kids, or other people in our lives, "There's nothing good to read" .... book bloggers cannot fathom it. We have TBR piles that are taking over our houses.

BBAW: stands for Book Blog Appreciation Week, a week every September where book bloggers celebrate each other, pat each other on the back and get re-energized to keep blogging about books. This fun week was all started by Amy from My Friend Amy.

F2F: stands for Face to Face... a book club/group where you meet with friends in real life, as opposed to an online group where you meet with friends on email, Twitter, a blog, Facebook, or such.

Dewey: you may think it's the Dewey Decimal System, that wonderful method of cataloguing non-fiction... BUT... really it's Dewey from The Hidden Side of a Leaf, blogger extraordinaire, who passed away nearly a year ago. But she left us with some wonderful book blogging traditions. Two I love are Weekly Geeks (a weekly book blogging project) and the 24 Hour Readathon (twice a year bloggers read for 24 hours and cheer each other on). We talk about Dewey a lot in this book blogging community because she will ever continue to inspire us.

Reading Challenges: a book blogger will come up with some sort of reading theme, anything from "let's read some classics" to "let's read books with animals in their title" and challenge other bloggers to join them in completing the task. Most of these challenges are extremely creative, and some a very popular and well known. All of them are listed over at A Novel Challenge by Wendy.

Blog Tour: Authors sometimes like to "visit" blogs and get the word out about their new book. Bloggers can sign up to participate and host the author on their blog. Those bloggers will then take a turn talking/reviewing/interviewing/hosting that book and author. It's like a when an author does a real city tour, only they hop from blog to blog.

BTT: stands for Booking Through Thursday, one of the first book blogging weekly memes (at least in my experience) hosted by Deb. She asks a fairly simple book question, we all answer, then visit each other and comment. This is the first place I found other book bloggers.

YA: a Young Adult, or teen book, a genre of wonderful books that's really exploding these last few years.

MG: a Middle Grade book, often blurred with the YA category but geared towards younger kids usually ages 9-12.

Well. There's many many other terms, and this list could be huge but these are the ones you'll find me talking about and using most often.

I hope this has helped you, new person, understand the book blogging world just a little better. I hope you enjoy looking around, clicking on links, and finding something new and wonderful to read!

Let me know if you drop by and what you discover here. Because as we all know, it may be All About Books around here, but in the end, it's really all about comments! :D