BBAW Day 1: Spotlighting two of my favourite blogs

Welcome to Day 1 of the 2009 edition of Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW)! My regular programming (such as it is) will be interrupted this week as I participate in BBAW activities all week long, including posting my answers to the daily writing prompts listed on the BBAW site.

I have a whopping 123 book blogs in my Google Reader at the moment, of which 20 so far have found their way into my Favourites folder. So when Amy announced that today’s assignment was to “write a post thanking and spotlighting [our] favorite blogs that didn’t make the shortlists,” I had a great many to choose from.

The two I’ve decided to spotlight are The Infinite Shelf and Today’s Adventure, both of which I nominated for BBAW awards, but which unfortunately were not shortlisted.

The Infinite Shelf, written by Kay, a fellow Montrealer, is just such a pleasure to visit. I love the look of her blog, especially the slightly cranky-looking girl in her header and her faithful black cat companion, but I’m also impressed by the fact that Kay has come up with names for her features that match her blog name: Filling the Shelf for her Mailbox Monday posts, The Artsy Shelf for her series on similar covers and The Fan Shelf in which she presents bookish people or things she’s a fan of (which may or may not become a regular feature). Although Kay’s taste in books doesn’t overlap with mine much at all (I’ve only read one of the books she’s read since she began blogging: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath), I still enjoy reading her reviews. And at least one of them, her review of An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, inspired me to put the book on my wish list. However, I must admit that my favourite part of Kay’s blog is her comics! She modestly claims that she’s no good at drawing, but I think she’s really talented. Check out my faves: A Book Blogger’s Free Day and The Ultimate Showdown. Aren’t they cute (and so true to life as a book blogger)?

Today’s Adventure, written by Vanessa aka NotNessie, is another one of my favourites. Although I thought the previous incarnation of this blog looked great too, there’s no denying that her current look is very classy. And yet one of the reasons I love Vanessa’s blog so much is because of her very down-to-earth and chatty style. Reading her reviews makes me feel like I’m listening to a friend and she’s just as warm and welcoming by email. Like Kay, Vanessa tends to review books I wouldn’t normally read, but her reviews have prompted me to add quite a few to my wish list. One of these is her review for The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong. Vanessa also writes a great series she calls “Slightly Off Topic,” in which she has discussed everything from What Blurbs Really Say about a Book to The Three Deadly Sins of Series (a particularly great post!) to Cover Lookalikes.

I didn’t do it on purpose but there are some striking similarities between the two blogs I’ve chosen to feature today: both have fantastic designs, are written by Canadian women, feature regular or semi-regular posts about lookalikes (something I’m a little obsessed with) and interestingly enough, neither review the types of books I would usually gravitate towards...

I’m looking forward to discovering yet more awesome book blogs this week!