“BBAW” stands for Book Blogger Appreciation Week, and 2011 marks the fourth anniversary of the event. Concocted up by Amy of My Friend Amy, I’ve been helping with the BBAW website and graphic design stuff for the past three years.

There is a whole whack of people involved now, from a Board of Directors, award tabulators, judges, blog topic generators, and giveaway moderators. I commend and applaud all those helping out with BBAW—it’s a great event run by and for the book blogging community. I am truly proud to be involved, even in just a tiny little way.

These past few days have been special. Like speeecial special. Yaknow? I have been totally out of it in multiple ways for no particular reason.

Physically, I am bumping into things and bashing myself by accident. It’s like I have an issue with depth perception. I tried to put on my shoes today and kicked the wall. I went to close a door and accidentally punched the wall. I’ve broken at least 4 fingernails by catching them on things. This could be a serious problem considering I’m taking sword fighting lessons. I’m also concerned since I’ve been working on sewing projects. Hopefully I can dial 9-1-1 before I pass out from lack of blood. Death by sewing machine… kinda funny.

Mentally, I have been having trouble speaking, mixing words up, and my spelling has gone out the window. My reading skills are also suffering, but that may also be the spelling issue or my non-existent dyslexia. I typed “dying” instead of “dyeing”, read “touting” as “touching” and “viral” as “virus”, and often leaving out transitional words such as “the” and “with”, thus changing a sentence completely.

So now I’m sitting here, wondering what I should do so that I’ll be safe from myself. Knitting would inevitably result in a giant yarn tangle or dropped stitches, I already explained the fear of the sewing machine, and anything that involves movement or speed such as riding my bike is out. That leaves books, movies, and the internet.

Books: I’ve finished Voyager by Diana Gabaldon and need to write up a review. Before that I read a few graphic novels that I need to post reviews for. Now I’m into the second book of the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings.

Movies: I watched Sense & Sensibility (1995) last night with Kate Winslett, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Hugh Laurie, and Emma Thompson. Wow what a cast. I haven’t read the book, but I enjoyed the movie. I think the romance story lines were very similar to Pride & Prejudice (class, society, rumours, reputation) but that the character interactions weren’t as strong. However, the cast was amazing and I did enjoy the movie immensely. Did I mention that I did end up watching the BBC mini-series of Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth? Awesome! I love Colin Firth so much.

Speaking of movies, I just went on IMDB.com and discovered a Footloose remake. Watch the trailer here. Umm… I’m not sure how I feel about this, and I’m concerned it’s just going to be some sort of hip-hop debacle. Footloose is the 80s and Kevin Bacon. Can you imagine someone trying to remake Ferris Bueller’s Day Off without Matthew Broderick? Or Pretty in Pink without Molly Ringwald? No! It just wouldn’t work.

Television: I’ve been watching HBO’s The Game of Thrones, which is based on the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. HBO is so awesome and I am loving it so far. It’s pretty much 98% perfect, and I’m guessing that’s because George R.R. Martin is one of the executive producers.

Internet: There are lots of great things I’ve found recently. If you follow me on Twitter, I usually share them there. But here are a couple gems.

• Bloggess’ “Pick your Battles” — I laughed so hard I wasn’t making a sound and tears were streaming down my cheeks.
• Dear Photograph — A really neat project, taking photos of old photos in their original location.
• A Stranger A Day — A Vancouverite is chatting up strangers about tattoos, daily
• The Slave Lake Book Auction, which I mentioned before, wrapped up last week with a total of $4,909 in donations to the library!
• The Bank of Canada is rolling out new bills made of polymer (plastic) and our money will look even more like Monopoly money.
• Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2011 has been announced for Sept. 12-16. I designed the new look and launched the website recently.

Hope you all had a great Book Blogger Appreciation Week. I was so happy to be involved with the design for BBAW and sorry I wasn’t able to participate more. Congratulations to all the nominees, winners, giveaway recipients, and big thanks to the whole BBAW Committee!

P.S. Sorry I haven’t been around much — but lots of reading has been happening, I assure you! Expect some reviews soon-ish.

On September 13-17, 2010, book bloggers across the net will be celebrating the third annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week. This is the second year I’ve helped out with the website CMS and design. On Wednesday evening, My Friend Amy and I sat down to hash out the design for 2010.

Here are some of the images that didn’t make the cut:

This image felt a little dated with the old-style CRT monitor.

This was just slightly creepy…

This felt too impersonal, especially since BBAW is all about the community

This was friendly… but perhaps a little too friendly… borderline creepy.

[P.S. These are all images Amy found while looking for something good. These weren't seriously considered.]

One of the topics that escaped my notice during the ever-busy Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW), was “blog about a book you read only because you discovered it on another book blog.” Unfortunately I can’t remember where I learned half the things I know. Often during the middle of a conversation I have to preface my comments with, “I can’t remember where I heard/read/saw this….”

I’ve only been blogging about books since late 2007, and the first book blogger I ever followed was Stephanie of The Written Word. I used to choose books simply by if I was interested or not. Then as I grew up, my family and friends would recommend books to read. Now, I have book blogs overflowing on my RSS Reader and many other sources, such as work contacts, publisher recommendations, etc.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Recommended by various blogs including My Friend Amy, Stephanie’s Written Word, Diary of an Eccentric, Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? and A Novel Menagerie.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Recommended (and sent to me) by Chan.

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Recommended by various blogs including Stephanie’s Written Word, Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? and In The Shadow of Mt. TBR.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

As I mentioned in my review, “This book has gotten a lot of hype and while I definitely liked the book, but I’m not head-over-heels-in-love with it. I can see why Oprah would pick it for Book Club as it would satisfy a wide range of audiences.” I can’t remember what book bloggers finally convinced me to give it a shot, but it wasn’t just because it was Oprah’s new pick.

Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched The World by Vicki Morrison

Recommended by various blogs such as BermudaOnion, The Hidden Side of a Leaf, and Musings of a Bookish Kitty.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

Recommended by tons of blogs (such as BookRoom Reviews, In The Shadow of Mt. TBR, Musings of a Bookish Kitty, The Literate Housewife’s Review and BermudaOnion), and popped up in my radar of Canadian lit (such as Quill & Quire).

A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif

Claimed during Mini Book Expo 2008 and was longlisted for the 2008 Booker Prize.