Book Blogs

My last two entries were movie reviews, but I also love books (obviously). Here are some great book blogs. I’ll have more blog suggestions in an upcoming entry.

Vinod's Blog: “Musings from a libertarian, tech geek.”

Vinod writes much more in-depth reviews than one would expect on the Internet, often using his design skills to break information into charts, lists, and such. That helps, because he writes about nonfiction books dealing with social theories. Fortunately, he avoids the dry tone that one might expect. And I love his book review chart!

Book Review repository: “An interactive repository of Book-reviews created by bloggers from all over the www.”

Part of The home of the Jacobsen family website, this blog uses movable type (something I haven’t tried) to help visitors post reviews into a well-organized database, under a long list of categories. The home page shows the latest reviews and comments. In all cases, we actually just see the beginning of the review, with a link to read the complete review. If you like books in a particular category, this blog makes it easy to navigate and find what you want. The participants represent a wide range of views, interests, and locations.

BookBlog: “If You Like A Lot Of BookBlog On Your Biscuit, Join Our Club.”

Of course, there had to be a book blog named BookBlog. This one is a fairly traditional book-of-the-month club, where one of the members moderates a discussion of a particular book each month. The site include membership details. The blog format, the archives, and the discussion areas not only make this blog effective in its primary purpose but also make it a good resource for someone who wants various perspectives on a particular book. The book choices so far have been novels—some classic and some recent.

Blogcritics: “A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, and technology - updated continuously.”

Obviously not just a book blog, this popular destination brings together a long list of dedicated bloggers to share about whatever interests them. In many cases, the posts also appear on the individual critic’s site. This is a great place to find reviews about products that fit your personal tastes, or just to discover more blogs that you’ll enjoy. With a total of five columns (links/credits, music, books, video, et cetera) on the main page, you can quickly skim excerpts from a variety of postings. Don’t be surprised to find X-Men, King Christian X of Denmark, the Doors, and classic poetry all beside each other. The format resembles a newspaper, and is just as easy to navigate (maybe more so).