Book Blogger Appreciation Week: My influences

I started this blog in January of 2011, with the thought that I could stay one step ahead of my students and really be able to help them find great books.  Slowly but surely, this is happening, and I love it.  I love being the one that students come to for suggestions----and now, sometimes its not even my students!  And I love all you followers who have been so supportive and leaving great comments (but I'll get to that in a sec).

I have to say my two major influences in starting this blog were Donalyn Miller (aka The Book Whisperer), a wonderful teacher and a wealth of knowledge about books and literacy.  I had followed her on twitter for a while (since reading her book, "The Book Whisperer") and soon started reading books that she was talking about on twitter.  In fact, one of my shelves on goodreads is "books seen on twitter to read", and thats pretty much full of titles that I saw her talking about.  You can follow her on twitter @donalynbooks.  From there, I saw her talking alot with fellow educators, @PaulWHankins and @MrSchuReads, who also work tirelessly to promote the love of reading.

My first blogger that I followed was Michelle, @galleysmith.  I was matched with her last fall through the ARCs Float On program.  Before her, I had no idea that you could blog about books.  I thought books were just reviewed in newspapers.  I thought bloggers were all mommies with time to kill and cute recipes to share or weird politicos.  But, to be able to read and share your thoughts about what you were reading, influence other readers and be able to have conversations about books, was amazing.  After that, I stewed on creating my own blog for a few months until I finally shared my thoughts with my husband, who hasn't stopped encouraging me.  So Michelle, thank you for opening up a whole new world to me.

I think the best comment I have ever received was on my first Shelf Candy post on Withering Tights by Louise Rennison.  Steph from Five Alarm Book Reviews told me that she had read my review of the book and it sounded fantastic.  Later on, she told me that she had gone to the book store and bought the book.  Steph, you made my day (maybe week) with that comment, thank you.