BBAW: First Treasure

It's finally time for Book Blogger Appreciation Week!! I was a lurker last year and promised myself that I would have my own blog up and running in time for this year's festivities. It's such a great opportunity to explore new blogs and to celebrate the bloggers who help to shape my reading and reviewing habits. I'm also madly truly deeply in love with the theme of this year's celebration -- “A Treasure Chest of Infinite Books and Infinite Blogs” -- because I have a minor obsession with pirates and treasure maps. I taught a class last week on the parallels between first-year composition projects and pirate map construction, and I plan to teach next Monday (the day AFTER International Talk like a Pirate Day...) in a full peg-leg/eye-patch/parrot-on-the-shoulder glory.

Anyway! Today's topic is "First Treasure," an account of the blog that first got you interested (obsessed) with book blogging and with the blogging community.  My first blogger-crush was definitely Amanda over at Dead White Guys. She's hysterically funny and often has pointed insights about the nature and relationships of classic literature. I was particularly drawn to her blog because it was the first time I'd seen a blogger try to take on 'classic, high-brow literature.' I'd read plenty of blogs about YA and chick lit, and while I love those genres, I am an academic and feel guilty if I don't engage with the big guns. Dead White Guys turns reading about Hemingway or Thomas Moore into a rocking, rollicking good time.

I'd recommend her blog to anyone interested in an irreverent take on the Old Masters, or to anyone looking to bone up on the big names without getting too intimidated by their dry authority.