This week The Broke and the Bookish are celebrating their 1 year blogoversary, hoorah!

So why do I love book blogging?

#1 The community of book bloggers needs to be at the top of everyone’s lists this week. Many bloggers feel isolated in their blogging but I was welcomed with open arms (I’ve just passed my 3 month mark) and don’t ever feel like I’m talking to myself. Well not on my blog at least!

#2 I’m writing more than I have for a long time. Unlike many bloggers, I’m not really a writer and have no intentions to write a novel so it’s nice to be able to write more than just test documents at work. Whilst I’ve been sharing my thoughts on Goodreads for a while now and enjoy the forums at ReadItSwapIt, I’ve only been writing lengthy reviews since I started blogging.

#3 I feel like I’m included in the publishing industry, just a little bit but that’s enough. Book publicists are a lovely bunch of people that are so enthusiastic about bloggers and I’ve connected with a few authors on Twitter. I know have the confidence to approach people for interviews, review copies, etc and know I won’t be laughed at.

#4 Whilst I don’t do this for the free review copies, I find that receiving books for review has made me read things that I would never have had the exposure to otherwise.

#5 It’s a cheap hobby. Oh I know people harp on about the price of books going up but unless you’re after the latest hardbacks or are fussy about what you read, you can pick books up for pennies in charity shops in the UK and chart paperbacks for a few pounds. Compared to photography, this is budget stuff!

#6 In the main, book bloggers understand each other. We don’t have to explain why there’s 20 new books on our TBRs when we haven’t read the last 20 we bought… We can share our excitement over new releases and our disappointment with film adaptations.

#7 Readalongs are a great idea and although I failed epically with The Iliad, I’m really please that I got the push to start reading Gormenghast. It might be daunting but I’m really enjoying it now.

#8 There is always something going on in the book blogosphere, be it weekly memes, 24 hour readathons or monthly themed events. I’m looking forward to the next Dewey readathon and have even booked a day off work to recover (thinking about doing it for charity too). I’m also taking part in Paris in July next month and will be reading and watching some stuff that I might never have thought about otherwise.

#9 I like having a presence online beyond the normal social networks. Previously this has been fulfilled by Flickr but since I stopped my 365 it’s been hard to feel motivated to post there and a lot of my contacts are also scarce.

#10 I finally replaced the dodgy memory in my laptop just so I could get on and post my Top Ten. My laptop is no longer running like a one legged tortoise. OK I have had that new memory on my shelves for months and my laptop chose today to die but if I hadn’t have needed to post here, I might have left it to the weekend to sort out!