things I have learned......

Things I have learned this week, this month, and this past 6 months of blogging:

- I went to Carl's site tonight and found not one, but two posts on faerie: Neil Gaiman (and the first photo made my heart stop, it is so breathtaking of Neil), and Brian Froud, and the links between them. I just watched Labyrinth (Brian Froud was the designer)last summer, for the first time in 20 years, and I enjoyed it, surprisingly so. and the poster that Carl was giving away, "Instructions" by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Brian Froud, is one i am too late to put my name in the draw for (since the draw was yesterday!), but I want that too - the poem is instructions for entering the dark wood of fairytales, and it is beautiful and wondrous and magical, and found in "Fragile Things", Neil's latest short story collection that I am in the process of reading. I had read the poem recently and fell in love with it, and now I know it's a poster....my birthday list is growing! Please check out Carl's two posts, they each are incredible. What I learned - other than the same synchronicity Carl was talking about, at work in my life! - was that there is a whole group of us who love fairy tales and fantasy books, which are my main love. I am not alone!! I know people read fantasy in Ottawa (we've held conventions over the years, and had two specialty bookstores for science fiction, both gone now), but not so many people talk about it, and that is what I have been missing.

- I have discovered that we love books, and talking about them, sharing our thoughts, reactions, joys and disappointments. In amongst the books, we talk about our lives, too, and it's like a glimpse of one another through starlight - here's a star in Minneapolis, there's another in Germany, another in South Korea, several in Canada, oh another in England and still another in Ireland - oh look, France has joined....Australia....many many more the world over - so many in the US- I know this is what the Internet is, but this is wondrous, that we all can connect over our love of books. It's like how long-distance letter writing used to be (and I remember those days!), only this is more immediate, and this has its good sides (we get immediate comments on our ideas and thoughts, and cheered up and find amazing books!) and its bad side (those of us who write books end up blogging more instead of creatively writing!! and spouses come wandering over to see where we disappeared to...). I'm still in my baby steps, and i have to admit that it is a thrill to check my blog every night when I come home from work and see who has dropped by.

- BAFAB week - all the giveaways and contests. I don't care if I won or not. This is my first year blogging, and my very first witnessing to the incredible sharing of books in the book blogging world. What a wonderful idea, and it's amazing and fun to see how generous we are with our books. It's like saying "here, read this!" over and over! I had no idea when I started my blog that this book blogging community even existed, and I am thrilled to be part of it. Next BAFAB, I will be ready!

- that we have lots of thoughts about what we read. I know there has been a growing backlash from 'critics' about book bloggers and our lack of credentials, but I've decided that the book critics are jealous. We write about books because we love them, and we have an instinctual - and good reaction to whether we like them or not, or if they make sense. I studied literature at university, and it killed my ability to write for several years after. Not on purpose, but the critiquing of method, novel set-up, characterization, etc, made me incapable of writing anything because I was instantly analyzing before I had finished putting it down on paper! We need literary critics, and I also now think the book world needs us - we're the ones who love books, and pay our money for them, and we treat what we read with respect - even if we don't like a book, we give a thoughtful approach to why. And it's fun, it's like we have a huge book circle! Oprah, move over, the real book-reading world has far better choices about what to read! Hmmm,
and this is really odd - further signs of synchronicity - over at Neil Gaiman's journal site he has just written several answers to questions in the last week on creative writing classes and writing, and do they help or hurt writing? Oh....and he's gained "a tub' size in jeans, I'm not the only one this long long winter has affected!! Oh hurray!! very shallow of me, but hey, you have to read his description of his closet (see journal entry "snowdrops"....). note to self: must get a copy of "Odd and The Frost Giants" somehow......

- we really like fairy tales.

- it's really fun to sign up for challenges!!

- and even more fun to choose the books for each challenge!

- I got my sister to read Jane Austen for the first time through this blog! (Stand up, Lady P!!)

- Oh - Inkheart is getting better near the end, I'm almost finished!

- and the best of all, you, dear Gentle Readers. Meeting you, finding your blogs, sharing books and ideas and thoughts, I had no idea this was waiting for me. So, as I reflect on my first six months - I can't believe it's been only 6 months! - of blogging, I raise my milk bottle (baby blog can't drink yet...) to you in a toast - thank you - and I really thank all the writers out there, old ones and new, because without them we wouldn't have any books at all. And it's now 25 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, and 35 minutes until *Neil's* next book, "The Graveyard Book" is out in the US (and hopefully Canada and the UK). :-)