Being a book lover does not preclude one from pursuing other passions. In fact, for some readers, books bring a whole new level of appreciation to their other favorite pass times, and vice versa.
Book bloggers David Gutowski, Josh Christie, and Vera Marie Badertscher are three such individuals. For each of them, blogging is the perfect outlet for combining their loves of literature with their loves for a little something else – music, beer, and travel respectively. Along the way, they’ve entertained and enriched the lives of countless of their readers.
Learn about each of them, and how they came to be bloggers of books and more, below:
David Gutowski of LargeHeartedBoy
David Gutowski of the blog, Largehearted Boy.
From the “about the blog” – Largehearted Boy is a music blog featuring daily free and legal music downloads as well as news from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture.
Books were my first love. Growing up, there were always books in my house of all age levels, and my parents (both voracious readers) encouraged me to read from an early age.
When the series began in 2005, I would approach publishers about specific titles I had read and enjoyed. Now I am sent a multitude of books every week by publishers, publicists and authors to choose from. I still only choose books I personally enjoy for the series, though, and often get good suggestions from bloggers, friends, and even booksellers.
Not surprisingly, publicists have come to recognize my taste (the series mostly features literary fiction and nonfiction), so the bulk of my review pile consists of good candidates for the series. Over the past couple of years authors who have already contributed to the series have been probably the most surprising source of new submissions.
I don’t accept unsolicited submissions by authors or publicists. My criteria for inclusion in the series is simple, I have to enjoy the book (and I have been known to be quite picky).
I have approached a majority of the musicians in the Note Books series directly, I try to focus that series on songwriters I greatly admire.
One of the reasons I started the Book Notes and Note Books series was that I would continually be impressed by music referenced by authors in interviews, and books named by musicians as their favorites. These series not only enlighten the blog’s readers, but also myself.
When starting the series I assumed musicians would be more receptive to writing about books than authors writing about music. I underestimated both the time available to musicians and the music love of writers.
I do. I keep two baskets of incoming mail just below my stereo in my office, music and books, and sample both throughout the day. I have always been able to multi-task, and reading while listening to music has never been a problem for me.
A friend of mine just asked me what music would pair well with Flannery O’Connor short stories, and I recommended anything by Sigur Ros. I tested the combination yesterday and found that Icelandic indie rock plus Southern Gothic fiction works remarkably well together.
I love the way authors are increasingly leveraging the internet to get direct access to their readers. Whether it is their own websites, forums, blogs, or guest essays and interviews. I am incredibly excited to see authors both approachable and humanized through their online interaction.
I worry that as a whole, people are reading less, but I never lose sleep over the quality of writing today. I am amazed almost every day by books from presses big and small.
My biggest concern is the plight of the independent bookstore in the digital age, especially with the growing use of e-books.
David Gutowski
Largehearted Boy: http://blog.largeheartedboy.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/largeheartedboy
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/DGfacebook
Josh Christie of Brews and Books
From the “about the blog” – Brews and Books is a site for everyone’s inner Hemingway – a site about books with a healthy passion for alcohol. Er, maybe a better example is everyone’s inner Sam Calagione, an English-major-turned-brewer. Wait, that isn’t perfect either. BrewsAndBooks.com is a site for everyone that loves a good book in one hand and a good beer in the other. The blog first arose out of a desire to share reviews of well-written books and lovingly-brewed beer. The site has evolved slightly from this original purpose, and now shares news in the brewing, publishing, bookselling and beer worlds along with reviews and editorial content.
So, why beer and books? Where did the idea come from, and have you found kindred spirits?
Basically, I didn’t think I had enough to say about either topic by itself. While I’m a lifelong reader and love craft beer, I’d hesitate to call myself an expert on either topic. At the time I started the blog, I knew far less about beer than I do now. While I could talk a bit about the dominant flavors and experience of drinking a beer, I just didn’t know enough about the topic to put out a half-dozen posts a week. Similarly, my job as a bookseller made books a natural topic for me to dive into, but I’ve never been particularly good at talking about books critically. I’d heard from a lot of bloggers that the two most factors in making a good blog are a passion for your topic and the ability to update regularly, and I figured I’d be able to write more if I wasn’t focusing on one niche.
I’ve found a few kindred spirits in other bloggers, authors, and brewers. I tend to focus on independent booksellers and independent breweries, and the entrepreneurial, indie spirit links these industries. If you look at the number of authors that (for good or ill) enjoyed beer a bit too much, or at the number of brewers that have written books (Dogfish’s Sam Calagione even has an English degree), I’m a bit surprised no one jumped on the book and beer idea before me.
What’s your all time fave brew?
This is one that probably changes every week. Although I’d probably get some flak in the beer geek community for saying it, my favorite beer isn’t one of the “white whales” out there; the rare, expensive superbeers that people seek out, wait in line for or buy on eBay. Instead, my fave is one I love for totally sentimental reasons – Alaskan Brewing’s Alaskan Amber.
When I was finishing up my Political Science degree, I spent half of my senior year living out in Juneau, AK. I was travelling alone, I had just turned 21, and I’d be living further from my family than I ever had before. After a long flight from New England to Seattle, I bought a pint of the Amber in Seattle while waiting for my connection to Juneau. It is a simple, crisp and slightly nutty amber ale, and the taste and experience have made it my favorite ever since.
Fave book?
Fave blog (other than your own)?
Whew, that’s a tough question for a guy that gets hundreds of posts in his Google Reader every day. For books, I love independent blogs like Largehearted Boy, Books on the Nightstand, and Bookgasm. For book news and reviews, I always read GalleyCat and the Onion AV Club, and there is stellar content going up from bookstores like Northshire and Inkwell on an almost daily basis. In terms of beer blogs, I’ve really been enjoying the Hop Press on RateBeer.com. I’ll admit that I’m a blogger for the site, but don’t think that’s the only reason it’s a favorite. There baker’s dozen of weekly columnists are some of the best beer writers on the internet, and are diverse in age, location, writing topics and areas of expertise.
Beyond brew and book blogs, I check iFanboy, NPR’s Monkey See, Destructoid, io9 and the Slate blogs every day.
What’s the best thing about blogging on books and beer?
Is it uncool to say the free beer and free books?
In all seriousness, the best thing about the blog is turning people on to good beer and good books. One of the great things about writing on two topics is that beer lovers who may never pick up a book will see book content on my blog and find a new favorite novel.
Similarly, readers who might have never tried good beer – real beer – will end up trying and loving something like a witbier or a chocolat tarted the site because I’m passionate about both topics, and seeing people find a new favorite beer or book because of me is probably the coolest feeling in the world.
Anything about it not to your liking?
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jchristie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/josh.christie
Vera Marie Badertscher of the blog, A Traveler’s LibraryFrom the “about the blog” -SHORT VERSION: Here at the Library, we will wander the globe, in no particular order, ignoring the Dewey Decimal system, the alphabet, continental boundaries, or any other artificial organization.
How long has Traveler’s Library been in existence?
I started January 10, 2009.
How do you choose what books/locations to blog about?
Generally I put new books with strong presentation of culture or place at the top of my list, and love to develop contacts in publishing who alert me to their new books that fit; next come those that are on my shelf that I have already read–which means a lot of Greece since that is my main love; next I take the suggestions of my readers. Believe me, my readers have supplied me with enough suggestions to keep a blog going for several years. They are well read and contribute valuable information. Through it all, I keep an eye on current events and historic occasions that I can tie in to the blog posts.
Which of your posts are you proudest of/like best (so far)?
How do you find guest bloggers for your blog?
I meet other bloggers through Twitter and through other social networking tools. When I read the posts of a blogger who writes well and seems to have a feeling for literature and travel, particularly if they have some experience with a part of the world I have not been in, I ask him/her to do a guest blog for me. Also, sometimes people who comment on my blog get roped in.
I tend to read more travel blogs than book blogs. Just because since I hired myself for this job of reviewing books that influence travel, I don’t have time left over to read outside those lines. That said, I particularly like Angela Nickerson‘s A Gypsy’s Guide. Novel Destinations takes the traveler to the home of an author, or place of famous literature. The Heiroglyphic Streets covers books for the traveler, as I do, but excerpts reviews from around the web. I like their approach, and wish they were better known, actually.
Your favorite travel destination is Greece, but what’s your all time favorite book?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Do you have a favorite book blog? Share it with us in the comments!
[...] my friend Kat Meyer’s Follow the Reader, there’s an interview with yours truly about beer, books and BrewsAndBooks.com. In all seriousness, the best thing about the blog is turning people on to good beer and good [...]
The number of micro blogging websites is increasing day by day with the increasing number of internet users. Most of the internet users are joiners of any of these websites. Twitter is the most commonly used micro blogging social network. The number of its users is increasing day by day because of its ease of use and the number of benefits, it provides to its users. Some people join twitter merely to extend their work because professional related to every field can be found on twitter. Proper interaction with professionals of a specific always results in some common benefit. Sharing of information can be of a lot of help for people. Musicians especially new singers and bands find twitter very helpful if the know the exact way to market their music. A lot of new fans can be found and even by proper marketing online sale of albums is eased. To get all these benefits simple public dealing techniques should be kept in mind. Some people try to benefit themselves by using twitter but in reality they don’t because they try to influence people by using technical aspects but not the general rules for dealing people. A new musician should create his account on twitter and then start twitting. He should interact with people especially the music lovers and then by sharing some interesting information, he can become friend with them. He then can share his music with them, hence making his twitter friends, his fans. In this way the number of fans can be increased in a few days. Free mp3 songs and free CD’s can be offered to fans on the home page of twitter. This can prove the fastest way of getting famous at expense of nothing. The only thing a musician needs to do is to regularly visit his twitter account.
Start sharing music with thousands of people on twtmuzik.com.