Book Blogger Appreciation Week: Best Cultural Book Blog?

If you're a book blogger, you probably already know about Book Blogger Appreciation Week, which is coming up next week. However, if you haven't yet heard about it, in the words of the original founder Amy Riley of My Friend Amy, it "was started in an effort to recognize the hard work and contribution of book bloggers to the promotion and preservation of a literate culture actively engaged in discussing books, authors, and a lifestyle of reading." In essence, it is a week-long celebration of book bloggers and the book blogger community.

One aspect of Book Blogger Appreciation Week is the Awards for Best Blogs in a variety of different categories. And I was very thrilled to find out today that In Spring it is the Dawn made it to the shortlist for Best Cultural Review Blog. I don't know who nominated me in the first place, but whoever you are, you're awesome! Thank you!

Earlier, to accept the nomination, I had to submit five posts from the last year, that I thought best represent In Spring it is the Dawn as a Cultural Book Blog. These are the posts that the judges looked at when deciding which blogs would move on from the long list and I thought you might be curious to know which ones I submitted. Just click on the links below to visit the posts.

'In the Miso Soup' and 'Audition' by Ryu Murakami (JLit Book Group)
Japanese Gothic Tales by Izumi Kyōka
'The Restaurant of Love Regained' by Ito Ogawa
Hello Japan! July mini-challenge: Non-Fiction
'Hagakure: The Code of the Samurai' (The Manga Edition)

Now the winner will be selected through a vote by all the participating bloggers, and of course I would love to have you vote for In Spring it is the Dawn. Anyone who blogs about books is very welcome to register. The Awards are just one small part of the celebration though. Besides being able to vote for your favourite book blogs, it's a week filled with guest posts, giveaways, and community activities, so I hope that regardless of who you vote for, you'll join us for some of the fun.

Congratulations to everyone on the 2011 BBAW Short Lists and to ALL my fellow book lovers for the hard work put into creating your wonderful blogs, many of which didn't make the list. Plus a very big thank you to everyone who continues to visit and for your support over the years! Here's to sharing many more posts about Japan and Japanese literature with you in the months, and years, to come!

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