Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Welcome to The Bookworm Blog


In May 2008, Green Bean Dreams launched a Be a Bookworm challenge. The response was overwhelming and very valuable information - lists of ecologically relevant books, book reviews shared by blogging bookworms, an entire community of bloggers reading these books - began flowing in. The challenge was extended through June but it seemed wrong to let that resource go at the end of the month.

This blog, The Blogging Bookworm, is a natural progression of both the challenge and the idea behind it - to share information about great green reads. Four members of the blog community, Donna at Chocolate Crayons & More, Katrina at Kale for Sale, Shannon at Going Crunchy and Green Bean at Green Bean Dreams will collaboratively manage this blog.

We hope that The Blogging Bookworm will serve as a resource to anyone interesting in reading a green book. Here, you will find not only lists of ecologically relevant books but also book reviews shared by fellow bookworms. You can check in to discuss a book, bounce ideas off of other participants, and check out what we are up to. On occasion, we'll spotlight a particular author or welcome a guest post from a fellow blogger. We may even have opportunities for book giveaways and author interviews.

This is your blog as much as it is ours. We hope that you will join us in being bookworms, share with us when you find any new ecologically relevant books you come across, and let us know if you've posted a book review so that we can link to it for other participants. Together, we can keep this resource growing. Welcome to The Blogging Bookworm.

Grab the button and shout to the world, I'm a Bookworm!



<a href="http://beabookworm.blogspot.com/"><img src= "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRd3ioK3wrdBGkpJgIeFeiiTsZqZze0BrJ6HJJAWIKXi-eqXxdcw-7J4FqAIPxaZIntoQ6Wg48lvxJsWpjCmWK8VMXjUpCZaFwmCfuRjvxdZGny3vfZsDyr8JmPiY7zXl_Tg3ldjGu5XU-/s320/wormbutton1.jpg"/></a>

Please check back in at the end of the month with your final thoughts on your June book. We look forward to reading with you.

The Bookworm Blog Team Members

28 comments:

Joyce said...

I'm glad you kept the cute little inchworm:)
This is a great idea!

Hannah said...

Thank you for putting this together! Fantastic.

ruchi said...

This is awesome! I have a couple ideas: what about theme months? Like one month, asking people to read about food or another month asking people to read about the green movement ... I'm not sure how structured you want it to be.

It would also be fun to do e-book clubs kind of like Crunchy's bookclubs where we all read the same book sometimes. Again, not sure if that's a direction you want to go.

Green Bean said...

Joyce: We couldn't leave that inch worm behind! I'm so happy your going to play over here. :)

Jam: Ha! I know what you mean. They do start to all feel the same. Especially when you focus on one category which I did with local eating for quite a while. Good luck managing your library list.

The Purloined Letter: Super!! I'm so glad you came over here. I'm still planning to read one of the books you last reviewed.

Arduous: Fantastic ideas. We are totally open to any ideas and really hope this blog will be very interactive. We'll have to see how we can incorporate those. Keep them coming!

Joyce said...

I should add that on my May 20 post I have a review of "Saving God's Green Earth" by Tri Robinson and Jason Chatrow.

ruchi said...

Okay, I am racking my brains for more ideas. In the mean time, I feel like I should probably get started with that Rubbish review I've been neglecting....

Theresa said...

Woohoo! This is a great idea! I am still plugging my way through Blue Gold, and I will certainly be reviewing it when I'm done. I've got many more books on deck to read, like (The Four Season Harvest, Gaia's Garden, Solar Power for Dummies, The Tao of Activism, etc.) and having one blog to go to to give and receive information from will be a terrific resource. Thanks for doing this!

J said...

I added the element to my blog and will pick out a book to start for July. Does it have to be one off this list?

Anonymous said...

Great site. The categorization, the links to reviews and to book information are all a reader's delight.

I hope you will add "Life of the Skies" by Jonathan Rosen in the nature and environment section.

Another possibility would be to include links or a monthly heads up post alerting us to "green" or relevant bookclubs on other blogs -- Crunchy's upcoming Food Not Lawns and Sharon's year long post apocolyptic club come to mind.

Unknown said...

I hope you will add The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour. I just did a review of this book on my blog:
http://bobbisbooknook.blogspot.com.
Thanks!

ruchi said...

I have another idea! (Aren't I cute.)

What about a yahoo groups or google groups page for this? That way we could organize threads, like one for book swapping?

Donna said...

Joyce: Got it! Thanks!

theresa: Glad you're having fun! I'll look forward to hearing about "Blue Gold" when you finish it.

Jennifer: Glad to have you on board! No, it certainly doesn't need to be a book from the list. New contributions are more than welcome!

susan b: I added the link. Thanks for your suggestion about other book clubs. That sounds like a really good idea for a post.

bobbi: I just added your review to the list. Looks like a really good book for someone who wants to be a pioneer. :)

Arduous: Thanks for all your great ideas. I don't know much about yahoo or google groups (maybe another of the team does?), but I agree it would be nice to have a way to swap books.

Sam said...

This is a fantastic idea. Glad you got some helpers GB.

I for one would like to keep this as a blog and not a yahoo/google group because groups are blocked at work. And I need some outlet of sanity. Please don't take blogger away.

Arduous: I've been waiting for your review of Rubbish. Very patiently I might add.

ruchi said...

Well Beany I only meant that SOME of the fun could be on google groups. Like the book swap.

I KNOW. My book review for Rubbish is seriously tardy. I'll try to do it tonight.

Natalie said...

Thank you, thank you. Thanks for fixing the comments on this blog from pop-up box to full page. I was trying not to mention how much it bothered me. But I knew it would limit my enjoyment if it weren't changed. Those pop-up boxes (they have a proper name I can't think of) drive me nuts for some reason. Thank you!

hmd said...

Just posted on "Common Wealth"

http://simple-green-frugal.blogspot.com/2008/06/common-wealth-for-crowded-planet-book.html

Would love to hear what others thought of the book...

Burbanmom said...

LOVE THIS IDEA!

and oopsie, I guess I never sent you the link to my AVM review...

http://burbanmom.blogspot.com/2008/05/bookworm-challenge.html

Will have one for Simple Prosperity posted soon...

Robin said...

Is it possible to give each book its own post, where readers can either a) link back to a review on their own blog or b) just give a quick review- like, x out of five stars, and suggested for newly green, pretty damn green or hardcore green? Then it would be easy to select your next read.

And, if you were done with a book, you could put it up for a swap.

EcoBurban said...

I'm in! I love this idea and agree with Beany, please don't take my blogger away!

I owe you all the rest of my AVM review and I am almost finished with Affluenza. I will send you a note when they are done!

Green Bean said...

Beany: Thank you! I hope you are feeling better, btw.

Arduous: Yes, you are cute! Originally, we were going to say "take that yahoo idea and run with, you yahoo you" but there are a few comments asking to keep it on blogger. What about a post (we'll put a link to it on the sidebar and the archives pile up) dedicated to bookswapping? Whenever you want to swap a book, you go check out the comments on that post? Do you think that might work?

Natalie: I know. Those drive me crazy too!! I didn't realize what it was when we set up the blog and then when I went to comment, well . . .

Heather: Thanks for the review. I'll link to it and then pop over and give it a read.

Burbs: Knew we could count on you!! Thanks for the link to your AVM review. How did I miss that? Can't wait to hear what you thought of Simple Propserity. Did I lead you astray?

Robin: See my response to Arduous re the book swap. What do you think? We're open to any ideas. As to a post for each book, Donna had a similar idea when setting things up but we couldn't figure out how to manage it. I guess we could theoretically do a post but I think all of us are a bit winded right now from setting up the blog. I'm thinking that, as we move along, we can do posts from time to time on certain topics and have people recommend their favorite book in x, y or z category and give it a rating such as you suggest (which I think would be really helpful). We could keep a link of that on our sidebar for easy reference. What do you think??

Eco Burbs: Yea. No party is complete without you. :)

Lori said...

I love the idea of having a consolidated source where I can look up lots of great books and work my way through associated reviews. I agree with others that we should definitely find a way communicate book-swaps when we finish up with our books.

I've been a slacker when it comes to the original challenge. I've read AVM and Omnivore's Dilemma but haven't posted on either. Yet. I've loaned out my copy of AVM, so that one will have to wait until I can pull out a few choice quotes, but a post on Omnivore's should be up in the next few days.

Thanks for organizing this great resource!!

Kale for Sale said...

lori - I'm in love with having all these books in the same spot too. We have lots of ideas for book swapping so stay tuned and let us know when you get the review for OD posted. I look forward to it. And thanks for your enthusiasm. It's contagious.

Melissa said...

I just posted my review of "Mindless Eating" here: http://greensimplefrugal.blogspot.com/2008/06/book-review-mindless-eating.html - next I'm going to read The End of Nature by Bill McKibben.

Green Bean said...

Thanks, Melissa. I got it. :)

Deb said...

Hi GB and all bookworms ~ I finally wrote my book review and I think you can find it here:
http://nourishthesoul.blogspot.com/2008/07/spaghetti-is-not-vegetable.html

Slowly my green thumb gets greener and my computer literacy skills improve as I try to keep up! Let me know if I need to do something differently. Thanks and Happy 4th to all!

Green Bean said...

Got it, Debbie. Thank you. :)

Melanie J. said...

Yeah, ok, I'm a tad behind...just posted reviews of Simple Prosperity and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle over at http://emberslighthouse.blogspot.com/2008/07/reviews-rallying.html. Silent Spring still hasn't gotten my undivided attention, but I'm thinking of hitting Al Gore's Earth in the Balance next.

VeganCowGirl said...

This is a brilliant idea. Will add the worm to my blog. I am just finishing Gunter Grass's Memoirs, but will start an eco book as soon as I am done!!

Excellent work! And so important.