In addition to enjoying reading books, I also love to read about books, and what's new and exciting in the literary and journalism world. My morning routine usually consists of a cup of coffee (or sometimes two), and sitting down and spending a good hour reading through the online editions of various news sources, such as my local newspaper, my hometown's paper, The New York Times (of course), and several international news outlets.
What's been neat about this is that through quenching my news thirst, I have stumbled across some really great book reviews, literary blogs, and have had my radar attuned in ways that it wouldn't have been otherwise had it not been for some of these international news sites such as, my personal favorite, the UK Guardian whose bloggers and staff writers update the Book section on a daily basis, unlike the weekly New York Times Book Review section, which most think of as the Lord of the Literary Kingdom.
Yet were it not for The Guardian, the London Review of Books, and even some translated Dutch, German, French, and Italian papers that I got into the habit of reading on a regular basis when I worked in international program development, I might never have heard about Salman Rushdie's upcoming novel, or learned more about Nazi Literature in the Americas, or discovered with small and obscure American publisher was distributing one of my new favorite authors.
So while I'm not intending to impugn great American book review sites in any way; indeed my hometown paper has a wonderful literary blogger that I enjoy reading on a regular basis, there are some brilliant international reviews and bloggers out there across the pond that can deliver a fresh breeze of news and ideas.
So for those of you who are online, on the lookout for the next Carlos Ruiz Zafon, or perhaps want to know what someone besides Michiko Kakutani thought of The Book Thief, then I say get thee to a Google and roam away!
Happy reading!
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