Because I’ve been an INTJ since I learned my letters…
Bouquets: Some of my favorite things…
Carolyn Jean, The Thrillionth Page, “Great Moments From Last Night’s Reading”: This is such a fantastic concept, it brings me closer to her reading experience than a regular review, and it often makes me even more interested in the book than a comprehensive review would. I am sure these must be super time consuming, but I so look forward to them whenever CJ has the time!
Jill D., Romance Rookie‘s “Series Sunday”. This is a classic example of why posts do not have to be long or have bells and whistles. I love these posts — they introduce me to series I don’t know, they remind me of gaps in series I have partially finished, and they allow me to trip down memory lane for series I have completed.
Ana and Thea, The Book Smugglers, author interviews. Sometimes, I chase an author all over Romancelandia reading her interviews, and end up feeling sorry for her since she has to answer the same tired set of questions over and over. These guys inspire authors to say the most interesting, unique things.
JenB, The Ginger Kid’s Den of Iniquity‘s “WTF Wednesdays”. Have you ever considered why heroine public hair is so fuzzy? Why there are no BFFs in romance? Why authors refer to a neck as a column? Well, Jen has. And once you read her posts, you’ll wonder why these important matters escaped your notice.
Heloise, Bodice Ripper Reviews, for the humor. Everything from her tagline — “Would a Wisconsin mother of two lie to you?” — to rating historicals by number of “discreet coughs”, to comments like, “let’s face it, virgins always bleed in romance novels”, this is the funniest blog you are not reading.
Blogbats… I’m not calling you out (way too chicken), but you know who you are…
1. So you haven’t had time to post. I totally get that. But the posts that do nothing but that tell us you are too busy to post? Without even saying anything interesting about what you are so busy doing? 
2. Commercialism. I get it that some bloggers spend a lot of time, effort, expertise, and money on their blogs. They deserve to recoup some of that. I don’t even begrudge them trying to turn a profit. But isn’t there a limit? How about a rating system that helps us to judge how heavily a visitor to your site will be bombarded with attempts to sell us things, and, worse, attempts to get us to sell ourselves your things?
Level 0: Either through design or incompetence, actually repels you from buying things based on its content
Level 1: Links to Amazon in reviews, has Library Thing widget (not that I know any blogs like that)
Level 2: Kind of like the NPR or Democracy Now of blogs: has an Amazon store, but maintains a noncommercial self-image, with concomitant hand wringing over introduction of ads, which it takes only for benign purposes
Level 3: Encompasses items in Level 1 and 2, with Ads by Google banner, ads for books running along along one or maybe two sidebars, and some “eye catching” Java to go along with them.
Level 4: Encompasses items in Level 1, 2, and 3, with promotional posts and contests. Often editor and author blogs fit this bill. This is where my personal limit has been reached.
Level 5: Encompasses items in prior 4 levels (with a special fondness for those “eye catching” ads), with frequent self-promotional posts, creative insertion of commercial content into regular columns, and posts that encourage readers to supply content for additional commercial enterprises (Stockholm Syndrome?). Of course, all of that commercial activity has resulted in a decrease in the kind of posts that made you love this blog, and an increase in posts which are essentially links to other blogs supplied by readers (Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy?). Me, I’m just waiting for the branded line of tampons and pads (which make your periods fly by in a sexy and sassy way, of course!), because when some folks put “saturation” in their business plan, they mean it!
