Wednesday, August 08, 2007

thinking blogger award



I almost forgot about this!
Lili Wilkinson, author of Scatterheart, has given me a thinking blogger award. I'm fully chuffed, especially since I enjoy Lili's blog immensely.
Part of the award is nominating other people (yes, really this is a meme), still it's nice to tell people you notice them and care, so here are my awards in no particular order. It's skipping over lots of other people who I adore so this is kind of my top five of the moment. I must admit I don't read anywhere near as many blogs as I would like as frequently as I wish I could. And I tend to be a lurker.

1. Perry Middlemiss's awesome blog Matilda, which is an incredibly informative resource, giving a great overview of what's being reviewed and talked about in Australian books, and occasionally dipping into the treasure trove that is Australia's literary past. The nostalgia is perfectly balanced with thoughtful commentary.
2. Ever thoughtful Janet of Muppinstuff, who I think is actually a master (mistress?) of the blog form. She writes about personal things in an intimately personal but never sentimental or saccharine way. The snapshot of her days and thoughts are honest, rumpled, sometimes a bit knobbly - you never get the feeling she's edging her photos or her life with a vaseline gloss. She also ties visual imagery and text together in an interesting way.
3. Blue Milk is a blog I don't read regularly, but when I do I am blown away by how articulately she expresses values and thoughts that swirl around in the undercurrent of who I am, a side to myself I don't often express. She writes in a way that is never self conscious or contrived about feminism and motherhood and I find her breathtakingly smart and searingly honest and sometimes uncomfortable, because it tests me.
4. Even before I knew that I know her (we went to matric/college/senior secondary whatever together but she blogs under a different name), I loved Jamila's blog. It's a blog about so many things - art, ideas, motherhood, Islam, faith, beauty, selfhood...I'm not sure if she's still blogging, but it's worth reading through the archives regardless. I adored her back then, and we were friends, but I still felt I admired her from a distance because in some ways she is a difficult person to get to know (and perhaps so am I - I think I have always been a little private), not in a cold way, merely inscrutable. Anyway, she is still inscrutable, but this makes reading her blog all the more rewarding.
5. The delightful Meli started commenting on my blog a while ago, so I trotted off to read her blog, as is the natural order of things. Anyway, I'm glad I did. If you click on no other link today, click on this one, her post on paragliding. It's truly awesome and it will make you believe you can fly.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:41 PM

    Did you notice I 'awarded' you one in May ;-)

    http://flibbertygibbet.typepad.co.uk/flibbertygibbet/2007/05/i_think_therefo.html

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  2. Anonymous9:04 AM

    Thanks for this - I'm really chuffed.

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  3. You're very welcome Perry, thank you for such a great blog.
    Flib, I must have missed it! Though it's funny because I'd remembered you'd had one.

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  4. You made me stay up to all hours last night reading wonderful blogs!!! I have them bookmarked now. I agree, they're all great :-)

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  5. thanks so much penni!

    and you can fly, with the right equipment... ;)

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  6. I think I like vicarious flying. I admire your bravery immensely.

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  7. Anonymous2:23 PM

    Thanks and now I've gone and deleted the entire thing! Was bound to happen eventually, I was starting to feel more like my alter ego than I do like myself, whatever that is!
    You wrote some very nice things. And isn't suggesting that I'm unscrutible a kind of achieved scrutiny in itself! Perhaps because back then, I was trying so hard to pretend I was anywhere else, than at that college, in my skin. The part of me that was elsewhere, I was happy with, therefore I spent as much time with her as I could and only I can decifer her!

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  8. thanks Penni, you've thrilled my little writer's heart, the one that's in waiting for something else but also sometimes thinks this may be it for me.

    I'm pretty sad that Jamilla's blog has gone too.

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  9. Anonymous9:29 PM

    Thank you for the loveliest recommendation. I feel very inarticulate in my response, but thank you!
    x

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