My Social Bookmarking Soulmate

... because who needs a "real" soulmate when Delicious offers a virtual one! HUZZAH interwebs!

So, I was on a quest to find a soulmate who shared my interest in reading. Seemed like it would be an easy task. I mean, everyone LOVES to read, right? Eh... not exactly. At least, not as feverishly as I do.

Prior to starting this blog, I was seriously searching for a blog on books that was good. And by good I mean, not just a blog of book reviews, or a blog dedicated to everything related to Twilight (I'm looking at you, crazy people at Twilight Lexicon). Sad to say, but Google let me down. All the popular book blogs I found focused on giving reviews. There is much more to the vast world of books and publishing than reviews. So, in searching for a soulmate, I was also searching for someone who was a little more book blog savvy. Or to be blunt, just more internet search savvy.

And my search was not in vain! I started my search by seeing who had also tagged my currently favorite book blog, The Book Bench. And sadly, only 50 of the 5 million delicious users had tagged this site. Although, it made my soulmate searching much easier. As I looked at the various users' other bookmarks, I soon realized that many probably just stumbled on the blog, or liked it for some reason or another, but weren't that interested in books per se. I also found a lot users who seemed to be teachers, which is cool and all, but not exactly soulmate material.

Alas, I was disheartened by these dead ends. But, after my journey through delicious, I found the user eniale. We haven't formerly met yet and I think the fact that I can't pronounce their username will not bode well. However, what's great about this whole social bookmarking thing is that they never have to even know we are social bookmark soulmates. I can just merely stalk this person and the interesting sites they tag without them ever knowing it. [The Internet: Where Stalking Is Totally Cool].

This user isn't particular wordy in their descriptions or tags. The words "book," "literature," and "blog" seem to suffice. [I wasn't looking for a conversationalist, anyway.]

Here are a couple of pretty sweet sites I found from eniale. Words Without Borders is a site dedicated to alerting an English speaking audience to some nifty foreign books that have English translations. These are books I probably would never have heard of were it not for seeing this site. We have all read Camus, Cervantes, Marquez, and other foreign what-have-yous, but the books on this site are contemporary! Turns out, books are still written in languages other than English! WHAT? Took me by surprise too, but you learn something new everyday.

Another site tagged by my newly found soulmate: Campaign for the American Reader (apparently there are several readers who happen to be American!). This is a blog that I wholeheartedly support. Essentially, the blog is just trying to get Americans to read books. And good ones at that. ["at least they are reading any book" argument be damned!] In essence, it is a blog that reviews novels, but the purpose behind the blog makes it pretty awesome in my book (check out that pun action).

I'm not really into the whole social bookmarking thing or even the internet for that matter. Had it not been an assignment for a class, I would never have checked out delicious or gone on a ridiculous search for a 'soulmate,' but I must say that I am intrigued by what I have found. I suppose the internet has more to offer than facebook and pornography...