I’ve been bookgaga all my life, but had to wait for Twitter to be invented to tell it to the world.
Reading is my foundation, deeply informing my personal and professional lives. I always, always have a book within reach. Four years ago, I co-founded Canada’s most active silent book club chapter, and teamed up with the global Silent Book Club founders to publicize the concept on the CBC and via other media outlets. I champion reading, poetry and other book-related activities and causes via this blog and my social media presence, largely on Twitter and Instagram.
I have worked as a freelance web designer and social media manager in the ever-evolving online realm for 25 years, after close to 20 years as a technical writer and manager for several technology companies. I’ve worked and managed web programming colleagues on online projects for authors such as Faith Erin Hicks, Robert Rotenberg, Ted Cadsby and more, organizations such as the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and The Neighbourhood Group, filmmakers such as Riddle Films and Capri Films, Artworks for Cancer, literary awards such as the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Charles Taylor Prize, and a range of commercial, tech and other amazing clients. (My work portfolio is here.)
In addition to conventional book reviews (my own and those from occasional guests, gratefully welcomed), this blog is about how I like to come at books and reading and the reading experience from different angles. I enjoy exploring poetry and its immense range and diversity through the daily #todayspoem exercise I share with other readers and contributors on Twitter. (Feel free to join us!) Over 2014, my husband and I examined our household incoming and outgoing book traffic. In the last four years, I’ve regularly posted our silent book club reports and reading lists. What’s next? Well, stay tuned!
You can contact me at vicki@bookgagabooks.ca.
You can also find me online here:
Twitter: www.twitter.com/bookgaga
Instagram: www.instagram.com/vzbookgaga
Mastodon: @bookgaga@mastodon.social
Hi Vicki,
Finding your website has made my day! Would love to join your Silent Reading Club! My family has walls of bookshelves filled with books and books on end tables and coffee tables …. close to cozy chairs and windows for light. My daughters are grown now, have their own book clubs with friends and your club is just what I have been looking for – thank you for your leadership! I read classics, mysteries, biographies, books my daughters recommend and children’s picture books!
I paint watercolours, that’s the introvert part, participate in a Social Justice Seekers group, teach kindergarten to grade 2 part-time, travel with my husband when we can and make family dinners in my old, well loved kitchen. As an introvert, all that is fun but exhausting: reading recharges my energy.
Anna, thanks for your lovely note. Please drop me an email message at sbc@ziegler.ca and I can fill you in how to join our Silent Book Club group.
Hello Vicki …
Just posted my thoughts on The Orenda and thought I’d share. We have had a brief exchange via Twitter. I continue to find your tweets of great interest.
PS w
Would love to beg off work today & dive into your blog sans distraction.
I’m heading over to give your Orenda review a good read – thanks for letting me know! Thanks too for the blush-worthy comments about this little blog. You’re very kind. Looking forward to more conversations here and on Twitter.