On why I love book nerds, authors and the internet

So apparently things like THIS also make a book nerd squee.   Oh... oh, HI John Green.  S'up?  Ya- we're like totally BFF's now IRL.

Okay, maybe not.... so why does this make happy dance in my office chair?  Let me try to explain.

One of the awesome things about Twitter, Facebook and social networking in general is that it gives you the opportunity to connect with some of your favorite people instsantly and in real-time.  Whether it's personally, professionally or fangirly.... these people are at your fingertips.  My IRL friends ask me why I spend so much time online, or tell me that they don't "get" Twitter... or ask "why don't you join a real book club"??? yadda yadda yadda.... well here's why.  I have a lot of online friends thanks to a book forum I belong to and I would never have "met" any of these people if it wasn't for the wonderful world of the interwebz.  These are people who I talk to on a daily basis about my favorite topic... BOOKS.  But beyond that, we have a comfort level established that has led to much more than just a book club and I look forward to really meeting these people in the future (damn geography keeping me from nestie gtg's).  So, those friends alone make it worth the while... but they're not the only reason I love the e-world so much.

Now it's true that I follow a lot of people on Twitter and true many of them are celebrities who wouldn't respond to me to save their lives (not that I send messages to most of them), but it's cool to see their updates and know what they're up to, working on, getting charged with etc.  Maybe I should follow LiLo?  I'm sure it would be entertaining to say the least... but I digress. Where Twitter becomes especially cool is with some of my favorite authors that I have the pleasure of following through their days.  I love getting updates on how their next book is coming,  teasers about sequels and just funny little insights into their lives, or what they like to read... etc etc etc.  Authors are my ultimate celebrities because I read a whole heck of a lot more than I watch TV or movies, and what's super cool is that a lot of these totally awesome authors actually respond to your Tweets.

What's that you say? You want examples? 

I tweeted yesterday about going through vlogbrothers withdrawls and wondered where John and Hank Green were... and got the above linked response directly from John. 

I read and LOVED Sisters Red, posted a Tweet about how awesome it was and got an almost immediate response from from Jackson Pearce saying that she was so happy that I liked it. 

I've exchanged random tweets about the fabulous Hex Hall and life in general with Rachel Hawkins.

Although I've never reached out to her personally, I know several of my NBCer's have had coversations via Twitter with Maggie Stiefvater (author of Shiver, Linger and some other awesome books) about her books and other randomness.

I think the best example of this involved my NBC girls, a Jessical Darling/Marcus Flutie'd Christmas poem and Megan McCafferty. Lets just say it was hilarious, Megan loved it, sent signed books and hashtagged the crap out of the key term in the poem. FAN- FREAKIN'- TASTIC.

They run contests on Twitter, ask for feedback, opinions, random trivia, post pictures etc. And they are actually there reading and responding.  It's so freakin' cool to interact regularily with the people you admire most (and ok... in the case of John Green, fangirl over).  There's something genuine about a lot of these authors because they're truly grateful that you read and buy there books and they really want you to enjoy them.  I'm sure it's also pretty cool for them to see people trending about their books... something they put so much time into. And lastly, many (if not all) of them are book nerds to, so you have that in common to connect you and I love it.

You rarely get that kind of interaction with movie/television/music industry stars... but I get it on a daily basis with some of my favorite authors who are, in the end, just really cool people.  How awesome is that?