Well, I have some fun news: Andrea at My Autism Insights nominated me for the Arte y Pico Award.  Andrea blogs about having an autistic child, and the joys and struggles that come along with that.  She’s excellent blogger and friend here at Today.com.

Apparently, upon winning this award, I was tasked with the following:

1. I have to pick 5 blogs that I consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language. (Side note: Arte y Pico is an all-Spanish website.  I don’t read Spanish, so it lost me, but for those who can read Spanish, do go check out the blog and report back to me on what it says, in the comment section.  I’d be interested to find out how this award got started.)

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog so it can be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

For me, it was hard to decide on just five blogs.  I thoroughly enjoy quite a few more than that.  But after much deliberation, here’s some of my favorite blogs:

The Biggest Loser - This is a blog written by a gal, Diane, who is a major fan of the TV show, The Biggest Loser, and is on her own quest to lose some weight.  I will confess: I have never watched The Biggest Loser.  Not even once.  But Diane is such an excellent writer that reading her posts is like sitting down and chatting with an old friend.  I thoroughly enjoy her writing style. Which, as my readers on this site know, the writing style makes it or breaks it for me when it comes to what I read.  Oh, and I also love the site ’cause she’s had some contact with former Biggest Loser contestants (they’ve left comments on her site and everything) and she’s planning on doing some interviews with some. *cross your fingers* I’m looking forward to that!

Scrubs - Now this is a blog about a TV show I do watch: Scrubs.  Alana, the blogger on Scrubs, is just a blast to read.  She’s young, she’s enthusiastic, and she does an awesome job of researching her posts.  I find myself smiling as I read her posts - she’s just a happy person and that’s contagious.  Her blogs make me feel good.

SmallWorld Reads - Well, I’m a librarian, so I have to have at least one book blog on the list!  And that blog was easily chosen: SmallWorld Reads is one of my new favorites.  She is a thoughtful blogger who takes the time to write out reviews of books that are even more wordy than my own (I know what you’re thinking - that’s not possible!! - but it’s true).  I’ve never understood how someone could review a 500-page book in 150 words.  I can hardly say hello in 150 words. SmallWorld Reads is right there with me, and I’ve added quite a few books to my profile at GoodReads because of her.

ProBlogger - Darren Rowse is a huge name on the internet - he runs the immensely popular ProBlogger website, and makes his living as a professional blogger (a rare breed, let me tell you). He even recently wrote a book that I have on order and plan on reviewing on here. Anyway, if you’re looking for blogging tips and information, look no further than Darren Rowse. Not to mention he has a sexy Australian accent.

Living in Las Vegas - Here’s a Today.com blog that I’ve been visiting recently and have been enjoying. I have been to Las Vegas, and always wondered what it would be like to live in Sin City. I have had several people tell me that they’ve lived in Vegas for years and have never hit the Strip, so I was wondering if that was true across the board. Angela hasn’t talked a whole lot about the Strip yet on her blog, but she has talked about a variety of other things that make up life in Vegas, and I’ve enjoyed the peek into that life. I think nonfiction readers are voyeurs at heart - we like to see how other people live and imagine ourselves in that time period or that lifestyle ourselves. I think that’s why I enjoy the Vegas blog so much.

Well, that’s it for me. Do any of you readers have a favorite blog? Be sure to recommend one or two of your own, or throw your own hat in the ring and talk some about what your blog covers and why you chose that topic to write about. I’m always on the hunt for new sites to visit!

Hava