Anyone who sends me e-mail knows I'm terrible at reading and responding to it. Despite spam filters, my inbox gets about 1,000 new messages each day, consisting of a hodgepodge of junk, bookish press releases, and personal mail. I flip through it quickly to look for mail I'm expecting, so it usually takes something catchy to get me to read anything unsolicited.
A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from Andrei of bookblog.ro asking if bookblog.net would be interested in a link exchange. Exchanges don't generally happen on this BookBlog, mainly because nearly all linking goes though posts to the homepage. This way, most links come with a thoughtful explanation and I personally prefer to only recommend things I've thoroughly checked out. However, Andrei's e-mail caught my eye because he described bookblog.ro as "the most important blog dealing with book reviews in Romania (that's Eastern Europe :) )."
Although I already know where Romania is located, the smiley-faced geography lesson made me chuckle. His e-mail was being sent to an American, and it's not unreasonable for folks outside the U.S. to think that most Americans are geographically-challenged since, frankly, a lot of us are. Just last night I watched the Kentucky coal miner and wife get eliminated from The Amazing Race and say, "I need to get out and take my kids to see the world. I don't want my kids to be like me; I want 'em to experience life, because I never experienced life." It's a shame how so many of us don't have the luxury or opportunity to see what lies beyond our borders.
Map skills aside, Andrei also pointed me to his site's review of La răscruce de vânturi, the Romanian translation of Wuthering Heights
Update: I feel the international love. Thank you, also, Andrei, and I hope you reach your goal of conquering Google. Well, all except for the number one search spot for "bookblog," of course. ;)
