Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate! I know the holiday has a problematic history, but I still love that it prompts us to spend one day out of the year hyper focusing on gratitude. We should be counting our blessings every day, of course. Still, I need the annual reminder to really think about all that I have and be thankful for it. After all, my life is rich and full and beautiful, in spite of its challenges and heartaches. We were discussing the Book of James in church yesterday and I love the verse that counsels us to "count it all joy" (James 1:2). I'm trying to do more of that as I count my blessings instead of my problems. 

Today's Top Ten Tuesday (hosted, as always, by Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl) topic is our annual Thanksgiving prompt: Top Ten Reasons Why I'm Thankful for Books. I've done this one multiple times, so today I'm going to go rogue and express my gratitude not for books, but for book bloggers. Over the years, I've wanted to do a personal shout-out to all of the bloggers I love and appreciate, but I couldn't figure out a way to do so without (1) creating a post that's so long no one wants to read it and (2) accidentally leaving someone off the list. Yesterday, I had the brilliant idea of highlighting the top ten commenters on my blog this year. Blogger, unfortunately, doesn't have an easy way to identify these rock stars (at least not that I could find). Since I haven't posted nearly as much in 2023 as I usually do, I decided to just count up the comments myself. How hard could it be, really? Ahem, this is what my desk looked like after tallying up comments for just the first few months of the year:

 

At this point, a few things occurred to me:

(1) This project was going to take longer than expected and maybe I should quit while I was ahead.

(2) I probably should have used a spreadsheet for my calculations instead of writing everything out by hand.

(3) I really wanted to know who my top commenters were.

(4) A lot of people have taken time out of their days this year to leave a comment on my blog. How awesome is that?

As I wrote all of your names down and scrolled through all of your comments, I was absolutely flooded with gratitude for YOU. According to my calculations, 184 of you (not including anonymous commenters) paused a moment to leave me at least one message this year. Thank you for that! It means a great deal to me. Even more amazing is that a whole bunch of you left me multiple comments over the course of this year. My favorite part of blogging is interacting with you. I haven't been as good about commenting on other people's blogs this year, so the many comments on mine mean even more to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You make blogging such a joy for me. 

Although I appreciate each and every comment left on my blog and it's not a competition, obviously, I still want to give some shout-outs to the bloggers who commented most here at BBB this year. If you're not familiar with them already, do yourself a favor and go check them out. You'll find thoughtful book reviews, on-point reading recommendations, fun book commentary, and, best of all, new blogger friends!

Just for reference, I have published 66 posts this year (not including this one), of which 40 were Top Ten Tuesday lists. (I've been a HUGE slacker on reviews this year!)

1. Katherine P. @I Wish I Lived in a Library and Lark @LarkWrites...On Books and Life (43 comments)

2. Cindy @Cindy's Book Corner, Deanna @A Novel Glimpse, Helen @Helen's Book Blog (41 comments)

3. Lydia @Lydia Schoch and Nicole @BookWyrm Knits (40 comments)

4. Rissi @Culture Characteristics/RissiWrites (32 comments)

5. Louise @Foxes and Fairy Tales (31 comments)

6. Deb Nance @Readerbuzz and Leah @Leah's Books (30 comments)

7. Carla @Carla Loves to Read (29 comments)

8. Dedra @A Book Wanderer (26 comments)

9. Nicole Santana @The Christian Fiction Girl and Vero @The Moon Phoenix (24 comments)

10. Lindsey @Lindsey Reads and Marianne @Let's Read (23 comments)

11. Lisa @Bookshelf Fantasies and Tanya @Girl Plus Books (22 comments)

12. Carol @Reading Ladies and Ethan @A Book a Week (21 comments)

13. Emily @Budget Tales Book Blog and Rainbow Stevie @Literary Loot (20 comments)

14. Suzanne @The Bookish Libra (19 comments)

15. Leslie @Books Are the New Black (18 comments)

A million thanks to these frequent commenters and to all of you who read my blog and take the time to comment. I appreciate you more than you could ever know. I love being part of the book blogging community. Thank you for making it such a fantastic place to hang out!

Have these book bloggers also blessed you with their lovely comments? Which book bloggers are you thankful for? Why are you thankful for books and this bookish community of ours? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.