Today marks the 2nd Anniversary of Minnesota Reads. Yippee! Later I’ll post about a giveaway we’re having to celebrate our anniversary later but right now I want to say a few things.

Since 2008 we’ve posted 482 book reviews. Not too shabby, considering every day someone is pronouncing the novel/short story/reading/books dead. Plus, in a time of dying newspapers and disappearing book review sections, small blogs like ours is one of the main ways readers find out about new books.

MN Reads would not exist if not for our dedicated reviewers (and you can be one too, we’re always looking for new voices to add to the site) who not only choose to spend their time reading, but then choose to share their thoughts about books. They’re an amazing lot and I’m honored to work with them.

You know what else has been a great honor? Asking 83 Minnesota readers, writers, and artists the 6 questions we always ask and Kurtis Scaletta, the 6 questions we hardly ever ask. He alone holds the honor of answering that second batch of six questions though Steve Brezenoff and J.C. Hallman will be answering them too in the coming weeks.

One of the main reasons MN Reads was created lo these many years ago was to highlight the literary goings on in our fair Twin Cities. At the time there was no calendar that aggregated all the happenings of the various venues around the state.

Sure the bookstores had their individual calendars, and occasionally the Pioneer Press would give a weekly rundown of what was going, but it was all hit or miss. Our literary calendar was the whole reason I started the site. I’m proud to say it was the first aggregated calendar of Twin City Literary Events (mad props to MN Reads’ interns Jaycie and Max who have been updating it all summer).

So there you have it, two years of Minnesota Reads. Long may we read.