The second topic we’re talking about at Armchair BEA today is exploring our blogging horizons. (The first topic was about short stories and novellas.)

I started a book blog, in part, because I saw that there were several active memes. I could jump in right away and make connections with other book bloggers. One of my first posts was for “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” at Book Journey. I also participate regularly in these memes:

• Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads
• Wondrous Words Wednesday at BermudaOnion’s Weblog
• Saturday Snapshot at West Metro Mommy

To run a meme, of course, expands the horizon from participating in them. That’s been my big leap on my blog.

The first step was to figure out how to put a link list on my blog. I liked the look and feel of the one on Weekend Cooking, so I always knew that was the one I wanted to use, but it took a Bloggiesta mini-challenge to get me to try Mister Linky for the first time.

With that skill in my pocket, I was in the right place at the right time to take over the meme that became Readers’ Workouts. Mari at Bookworm with a View started our Tuesday exercise check-ins but never intended it to be a permanent feature on her blog. I liked it so much that when she was ready to move on, I asked her if I could take it over. Every Tuesday, book bloggers and other readers report their exercise struggles and successes for mutual support and accountability.

The next big leap was to upgrade my Mister Linky account. That happened when I needed to preschedule a post because I was going to be away. The upgraded account lets me have multiple link lists open at the same time. Before, I had to close last week’s list so that I could open this week’s. For $5 a year, it was well worth it to save that extra step.

With the upgraded Mister Linky, I now had everything I needed to run a second meme.

Last year, we took our first trip to France. Before, during, and after, I read lots of books about or set in France. I also posted many of my photos from my trip. The Dreaming of France meme that Paulita runs each Monday at An Accidental Blog was really fun for meeting others with similar interests, many of whom had a lot more travel experience than I did. They were so helpful!

This year, we’re planning our first trip to England. I looked around for something like Dreaming of France to fuel my reading about Britain, but I didn’t find anything. After asking around during the March Bloggiesta, I decided to start one myself. Thus, was born British Isles Friday – a weekly gathering of posts about Great Britain, Ireland, and the six thousand smaller islands surrounding them. The first post was just after Bloggiesta and we’ve had a fun party each week since with book reviews, photos, histories, and more. I’ve learned so much!

We’d be happy to have you join us on Tuesday for Readers’ Workouts and Friday for British Isles Friday.

Have you started a meme on your blog?