“Bob wasn't precisely a friend to me…
In a way he was family, the mouthy, annoying, irritable cousin
who was always insulting you but who was definitely at Thanksgiving dinner...”
― Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
Thanksgiving – a time to come together with our extended family and reflect upon everything we're thankful for: our health, our happiness, our family and friends, the cornucopia of extraordinary books that we’ve read this year…
Thanksgiving – a time to come together with our extended family and let long festering dysfunctional issues boil to the surface in a soap opera-like knock-down-drag-out clash replete with projectile wine glasses, turkey legs used as bludgeoning weapons, heads forcibly dunked into crockery filled with cranberry sauce, curse words that would impress an old sailor, mortally wounded egos and burned relationship bridges that will never again be repaired.... 
I love Thanksgiving – for a variety of reasons. Getting the family together for what amounts to 96 hours of almost continuous eating, drinking, napping, watching football and playing board games is certainly a wonderful marathon event but it’s also a deeply reflective time for me. I bid farewell to all the friends and family members who passed away during the year and will no longer be occupying a seat at the Thanksgiving table.
This year, I will take a moment to remember all of the beloved authors who have passed in 2011 – including Brian Jacques, Sara Douglass, L.A. Banks, Diana Wynne Jones, and Joel Rosenberg. They all will be sadly missed…
Paying respect to those who have recently passed makes me acutely aware of how lucky I am – I’m certainly not monetarily rich by any stretch of the imagination but I have a beautiful, bibliophilic wife; two angelic daughters; a tightly knit extended family; and a dream job that has given me the opportunity to read and review genre fiction for almost the last two decades.
My job may seem to be to be a solitary one – and for the most part it is, squirreled away in my house reading books all of the time – but it has been unexpectedly enriched over the last few years by the daily interactions of the hundreds of hardcore genre fiction readers who visit me in the BarnesandNoble.com forums and follow me on Facebook and Twitter. All of your comments and messages and our subsequent discussions have unarguably made me a better reviewer – I’ve discovered countless authors and books because of your recommendations and I can honestly say that more than a few of you have become good friends.
So this Thanksgiving, between mouthfuls of turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce – and before the tryptophan and wine knock you out – please remember to not only take a moment to give thanks to those significant others in your life and to remember those loved ones who have recently passed but also to realize how many people are thankful for you, even if it is only a reclusive book reviewer nicknamed after an ornery farm animal…
Paul Goat Allen has been a full-time book reviewer specializing in genre fiction for the last two decades and has written thousands of reviews for companies like Publishers Weekly, The Chicago Tribune, Kirkus Reviews, and BarnesandNoble.com. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
Keep up with all of my blogs – as well as all of Barnes & Noble’s exclusive reviews, authors interviews, videos, promotions, and more – by following @BNBuzz on Twitter!
Great article Paul. We all need to remember to count our blessings and reflect back on those we have lost. The book blogging and book forum groups are made up of some of the most wonderful people. I know this past year I have been introduced to some of my favorite series and authors. Paul, you and the gang, introduced me to the Hollows, Mercy Thompson, Rosemary and Rue, The Passage, and perhaps my favorites The Greywalker series by Kat Richardson and author Patrick Rothfuss and his novels The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Paul.
We love you too Paul! You're the best book pimp and friend a bibliophile chick could ask for.
I'm thankful for all the friends I have met,and all the wonderful books and new authors that I have been introduced to through this forum. My overweight/overworked book shelf however is cussing you all out.
