Wake up, it's a beautiful morning, wake up it's a beautiful day. (thebookbag.co.uk)

Member Name: angusreid

Product:	thebookbag.co.uk
Date:	08/05/06 (1307 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A breath of fresh air and an enjoyable, friendly place.

Disadvantages: Making me write reviews again, humbug!

It was not by chance I stumbled upon this site, but I think I saw the link in a forum under a username and thought to myself, “What is this all about?” so, being the nosey old so and so that I am, I surfed along and came upon this.

Not the analytical type, you will have to forgive me if I approach this somewhat different to an internet site but at the same time, The Bookbag is not your typical internet site as you will see.

Two naughty schoolgirls who have never grown up thank god, have frequented review sites such as Dooyoo and Ciao for half a decade, bringing with them a charm, wit and also a sense of enjoyment to the sites. Their reviews have been of such an exceptional standard that anyone with half an eye for a good read will always be riveted to their personal feelings on any subject. So it came as no surprise to me, when first casting my curious eyes upon their project that it was a welcoming site and the homepage was simple, warm and colourful.

I think I used the word “simple” to describe the site but please do not take that as amateur or makeshift, as Sue and Jill have had a little bit of help to make this as professional as many a site I have visited. I do believe they received a bit of help from another review site guru known as Keith (Alkiliguru if you are familiar with Dooyoo or if you want to check out this chap for future internet business.) but I feel that the heart of the project was their own. The blue writing on the homepage makes you feel like you are in a cottage kitchen, and their introduction is superbly written to make you feel welcome and that you are not there to be sold to.

Scrolling down the homepage you find the latest book reviews, presented in a clear an easy to view fashion with a picture of the book to give you even more idea what it is you are looking at. By simply clicking on these pictures you get to read the whole review if you wish to do such a thing.

They set the categories out along the side so that if you wish to look by genre, you do not have to scroll, tab, click then search, makes for a much quicker and easier and less of a fuss. Just so you know what the sections are at the moment, here is a horrible list type thing.

Biography & Autobiography
Children's Books
Cookery Books
Fiction
Home and Family
Politics and Society

Once you click on any of these sections, the books that have been reviewed can easily be found here. Now there about us tells you who they are etc and adds a personal feel to the place. None of this big corporate feel and it kind of makes you feel like you’re in part of someone’s diary, looking from the inside out if you know what I mean.

The “you might enjoy…” link gives you a personal insight into their associated links and websites they enjoy using and that you may like to try yourself and the competitions they have are fun and enjoyable, with a chance to be a guest writer and win a prize to boot.

Now that is basically the website as a whole, but not why I am writing this or why I think it is something special in this world of impersonal, amateur website mayhem.

Having written reviews for so long, I became bored and a bit disillusioned with the standard and layout of review site reviews. They tended to be “for the crowd” rather than for the reader and aimed at personal gain rather than pleasure and this is why The Book Bag or Bookbag Towers as they like to call it, grabbed my attention and interest.

Both of these naughty grown up schoolgirls have rekindled their writing pleasure and managed to get this over in their own unique styles. No more writing to impress or to gain reward, yet their writing seems to wake the passion for reading in this once gluttonous reviewaholic who longed to be entertained and enthralled by people who wrote with a passion. Once more I see that sun shining from a computer screen and I feel myself being lost in a world of charismatic entertainment achieved only by reading something from someone who really enjoys writing.

Bookbag is a breath of fresh air in a carbon dioxide reviewing environment and I recommend anyone with an inkling for reading work produced with passion to nosey on down to this site and “have a butchers” for themselves. I can only shout from the rooftops my admiration for two people (and Keith) who have taken review writing to the next level.

Go on, go to www.thebookbag.co.uk and prove me wrong, but I feel if you go there to do that, you will be proving yourself wrong.

Summary: Go here and read some honest and superb reviews written with passion.