Comments on Commenting....

I just need to make a quick post here to apologize. I am having a commenting problem and I don't know what to do about it. If you have commented on one of my blog posts, there is a good chance I've visited your blog, and I've probably left a comment. HOWEVER, I am having an issue with my comments getting swallowed in cyberspace, and I don't know what to do.

It started, or at least I first noticed it, about three months ago. I'd commented on a post on Doing Dewey.  I later went back to leave a second comment and noticed there was no sign of the first comment. The second comment didn't appear either. So I asked about it to see if for some reason I'd been blocked. Not only had Katie not blocked me, but in checking she discovered there were no comments from me since sometime in April. And I KNOW I've commented frequently.

On further investigation, I've noticed it seems to happen on on WordPress based blogs. When I type a comment, everything looks good and it appears to be accepted. I get no warning notice or error message. And yet the comment never appears on the post! Very recently, I've discovered that if I omit the step of leaving my URL, the comment appears just fine. But then of course, it makes it really hard for someone to find my blog and respond if they want to browse some of the reviews I've mentioned.

So I came up with a workaround that I am sure is almost as bad as no URL. I started a second book blog with ONE POST ONLY! That post contains a link to my REAL blog so people can find me. It has to be inconvenient, but is better than nothing, I guess.

Here's the real head scratcher.....

If I don't realize I'm on a WordPress blog and leave my real URL, the comment disappears into cyberspace. If I then leave a second comment with my 'pretend' URL I get an error message telling me it is a duplicate comment. So I have to change what I wanted to say, or just decide it wasn't really important! It's almost like their is some master WordPress list that has my URL blocked!

Bottom line — I am not leaving nearly as many comments as I would otherwise. It doesn't mean I don't read and appreciate your blog though! I just don't know how to fix this. If you have any ideas about what might be going on, I'd really REALLY appreciate your sharing them!

Tracking Your Reading Statistics

Do you track your reading stats? I mean real stats.

For several years I’ve been tracking the books I read on Goodreads, and when I join the yearly reading challenge, it automatically tracks the number of books I’ve read that year. I can attempt to get more detailed by adding my books to different shelves, but that really doesn’t do a nice, neat breakdown of stats, at least not in any meaningful way.

For the past month I’ve been reading other bloggers end of year wrap-ups and I love all the neat charts and infographics they create! For an example, see Shannon’s wrap-up post at River City Reading. Isn’t that infographic awesome? Take a look at her 2013 wrap-up post for a different way of presenting her data.

After reading her post last year, I was really tempted to do something similar, but…

well….I just never quite sat down and worked on it. But after seeing various bloggers use their spreadsheet skills at the end of 2014, I knew it is something I want to try this year. Lucky for me, I saw on the Bloggiesta Facebook page that Shannon had offered to share her spreadsheet with us.

I changed a couple of categories and substituted some of my own, and I’m off. And typing in the info is actually motivating me to want to finish some books! Take a look and see if this works for you. There are other bloggers who have also developed reading spreadsheets Here are a couple of others I’ve come across.

• Fyrefly’s Book Blog
• Book Riot

I know I’ve seen even more but I just can’t find them right now. So if you are interested in another way to track your reading, but these are not exactly what you are looking for, look around. If you find one that looks good, please post the link in the comments below. It may be just what another blogger is looking for!

And Happy Tracking. I’m having so much fun with it, I may just have to go back and add in my 2014 reads!

Talk 2 Me: Read....Review....Repeat....

Last week Shannon @ River City Reading caught my attention with her ‘Let’s Shake Things Up’ post. She mentioned how difficult it is becoming to post a book review that sounds original instead of sounding like a repeat of every other book review you write. She also referred to a post by Michele @ A Reader’s Respite that discussed the idea of slowing down to read purposefully. I have to admit, those both rang true for me. I can’t say that I am tired of writing reviews or that I have trouble feeling like I have to make them distinctive, but I can say I feel like I am on a bit of a treadmill. I made the mistake of over-committing to reviews earlier this summer, and now I am in a pattern of reading as quick as I can, churning out a review, and then starting in on the next book. This doesn’t mean that I am not giving thoughtful, honest reviews, because I am. But I am feeling pressure to pick up the next book before I have time to digest the last book. I also am having a little trouble with writing a thoughtful review and still refraining from revealing spoilers, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with being over-committed.

After reading Shannon’s post, I began thinking about why I started book blogging in the first place. When I started blogging, it was all about me. It seemed like often, someone would mention a book and I‘d forget that I’d read it. Or I would recognize the title and the fact that I’d read it, and maybe even remember that I liked it, but I couldn’t tell you anything about the book! Book blogging was my solution to that problem. As soon as I finished a book, I would rate it and write a quick review so that I could come back later and refresh my memory. When I started, I even went so far as to find discussion questions and answer them in detail, posting my detailed thoughts on a ‘private’ blog, especially if the book was a book club selection. Keeping it private allowed me to discuss the book in detail without worrying about revealing spoilers.

Relatively soon, as I became more involved in the book blogging community, the blog became less about me. I now spend more time with memes, which I enjoy, but it does take time away from my reading when I interact with other bloggers. I also started participating in book blog tours, again something I enjoy, but it does put a little pressure on me at times when I let myself get over-committed. There are just way too many good books offered for review! And it leaves me almost no time for ‘deep-thinking’ about a book! Or for impulsively picking up a book that catches my eye.

I’m not sure what the solution is for finding time for reflection on a book. I am slowly getting caught up on my commitments. I don’t think I have anything scheduled after November! But I really would like to find a way to interact with other bloggers more about the books themselves; a community ‘deep-thinking’. Maybe a new blog where everyone links their review on a particular book and then stays to discuss the book? Or a ‘blogger’ group on Book Movement? I don’t know….

What do you think? Are you feeling the need for more thoughtful discussions about books? And if you do, what ideas do you have for implementing a discussion? I’d really like to hear from you.

Talk 2 Me: Negative Reviews

I am participating in Bloggiesta this weekend and one of the things on my list is to do two mini-challenges. This first one I am tackling is April’s challenge about the proper way to write a negative review. While the challenge is simply to leave a couple of thoughts in her comments section, I feel like an can fill an entire post with my thoughts! And here it is...

April also referenced a previous post she did on negative reviews. I link it here because I think it gives valuable background information. I completely agree with her about the importance of negative reviews. A blog that only gives happy, positive reviews isn’t really that interesting, or trustworthy, in my opinion. If I never see criticism or critique, I begin to wonder why. Does the blogger feel obligated to say nice things? Or maybe she isn’t reading the book closely enough to really have an opinion. I used to read a blog that only gave positive reviews, and while that probably made the authors happy, to be honest after awhile it got pretty boring. The reviews were a bit shallow, and didn’t entice me to read the books. I started skimming the reviews and eventually unsubscribed from the blog. So I value a negative review when it is thoughtful, honest, and well-written. April tackled the process of writing a GOOD negative review.

The first point April makes about writing a negative review is that we should never make it a personal attack on an author, and I agree. I try to remember that the author may well stumble across my blog, and I certainly don’t want to hurt her feelings. I can criticize the choices she makes in her storyline or writing style, but not her! I do feel like I have come close to the line a at least once. In my review of A Girl Named Zippy, while I didn’t specifically attack the author, the comment about the book being more interesting to the author than the audience, while meant about authors of memoirs in general, would probably be hurtful to this particular author if she were reading my review.

Another point April makes is that we need to maintain balance and find SOMETHING we like about the book. To expand on this, she suggests the ‘sandwich’ technique and points out the importance of being specific about what we didn’t like. Obviously this would help a reader know whether the book was for them, even if the reviewer did not like it. One of the most negative book reviews I ever did is for Girls In Trucks. While I was pretty specific about what I did not like about the book, I probably bashed it a little too hard. I managed to find something I liked (the cover)!, but I didn’t do too well with sandwiching idea. I’m sure if the author ever stumbled across that review, her feelings were hurt.

There are a couple of hints I want to add about writing negative reviews; things I try to do in my reviews that April didn’t specifically touch on. The first is that I try to refer readers to other reviews, particularly if my review is more negative than most. This usually consists of a simple statement near the end of the review pointing out that even though the book wasn’t for me, it is getting much higher ratings on Goodreads, along with a suggestion that they check out the reviews there.

The other thing that I think can help cushion the blow of a negative review is way you choose to word the criticism. Teachers are very good at this, so I will give a couple of examples from the teaching world. The first is this statement my child received on a report card in early elementary school; “demonstrates leadership potential”. Sounds positive, right? Well, I knew my child, and I knew what she really meant was that he had a tendency towards ‘bossiness’; heloved to direct other students and tell them what they were doing wrong and how they could do it better. But the way the teacher worded it sounded much nicer than “you have a bossy kid!” A couple of years later I got a comment telling me “does not like to lose”. I was mixed about this one, because it certainly sounds better than telling me he yelled and blamed others when he lost, but it probably would have been better to say something like “needs to learn to be a gracious loser”. Not liking to lose is actually a good thing. I mean, when is the last time your heard a coach say “I want you on my team because you like to lose!” My point is that in trying to be positive, she actually distorted her message. When we write a review, we need to be careful with our wording so that it TACTFULLY conveys what we mean.

Thank you to April for giving me a lot to think about with this mini-challenge! I will keep these thoughts in mind as I write reviews in the future!

My Favorite Books of 2014....So Far

A couple of weeks ago, Shannon, at River City Reading, listed her favorite reads of the year...so far. I decided that this is an excellent idea, so….

So far this year I’ve read 34 books, most of which if rated and reviewed. Here is the breakdown of those I’ve rated.

• DNF ------------ 2
• 1 Star ---------- 0
• 1.5 Stars ------ 0
• 2 Stars --------- 2
• 2.5 Stars ------ 1
• 3 Stars --------- 8
• 3.5 Stars ------- 9
• 4 Stars --------- 11
• 4.5 Stars ------ 3
• 5 Stars --------- 1

So far, luckily, I haven’t come across any truly horrible books this year. I did DNF two books, but they weren’t bad books. I know some readers loved them. They just didn’t happen to catch my interest at the time I picked them up!

I appear to have a nice bell curve going with not many books falling at either extreme. The huge majority of my books rate 3 - 4 stars, with most receiving 4 stars! It looks like I’ve done fairly well picking  books to read this year! I only had four books that I rated higher than 4 stars. These are my favorites….so far.

Reviews are linked. Click on title to go to review.

• The Pearl That Broke It’s Shell by Nadia Hashimi
• The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg
• The Unfinished Child by Theresa Shea
• Playing St. Barbara by Marian Szczepanski

Have you taken time to evaluate your year in reading? What are your favorite books so far?

Talk 2 Me: Book Trailers

I enjoy book trailers. I know that many people dislike book trailers. I’ve heard complaints about poorly done book trailers. I’ve also heard people complain about the irony of using a video medium to encourage people to read. And I understand those point. However, I really LIKE book trailers when they are done well!

‘Done well’ surely means different things to different people. It woud be hard to ‘explain’ what I mean by well done, but at it’s best, a trailer will give me a very quick introduction to the book and tempt me to read more. But instead of trying to expain what I think makes a good trailer, I thought instead I will show you a few trailers today and tell you what I like about them, and maybe what I dislike.

I’ll start out with this trailer for The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty. This is my example of how NOT to do a book trailer!

This one told me NOTHING about the book! It basically regurgitated quotes from reviews that could have come from many books, but nothing that made this book seem special or made me want to pick it up. And what’s worse, the quotes are against a plain background. The final shot of the cover is beautiful, but any review site shows me that much. There is nothing in this trailer to entice me to read more! Loved the book! But not the trailer!

A trailer does not have to be long to be effective. Sometimes short and sweet is the way to go. That is the technique used in this trailer for Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson .

We all already know the story of Peter Pan and Wendy. There was no reason for the trailer to tell us what we already know. Instead this one give us just a taste of the book, pointing out that Peter had a story before he had Wendy. And I love the music! It really sets the mood!

On the other hand, there are times a trailer needs to be a little longer if the story is different from anything we’ve read. Here is a good example; this trailer is for Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.

In this case, the trailer is a dramatization of a scene from the book, and uses some of the photos from the book. This is a great way to introduce us to the characters and get us to want to read more. Seeing the trailer first, and having a visual of the characters would help the reader to be involved with the book from the beginning. This is one where I love the trailer, but not the book!

Sometimes a trailer is just as good AFTER you’ve the book as it was before you read the book! This trailer for The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom is one example.

I love all the still photography here and the use of the Ken Burns effect to create motion. If you haven’t read the book, it touches on a few points of interest and makes you read the book for more detail. But after you read the book, watching the trailer is a great way to review the book and remember as you view each scene!

This trailer for The Guardian by Beverly Lewis is another example of a trailer that work as well before or after reading the book.

Strictly speaking, this would probably not be considered a trailer. It is more ‘informational’ than ‘enticing’. The author gives some background on the setting of the story and her inspiration to write the story. Watching the trailer gives a bit of the flavor of the setting and the things to come. But if you read the book first and then watch the trailer, it is interesting to see the settings in the novel come to life. And the scenery is beautiful!

I could go on with this, but I don’t want to overwhelm you. But if you want to see more, you are in luck. One of the things I accomplished during the recent bloggiesta is to add labels to the sidebar of my blog. If you scroll down the sidebar at the left, you will find a box with my frequently used labels. Just click on the ‘book trailer’ label to find all my posts with book trailers.

What about you? What YOU think makes for a good book trailer? Do you even LIKE book trailers? Do you have a ‘go-to’ site to find new trailers? If so, TALK 2 ME! Leave a comment below!

Talk 2 Me: Book Jackets

I love dust jackets, don’t you! They can be beautiful! And I know some disagree, but to me, a hard cover without it’s jacket is just….so…..boring….

In fact, I’ve been known to pick up the paperback just because it looks so much more interesting than a hard cover without it’s jacket!  But seriously….what is the PURPOSE of the dust jacket; to look pretty or to protect the book. So I can never decide; do I take the jacket OFF while I read to avoid damaging it? Or do I leave it ON while I read to protect the book? (And of course, there is the built-in bookmarks when I use the flap to mark where I left off reading!) Or maybe the solution is to just always use my iPad to read my books on?

I think I may have stumbled on a solution that works for me. About a month ago I was in my local Walmart and they had all of their back-to-school supplies marked down for clearance. My eye was caught by some ‘stretchy’ fabric book covers marked down to only a quarter, so I picked up half a dozen in different colors figuring we could use them next fall. They’ve been sitting there on my desk since then, and every time I see them, I wonder why I bought them. I mean, really, is my 15 year old going to be willing to carry his books around in high school next year with bright primary colored books? I don’t think so!

But when I was removing the jacket from my new book so I could dig in, and feeling bad about the whole should I or shouldn’t I dilemna all over again, there they were! So I grabbed one and quickly put it on my ‘naked’ book! It fits very well but not perfectly. As long as I just leave the book sitting, it looks great, but because the fabric is stretchy, as soon as I open the book, the material gaps away from the top and bottom of the spine. But as long as I remember to stretch it back over the spine when I set the book down, it will work great! And as an added bonus, the pack even came with a cheap cardboard bookmark, so I don’t even miss the flaps!

I decided to try a paperback, too, It didn’t work so well. The book is smaller than the cover, so it gaps and wrinkles instead of clinging to the book. A smaller cover might work. But I did discover that if I take the back flap off and stretch it over the entire book (so the flap overlaps) it makes a pretty nice little pouch that protects the book when it is in my purse.

So talk to me….do you leave the jackets on or take them off when you read? Do you have other ways of protecting your books while preserving the jackets? Leave me a comment!

Talk 2 Me: 'Borrowing' photos

This week I am not asking what you think as much as asking for your advice.

Earlier this week there was quite the discussion on one of the genealogy sites I frequent regarding copyright and the ‘stealing’ of photos for your web site and blog. A lot of people post photos of their loved ones with their family trees, only to find them pop up on other trees and sites, sometimes linked to the wrong person, and always without prior permission. This led to a pretty heated discussion with comments ranging from ‘it’s stealing just like if you downloaded and album and then uploaded to share with the world’ to ‘don’t put it on the internet if you don’t want me to take it!’. And of course everyone thinks they are right!

Moving away from genealogy, I started thinking about my book blog. Almost since I’ve had it, I’ve ‘borrowed’ cover photos and synopses from sites like Goodreads and Amazon. I’ve kind of been of the opinion that it is ‘free advertising’ and the would encourage that. I kind of sound like the attitude up above, no? But the big thing I took away from the genealogy discussion is this; most people really do NOT mind sharing photos, but they DO want to be ASKED! So now I’ve reached the point that I feel like I need an ‘official’ source for my info. I would like to ask permission from Goodreads, but I can’t seem to find a link to request that permission.

So my question for you all today is....

Where do you get the cover photos and information you use for your blog? Have you formally asked permission? Do you feel the need to ask permission?

I guess maybe I AM asking you ‘what do YOU think?’ And I’m looking forward to your answers!

What Do You Think? Ratings - Part 2

Just after reading that post, I visited A Bookish Affair and found even more reason to get my ratings systems nailed down and visible for all. The short version is, in addition to her blog being plagerized last week, she had an unfortunate confrontation from an author who was displeased with the review her book got. Meg was asked about her rating system (right at the top of the page!) by the publicity company. You can read the details on Meg’s blog, but the bottom line for me is....I need to have my ratings system well thought out and visible to all.

So I did some thinking and here is how it went...

I started out with the Goodreads system. I’ve always loosely based my ratings on Goodreads stars, but embellished is some with half-stars because I need those ‘in between’ steps. I thought about using 10 stars, but 10 stars seems a little overwhelming and I think most bloggers are used to 5 being a top ranking!

I also thought about using something other than stars. I’ve seen a lot of custom ranking bars around; fish, hearts, sea shells, magnifying glasses, etc. But since my blog is pretty general, nothing stood right out for a ‘theme’. I’ve always liked Roger Eberts ‘2 thumbs up’ for movies, but since I have trouble with only 5 stars, using only 2 thumbs would be way too confining! I guess I could use fingers, with 5 fingers as a top rating, but what about the bottom. When I give a book 1 finger, is everyone wondering which finger I am giving it?! So stars it is!

For reference, here is the Goodreads system...

★                  - did not like it

★★               - it was ok

★★★            - liked it

★★★★        - really liked it

★★★★★    - it was amazing

And here is MY system....

★                  - dislike; I shouldn’t have wasted my time

★★               - ok, but just barely; flawed but not a total waste of time

★★★            - liked it, but pretty average; not a big with a major impact on me

★★★★        - liked it a lot; will definitely recommend to others

★★★★★    - loved it; among the best I’ve ever read

I also give half stars to bump a book up if I think it is better than the star level indicated but not good enough to be bumped to the next star level.

Occasionally, after time as passed, I may revisit a book. It may have aged well and I realize it is more memorable or has more meaning for me than I originally thought. Or it may be, that in comparison to other books I’ve read, it doesn’t stand up as well as I thought it would. In those cases, I may adjust my ratings up or down by a half star or more.

So...that’s it! What do you think?
You can find review my ratings system at anytime by clicking the link at the top of this page.

What Do You Think? Rating Books

I recently came upon a discussion by Megan @ Love, Literature, Art & Reason that got me thinking about my star rating system. Basically, Megan uses a star rating system based on the Goodreads rating system and wondered if other readers interpret her ratings the way she means them to be interpreted. I think that is a really good question and one we all need to think about when we rate a book.

Here is my reply to her question....

• Great discussion. I also use Goodreads as a guidline, but also use half stars. To me, a 1 is a dislike and I shouldn't have wasted my time with it. A 5 means is is among the best books I've ever read and I will be thinking about it for a long time.
• In between is a 2, which means is was just barely ok, but probably had a lot of flaws that kept me from really liking it. But also not a total waste.
• A 3 to me is a pretty 'average' book. I liked it fine and don't regret reading it, but it is not a book that impacts me or I will be thinking about, and possible not even remember, a month from now.
• A 4 means I really liked it, I'm glad I read it and will recommend it to others, but it falls short of being one of my best books ever.
• I also do half stars, usually for books that fall just short of the next star. For example, I often give 3-1/2 stars to books that I think are a bit above average; I enjoyed them but would not recommend bumping other books of your pile to get to this one. Does that make sense?           

I have noticed that I often change my rating as time passes. For example, I may initially give a book a 3, but after discussing it at bookclub, or writing the actual review, I realize that there was more substance to it, more to think about,  than I initially gave it credit for.  And after time passes and I think back to it, it is a more memorable book than I realized. I may raise it a half star or more.

One thing this discussion has made me realize is that I need to think about my ratings system and really spell it out, both for you, the reader of my blog, and for me. I need to be a bit more consistent when I rate a book so that when I give a rating it always means the same thing. And I need to make that easy to refer to, as in, I need to have it visible on this blog.

So look for it. I want to spend a little time thinking about it and defining my terms, but I hope soon to revisit this, and to have a well defined rating system in place soon!

What do you think? What is your system for rating books?