Inspiration
My recent attempt to organize and log my book collection ultimately led me to open an account on
LibraryThing. It's an innovative and enjoyable site. One can spend a great deal of time there. After overcoming my initial amazement at how many people actually own the same books I own and looking into their virtual libraries, I became occupied with tagging my titles and setting up "collections." Incidentally, I recalled unpublished book reviews from a few years back and thought LT would be a good place to publish them. I noticed, however, that my reviews tended to run longer than most. As a result, ANR was conceived.
Structure/Navigation
Most of my reviews will default to a
condensed version ending with a link which expands into the
full version. The coding is very basic; but I'm trying to minimize scrolling for readers who need to make the most of their time. To explore the blog, use either the right navigation panel or the navigation strip below the header.
Tags
I'm currently using both the list and the cloud for my tags. And, since Blogger doesn't provide a way to list categories, I'm applying style conventions to my tags that will
create categories within my tag list. As my entries increase, the benefits of this strategy will become evident. Here are conventions I've employed thus far:
- Tags that refer to the setting in a work of fiction are enclosed in parentheses.
EXAMPLE: The tags (spring), (1945), and (New York) indicate the setting is New York in the Spring of 1945.
- The publication year, however, will be listed without a convention.
EXAMPLE: The tag 1945 indicates the edition of the title was published in 1945.
- Challenges are identified with a plus sign (+).
- A number prefaced by an asterisk (*4) references a star rating.
This way, a reader knows that to find a review about a book set in the year 2003 to look for
(2003) — not
2003 — in my tag list. And it keeps all the settings, publication years, and star ratings together as well. So the novel
3 Strikes (I made this title up for an example — although I'm sure there's a book with this title) will not be listed below the tag level for books I've given a star rating of
3. And more importantly, all the star ratings are listed together.
Content For now, the amount of time I dedicate to blogging will be minimal since my priority is finding work. Therefore, I'm committing to one quality review and/or article per week. In order to build up the quantity of my content, however, I may enter additional posts during my debut. I hope my content is useful to you. Please let me know. Oh, and I kind of dabble in web design; so please bear with any changes to the site for the next month or so. Being a creature of habit myself, I understand the need to maintain the status quo. So the changes will always be relevant.
Disclaimer I try to maintain a positive outlook when writing a review. But some aspects of a book may require me to express a negative opinion. Although I govern myself according to Christian values, I'm not "preachy." But when a basically good book describes a scene or idea that vexes my spirit, I will probably comment on it. This may or may not influence my recommendation and/or rating. I can tolerate a mild degree of profanity if the author uses it as a character-development mechanism. And, when used properly, a non-graphic romantic expression or an implied encounter can be a necessary element to storytelling.
Recommendations While I will recommend a book I enjoyed, I will never tell you not to read a book because I disliked it. Instead, I'll describe my reactions and respect your ability to make an informed decision based on your preferences. Therefore, I'll just say I didn't enjoy the book and briefly state the problems I had with it. And if I have a strong aversion for a book, I will neither critize the author nor devote more of my time to it by writing a detailed review. Instead, I'll look for cracks in my selection process to avoid these instances.
See you in the stacks!
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