Posts Tagged ‘book blogs’
1
30 June 2009 – Which? What? Who?
1This is the first instalment of a new regular feature here at Reading Upside Down. A similar, hopefully weekly, post will be made at Oh, the Thinks you can Think using the same heading. The plan (yes, we do have one), is to post a weekly summary of the things that have caught our attention on the wonderful and wacky world wide web.
The aim is to post this every Monday. True to form, this is the first Which? What? Who? post and I am already a day late. I shall aim to be more punctual next week.
The best thing about starting this book blog has been the discovery of the extensive and active book blogging community. There are so many great blogs discussing some great books and book-related topics everyday.
Book Discussions
I’ve stumbled across a few discussions about the purpose and effectiveness of book blogs, particularly when related to book sales. Natalie at Book, Line and Sinker brought this up as she contemplated the 6-month anniversary of her blog and Charlotte Abbott posted a summary of the recent #followreader discussion topic on the same subject at Follow the Reader.
A hands-on example of book blogs promoting the sales of books can be found this week at My Friend Amy and Presenting Lenore. Both Amy and Lenore are promoting Beth Kephart’s latest book, Nothing but Ghosts, and are aiming for 200 online sales by the end of this week. Their promotion includes interviews with the author and a book launch party held at My Friend Amy.
Several of the comments I have read have pondered whether book blogs promote books to anyone other than other book bloggers. Even if this were the case, there must be some flow-on effect from this sales-wise. An example of active promotion of books to bloggers comes from Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog, who asked for recommendations of YA authors and blogs. If you’re looking for some good YA, the comments section of this post is a good place to start.
On a completely different topic, I found this post about not posting negative reviews and the resulting comments at J.Kaye’s Book Blog very thought provoking.
Fave Book Blogs this week:
Book, Line and Sinker
Lost in Books
J.Kaye’s Book Blog
Cindy’s Love of Books
Ms. Bookish
That’s it for this week. I will be better organised (probably) and have an actual Which? What? Who? format ready (maybe) for next week. I might even have a fancy little Which? What? Who? picture to accompany the post (probably not).
1
Life, the Universe and Book Blogging
1
Meredith and I have only recently joined the thriving community of book bloggers and have to admit that we didn’t quite realise that it was quite so diverse, extensive or active.
I’ve probably entered into the book blogging community a little more actively than Meredith, who is keeping the home fires burning at Oh the Thinks you Can Think while I nurse our fledging book blog into existence.
Now that I have had time to have a little look around at the amazingly diverse world of book blogs, I am starting to get a feel for what kinds of sites most appeal to me and, based on this, what direction I would like this blog to take.
Deep, deep down, there is part of me that would love Reading Upside Down to be a serious literature/book review blog. I’d love for readers to regularly visit, drawn to the incredibly intellectual insights and commentary I offer on a wide array of titles, marvelling at my exhaustive knowledge of literature both classic and modern.
Unfortunately, the truth is that these aren’t the blogs that I enjoy visiting myself. In the past couple of months, I have been drawn to blogs that combine personality with well-written reviews by well-read readers of books, not dry analytic commentaries by professional “qualified” literary critics. Not that these serious critiques don’t have a place, it’s just that they aren’t the sites I have bookmarked in my full to overflowing reader.
The blogs I am drawn to are the clever, witty, amusing, knowledgeable and interesting network of (mostly) women that have offered me the opportunity to expand not only my knowledge of what books are out there, but also to enlarge my capacity to enjoy books and reading. I’ve laughed, I’ve sighed, and I’ve come away from posts with insightful thoughts and morsels of philosophical debate wandering through my mind for days after I’ve read the post that inspired them.
So, what kind of blog do I want Reading Upside Down to be? I guess the answer is I want it to be somewhere where people come to find out about great books, discuss books and reading and just hang-out with friends. I want it to be, as my new favourite book blogs are, a blog about books with wit and personality and a splash of fun.
Which book blogs inspire you? What are you looking for in a blog – do you prefer serious and academic, chatty, 100% reviews or a combination of reviews, chat, serious topics and fun?
1
Book Pun, Anyone?
1Encouraged by Nat from Book, Line and Sinker (so you know who to blame if this all goes awry), I have been on the lookout for book puns after exploring the hair-raising efforts of hairdressers and the half-baked article titles of a local recipe magazine.
So, here they are in all their punnish glory – book and reading puns at their worst best.
Book Stores
- Better Read than Dead
- Arcadia Unbound
- Book & Cranny
- Pages & Pages Booksellers
Book Blogs
- Book, Line and Sinker (could Nat have had an ulterior motive in suggesting that I list book blog puns – surely not!)
- Follow the Reader
- Between the Covers
- Book Ends
- Framed and Booked
- Burning Leaves
- Library Queue
- Babbling Book Reviews
Of course, if you’re looking for gratuitous book puns, you can’t really go past the star of Vicki Myron’s novel about the Spencer library cat that captured the heart of book lovers around the world. The cat’s name? Dewey Readmore Books.
This is just a sample of what is out there. I don’t think my husband is going to buy my “I have to look at all these book blogs. It’s research” line any longer. If you have a book pun blog name or know of one, please comment and let us know.
1
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – What the?
1
Despite the fact that I am a die hard Austen fan, when I heard about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Quirk, 2009) by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith I was still mildly intrigued – enough to check out the publisher website anyway.
Apparently this mashup of Austen’s 1813 classic and a zombie rampage storyline has made it to number three on the New York Times bestseller list. Not having read the book, my guess is that this success would be more attributable to the cult status of P&P than any literary revelation attributable to the zombie additions, but I could be wrong.
Far more fascinating than the novel itself, which seems to me a novelty concept that would be read once then put aside, is the internet buzz amongst book bloggers stirred by a rather bizarre publicist letter included with review copies for bloggers.
Rather than rehash everything here, you can find the details at:
- Still Life with Book Maven Part One and Part Two
- Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?
- Twitter with the hashtag #quirkppz
The fundamental issue seems to be whether book blogs are equivalent to print book review columns and whether bloggers should be accorded the same respect as print journalists.
Personally, I can’t see why book bloggers wouldn’t be given equal credit. In these uncertain times with the ever decreasing readership of newspapers and other print media, internet journalism in various forms seems the way of the future. In my admittedly inexperienced viewpoint, this is the time for publicists and marketers to be harnessing the power of online reviews rather than alienating bloggers.
As with anything else, there are good, bad and ugly examples of book blogs out there and they are certainly not all of equal value and/or quality (as is also the case with newspapers and magazines). My personal preference is for book blogs that convey some personality and a sense of humour in addition to intelligently and well-written reviews.
Discussions of the latest Austen distortion aside (these are more than adequately covered on the sites linked above and others), what role do you see book blogs having now and in the future? Do you have a preference for a particular style or format and do you think a blog review is equivalent to a review in print?
