A Personal Bloggiesta

About 5-6 years ago, I participated in a few Bloggiesta events to help me redesign and rethink my blog. The idea was to share information about useful tools and blogging tips, visit each others sites to offer suggestions on design and template issues and generally, spend time thinking about how your blog looks and works for you and for your readers. 

I haven't heard or seen much about them in recent times, and the original hosting site seems to have turned into a Korean online fashion shop. But after my recent Stories & Shout Out post and then reading Marg @Intrepid Reader's post about social media use, I've been mulling over what's working for me and what's not. I decided it was time to bloggiesta my blog!

Marg was working out how best to integrate her SM with blogging as well as how best to record her reading journey. I'm trying to streamline processes and decrease my time on my iphone. I've also been inspired by Karen @Booker Talk throughout the year with her A-Z of Blogging tips. Many of you have been asking questions and offering comments in response to my earlier post, so this is an attempt to bring it all together in one place.

I've always been an amateur librarian with my books.

From about 8 yrs of age, I kept an exercise book with a list of all my books. At that time I started my own numbering system. I didn't want to start at number 1, as that would look weird (or so 8 yr old me thought). I started at 1000 instead. To this day, on my bookshelves, there are Enid Blyton and Trixie Belden books with 1022, 1087 etc inscribed in the top right hand corner of the titlepage.

At some point, during one of our moves, I lost this exercise book.

It wasn't until I left home for good in my early 20's, and made my very own home, that I started a new book list with all my grown-up books. In the year 2000, I got my first home computer, and converted this paper list into an alphabetised excel spreadsheet.

This continued sporadically until I decided to start using Goodreads to track my reading around 2015.

My Blog:

• I started blogging in 2009 with very little idea of what I wanted to do or how to do it. The first few years were a wilderness of experimentation and infrequent bursts of attention. It was only when I realised that my blog was for me that I relaxed and stopped trying to write for some imaginary audience. Brona's Books became my online journal - a place for me to list and talk about the books I had read, or planned to read.
• I prefer to think of my book posts as responses rather than reviews.
• I aim to post something 2-3 times each week.
• The template you see today, is the third incarnation. Each change brings in a more stream-lined, cleaner looking page. Each major overhaul sees me de-clutter the sidebar.
• Blogspot is currently eking out a new interface which I talked about here. Some of the minor annoyances have been fixed since then (i.e. the position of the new post button, ease of adding labels and hyperlinks). I'm quite happy with the changes so far. It was long overdue and gives the site a more modern feel.
• Thanks to Karen's A-Z posts, I developed my first ever About Me page a few months ago.
• I moved the 'search this blog' box to the top of the sidebar. 
• I also started re-posting the occasional older post to give them fresh air, a new look and a new audience.
• Over the weekend I added a 'Follow this Blog by Email' option in an attempt to help WP users to track my latest posts.
• Last night I decided to change my font. 

Social Media:

• September is my month to decrease social media usage. Last week my daily average was 4 hrs and 31 mins. This week it is down to a daily average of 2 hrs and 8 mins. Huzzah!
• Instagram is my preferred social media channel. I've always loved photography - travel pics and daily life. My feed mostly consists of scenes from my walks and some bookstagram images.
• Twitter is probably my next most used site. I mostly follow bookish people and Australian journalists/news sites. I do everything I can to avoid the ranters, haters and extremists.
• Facebook was once my darling. It's how I kept up with family and friends and shared titbits about our lives - where we were, what we enjoyed (or not), kid's achievements and milestones. I used to visit several times a day and update regularly. But slowly my feed became filled with memes and ads and other people's political opinions. It's no longer about staying in touch, but about trying to convince everyone else that they are wrong and you are right. I'm lucky to check in once a week now. If not for our personal business page, I would probably have deleted fb a couple of years ago.
• Pinterest is not really a site I use. I tried it about 5 yrs ago to storyboard home decorating ideas and recipes, but it didn't take. By chance one day, I discovered that other people use it a lot more though and that my blog posts were attracting some attention there. Turns out some people wishlist books on Pinterest the same way I do on Goodreads. Since then, I created three boards - Brona's Books Adult, YA and Kids. After each book review is posted, I send the URL link, via my phone, with book cover image to the appropriate board.
• Litsy is a book app that I used to play with. It's purpose is to highlight photographs of books with brief reviews and commentary. A nice way for friends and book clubs to share bookish stuff together.

Goodreads:

• As mentioned above this is my main place to list all the books I've read and when.
• It's not a perfect system. I forget the occasional book and it only started properly from about 2015. Everything before that is a mystery!
• I distrust the star rating system a lot, preferring to read the reviews left by trusted bloggers to decide whether or not I will add a book to my To Be Read folder.
• I try to copy & paste in part of my review for each completed book, with a link back to my blog post for those who want to read the whole response.
• The 'To Be Read' folder is more of a personal wishlist. It doesn't reflect the physical books waiting to be read in my home, but is simply a place for me to pop any books I hear about that sound interesting.
• I've tried joining a few Goodread groups, but I don't spend enough time on there to make this a successful way to stay in touch with other readers.
• I don't always have a lot to say about the many picture books I read for work. A quick Goodreads review is a good way for me to keep track of them. Occasionally, when a certain reading week or theme presents itself, I can then combine a few of them into a more comprehensive blog post.
• I enjoy seeing what my Goodread friends are currently reading.
• I participate in the yearly reading challenge as I it can motivate me during the inevitable slow patches.

Storygraph:

• Marg alerted me to this newish book hangout.
• It's a beta site, still finding it's way.
• It's not the right option for me to keep track of my books right now. I've got used to how Goodreads works, for better or worse. 
• But it's very easy to import your data from Goodreads to create interesting graphs about your reading style.
• For instance, below is a lovely graph about all the books I've read in the past five years or so and what it says about my mood.
• You can also sort by one year at a time or months within each year. 

• It's clear that the majority of my books are 'reflective'. 
• The next five spots, shuffle around a bit, but basically they are 'emotional', 'informative', 'light-hearted', 'challenging' and 'adventurous'.
• It also showed me that I read about three-quarters more fiction than non-fiction, that most of my books are considered 'slow' reads and my average star rating is 3.61. 
• I would have been curious to see a break down of male/female authors and books in translation too.
• The graph below represents the books in the 'To Be Read' folder.
• I obviously plan on reading more challenging, informative books than I actually end up doing!
• It has been a fun exercise, but as it currently stands, I will not be spending any more time with Storygraph. 
• Despite having all the data about the books I read and filling out their survey, it still threw up books so completely NOT me (a cowboy romance!) that I don't see the point of it at all.

To integrate these sites, I use several organising/sorting/sharing platforms.

Feedly:

• A site I discovered thanks to one of the very first Bloggiesta events.
• At the time I created themed folders.
• There was an Australian group, one for Classics Club participants, Meme Hosts and YA bloggers.
• It quickly grew too big.
• So I redesigned the folders one rainy weekend to days of the week.
• When this also got out of hand, I added a new favourite folders for the 12-20 bloggers I visited regularly, who left comments and responded to my blogs.
• Last weekend, I decided it was time to clean out the weekday folders. 
• There were still lots of bloggers I wanted to stay in touch with, but there were also a lot that I could now let go.
• During this process I realised that a number of long-term bloggers have disappeared over the past two years.
• I also discovered the option to 'Open in website directly'.
• This has been a revelation and makes commenting on blogs much easier.

Buffer:

• This is how I get my blog posts onto Twitter with an image. 
• WP does this automatically. Blogger does not.
• Once you sign up, you simply right click on an image in your post and select 'Buffer this Image'.
• The post URL will be tweeted with the image/s you then select.
• You can also schedule up to 10 tweets which is great when doing chapter-a-day readalongs or hosting an event.

IFTTT:

• Was another Bloggiesta find.
• They have a variety of 'Applets' that allow you to connect two or more apps or sites.
• I use this to automatically update the feed on my Brona's Books facebook page featuring my latest blog post.
• I set it up years ago, and haven't thought about it since.

Unsplash:

• Is a free photographic site.
• I use this to help me source good quality images for my blog.
• Simply type in your search parameters (i.e. 'blogging')
• Scroll down to find an image you like.
• Download.
• Copy the details of the creator so you acknowledge their work appropriately.

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

InLinkz:

• Most of you probably know about this site, or other similar ones, where you can add a widget, or code, to your post that allows others to leave links to their posts on your blog.
• It's great if you're hosting an event or readalong.
• I prefer ones that are embedded in the post for their ease of use, even though they clutter up the look of your page.
• The only downside side seems to be an increase in spam comments whenever you leave your link in one!

The final part is now over to you:

• When you visit my blog, what parts work best for you?
• Which parts are hard to navigate or find?
• Do you checkout or use the sidebar on my blog?
• Do you read my posts on your computer, device or phone?
• Do you follow me on any other sites?
• How do you find out about my latest posts?
• Any other constructive comments or suggestions?

Stories & Shout Outs #3

Due to visitors, a Yr 12 Graduation, Mr Books birthday and a neighbourly farewell party, Bloggiesta was a bust for me this time around.

The last Bloggiesta gave me Feedly.
I love it.
It's a great way to keep track of my favourite blogs...although it does need a tidy up of categories already....!

I had hoped to tackle that job and join in some twitter chats to get more great tips and new ideas. But it was not to be.

At odd times throughout the weekend though I would catch myself thinking about my blog and what I really wanted from it.

I love reading and reviewing.

I love visiting other blogs to discover new books, new authors and I love joining in discussions about the books we've read.

I also love joining in memes.

Over the years I have created my own as well as joined in others on a semi-regular basis. But the same thing happened with each one. I found myself unable to commit to the same time, same place scenario for very long.
(I also have the same problem with exercise regimes!)

All this pondering eventually led to my weekend ah-ha moment.

I would create my very own personal meme where I can talk books, housekeeping and blogging whenever I want to. A meme that is not tied to any day of the week or schedule.

So goodbye Shout Out Sundays.
Hello Stories and Shout Outs....on any day of the week that suits me.

____________________________

After writing the above last weekend, life and blogging have once again got away from me...which only highlights the perfection of my newly created meme!

To focus on reading this month I have joined in Andi's #15in31 challenge.
My plan is to finish all those half-read books by my bed before AusReadingMonth starts in November. So far I have finished two of the books on my list and reviewed one of them.

I also spotted Blog Ahead hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and Herding Cats & Burning Soup. This is a great way to keep ahead of the blogging game by scheduling posts to be used later.

I need this for two reasons - firstly I used up all my old scheduled posts during the craziness of our recent move. And secondly, I have AusReadingMonth coming up and I would like to prepare for it ahead of time this year.

I'm not going to commit myself to any specific number as anything will be better than the big fat nothing that I currently have in reserve!

Kate @Books are my Favourite and Best recently reviewed A Little Life.
I really liked her discussion on "allowable weaknesses" as I felt this accurately summed up my feelings on the book as well.

Allie @A Literary Odyssey reviewed Liane Moriarty's What Alice Forgot.
I've read Big, Little Lies and The Husband's Secret and had been wondering whether the earlier books would be as good. Turns out they are!

It's a long weekend Monday in NSW today (yay!) It's also HOT, HOT, HOT.
Which means it is time for me to go and finish My Brilliant Friend...poolside!

What have you been up to this lovely long, beginning of daylight savings weekend?

Bloggiesta Wrap Up

I only planned to dip into Bloggiesta this week as I had a very busy week without adding anything extra to it...but there you go....I went and did it anyway!

And what a gem of a week it turned out to be.

For anyone wanting to update/refresh their blog this is the place for you.

The wonderful folk at Bloggiesta have now created a separate blog page to keep all the posts - old and new. It's a fabulous resource. You can visit any time and check out the posts and suggestions left from previous Bloggietsa's.

It covers everything from design, style, readers, comments, twitter, facebook and how to organise your blogging life. Guest bloggers write posts that they are knowledgable about, providing tips and helpful hints. And bless their cotton socks, they answer your dumb questions and pleas for help with grace and good humour.

I was simply planning to tidy up my google+ reader by adding a few folders to make it easier to keep track of the blogs I want to read often, occasionally or for special events.....until!

I read Andi's inspiring post about feedly - here.

I had already quickly discovered the limitations of what I was doing with my google+ reader - that is very few bloggers actually have google+ accounts and/or link them to their blog.

So I set up feedly...and quickly saw the light!

It is very easy to add favourite blogs and keep track of what their up to.
Following Andi's advice I set up a Daily and Weekend folder. Because my mind tends to categorise bloggers by how I first met them or in what way I connect with them, I also set up a Classics Club folder, a Memes folder and an Australian Bloggers folder.

What I love about it, is that it is easy to interact with on my PC (which is where I prefer to do the admin/organising side of things) and very easy to use on my phone (which is where I will do most of the actual reading of other blogs).

The bonus has been the spring (or autumn in my case) clean up of my phone apps as feedly also allows me to have a News folder.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself but then I stumbled across Brianna's article about IFTTT.

And my blogging world changed forever!

IFTTT stands for If This Then That.

It allows you to create 'recipes' or commands that automatically posts your latest blog article to fb, twitter etc. You can create recipes for email notifications, instagram pics & linkedin updates...you can even use it to find your phone! Each recipe can be fine tuned to your specific needs & requirements.

And it's easy.

Which isn't to say that I haven't experienced some teething problems...the main one being how to specify which image on my post is the one used when linking it to my fb page and to twitter. Brianna & I are still trying to fine tune this one.

The week has also had some mixed blessings.

I have been wanting a fresher, cleaner looking blog all year & have played around with a few options. But then on Thursday I read through the Weds chat recap post.

These two sections caught my eye in particular:

What makes a blog look nice and readable?

• lots of white space
• light backgrounds
• no script fonts
• no colored type (or very little)
• breaks in text

Sidebars and Menus

• maybe just have one sidebar with minimal content
• three column layouts are out!
• maybe you can get away with no sidebars? Maybe have stuff in a footer?
• drop down menus are nice, but no more than 5 to 7 links
• only have one row of tabs

As these points confirmed what I already experienced myself in all but the 3 column layout, I decided it was time to abandon the 3 columns to see what it looked like.

The disaster was saving the new look before I was really thinking about what I was doing. When I checked the new look all my special add on features had gone! Poof! No more social media icons, let alone the ones that rotate. My centred header - poof! Gone!

The real disaster occured when I couldn't find where my computer had saved the backup template.

Thursday, my day off work to rest & play & get lots of things done, became a Thursday tied to the computer trying to fix my big boo-boo!

It took all day to find the blogger help sites that showed me how to add the rotating SM icons in the top right of the page & to fix the new layout to accommodate the one & only sidebar.

I ended up tweeking everything - from date formatting, to font sizing, header spacing & column widths & I added a quote to my header for the first time.
I may still tweek the actual background design when I have more time to explore some of the free options out there, but for now one of the simple blogger template designs will suffice.

And this time I saved my updated blogger template in an area on my PC that I can find it easily.

How was your week of bloggiesta?
What were your successes, dramas and lessons learnt the hard way?

Thank you one and all for your support, positive messages and oodles of provocations.
It's been fun.
Really!

Bloggiesta Feedback

Part of the Bloggiesta week long experience is the oppportunity to ask for feedback about the style & design of your blog.

Obviously the aesthetics of your blog should appeal to you. It should reflect who you are and make you feel a little flutter of pride everytime you log on.

But there are some elements of design that help or hinder visitors when they come to your blog.

I've been fiddling with lots of these features this week.

I've moved to a two column blog which has allowed me to make the central post column much wider (but is it too wide now?)

I would like to make the sidebar a little slimmer, but any smaller than it currently is affects the integrity of the goodreads widget. I have yet to check the goodreads widget code to see if I can easily change its dimensions.

What do you like to see in a sidebar? My current set-up reflects what I like to spot when I visit others - readalongs & other bookish events and what people are reading esp. 

I managed to change my label widget to a drop down menu which has freed up a lot of space. Does anyone know if you use the same code (but change the relevant names) to create a drop down for the archives widget too?

The recent change to my blog lost all my old add-ons (the social media icons in particular).
I have found how to get three of them back, but would also like to add an Instagram and Feedly button that matches what I currently have. Where did you source your SM icon's from?

The header looks too thick to my eyes too, but I don't know how to adjust that without changing the template completely.

I've toyed with the idea of my own personalised image and/or badge, but have never come across anything I really like and am prepared to commit to!

I've also considered changing to one of the dynamic templates that would allow me to run my posts as excerpts. But I'm in two minds about that. I often fail to click on the 'read more' option with most excerpts, although I spotted one last night that just had the title of the review with an image and that looked good and easy to navigate.

I've also started using IFTTT. What are your favourite/most useful recipes to date?

Please feel free to leave constructive feedback in the comments below.

It's Monday

Another It's Monday; another week begins.

The weather has now taken a definite turn towards the cooler side of things on the east coast of Australia.
It's nice not to be so hot & sweaty all the time, but I do not like the long, dark, cold winters (& Sydney doesn't even get that cold!!)

I dislike wearing layers of clothes. I hate wearing jeans or stockings every day (but I do love scarves!) I miss my summer dresses already - not being able to wear them again until November is a sad thing indeed!

To cheer me up I've decided to read a biography about an amazing woman.

One Life by Kate Grenville

Nance was a week short of her sixth birthday when she and Frank were roused out of bed in the dark and lifted into the buggy, squashed in with bedding, the cooking pots rattling around in the back, and her mother shouting back towards the house: Goodbye, Rothsay, I hope I never see you again!

When Kate Grenville’s mother died she left behind many fragments of memoir. These were the starting point for One Life, the story of a woman whose life spanned a century of tumult and change.

In many ways Nance’s story echoes that of many mothers and grandmothers, for whom the spectacular shifts of the twentieth century offered a path to new freedoms and choices.

 In other ways Nance was exceptional. In an era when women were expected to have no ambitions beyond the domestic, she ran successful businesses as a registered pharmacist, laid the bricks for the family home, and discovered her husband’s secret life as a revolutionary.

One Life is an act of great imaginative sympathy, a daughter’s intimate account of the patterns in her mother’s life. It is a deeply moving homage by one of Australia’s finest writers.

*********************************

One of the great ideas I spotted on my It's Monday travels last week was a fellow blogger (so sorry I've forgotten who already!) giving shout-outs for interesting reviews they had read during the week.

I often read a fascinating review but then forget who, where & when, so I've decided to add the shout-out feature to my It's Monday posts.

This week I have spotted some tempting reviews for books already on my radar but not on my shelf!

*The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide @ +Wensend - I love the idea of a book that continues to improve weeks after you finished it.

*The Death Fugue by Sheng Keyi reviewed by Lisa @ANZ LitLovers LitBlog - I enjoy Chinese literature, although it sounds like one I will need to be in the right mood for this one.

And sadly, a favourite series of mine has lost its way according to this review of the latest Maisie Dobbs book by Jacqueline Winspear @ Dolce Belleza.

There were also reviews for books that are waiting patiently for me to get to them, get back to them or finish them!

*Goodbye Sweetheart by Marion Halligan @Debbishdotcom - another book on my TBR pile from one of my favourite authors of old. Debbish compares her writing style to Anita Brookner.

*Carrie by Stephen King - a satisfying reread for Christine @Bride of the Book God of this truly frightening teen story.

*Ellen van Neerven's Heat and Light, reviewed by Whispering Gums. This is one of the Stella shortlisted books that I've been savouring slowly over the past few weeks. It was lovely to spot another satisfied reader.

*I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to fit this in, but I'm so very, very tempted to reread Gone With the Wind along with Corinne @The Pursuit of Happiness & her very easy, relaxed readalong starting May 1.

One of the many advantages of living in Australia is being one of the first countries to experience the new day, the new month & the new year before the rest of the majority of the world.

This helps me a lot in the blogging world. I often miss the lead up to many readathon's, readalongs and other special blogging events & so I often feel like I'm jumping on board late. But thanks to the time difference it turns out I'm just in time.

This week I'm just in time for Bloggiesta!

With the week ahead of me anything more than a basic commitment is beyond me but I do have things I want to do to improve my blogging life & this seems like as good as time to say 'yes, I'm in'.

But for those interested in getting more involved please click on the link above for the week's highlights including twitter chats, mini-challenges and to see what other bloggers are doing to improve/update/refresh their blogs.

The thing I've struggled with ever since losing the blogger reader is how to keep track of my fellow bloggers reviews & posts.

This week I will work out a system to manage this.

*I will explore & master the new goggle+ reader (does anyone know how to make the posts appear in chronological order?)

*I will check my wordpress notifications for new comments & replies (I just found out how I can do this on my phone - do'h! Late to the party in oh so many ways!)

*I will use twitter to find reviews & posts of interest (is there an easy filtering app or system to do this?)

How do other bloggers keep track of & find new reviews?

Until next Monday,

Happy Reading!
And Happy Blogging!