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Aderyn

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Any fans of book blogs here? Anyone maintaining their own blog? Feel free to share the link to your personal / favourite blog!

Since I've thought about starting a book blog myself, I would also be interested in hearing your opinion on what makes a good book blog and what are some of the qualities you personally find less preferable. Tips on how to get started are also welcome.

I'm personally quite picky when it comes to favourite blogs (to the extent that I don't think I can even name any at the moment). Of course the contents need to be appealing to me - reading a middle-aged woman's casual synopsis of "Confessions of a Shopaholic" is not likely to spark much interest. So, I'm always trying to look for bloggers who write about the kind of literature that interests me (fantasy, historical, world literature classics, books written by non-Americans/non-Europeans) while still writing about a broad variety of genres. I'm also good at spotting spelling errors in other people's texts and as ridiculous as it may sound, they're one of the biggest turn-offs for me... Naturally a creative layout and lots of pictures are also a big asset.

Oh, and one more question to existing bloggers - which platform do you prefer, and why? (e.g. Blogspot, Wordpress, some other?)

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I've sort of ended up with a book blog by default, simply because anyone who writes also reads, though in my case it's less about reviewing specific books and more talking about the genre in general. I'm using wordpress, simply because it's free, easy to use, and it's what I'm familiar with.

One good bit of advice I've encountered - keep your updates regular (aim for fortnightly, or better). There's nothing worse than running across a blog that looks abandoned. 

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I blogged for three years and honestly the best advice if you want to start one is to just start writing.  There are others who will be interested in your opinion and it can be a weird, self-feeding system.  The field is crowded but it is fellow bloggers who make up the base of most blogs audiences so more are always welcome.  There is room to write about whatever books you want; the audience will find you.

If you are willing to pay for the space then a self hosted Wordpress blog (not the free wordpress.com version) is a perfect combination of fairly easy to use but with high customization.  Most people start in blogger but it has a major drawback; users of Wordpress are unlikely to leave comments limiting future discussions.

Be prepared for a time suck.  I had a job with major downtime that let me read and write; and I still often spent an hour plus a night once the kid went to bed prepping the blog.  I promise I spent six to eight hours a week on my blog in its prime, others post much less but regular posts are the way to build an audience as its impossible to guess which post will blow up (and let's face it, no one is posting their thoughts without hoping for a reaction of some kind).

Hit me up if you have any specific questions. 

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I use both Blogger and Wordpress for my blogs (Blogger out of habit for The OF Blog, self-hosted Wordpress for Gogol's Overcoat, which I co-edit with a friend of mine).  I don't update anywhere near as much as I used to even two years ago (I've been blogging since 2004), but like others have said, it's not so much the features of any particular platform as much as it is letting yourself discover your voice...and if your interests change, you can always change with it (The OF Blog was intended to focus more on "genre" fiction, but now it overlaps substantially with the "literary" bent of Gogol's Overcoat).

Hopefully I'll have more energy to return to reading and blogging in the near future.  Didn't realize just how consuming training for 5Ks (soon to be 10Ks) can be.  That being said, perhaps I'll review the new Bakker later this week and then cover a few other books I have finished this year.  Might be rewarding to review Harriet Beecher Stowe after Bakker, after all!

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Thanks for the replies so far :)

I know that the book blogger community is an awesome one and I'm really looking forward to becoming a part of it. Since active posting is essential, I've thought about having a few finished reviews at hand before I actually start my blog. The idea of always having something waiting in the archive is a good way to help you through the dry seasons... Commenting other blogs is also essential to gain visibility.

Another set of questions for bloggers: What kind of approach to the books do you guys prefer? How deep in your analysis do you tend to go? Is there something you like to focus on most (i.e. characters, plot, themes)? And do you sometimes try to link the book's themes to something contemporary, such as politics (or is that an absolute no-no :D)?

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Honestly The Wertzone is the only blog I can still count on to be interesting to me.  Pretty much all of the old ones I used enjoy are dead.  Although Pat is finally back to reading and reviewing again instead of only posting ebook deals...I wouldn't consider him a good reviewer by any means but I appreciate his work and still visit his blog.

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