4.28.2009

Book Blogging for Beginner's

So one of the primary reasons why I began book blogging was my infatuation with the book blogging community. I stumbled upon book blogs toward the end of the 2008 and could not believe that there were so many people out there posting about what they read, what they liked, what they didn't like...and the challenges! Sheesh, the challenges were the coolest. (I'm still in awe of all the different types of challenges out there and have probably gone overboard!)
But what I've now realized with book blogging is I'm a perfectionist. And I don't mean a perfectionist as in "did I write the proper their/they're/there in my sentence" sort of person - I tend to type as I go, and my hands do their own thing sometimes. I know it's awful that I can admit that I'm careless with basic grammatical errors with such apathy being an English teacher, but *sigh* that's just me. I know the difference and I really do try to pay attention. I just sorta look at it in the same way as if I were to transpose letters by mistake.
But no, that's not what I mean by being a perfectionist. For me, it's a matter of finding a formula for blogging that I'm okay with. I mean, do I try to commit to reviewing all books? Do I try to categorize all the reviews? Do I keep the same format when I review, i.e. listing pub date, pages, genre like I have been trying to do?
And then, oh my, then, I'm so frustrated with blogger and using it to write my posts. The writing is okay. It's really when I'm inserting pictures. It's as though I have to finagle the pictures to insert in the desired spot. Which only causes chaos amidst my text. So yeah, I've been trying out different blogging clients to type up my posts outside of blogger-ville.
Oh, also while I'm on my BBfB rant - I'm also still trying to figure out how I want the darn thing to look. I've moved into a three column layout but I don't know if I'm feeling it. I like that I inserted my picture from a kayaking trip. There's just so many decisions.
Okay. Okay. I'm done now. I'm going to finish reading my Hornby book. After I fix my previous book review post because the blogging client I tested out with that one made it all wonky.
I'm a bit sleep deprived as well. Maybe that explains my irritable rant. *shrug* Will be heading out to the vet shortly so my night has only just begun.

5 comments:

  1. I have the same problem with pictures on Blogger. Now I load them all up before I type anything. That's helped some. I tried using Wordpress.com, but it was too challenging for me. You may want to check it out, though, if you haven't already.

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  2. I don't feel so bad now that I know it's not just me with the offset pictures and spacing. I am really techie stupid so I can't figure these things out. I'll try C.B.'s idea and see if that helps. Thanks for writing about it.

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  3. I had terrible trouble with pictures at the beginning. I now load all of them before I start writing, loading them backwards so the last one is at the top and always positioning them in the middle otherwise the words all go squiffy.

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  4. Don't worry, you'll find a formula that suits you and everything will get easier with time. And let me just say how glad I am you joined our community!

    About pictures, I always write the code by hand, otherwise I'd go nuts...blogger seems to have a will of its own, and the automatic formatting never turns out right.

    I know some html, which makes things easier, but if you have some code with the right alignment that you can copy/past into each post, it's very easy to use even if you can't write code yourself. I keep a .txt file with code I use often and I just open it when I start formatting a post to copy whatever I need. If you want me to, I'd be happy to e-mail the code I use for image alignment to you!

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  5. CB - Thanks for the advice. I'm trying out this new blogging tool for Mac: Blogo. Will see how it goes. I'm a bit intimidated with wordpress!!

    Sandra - I'm so glad that *I'm* not the only one! It's been driving me crazy.

    Scrap girl - I love the description squiffy!

    Nymeth - You're always so generous. I'm going to play around with Blogo, but just might take you up on the offer.

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