Sunday Salon: Reading/Blogging Resolutions

In 2008, I began cataloging (in a spread sheet) each book I received to review. That was a considerable improvement over what I'd done the year before--nothing until October when I began writing them down in a word document. But I have plans to improve even more in 2009. I've decided to add a few columns. One thing that I think will be helpful to me (and thus to you later on down the road) is to enter in which month a book is set to be released. That way, I can better prioritize my reading and try to post in a more effective way--better timing is what I'm trying to say in a very long-winded way.

In some of my posts this year, I began entering tags for authors and titles. For example, "A" Authors, "A" Titles, etc. I think I'll keep this up next year and try to do it on every post. It may or may not be helpful to the average reader. But I know there are readers out there doing the A to Z challenge.

I also thought about adding a tag for publishers. One of the things I'm horribly guilty of is not mentioning the publishers. I typically don't include that information in each post. And on top of that, I rarely get around to emailing publishers links of my reviews. My thinking is that if I tag each book with its publisher, then sooner or later I'll be able to give publishers what they want. Whether I think to send links once a day or once a week or once a month or whatever.

Ratings. In 2008, I tried having a rating system. And it worked in a very limited and clunky way. But it's still so subjective. You can't really please anyone. I had a few people irritated with me that I'd marked their favorite book a three--how dare I?--no matter that I'd posted that a three was a good mark in my book. I guess you can't erase the Amazon mindset, huh? Anyway, I wasn't consistent in doing it. And I think I'll leave it off completely in 2009.

In 2008, I started keeping track of almost every book I'd read. It was all behind the scenes. You won't see the results until the end of the year when my "Books Read in 2008" publishes automatically. I liked it. It was helpful. I'm wondering if it wouldn't be more helpful if I did it on a monthly basis. What do you think? I know some bloggers--one of my favorites--does a month-in-review post. I'm thinking 2009 I might do the same...

This past year I began keeping track of my favorite 'first' sentences and publishing them once a month. I don't know if you loved that...or not...but I really enjoy it. I'm definitely going to try to keep that up in 2009.

I do have a question--a semi-question at least--should I write down all the first sentences of the books I read. Should that information be a part of every post? Or only if it's really great? I know that I'm curious as a would-be-potential reader what the first sentence/first few sentences are like. Sometimes that's enough of a hook to draw me in. But I also know that if I don't start off doing it, or if I get lazy about doing it, then it would be a real pain to backtrack and fill in later. So it's all or nothing.

Another semi-question. In 2007, I had posts--sometimes every month, sometimes every other month--that announced some of the new releases available that month. Mini-wish-lists to make readers drool over the possibilities. Should I add that back in for 2009? Would that be helpful to anyone? Or not?

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews