Blog Criticism and Review

Lord Frederick Leighton (1830-1896)Study: At a Reading Desk Oil on canvas, 1877

Blog Criticism and Review

Right now, I am looking for criticism of my blog. I am asking for people to find fault with what I am doing so I can make it better for you to read what I am writing.

I have started by asking at Bookblogs on Ning for criticism of the design of this blog.

http://bookblogs.ning.com/forum/topics/help-me-help-my-blog-februarys?groupUrl=bloggingtips&id=2071157%3ATopic%3A38215&groupId=2071157%3AGroup%3A26921&page=9#comments

So far, the header has been changed, the font for the blog, some of the background colors, and a number of typos fixed. I am looking to do a little bit more. I have also identified a problem with Mozilla Firefox not reading the html line spacing commands for blogger. I am still not sure what to do about this. I contacted blogger help about this. Now, it seems to be working a tiny bit better. I also changed the number of posts visible on the page to five at a time. I had ten at a time. This should reduce the amount of time it takes to load my page considerably.

Mugshot http://www.blogcatalog.com/user/mugshot was nice enough to donate a new header. I have started a second conversation about redesigning my blog on blogcatalog. http://www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/criticise-my-blog-dont-be-nice

Good Morning, Prince of Stories, Hard Times For Book Trade

Artwork by E. Burne-Jones, April 1888, for the first book edition of William Morris' A Dream of John Ball, illustrating medieval equalitarian slogan.

Good Morning

This morning, I finished reading Prince of Stories, The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman on the subway to work. I very much enjoyed many parts of this book. The writing is interesting. There are unique pictures including a complete comic book story called Blood Monster written by Neil Gaiman, artist: Marlene O'Connor, Lettering: M. Kelleher.

The section on movies talked about Beowulf and Mirrormask neither of which I have seen. It made me like the idea of them so much that I reserved them to view. I was previously reluctant to do this because I had mixed opinions on the movie Stardust. My understanding is that the next movie that Neil Gaiman will be scripting is Neverwhere after Coraline.

There is a very long complex interview at the end of the book. Gaiman talks about his early obsession with reading all kinds of fantasy books. He could recite Lewis Carroll's entire Alice In Wonderland when he was six years old. I have a deep appreciation for Alice. He also had a fondness for C.S. Lewis's Narnia books as well as everything written by Michael Moorcock.

It reminds me of a truism that I have experienced, the more you read, the more likely it becomes that you write because to understand reading properly it becomes necessary to write. Also, I love his statement about dreams fueling his writing of sandman, and I especially like this little quote from the interview, " I like [Charles] Bukowski more than I suspect I should."

The last thing I can say about this book is that it is very well designed. Everything falls into place nicely, the interviews, the pictures, the stories, the art work, the original articles, absolutely everything seems to fit just right.

Hard Times For Book Trade

Hard times may be coming for the book trade. This is across the board, libraries, publishers, and bookstores. Books are not an essential item in many peoples mind during an economic downturn. I don't think most people live on books and chicken, or intellectual stimulation.

From Bookselling This Week:
http://news.bookweb.org/6457.html

From Library Journal:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6619406.html

New York Magazine:
http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/52761/

New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/business/04publish.html?_r=2

Add in the general malaise in the economy and we are facing some hard times ahead. Peoples reading habits have also changed. This will further cause problems because of the problems with the newspaper industry. Publishing looks to go through a very turbulent period. Online publishing may grow, I am not so sure about traditional books right now.

Maybe, the big companies will throw off the most unsatisfied and create little companies that are lean and mean. We are living in interesting times...

Publishers are already calling the event Black Wednesday for Wednesday, December 4, 2008 when it was officially announced.

Books On Blogging, Feedback

A little criticism or feedback would be appreciated.

Last night, I started Solstice Wood by Patricia McKillip another Mythopoeic award winner. This one is a little more contemporary, it was written in 2006.

Alright, I am waking up. I am a bit frazzled. I took a few moments to place a few books on blogging on hold, Blogging for Dummies, What No One Ever Told You About Blogging and Podcasting, and Clear Blogging. The Blogging for Dummies will probably give me a few new tips on how to blog. The dummies series is pretty reliable for basic information. I am not sure yet about the other two. There are not a whole lot of books on blogging in the library yet. Eventually, the library will catch up with the phenomenon and start buying more material.

I am also looking at ways to improve my writing and grammar. I have not taken a look at writing books for a while. Can someone suggest a good book with tips on how best to write online.

Once again, It is feedback time. Can anyone tell me how I am doing. I would like to hear complaints, compliments, and thoughts on my blog. Don't hold back and don't compliment too much. This isn't a pat on the back session. If you are my enemy come forth and take out your pen. I need a good foil.

Anyways, this morning I was looking at Technorati and I came across something rather interesting in the publishing world. There is a new publisher called Wowio. Apparently, they collect personal information so they can sell it, then they give you three free ebooks a day. Sounds a little disconcerting. Most of the books are kind of cheesy, things which did not sell to a mainstream audience. The signup asks for a lot of personal likes and dislikes. Things like what do you like to read, what do you like to watch, what is your favorite hobby, and how much money do you make.

I think they tried to become an ebookseller then failed. Now, they are trying something else to keep the money coming in. It is kind of an interesting concept. I wonder who is going to be sending me advertising junk which I won't buy.