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Most blogs have one. In fact, it’s a default page or widget in most blogging software. It’s the first thing I look for and check out when I encounter a new blog. Yep, it’s the “about” page.
The “about” page is pretty important to a blog. It gives readers and potential readers a snapshot of you and your blog. It also serves as a good reference in the future for readers to refresh on the details. Okay. It’s important. Good.
Content.
Location? Vocation? Pictures? Blog intro? Reading habits/philosophy? Contact info? Book reviewing policies? Links? There is a fine line to walk here between being informative and privacy concerns.
My “About” Page.
Here is how mine reads as of right now:
My name is Jessica, and I am a book addict. I read and read and read (as much as my career, family, and church will allow).
If you would like me to review one of your books, please leave a comment on this page or email me at thebluestockingsociety (at) gmail.com.
Not bad. Not too spectacular. To get ideas on how to add a little pizzazz to my “about” page, I did a quick tour of my blogroll.
Examples.
Matt at A Guy’s Moleskine Notebook has a list “about” page that lists his interests and activities and 100 things about him.
Eva over at A Striped Armchair has a lengthy “about” page which includes a general introduction to her and her blog and her reading tastes. Also, she links to memes she’s posted that tell a little bit more about her.
Chartroose over at Bloody Hell, It’s a Book Barrage! has a nicely crafted, alliterate “about” page.
Raych over at Books I Done Read has a rant of an “about” column that conveys all of the necessary information about her blog.
Dorothy W. over at Of Books and Bicycles has a brief “about” page similar to mine above.
Rebecca of Rebecca Reads and Karen at Sassy Monkey Reads both have conversational “about” pages that explain their personal book blog philosophies.
Christine over at She Reads Books has a comprehensive “about” page organized by topic for easy access, and she even includes a privacy statement.
Dewey over at The Hidden Side of a Leaf has an informative “about” page that was a little hard to find but full of useful information about her blog (and her extensive blog-community events) and her personal life. She has a little bit of the list thing going on there at the end, too.
Rants and Reads at The Novel World admits to struggling with her “about” page, but provides good information there.
The above examples are not exhaustive. There are many good examples out there, but these are the ones that kind of stuck out in some way to me.
Resolution.
Based on my own thoughts and my review of several blogs, I’ve established that I would like to revise my “about” page. Specifically, I am going to add more personal information like location and possibly vocation. Also, I’m going add a little intro to my blog. And, finally, I’m going to be more specific about my ARC/review policies.
I think it’ll be a work in progress, an evolution, if you will. The first phase in the evolution should occur in the next day or two. Be sure to check it out.
Questions.
What are your feelings about the “about” page? Do you have one? What do you include? What do you leave out? How often do you update or change it? (Including links to your “about” info would be helpful on this one.)
Do you check out other blogs’ “about” pages? Are you disappointed when there isn’t one? What would you like others to include?
Today’s poetry meme:
Here in our little online book blogging community, we don’t always get the opportunity to embark on a creative project together. Today, we can! Let’s write a poem together, line by line. The starting line is below. Each person then crafts one line and adds it in the comments below. (Add in punctuation, structure, and line breaks as the inspiration hits you.) Next week, I’ll post the final poem.
The first line: A book or two, or how about three
Thanks for playing!
Writing book reviews is something we all (all of us book bloggers, anyway) do. We write to critique writing. So, my question is, what is your review-writing process?
Pre-Writing: Reading the Book
Reading Notes. Generally speaking, I don’t take notes on books as I read. This, I have learned, causes some problems when I sit down to write a review and cannot remember where that perfect line or paragraph was or what spawned an opinion about a particular theme. I tend to lie down or sprawl when I read, which does not lend itself to the note-taking process. However, I am trying to remedy this. I now keep a pencil handy to make notes and I’m not above dog-earring the pages, especially in ARCs. Also, if I don’t take notes during the actual reading, I try to make notes immediately after a reading session.
Research. I’ve read that it is a bad idea to read a review of a book before you write your own review. Something about tainting your objectivity. In my experience, though, it is not always possible to avoid reading reviews. A lot of times, I read a book because of a review I read. Other than reading reviews, I generally do little outside research before writing a review. If anything, I’ll do a quick search for information about the author and his/her previous works.
What about you? Do you take notes? During or after the reading? Do you dog-ear important pages? Do you read other reviews before writing your own? Do you conduct research? What kind?
Writing: Book Review Structure
Many reviews seem to follow, roughly, the following structure:
Heading – bibliographic information
Background – introduction to subject
Summary – brief synopsis (don’t give away the end!)
Evaluation – the opinion part
Conclusion – summary and/or rating
Until recently, I had not really thought about the structure that my book reviews do or should take. I just wrote. Upon reflection, though, I think a structure of some sort is a good idea because it allows me to communicate my opinion more clearly to the reader.
As for the above structures, I think I particularly fall short in the heading category. My post heading always includes the book title, but not the author. I restate the book name and name the author at the end when I rate the book, but that may be the only bibliographic information in the post. My goal is to do a little better on that front.
What about you? Do you structure your reviews? What is your structure? Do you feel like the structure adds something? Do personalize your structure? What rating system do you use?
