I do not understand the obsession with Persephone books that some bloggers have. Please, explain this. I do not get why they are so cool.
Brandie at A journey of 1000 stitches gave me TWO lovely awards this week- the Kreativ Blogger Award and the One Lovely Blog Award. Thanks!
I am considering going to back rating my books. Last time I tried a 5 star rating system. I think I'd like to go to a 10 point system because there is such a difference between 4 and 5. What does everyone else think of ratings? Do you do it? When a review has them do you just skim the review looking for a rating before reading the actual review?
I save reviews that I think I'm going to enjoy reading (the review or the book) as unread in Google Reader until I have time to sit and read them carefully. Sometimes this means that a particular blog will have 4 or 5 unread posts so that that one post I am interested in remains unread. Do you do this?
Amanda at A Patchwork of Books is giving away a copy of Twenty Boy Summer. I'd tell you go to go enter, but then there'd be less chance of me winning. So go over, say hello, be nice, but don't enter, k?
I am still undecided on which signature to use.
BBQ at our house tonight for some of Mike's work guys. Camping this weekend.
Garden Update: We have about 2 dozen finger sized zucchini, but they don't seem to be getting any bigger. Any ideas? We have about 2 dozen small green tomatoes as well. There are blooms on the pumpkins. The Pirate says the garden is his "jungle" and likes to hide in it.
I am still undecided on which signature to use.
BBQ at our house tonight for some of Mike's work guys. Camping this weekend.
Garden Update: We have about 2 dozen finger sized zucchini, but they don't seem to be getting any bigger. Any ideas? We have about 2 dozen small green tomatoes as well. There are blooms on the pumpkins. The Pirate says the garden is his "jungle" and likes to hide in it.
I'm not familiar with Persephone books, so I can't help you there. I don't rate my books and have a hard time doing it on Library Thing, etc - it's so subjective. Congratulations on your awards. I love the Pirate's imagination!
ReplyDeleteI like it when blogs rate books. I still read the review, but it helps wrap it up and I find that I will definitely put the book down on my TBR list if it gets a 4 or 5 of 5 stars. Sometimes just reading a review it's hard to get exactly HOW much the reviewer likes the book.
ReplyDeleteWish I could give you some advice on the garden, but the last time I planted one the same thing happened. Things grew...but stayed really small. Looking back I think I should have used some sort of fertilizer or plant food.
Oh yeah, and can I just say that I hope my son turns out to be as cute as yours!!!
I'm absolutely guilty of letting posts sit in my reader for days until I have time to devote attention to them. Posts like these are easy to comment on so they usually get commented on quicker. Poor dear Nymeth--I think I'm always the last to comment on her wonderful posts because they take me longer to read and then longer to think of a *good* comment to leave. Maybe that's what it is, the places where I leave more thoughtful comments are usually the last I comment on? I'm rambling. I'm in a blogging funk right now. I kind of don't want to leave any comments anywhere. I'm having ones of those days where I keep thinking--why does it even matter? Who cares? Why should I review books? Blah blah blah. :(
ReplyDeleteNever heard of Persephone books. I *have* to rate books otherwise I feel weird, even though it's really hard for me to rate books. I've thought of doing a Sunday Salon post about it, but like I said, blogging funk.
Hmmm...sorry Lisa. I've been so swamped the past few days and this is the first place I get on to comment and I leave a big fat crappy comment. :(
I'm a fan of Persephone books. It's just nice to be able to get your hands on classics that are out of print and hard to find.
ReplyDeleteIf I come across a review I want to read later, I just tick the "keep as unread" box (or similar) - I do this a lot for books that I know I'm going to buy / read.
ReplyDeleteI do the standard A, B, C. etc grading system, but one I like and have been considering is where the blogger says something along the lines of "Keeper", "Worth the hardback", "Worth the paperback", "Borrow not buy", etc, because that is pretty straightforward and less subjective, I think!
PS I like the Lisa sig better, but Lisah is also pretty.
I do rate books. I find it to be a useful practice for more personal reasons. Sometimes though, I wonder if I should bother posting them on my blog.
ReplyDeleteI get antsy when I have too many messages marked unread in my Reader. I tend to star the ones I want to keep or else I'll e-mail them to myself and store them in a folder marked "recommended".
I hope you are enjoying your weekend camping trip!
Vasilly, maybe it's that I haven't actually heard of any of the Persephone titles? So it's a shortcoming with ME.
ReplyDeleteLi, I like the idea of a recommendation scale like that- get from the library, buy in hardback, etc. Thanks for the suggestion.
I've never read any Persephone books so I don't have an opinion one way or the other. But I have read several books lately that a lot of bloggers raved about that I did not like at all.
ReplyDeleteI don't rate the books I read, but that's mostly because I'm lazy and I don't want to have to read the book, write a blog entry, and figure out exactly what score I would give the book every day. So I just skip that part.
I have a hard time rating books. I enjoy a lot of books that are not really great books, but that provide entertainment. Another reason I don't rate them is because my 10 might be someone else's 5-- or vice versa. :)
ReplyDeleteThe appeal of Persephone books is mainly that books that have been out of print are republished, so your copies are nice and fresh. If you really like authors that are out of print, finding good copies can be difficult. Sourcebooks also specializes in reprinting out-of-print books.