1. I think there is a range of approaches by bloggers to their readers. Some blogs are very audience focused, others are very blogger focused. (Perhaps, actually, this is a better way - or at least another way - of distinguishing blogs than by focusing on the amateur/professional approach which, for some reason that still escapes me, seems to cause such a furore. Whatever. I mention this only to ask what the view out there is of round up posts.
I realise I've been doing quite a lot of these lately. Posts that consist of 4 or 5 disparate points, maybe a mini-review, a random whinge, an anecdote and a rumination. I do these posts because (a) it's a good way to ensure regularity of posting and (b) I sometimes only have one thing to say about a particular point, but nevertheless, a strong desire to say it.
However, somewhat hypocritically, I'm not a huge fan of round-up posts myself. I've embedded a poll (left). Tell me what you think.
That's my first point in this regular round-up post!
2. LOVING THE KINDLE. Actually, it's getting worrying.
3. In my last post, I mentioned an ebook I'd greatly enjoyed. Let me now mention Alex Beecroft's Shining In the Sun. Beecroft writes M/M, comes highly recommended by Sarah Frantz and RRRJessica, and seems to have something of a nautical bent. The book I was aware of was the much lauded False Colours. But when I came to tap her name into the Kindle Store, it was Shining in the Sun I was drawn to. Why, you ask? Because (*whispers*) I have something of an aversion to historical high-seas shenanigans.
Shining in the Sun is a contemporary and, whilst it features one surfer protagonist and one yachting protagonist, most of the action takes place on dry land, but, with many lovely nods to the sea (the sea - note, I do not say ocean). The sea/coast is used as setting and metaphor (a symbol of freedom). Other nice symbolism too (Darren's hair is gold, his father's is tarnished). And lovely prose. There was a description of Alec's mother (sitting, feet up on her sofa, talking on the phone, playing with her hair) as a mermaid sitting on a "leather boulder" that just undid me. And you know what I really really loved? The way the stakes were set up; the beautifully set up believeable conflict. I felt the truth of the characters' dilemmas. I believed. They were real to me.
4. Once again, I will resist the urge to use this blog as a platform to talk about my job.
5. Do you ever feel like you're trembling on the cusp of some great-almost-within-your-grasp-realisation-of-Something? And you never quite get there?
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10 comments:
I am the last person who should be chiming in about blogging, since I have been feeling completely rudderless lately, but my opinion on "this 'n that posts" is that if I like the blogger and feel I "know" her, I really enjoy them. I do not really enjoy them on blogs otherwise.
So glad you love the Kindle! I am pretty jealous of my son's K3. It is noticeably crisper and the pages turn faster, and the whole thing is just faster.
Beecroft is a master prose stylist, IMO. I am pretty interested to read her voice in a contemp. Glad you liked it.
As to 5: As a philosopher, I am paid to feel like that on a daily basis. ;)
"I have something of an aversion to historical high-seas shenanigans."
I passed this up at the UBS for that very reason, despite having heard so much praise. Darn, I meant to check again last night and see if it was still there... --willaful
LOL I just now did a roundup post. I actually like them. Reading them, and writing them. I liked this one!
Oh, and could you please expand on point #5? You "some great-almost-within-your-grasp-realisation-of-Something?" I'd like to know what it is, and a few more details.
Thank you!
I quite like "round up" posts or posts that give me a hint of what the blogger likes and what activities the blogger engages in outside the narrow focus of the blog (be that focus "romance", wine, opera, feminism-anything I follow in depth).
The very first blogs I encountered as a newbie to the blogging world were feminist blogs and because feminism is, for me and many women like me, all-encompassing, a lens through which to view and evaluate the entire world, these blogs were protean and discussed virtually everything. I guess this kind wide-lens blogging remains the standard for me.
Mono-focused blogs tend to bore me after a while and I check in only occasionally, knowing that I won't have missed anything revealing and I can always search on the subject if I need to find something specific (be it a book, an album review or a tasting note). These blogs become essentially an archive rather than a conversation. They're useful but they're not especially engaging.
I also received a Kindle3 for Christmas. I'm quite madly in love with it, although I wish the selection of non-genre fiction titles was better, broader and cheaper. Still, I've found some great backlist trad Regencies for practically pennies so I am happy at the moment.
I voted "indifferent" because it's not the format of the posts that matters to me, it's the content and the voice.
I enjoy reading what you have to write, whether it's an in-depth piece on cross-dressing or secret babies, a round-up, or something in between.
I agree with Nicolo O. Your posts sort of demonstrate a mind at work; that's always interesting.
It's not the almost within the grasp insights that trouble me as much as trying to tie them down, requiring fits, starts, backtracks, ponderings, partial realizations and still failing.
dick
RRRJ - Have you read Shining in the Sun? I would love your view.
willaful - then read SITS!
CJ - this is my expansion: that's my default position.
MT - Voice is very important isn't it? A blogger who's really made an impression on me voice-wise is Karen Knows Best. There's no-one else out there so ballsy and outspoken and unapologetic. I don't agree with her on a lot of stuff but I love reading what she has to say because of how unique her voice is.
Oh, and can you point me in the direction of these cheap OOP trad regencies?
Nic - thank you dearheart
dick - (I hope you appreciate my conscious decapitalisation of your moniker) Para 5 was once longer. Making connections is a passion for me. Or possibly an uncontrollable obsession. Fits, starts and backtracks are meat and drink to me.
You said to: M-T ... "point you in the direction of those cheap OOP Regencies" ... if ONLY you lived closer! I'm sitting on tons and US media mail allows you to send books for pennies a pinch. I'll ask my fave guys at the Post Office what the slow boat to China cost is of shipping overseas :) Janet W
I've found the publisher Belgrave House/Regency Reads a great source of very inexpensive older trad Regencies in ebook (Kindle compatible) form. I've been collecting Joan Smith's prodigious output this way and many other excellent authors are available for the Kindle through them as well.
Funny that you should mention Karen Scott as I was just thinking the other day how much I missed her forthright opinions and her intense, "take it or leave it" personality. I find a lot of romance blogging very namby-pamby/passive-aggressive (honestly, if you're going to be aggressive, just be f*$%ing aggressive!) or too cutesy/kitschy. Karen could be accused of many things by an unsympathetic reader but certainly neither of those! (Just before I drafted this reply I noticed that she'd posted something new on her blog. Maybe she'll take to blogging regularly again-we can only hope.)
I'm with Nicola - it depends on the blog as to whether I'm interested in a round up post. (Although I will add that I will often pass on a round up post if I'm time pressured.)
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