This is how far behind I am

Sadly, I think I'm even missing some.


Books That Need to be Reviewed

Title (series, if applicable) Author

• It Sucked and then I Cried by Heather B. Armstrong
• The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
• The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag (Flavia de Luce, #2) by Alan Bradley
• Homicide in Hardcover (Bibliophile series #1) by Kate Carlisle Update: reviewed here
• If Books Could Kill (Bibliophile series #2) by Kate Carlisle Update: reviewed here
• The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr
• Heat Wave (Nikki Heat, #1) by Richard Castle
• Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
• Faithful Place by Tana French
• The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession by David Grann
• Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz
• Lit: A Memoir by Mary Karr
• My Fair Laz: One Reality Television Addict's Attempt to Discover If Not Being a Dumb Ass Is the New Black, or A Culture-up Manifesto by Jen Lancaster
• The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
• Killing the Shadows by Val McDermid
• Still Midnight by Denise Mina
• Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
• Spooky Little Girl by Laurie Notaro
• Hardball (V.I. Warshawski #13) by Sara Paretsky
• Body Work (V.I. Warshawski #14) by Sara Paretsky
• Sea Change (Jesse Stone #5) by Robert B. Parker
• High Profile (Jesse Stone #6) by Robert B. Parker
• Stranger in Paradise (Jesse Stone #7) by Robert B. Parker
• Night and Day (Jesse Stone #8) by Robert B. Parker
• Split Image (Jesse Stone #9) by Robert B. Parker
• The Professional (Spenser #37) by Robert B. Parker
• Blue Screen (Sunny Randall #5) by Robert B. Parker
• Spare Change (Sunny Randall #6) by Robert B. Parker
• 206 Bones (Temperance Brennan #12) by Kathy Reichs
• Spider Bones (Temperance Brennan #13) by Kathy Reichs
• Going in Circles by Pamela Ribon
• Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
• Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner

I am a pathetic excuse for a book blogger

Oh, man. I am shamefully, woefully behind on my reviews. So here's what I'm going to do:

• list all of the titles that need reviews in one post
• link to reviews as I finish and post them
• vow to post at least one review per week

I don't have a good system for keeping track of what I've read, what I'm currently reading, what needs to be reviewed, and what's been reviewed. I had been managing this via Goodreads: everything on my "currently reading" list had at least been started but still needed a review, regardless of whether I'd finished reading it. That doesn't seem to be working for me any more. I think I'll try simple lists in text documents for a while. Got any better ideas? I would welcome any suggestions you might have.

New Blog Design (courtesy of Blogger Template Designer)

I finally got around to playing with the new Blogger template designer. My first thought is that while it's an improvement, they still don't have very many templates to choose from. They finally offer 3-column templates, though, and it is very easy to use. I also liked that it automatically maintained all of my sidebar links and gadgets.

How do you decide which sites you link to?

A recent tweet from @booktweeting inspired some thoughts about how I choose which online selling sites I link to on this blog. But first, I'm curious about how you decide. Is it based on brick & mortar stores you like? Do you always choose indies? Do you prefer going directly to the publisher? Do you make your decision based on how you feel about the website itself?

Here's what I typically do:

1. Google the title and look at various sites to find a cover image I can use -- I want the front cover only, cropped (no white space around it), at a decent size/resolution. This is where Amazon loses me right off the bat -- their cover images always seem to have extra junk on them (white space, "Look Inside!" logo, etc.). I also stumble across all sorts of interesting content, such as other reviews, related articles in the media, etc., through simple searches.

2. My general preferences, in descending order, are

• publisher's site: I find that the publisher sites often have interesting additional content (like videos or author background) that I can use and the cover images meet my needs. Of course, I work for a publisher, so I tend to pay special attention to other publisher sites. :)
• Powell's: I've always been a fan of indies and they're the king.
• non-Amazon chains such as B&N: Not Amazon for reason #1 and also because their site has become such a mess over the years. B&N also often has neat additional content (like the B&N Studio). However, they sometimes shoot themselves in the foot by making it hard to use (sometimes can't be embedded or isn't easy to find).

3. Another factor for me is the website itself. As I mentioned, it's another reason I rarely link to Amazon -- I just don't like the jumbled mess that their site has turned into. But if, for example, I start noodling around on a publisher's site and find it difficult to navigate I might not link to it even if they had a good cover image.

Well, that's it in a nutshell. What about you?