Bloggiesta: Starting Line #bloggiesta

Bloggiesta is organised by Suey from It’s All About Books and 1st Daughter of There’s A Book. Bloggiesta is an online event for (book) bloggers in which we are encouraged to spend the next three days working on our blog in any way we see necessary. We Plan, Edit, Develop, Review and Organise – no wonder our mascot is called PEDRO! Olé!

Hurray! It’s Bloggiesta time! I’m all ready for it. For 3 days we’re going to give our blogs a technical and artistic check-up, take it apart and put it back together again.  This is a popular event amongst book bloggers so you may come across a few other bloggiesta-blogs this weekend.

I’ve got two blogs and will do some work on each: Leeswammes (LW) – which is my English-language Book blog and De Boekblogger (BB) – which is my Dutch-language book blog. Actually, I use Bloggiesta to work on anything related to books, reading, and reviewing, so some of the things I’ll be doing this weekend are not directly related to the blogs.

Here’s what’s in the planning…. 

Small, quick items:

• DONE - Back-up blog (LW, BB). In WordPress, go to Dashboard, Tools, Export, choose All (first option). Backup failed for me – it seems my total number of data is too big now. I chose All Posts, and then only since January 3013 (I had backed up the blog regularly anyway).
• DONE - Add links in reviews (since February 4th), to reviews by same author (LW, BB)
• DONE - Email author of DNF book
• DONE - Reply to review requests (email)
• DONE - Ask for review books
• DONE - Shelfari – Update reviews (already written and on blog).
• DONE - Adapt menu above blog (LW)
• DONE - Send links of blog posts (reviews) to publishers
• DONE - Update reviews list Dutch challenge (BB)

Items taking more time:

• DONE - Do at least 2 mini-challenges. Not actually completed but I had the Google Reader item on my list anyway.
• DONE - Update Reviews page (since February 4th) (LW, BB)
• DONE - Shelfari – update “now reading” books – write small reviews where needed and move to “read”.
• DONE - Sort out alternative for Google reader (see emails, blog posts, and mini-challenge) -> I finally got it!!! First, Bloglovin’ didn’t seem handy as I didn’t see how you could subscribe to comment feeds (Atom) – you probably can but I only figured out how when I was playing with Feedly (in Chrome). In Chrome, first you need an RSS feed extension that will appear on the right in the address bar (duh, I should have figured that out ages ago). With it, you can subscribe to blogs and comments (on individual posts). Download Feedly. When you have that RSS button in the address bar (e.g., when your visiting a blog that you can subscribe to), right-click on the button, choose Options, Add, enter Feedly as description and as URL enter this: http://www.feedly.com/home#subscription/feed/%s%5Baction.subscribe Save and then you can subscribe to a site with Feedly in Chrome. Phew!

Write posts:

• DONE - New Arrivals (LW)
• DONE - Ditjes & Datjes (BB)
• DONE - New Books (BB)
• DONE - Review Schreiber
• DONE -Review Grant
• DONE - Review Ariely
• DONE - Finish Noordervliet
• Review Noordervliet
• First chapters post
• Blogoversary post
• March overview (BB)
• DONE - March overview (LW)

Part of the fun of Bloggiesta is connecting with other bloggers so I expect to spend some amount of time tweeting (#bloggiesta) and reading other people’s posts and commenting.

Good luck to everybody who is taking part. If you’re on Twitter, use the hashtag #bloggiesta to keep in touch with other participants. I am @leeswammes.

Could your blog use some extra work?

Mini-Bloggiesta: Starting & Finishing Line #bloggiesta

Bloggiesta is organised by Suey from It’s All About Books and 1st Daughter of There’s A Book. Bloggiesta is an online event for (book) bloggers in which we are encouraged to spend the weekend working on our blog in any way we see necessary. We Plan, Edit, Develop, Review and Organise – no wonder our mascot is called PEDRO! Olé!

Hurray! This event is a mini-Bloggiesta, in which we do a bit of work on our blogs in between the Big Bloggiesta events (the next one is March 22nd – 24th, 2013).

Finishing Line I’m combining my starting and finishing post so it’s all nicely together. I spent especially Saturday doing a lot of items from my list, some more on Sunday night. I wrote three of the seven posts I had planned and ALL of the other items on the list. See below.

It was fun to sit and work on the blog – funny how things that seem tedious are actually very rewarding once you’re doing them. I commented on other participants’ blogs and it was nice to connect up with some old and new friends.

Can’t wait for the next Bloggiesta – I’m already starting a list for next time!

---

Starting Line I’ve actually done a lot of work yesterday (Friday), not so much on the blog itself, but things around it. I cleaned up my email boxes (mostly filled with book-related emails), sent off emails to publishers with links to the reviews of their books that I did last month, I posted (existing) reviews on amazon, goodreads, and shelfari and wrote a few blog posts. Now it’s time for some more work!

I’ve got two blogs and will do some work on each: Leeswammes (LW) – which is my English-language Book blog and De Boekblogger (BB) – which is my Dutch-language book blog. Actually, I use Bloggiesta to work on anything related to books, reading, and reviewing, so some of the things I’ll be doing this weekend are not directly related to the blogs.

---

The List Here’s what’s in the planning…. and everything in Italics is DONE!! ****

• Back-up blog (LW, BB). In WordPress, go to Dashboard, Tools, Export, choose All (first option). DONE for BB, for LW it didn’t work (error message)
• Add links in reviews, to reviews by same author DONE
• Shelfari – update books that I have finished DONE
• Update ereader with ebooks I want to read in February DONE
• Check out the mini-challenges on offer and do one or two DONE
• Update Reviews page with links (LW, BB) DONE
• Prepare Giveaway Blog Hop email to participants DONE
• Update copyright notice to 2013! DONE

Write posts:

• Review of The Power of Habit
• Review of Vanity Fare DONE
• New Books post (LW)
• January overview post (BB) DONE
• Ditjes & Datjes post (BB) DONE
• Prepare Giveaway Blog Hop post
• 12K Challenge starting post (goals)

Part of the fun of Bloggiesta is connecting with other bloggers so I expect to spend some amount of time tweeting (#bloggiesta) and reading other people’s posts and commenting.

Good luck to everybody who is taking part. If you’re on Twitter, use the hashtag #bloggiesta to keep in touch with other participants. I am @leeswammes.

Could your blog use some extra work?

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Dickens in December Event: Oliver Twist (The Movie)

Caroline at Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and Delia at Postcards from Asia are organising the Dickens in December event. There is a read-a-long, a watch-a-long and there are of course book reviews.

This weekend I watched Oliver Twist, the 2005 movie by Roman Polanski with Ben Kingsley, Barney Clark and Jamie Foreman. My kids (boys, 14 and 15) saw the old-fashioned streets and houses at the beginning of the movie and decided this was not for them. But they stayed to watch anyway and loved the story even though it lasted for over 2 hours!

.

Charles Dickens wrote Oliver Twist in the 1830s but the story is funny enough to be entertaining even for modern kids and adults. Oliver Twist is an orphan who is sent to work in a work house. When he asked for more food, after having been given a few spoonfuls of porridge as a meal, he is considered a rebel and “sold” to anyone who wants him (they get the boy PLUS 5 pounds). His new employers employ a terrible bully, just a few years older than Oliver, and he decides to elope to London.

In London, Oliver is quickly picked up by one of Fagin’s boys. Fagin is a crook who has a number of boys working for him as a pickpocket. But a wealthy man  takes pity on Oliver, and adopts him, after which Fagin and his cronies try to get Oliver back.

It was a fun and entertaining story. I was surprised that a whole hour had passed when I happened to look at my watch. The movie definitely didn’t feel like two hours long. Everything about the movie seemed right, the cast, the setting (a believable London of the 1800s), the clothes, etc.

---

Rating: 5 (out of 5) – very good

Time: 130 minutes

First published: As a series in a newspaper, in 1837

I got this movie: borrowed it from the library

Genre: classic

Blogfest 2012: Winner of the Giveaway Blog Hop

BlogFest is a blog run of sorts. A list of participating blogs is provided on the blogsite hosting the BlogFest, each offering a fantastic giveaway for readers to enter. 

---

The giveaway is now closed and a winner has been chosen via random.org. That winner is…

Mystica 

of

Musings from Sri Lanka

Congratulations, Mystica. I’ve sent you an email.

Mystica asked for Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen.

Bloggiesta: Final Post #bloggiesta

Bloggiesta is organised by Suey from It’s All About Books and 1st Daughter of There’s A Book. Bloggiesta is an online event for (book) bloggers in which we are encouraged to spend the Friday and weekend working on our blog in any way we see necessary. We Plan, Edit, Develop, Review and Organise – no wonder our mascot is called PEDRO! Olé!

I’ve got two blogs and worked on each: Leeswammes (LW) – which is my English-language Book blog and De Boekblogger (BB) – which is my Dutch-language book blog.

Here’s what I did

• Back-up blog (LW, BB). In WordPress, go to Dashboard, Tools, Export, choose All (first option).
• Add links in reviews, to reviews by same author (LW, BB)
• Update ereader with Netgalley ebooks for October
• Update tabs (LW,BB) – Done this partially
• Pinterest – make a page with favorite books - http://pinterest.com/leeswammes/favorite-books/
• Check out tweetchat and tweetdesk – Installed/used both and will continue to use this
• Finish the books by Dorrestein, Eggers, and Gayle –  I have been reading too!
• Do at least 5 mini-challenges / old mini-challenges(LW, BB)
  1. Photo challenge. Rikki’s challenge introduced me to PicMonkey, which I used to change this photograph of Carlos Ruiz Zafón being interviewed into this:

2. Grade Yourself from Smash Attack Reads. I checked both my Leeswammes blog (grade 90) and my Boekblogger blog (grade 87). I was happy with those grades, and it turns out that my main issue is that blog posts don’t get shared in Facebook (except when initially published). There is only a Like button under my posts, and I don’t think I could get a Share button. I’m not sure how to proceed there. UPDATE: I did play around with it in the settings of my wordpress blog and manage to get a Facebook share button on my blog posts!
I was a bit miffed that it couldn’t find my klout score (and acted as if it was 0, while my actual klout score is a decent 49).
3. I did Bookjourney’s challenge and went to 10 blogs that I didn’t know
4. I did Joy’s Pinterest challenge and made a Pinterest page with my favorite books
5. I did Bluestocking’s challenge to revitalize old content

• Update Reviews page with links (LW, BB)
• Shelfari – Update reviews.
• Update challenges (tab and pages) (LW)
• Shelfari – update books from bookswap
• Email clearout (JH & LW)
• Work out how many RSS subscribers I have; I know this now, and including email subscribers, I have a grand total of 622 subscribers to my Leeswammes blog! Thanks everyone, that is so great!
• I took part in the Twitterchat on Saturday. This was great fun!

Write posts:

• New books (BB)
• New books (LW)
• Review The Miracle Inspector (LW)
• Review Mitchell (LW)
• Review Hayder (LW)

What I Didn’t Do

Small, quick items:

• Make a list in Word of books I got this year (for next year’s challenge) – but hey, there’s time enough!

Items taking more time:

• Look into copyright (LW)

Write posts:

• September overview (LW)
• Review Cornelisse (BB)
• Review The Invisible Ones (LW)
• Translate some of the BB posts in LW (Shelter, Hope)
• Ditjes & Datjes (BB)
• New Books 2 (BB)
• 1st Hoofdstukken (BB) Decided not to do this, too boring. Blogging is a hobby.

As you can see, I got quite a bit done and I’m happy with the result of these 3 days. Thanks to the organisers for another successful  Bloggiesta!

I hope everyone who took part had a great time and managed to get a long way down their to-do list.

Did you work on your blog this weekend?

Bloggiesta: Starting Day 3 #bloggiesta

Bloggiesta is organised by Suey from It’s All About Books and 1st Daughter of There’s A Book. Bloggiesta is an online event for (book) bloggers in which we are encouraged to spend the next three days working on our blog in any way we see necessary. We Plan, Edit, Develop, Review and Organise – no wonder our mascot is called PEDRO! Olé!

I’ve got two blogs and will do some work on each: Leeswammes (LW) – which is my English-language Book blog and De Boekblogger (BB) – which is my Dutch-language book blog. Actually, I use Bloggiesta to work on anything related to books, reading, and reviewing, so some of the things I’ll be doing this weekend are not directly related to the blogs.

Here’s what I did the first and second day (Friday and Saturday)

• Back-up blog (LW, BB). In WordPress, go to Dashboard, Tools, Export, choose All (first option).
• Add links in reviews, to reviews by same author (LW, BB)
• Update ereader with Netgalley ebooks for October
• Do at least 5 mini-challenges / old mini-challenges(LW, BB)1. Photo challenge. Rikki’s challenge introduced me to PicMonkey, which I used to change this photograph of Carlos Ruiz Zafón being interviewed into this:
• 
  2. Grade Yourself from Smash Attack Reads. I checked both my Leeswammes blog (grade 90) and my Boekblogger blog (grade 87). I was happy with those grades, and it turns out that my main issue is that blog posts don’t get shared in Facebook (except when initially published). There is only a Like button under my posts, and I don’t think I could get a Share button. I’m not sure how to proceed there. UPDATE: I did play around with it in the settings of my wordpress blog and manage to get a Facebook share button on my blog posts!
  I was a bit miffed that it couldn’t find my klout score (and acted as if it was 0, while my actual klout score is a decent 49).

• Update Reviews page with links (LW, BB)
• Shelfari – Update reviews.
• Finish the book by Eggers
• Update challenges (tab and pages) (LW)
• Shelfari – update books from bookswap
• Email clearout (JH & LW)
• Work out how many RSS subscribers I have; I know this now, and including email subscribers, I have a grand total of 622 subscribers to my Leeswammes blog! Thanks everyone, that is so great!
• I took part in the Twitterchat on Saturday. This was great fun!

Write posts:

• 1st Hoofdstukken (BB) Decided not to do this, too boring. Blogging is a hobby.
• New books (BB)
• New books (LW)
• Review The Miracle Inspector (LW)
• Review Mitchell (LW)

Still to do on Sunday

Meanwhile, I have done some of these things (on Sunday). They are marked ****

Small, quick items:

• Make a list in Word of books I got this year (for next year’s challenge)

Items taking more time:

• Do at least 2 more mini-challenges / old mini-challenges (LW, BB)  **** I started Bookjourney’s challenge and went to 9 blogs that I don’t know; I did Joy’s Pinterest challenge and made a Pinterest page with my favorite books
• Look into copyright (LW)
• Update tabs (LW,BB) **** Done this partially
• Pinterest – make a page with favorite books ****
• Check out tweetchat and tweetdesk; **** Installed/used both and will continue to use this
• Finish the books by Dorrestein and Gayle **** I have been reading too!

Write posts:

• Review Hayder (LW) ****
• September overview (LW)
• Review Cornelisse (BB)
• Review The Invisible Ones (LW)
• Translate some of the BB posts in LW (Shelter, Hope)
• Ditjes & Datjes (BB)
• New Books 2 (BB)

Good luck to everybody who is taking part. If you’re on Twitter, use the hashtag #bloggiesta to keep in touch with other participants. I am @leeswammes.

Could your blog use some extra work?