Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make My Life Easier as a Reader/Blogger

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  This week’s topic is Top Ten Things That Make My Life Easier as a Reader/Blogger.  As usual, my picks are in no particular order.

• Goodreads.  I don’t know how I would manage without it.  Well, I used to do all right without it, but seriously, Goodreads is fantastic.  I can organize and keep track of what I’ve read, what I’m reading, and what I want to read; rate books I’ve read; and post reviews (usually after I’ve posted them on this blog).  I use the “shelves” not only for genres but also to indicate whether I’ve got the ebook, whether my library has the book, and whether I got a review copy.  I can rearrange my To-Read shelf to show the books I need to read and review in the order I need to read them.  And I love being able to connect with other readers on GR.  Oh, and the giveaways are great, too!

• NetGalley and Edelweiss.   These two services are awesome!  I get most of my ARCs through NetGalley at this point, and find it easier to use, but I’ve gotten a few books through Edelweiss that never showed up on NetGalley. 

• My public library.  I love my public library!  They have a great selection; I can ask for anything to be transferred to my branch from any of the other five or six branches; and they take suggestions for new books.  Because my book-buying budget is pretty small, I get a lot of books from the library.  And twice a year, the Friends of the Library have an absolutely amazing booksale — an auditorium and several smaller rooms just full of books at rock-bottom prices.

• Excel. Yes, really.  I built a spreadsheet to keep track of all those ARCs and review copies I receive.  Besides title, author, and publisher, I have fields for date received/downloaded, publication date, archive date (for NetGalley and Edelweiss), date read, date when the review will post, and a few other things I like to keep track of.  I use color fill to code where the book is in the process — upcoming, urgent, read but not reviewed, scheduled, or posted.  I couldn’t possibly keep track of everything without my spreadsheet.

• Blogger.  OK, everyone uses either Blogger or WordPress, so putting this on the list is a little silly.  I also know there are lots of reasons to switch to WordPress, and that’s in my plans for the next year.  But meanwhile, there are a lot of useful features in Blogger.  One of the most important for me is the ability to schedule posts ahead (which WP also has, thank goodness.)  I also find Blogger pretty easy to use.  And I finally figured out that I could create templates for posts I do regularly — I create a template and save it as a draft post, scheduling it for months and months in the future.  Then I just copy that template each time I do that type of post.

• Outlook.  I schedule and keep track of upcoming posts using the “all day event” feature on Outlook’s calendar, along with the reminder feature. 

• Other bloggers.  Besides hearing about tons of great books, I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, from “don’t sweat it if you make an occasional typo” to how to do specific things in Blogger to how to organize your blogging life.  My Excel spreadsheet?  I got the idea from several bloggers.  Edelweiss and NetGalley?  Found out about them from bloggers.  I’d like to give a special shout-out to Kimba at The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, who is always warm and helpful and has a terrific “tips and tricks” feature. 

• My e-reader.  I couldn’t read all those electronic ARCs and galleys without it.  (Well, I could, but I’d have to read them on my computer, and I spend too much time sitting in front of my computer as it is.)  I also really appreciate the ability to resize fonts; my eyes have gotten worse over the years, and I can’t handle really tiny print as well as I used to.  And I absolutely love having my e-reader on a long trip like the one I’m on now.  I’ve got almost 600 books loaded on my e-reader, including a whole lot of ARCs I need to read.  (Confession time: I’ve always loved my old Sony, but I’m beginning to eye the Kindle.  The page turns are so much faster!  I would miss having page numbers, though.)

• My public library.  I love my public library!  They have a great selection; I can ask for anything to be transferred to my branch from any of the other five or six branches; and they take suggestions for new books.  Because my book-buying budget is pretty small, I get a lot of books from the library.  And twice a year, the Friends of the Library have an absolutely amazing booksale — an auditorium and several smaller rooms just full of books at rock-bottom prices.

• Amazon, Kobo, and other book and ebook retailers.  I really wish I could include an independent bookstore in that list, but to be honest, when I do buy print books, it’s often online.  The main reason is that the nearest bookstore, a Barnes & Noble, is a half-hour drive away.  There are a few small used bookstores in the same city. I do check them once in a while, but I’m usually looking for something specific when I buy print books, and I rarely find it.  As for ebooks, I mostly watch for bargains and download freebies (though I’m getting a lot pickier about those; I’ve got too many books to read as it is.)

•  My glasses.  I have dedicated computer glasses, which make it much easier to see the screen when I’m working on my computer!  And my reading glasses are essential for reading books or my e-reader.

That’s about it.  I’ve recently started playing with Twitter, and I’ve been on Pinterest for a while, but although they’re fun, I don’t think they make either reading or blogging easier.  What about you?  What makes your reading or blogging life easier?

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