I have a lot of blogs in my Google Reader, but generally they are of four sorts, even though there is some overlap.
I follow one set of bloggers because I have come to like them very much personally. Often our taste in books diverges so much that if one of them rates a book a 5/5, I know I will probably not like it at all! But it doesn’t matter to me- I like them. (And no, these are not people I know in “meat-space” – I have not “met” them – they are all virtual friends.)
Another group does seem to have similar tastes, and I can get good reading recommendations from this group.
A third group I follow is one that I created out of my experience rating “best writing” blogs for Book Blogger Appreciation Week. These bloggers read books that my brain and attention span will no longer allow me even to consider, but their writing is so intelligent, and so beautiful and accomplished, I don’t care: I read them for their posts alone.
Finally, the vast majority of blogs in my reader are there for what I might call “review and/or blogger community awareness.” I follow them to keep tabs on what is happening in the community, and what books are being read, and to see if there are any reviews in which I might have an interest. While I read quite a few of them, I only occasionally have time to leave a comment. I wish I had more time to do so.
My folder names aren’t necessarily rationally related to my group divisions. For example, I have “Everyday” and “Periodically” and “Sometimes” (I have no idea what the difference is between the latter two folders), and I have a few folders differentiated by genre, and even some set up to include fellow members of the various Readalongs in which I have participated. (I find that Readalong participants often have more in common than just the Readalong choice, and so I keep the folder divisions because the groups have some ineffable je ne sais quoi.)
Anyone else have similar categories of blogs you follow in your readers? Have you come up with a better system? (This would not be difficult to do!) Are you satisfied with the time you devote to reading other blogs?
Filed under: Commentary, Sunday Salon Tagged: | Commentary, Sunday Salon
Oh my — you are so organized. My Google Reader is a mess right now — around 300. I just look through them everyday and comment if I feel as if I have something to say. I like the idea of folders.
My reasons for following blogs are very similar to yours. Some read books that generally interest me; others don’t, but I like them personally. And others just write so well that I’d read them even if they were blogging about the history of motor oil. I’m very uncreative in my folder naming, so they’re called “Book Blogs1″, “2″, “3″ and “4″. But the rationale is similar to yours
I tend to follow blogs that read/review the types of books that I read and enjoy. Like you though there is a whole other set of bloggers whose posts are so awe inspiring that I read strictly because I am fascinated with their deep thought. I have about 225 blogs in my google reader (down from 300) and not all a book blogs (most are), some people are just so sweet that even though we have never met, I know we would be great friends if we did.
I have no organization whatsoever, although I think I have all of those categories covered. There are some blogs where I might NEVER read a single book they recommend, but I just think they are cool and fun to follow. I have to tell you that the longer I am a blogger, this blogroll just keeps growing and is becoming more and more difficult to dedicate the time to visiting them all. I am a compulsive follower, and feel guilt if I don’t comment and give attention to all the blogs. I need a few more hours in the day!
I have three reasons for following blogs: first if they’re friends or people I’ve gotten to know, second if I love their blogs and the books they read/things they say, and third if I know they come talk to me a lot and I want to keep tabs on their blogs too even if their blogs aren’t my favorites. There are, of course, overlaps. I keep the folders tiered – top level, mid-level, lower level, lurker, and new blogs. (the lurker folder is for blogs I love but rarely comment on, that I just like to watch from afar.)
I like having the blogs all split up like this because it makes it easy to see at a glance what I want to look at and comment on each morning. I read all my blogs every day, but the comment system varies, so that I comment more on the top level and less at the lower level. Etc.
folders? you can put them in folders?
That goes to show how badly organized I am…lol
I try to keep things to a minimum, both in my reader and in my blogroll. I try to follow bloggers I both like personally and who write well–I worry less, as you say, about whether I agree with them or read the same sort of books, because I want my horizons expanded. I also tend to focus on bloggers who write about books more than participate in memes or other blogging events. Those things are fine, but not as interesting to me as a good post about a book or an author. For the record, I got here today through Google Reader.
I follow lots of blogs but do divide them into folders based on my favourites. My favourite bloggers tend to have a very similar taste in books to me and so I can rely on them for book recommendations.
I also follow bloggers who never read the same books as me, simply because I like the other things they post about – discussions etc.
Then there are a lot of blogs where I lurk, simply because I like to see what is happening in the blogging world.!
I have no organization although I would like to.
Your post has convinced me that I need a better system! Like Caite, I need to figure out how folders work…
Caite and JoAnn,
There are lots of sites telling you how to make folders. Here is one that has pictures (always helpful!):
http://www.organizingyourway.net/blogging/creating-category-folders-in-google-reader
Thanks, Jill… you’re the best
I had blogs separated into a couple of different folders – my favorites (which is really just blogs that I would gravitate to for many of the reasons you stated), and then those who participate in the challenges I host. All others were in a general folder.
Then my feed reader crashed and died. I had to re-install it. Thankfully my husband was able to copy all of the feeds, but without the folders/sorting. I’ve just been too busy to get back around to sorting them out, but hopefully someday soon I will create a system again.
For my book blogs, I have two folders. One for blogs that I like. And, another for blogs that I follow out of necessity for a giveaway.
“Blogs that I like” is pretty full right now and most are there because I get great suggestions from them. I am okay with memes thrown in here and there, as I participate in a few myself. I also like blogs that have bookish discussion posts. I learn alot about readers from thier replys and have found some great blogs that way.
Blogs that I need to follow are checked every so often and if they have what I love, then I move them out.
I am not too organized really. I don’t really mind having a bunch of posts to go through. I love google reader and use it mostly on my phone. I can check posts whenever I have some freetime and star them for later. If it is not something I am super interested in, I can just click it and move on.
Funny- a while ago, I had a TSS about people’s criteria for UNsubscribing from blogs!
I have absolutely no system at all. I recently made folders with “A-List,” “B-List,” and “TBD.” I am trying to lessen the TBD list to either the A or B list or to just unsubscribe completely. I admit I am trying to really minimize my blog subscriptions because I often feel I spend too much time reading and commenting on blogs and it can be exhausting and quite lowering to go and see a GR with hundreds of unread posts.
But I am the first to admit my whole “system” is pretty flawed and illogical
I try to limit the number of blogs I visit regularly because otherwise I would get nothing else done. The ones I read every day are written my people I consider my virtual friends, people I know I would be friends with in the real world. I like blogs that teach me something and blogs that inspire me to write better and so it doesn’t matter if the books they read appeal to me or if I agree with their opinions.
Then there are a few that I’m trying for a while. They may or may not become favorites.
Earlier this year, my Google Reader became completely overwhelming – it would frequently reach over 1000 unread posts! I separated the blogs I follow into folders – one for Every Day (the ones I never want to miss, about 40 or so) and then one for every other day of the week. Now when I have time read – usually in the evening – I read through the Every Day folder. If I have time I read through that day of the week’s folder, which I almost always do. I don’t have to use the “mark all read” button near as often now!
I like your idea, too. It’s hard to keep up with all the great blogs out there!
An interesting post! I tend to just have two categories: 1) similar tastes (i.e., good place for recs); and 2) great writing so the posts are always fun to read. I used to have a lot of blogs that I knew were popular and “big name” blogs in my reader, but I found that many of these blogs have overly similar content, the writing wasn’t actually all that great, and I wasn’t interested in most of the books they were reviewing. So now I tend to be fairly clueless about may of the ins & outs of the book blogging world (exacerbated by my lack of Twitter, I’m sure), but I feel I have a manageable group of blogs to follow, and I enjoy them. For that reason, i don’t need to rate them in terms of how frequent I’ll visit, but there are certain ones that do prompt me to read more thoroughly and/or comment more.
My total lack of system seems to be serving me well. I subscribe to a large variety of blogs like you do but do not have them in folders anymore because I found that I enjoy them more in the chronological order they arrive into Google Reader. Also found with folders that I was commenting too much in my “top tier” rather than based upon what was most interesting to me. So many great readers and writers out there that I don’t want to miss anything just because it comes from a less familiar source. Great post!
I finally got a system that is similar to yours a few weeks ago. I was up to 200+ blogs and it was just too many to click on in the reader one after another. I sorted by “Favorites”, “Mystery”, “Group”, “YA mostly” and “The Rest”. My reasoning was a lot like yours. I do like to comment quite a bit or at least periodically. I know that I like comments on my posts and I figure others do too. So, I try to do it along with all of them just to keep my toe in the water. I am trying to be a little more discerning about new blogs to follow. There are just so many now and while I would love to read them all, I just can’t.
This was a good post and I think it’s good for all of us to ponder some of these things periodically. It’s also good to get feedback and ideas from other people. I thank you!
Kay,
I’d love to have blogs broken down by genre also! (I say even though I myself am not niche-ified.) I think that makes sense though, for blogs that do adhere more or less to a niche. Maybe we need spreadsheets with cross-referenced multiple categories, or a “secret formula” like Jenners has! :–)
I really don’t have a system or criteria, I just add things when I like the writing style and feel that I have read something of interest. I have folders, but I don’t think that they did me any good. In the past I have tried to comment as much as time allows, but now I usually just comment when I feel that I have something to say and as time allows.
I like to keep it simple.
1. All about books.
2. Anything else.
I wonder which groups of yours I fall into? I’d be curious to know.
I use folders, but since I follow a lot of non-book blogs too, they’re mostly labeled by niche or general topic are. All of the book blogs are in one folder.
My criteria are very similar to yours, which is why there are some blogs I read faithfully even though our taste in books is quite different. And I like your “community awareness” label; I think that covers why I read many of the blogs I do as well.
I don’t categorize the blogs in my reader, but in my head, I sort of follow the same guidelines that you do. I don’t follow anyone that I do not admire as a person though. They may post some wonderful reviews but if I don’t believe in them or feel that their personality jives with mine, I won’t follow them. I think this is what makes blog hopping a joy for me, not a chore. It’s like visiting with close friends.
You know that everyone is just trying to figure out where they might fall in your categories! : )
For me, I have have a “secret” formula that determines how often I will read a blog and I “rank” them as Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. The Tier 1 are the ones that I try to read all the time. Tier 2 I like but not as much as Tier 1. And Tier 3 are ones I’m almost reading out of obligation and I often skip over them. the formula is based on how much I get entertained by the blog itself, how “loyal” they are to my blog (I admit to reading some blogs because they read mine all the time and I feel like I have to reciprocate), and how often they post. (Seriously, if someone posts 2 or 3 times a day, I’m not going read them all. It is just too much!!!)
Most of all, I need to be entertained or like the writing on the blog. There are just too many blogs out there to not be choosy in what you spend your time on.
What a great discussion post…I add blogs to my bloglist and reader because I like reading them. The ones that I visit daily are the ones that I enjoy no matter what! I like how you have yours divided into the different categories…
I don’t read just book blogs, so I have folders based on different topics. But I *do* have two book blog folders: “Book Blog Faves”, and “Books”. I probably could break it down further into more folders, but have not.
But, I do think that the book blogs I follow are also for the same reasons that you do.
Interesting post. It looks like almost everyone has a system to sort out the dilemma of who to visit each day. There are so many blogs I’d love to visit but that would be the sum total of my life. It’s hard to make those choices.
I very disorganizedly starting organizing my blogs into folders based on how often I comment on them – my thinking being that if I comment on a blog nearly every time the person posts, I should allot myself more time for reading that one. Only I got bored halfway through the organizing process (because I ran out of DVDs to watch at the same time), and anyway since doing it I’ve found I remembered absolutely wrong which blogs I comment on frequently and which I don’t. It’s a mess. I’ve told myself I’m holding off on organizing again until I’ve come up with a really good system, though I’m not sure I’ll ever develop one really. :/
You are much more organized than I am. well this year I had to organize. I have the Vietnam War Reading Participants list, the favorites list, those with embedded comment boxes on blogger (because for whatever reason I cannot comment on those at work), and book blogs.
Great post! I follow blogs for a lot of the same reasons you do…but I never thought to group them on my Reader by category of WHY I read them (although I really like that idea!). Instead, I tend to group blogs by subject. So I have about 200 blogs under “literary” *laughs* I also have subjects for animals, blogs about life (or feel good blogs), food, quilting, writing, and authors. Thinking of changing my categories at this point feels overwhelming!! Maybe I could do some ‘sub groups’ under literary!
I was JUST thinking about this because the follow app thingy (the name escapes) told me I could only follow 300 blogs and I was exceeding the limit. Thus I turned to Google Reader. I don’t follow many non book blogs, the few I do follow, I just keep them with all blogs. I actually want to organize my Google Reader to blogs I read everyday, sometimes, and rarley (or a variation of that sort of thing). But perhaps I wont, because I don’t mind scrolling through all the posts and seeing what titles/opening lines catch my eye.
Ari,
No! Here’s the thing! You can read all of the blogs in your reader all the time even if you use folders. All the folders do is sort them for you. Just because I call some “Everyday” and some “Sometimes” doesn’t mean anything to the reader – it is just my label. I could call the “Susan” and “Arlene” for all Google cares! I see EVERYTHING everyday. But it DOES allow me to prioritize, or to “mark all as read” just in certain folders. Like I have a “non-books” folder and sometimes if I’m busy, I’ll just mark that one as “mark all as read.” Then the entries change from bold to non-bolded. But I still see them!
And you can also classify blogs into more than one folder. Say I have a YA folder and a POC folder. I would put your blog into both. So if I just wanted to read my POC blogs, I still wouldn’t miss yours!
It’s very handy to use folders!
I have folders but admittedly they aren’t as organized as I’d like. I need to spend some time sorting and culling…
Interesting post, and the comments from readers are also insightful!
I like Ti’s comment that reading blogs is like visiting with close friends, and I’m very curious about Jenners ‘secret formula’.
I know you and I tend to vary greatly on the books we enjoy (excepting, of course, that particular book so highly recommended by ‘the two Jills’!), so I’m guessing I’m one of your virtual friends (yes, everyone’s trying to figure which folder they’re placed in).
I’ll admit to being dissatisfied with my Google Reader organization and reading lately. I don’t want reading blogs to be a chore, yet I also want to take the time to read (and comment when I’m moved to).
Lots to think about, Jill!
I love the way you organize your folders, Jill! I’ve put mine in folders as well, but need to reorganize as sometimes I make mistakes and put some blogs in the wrong folder. I get overwhelmed by clutter so when I’ve added blogs and haven’t put them in the correct category I tend to panic!!
I do follow blogs for the same reasons as you. Some because I like them, even if our book interests don’t gel, others because we read the same things, and yet others because I just love how they write or review. What I don’t follow are blogs just to keep tabs on the community. I did use to follow blogs that way but when I was so overwhelmed by so many blogs that I had to cut down, those were the first to go. I’m so clueless, especially being Twitterless.
A few months ago I did ‘research’ and found out how many times people commented on my blog. I then placed them into folders accordingly. Everyday, MWF, TR, and S. If people are taking the time to leave a comment I appreciate that. I make more of an effort to comment on the first two groups. The S (weekend reading) group I know never comments on my blog and while I like reading what they have to say I know I don’t have to feel like I have to comment.
This worked very well for me until I have suffered from morning sickness for close to 2 months now. Even now, in my fourth month I am still getting sick! I am still trying to catch up. I have also been weeding out a few. I’m down to 170 from 200 in my Reader
Oh, and just because I’m reading this on a Tuesday that doesn’t mean you’re in the tr group
Until I get to under 1000 posts I am just reading from all over!
[...] ~ Rhapsody in Books: What Are Your Criteria for Following Blogs? [...]
I don’t have any categories in my Google Reader. Everyone’s lumped together. I don’t usually follow people whose reading taste is different from mine. I’m pretty satisfied with the time I spend reading blogs. I may not be able to comment every day but I try to comment every week or so.