This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you follow a lot of blogs but rarely read them or do you follow a few you read regularly?
Kind of…both? I’ve mentioned on other occasions, especially while discussing how I plan my reading, that I like lists and I tend to be ridiculously organized. It applies to my blog reading too. I use NetVibes to subscribe to lots of blogs, and I have those subscriptions grouped into Favorite Blogs, Secondary Blogs, Tertiary Blogs (because I like the word!) and Blogs From People I Know (off the internet, I mean) The Favorite Blogs are a relatively small number and I check them pretty carefully; ditto the People I Know Blogs. The rest are bigger groups that I tend to skim quickly.
My particular blog-following quirk is that I never manage to make time daily to read blogs. Usually I spend one chunk of time once a week to catch up on everything–so if you’ve ever wondered why I comment on multiple posts on your blog in one day, that’s why! 🙂
I’m pretty much terrible at checking-in with the year-long reading challenges I join (more on those next Friday, by the way!) but I do make an effort to keep up with the posts for Carl’s seasonal reading experiences.
If I ever write a best-selling novel and don’t have to work any more, I expect I’ll read more blogs more frequently…but until then, this system seems to work. What works for you? How do you manage your blog reading?
Cheryl, I’m so glad you posted this! Since I finally became more active on social media, which includes following a lot of blogs, I’ve been angsting over how to get a handle on the time-suck factor. I KNEW it would be a problem which is why–for YEARS–I avoided increased activity and involvement. I’m trying to get this aspect of my life organized and under control and need to determine which blogs I don’t want to miss on a daily basis, and the ones I just want to skim. It prevents me from working on getting my own blogs up, plus writing and doing other stuff I want and need to do.
I wanted to organize them in some list form (I’m a BIG list/chart person) and was glad you mentioned you do this. Never heard of NETVIBES! I see it’s free so, of course, I’m wary ’cause there’s got to be something about it that’s a “catch,” right? I’d love to hear if it causes any problems with the computer or if it increases spam or anything ’cause I LOVE good organzing tools!
Thanks so much for posting this! 😀
Blog reading can definitely be a time-suck…but I also find it’s the best way to connect with other bloggers. And it’s fun!
I like Netvibes pretty well. There’s a number of free tools out there for aggregating blogs/news. I used to use Google Reader (which I *really* liked!) and picked Netvibes because it was the most similar. It’s not the BEST user interface I’ve ever seen, and it gets stuck now and then, but no serious problems (and no spam that I’m aware of). And I do like that I can toss lots of blogs into folders, and then look at the updates from all of them together, or choose one and look at updates just from that one… Anyhow, hope that’s helpful! 🙂
Yes, it’s helpful, thank you very much 🙂 And why did you stop using Google Reader? I think I signed up to use that somehow, but then discovered my WordPress Reader and figured I’d use that since my blogs are on WordPress. I just want to find the best, most efficient ways to handle the entire blogging and social media activity, you know?
I only stopped Google Reader because Google shut it down. I’d still be using it if it was available! Good luck finding the right tool for you 🙂
Oooh I’ll have to check out your other post. I need to be more organized!
Here is my Bookish Memes post.
Well, there’s an idea. Now I want to organize my book blogging visit. It will be really helpful. Thanks!
I’ve never thought of actually organizing my blog reading list into sections. Good idea. I sort of just skim through my feed and see what interests me at the moment.
It is difficult getting to all the blogs, but I visit my favorites daily and catch up with others on bloglovin’ and e-mail.
Happy Hopping!!
Elizabeth
Silver’s Reviews
My Blog Hop Answer
You’ve just inspired me to do a little more sorting on my Feedly account. I have lots of blogs and try to read some every day to keep up, but usually the keeping up part only lasts for a day or two, with lots of time in between where I have scarily large numbers of unread posts in my feed. Plus blogs that I think look good and read articles from sometimes, but don’t add to my feed because it’s already too full.
The blogs I really like, I tend to visit most week-days at lunch time for a short diversion, to see if they have anything new to say. Others that I like but not as much I tend to check in with in groups, like you do, when I have a little extra time, sometimes in an evening or on a week-end. I only actually subscribe to one or two, so I don’t tend to get notifications in my e-mail when the bloggers post. I feel more obligated to go see what they had to say if I have an e-mail telling me they posted, and I’d rather view them on my own schedule instead of theirs. Blogs are a great diversion, though, because they can be thought provoking or entertaining, but in small bites, so they are not too time-consuming.