A favorite Blogathon activity is creating a wordcloud based on your blog.
The more often that a word appears in your chosen text, the larger it appears in your wordcloud.
I’ve used Wordle and other tools, but have the most fun with the shapes and ‘spin color’ options on Tagxedo.
Here’s how Tagxedo “sees” BooksYALove posts over the past few weeks:
Have you wordclouded lately?
**kmm
One of my reading resolutions for 2015 was to tackle the Reading Diversity Challenge posted here.
With the year nearly half gone, let’s see how I’ve done with the first 6 categories.
1. A book written by an author of color: several, including Gabi, a Girl in Pieces, by Isabel Quinteros, recommended recently.
2. A book with a person of color on the cover: look at Girl in Reverse, by Barbara Stuber here.
3. Â A book about coming out: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli captured Simon’s conflict about going public so well.
4. A book in which the main character or strong supporting character has a disability: in graphic novel of the same name, Nimona is sidekick to a guy gone bad because he lost an arm.
5. A book containing bullying: look again at The Disappearance of Emily H. by Barrie Summy.
6. Nonfiction or biography about a person of color: beyond the @AudioSYNC free audiobooks that I’ve recommended this summer, none. Â I don’t hit biography much on BooksYALove..
All in all, not too bad. In some categories, I’ve read many.
How would you score yourself on this half of the challenge?
wandering around diverse Amsterdam,
**kmm
Gaze out?
Peer inward?
Focus on something unseen?
Art, music, and books can help us do all these things.
But please don’t let preference for favorites keep you from trying new genres and types of books!
Grab a graphic novel like Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks and Canaan White to go into WWI trenches with underappreciated African American heroes – these aren’t “just comic books” for sure.
Read books aimed at younger readers that can bring important issues and hard truths to light. Like Water on Stone by Dana Walrath gives voice to victims of the Armenian Holocaust.
If you think all novels about death are depressing, reconsider with funny yet realistic Finding Mr. Brightside by Jay Clark.
So, about my photo here: I visited Rembrandthuis to see how the great artist lived and worked, others were there for his paintings up close, a few were obviously dragged there by art-loving companions.
Standing in his recreated studio was decidedly worth climbing all the narrow, twisting stairways. But I was most pleased by seeing how the same etching looked when printed on different papers – the same story, with a slightly changed look.
How have you experienced different stories lately?
Staying off the tourist track in Amsterdam and meeting booklovers from all over (hi, Izzie and Mom and Dad!),
**kmm
If all is going according to plan, I’ve made it to the Netherlands (with my luggage), found my B&B and the tour company office, and am headed for canal tour, foodie walking tour of the Jordaan district, and will be seeing windmills, wooden clogs, and cheese a-plenty this week…
If not, y’all really don’t want to hear from me!
Pictures if I get onto internet as planned – otherwise, you get this pre-arranged post.
Blogathonning from the Netherlands – I hope!
**kmm
Three cheers for theme days!
Hooray for Haiku Day!
Yes, we Blogathonners love playing with that 5-7-5 syllabic pattern, especially when a poem gets us that much closer to our goal of blogging every single day of June!
Again, a blank page.
Desperation? Reflection?
Poetry saves us.
My Blogathon haikus from past years are here and here and here and even here.
Do you haiku?
**kmm
“Eye Can See the World” by cam morris https://openclipart.org/detail/65845/eye-can-see-the-world
Interesting – check.
Timely – yes.
Understandable to everyone – maybe?
As a blogger or website owner, whether you just dash off a quick daily note or craft a series of longer posts, do you ever think about
…readers with visual impairments being able “see” your images?
…people with color-blindness easily navigating your blog?
To help you reduce potential barriers for your readership, check out some free assessment tools and adopt simple practices for your blog.
For every image, photo, or video on your page, include an alt-text description. This allows screen readers to say aloud what it is. For instance, I use book covers from publishers in almost every BooksYALove post, so I always include alt-text like “book cover of Cool Book by Great Author published by Fancy Publisher” – which also gets picked up by search engines.
Be sure to bookmark and refer to the checklists on the Website Accessibility Project’s site so that you can institute the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines recommended changes one at a time (and monitor how they affect your site for viewers). The very first one is providing text descriptions for non-text elements.
Read a brief background on color-blindness and web design here, then use some of the free online tools listed by Sitepoint here to check your site. Good color contrast when a website is greyscaled also helps older readers better distinguish things there.
Free and easy ways to help more people read what you’ve worked so hard to write!
What accessibility tips do you recommend?
**kmm
image courtesy of boxfordlibrary at https://openclipart.org/detail/174651/book-on-monitor
If it’s June, then it’s time for Freelance Success/WordCount Blogathon!
I’ll be posting every day in June to build up my blogging muscles and help clear out my to-be-reviewed bookshelf. On Thursdays, I’ll highlight the new pair of free audiobooks for download, a great service of @AudiobookSYNC.
We should have some theme days (gotta do haiku and word clouds, as in years past!), and I hope to have a guest reviewer or two who’ll share their no-spoilers recommendation of outstanding young adult books that you might have missed.
If you’re interested in writing a guest post, please give me a buzz at Katy@BooksYALove.com.
Happy June and happy reading, y’all!
**kmm
image courtesy of Vinsche https://openclipart.org/detail/148327/paperpen
Is it June yet?
Can you haiku?
Wanna wordcloud?
Long-time BooksYALove readers (or any who show up this time of year) will recall that the WordCount Blogathon in May 2010 was the impetus for starting this book recommendation site. I set up my first Blogger site on April 30, then leapt into blogging on May 1, buoyed by how-to-do-this guidance from Michelle Rafter, some theme days to give structure to the month (31 whole days to fill!), and even guest posts.
Now, for my 6th year participating, I give big thanks in advance to Jeannie Phillips and the Freelance Success crew who are once again leading this supportive and enriching blogging experience, following Michelle’s lead.
If you want to build up your blogging muscles by posting every day of June (your choice of subject, of course), be sure to sign up by May 31 here, then reply to the email that Jeannie sends you. Also, like the 2015 Freelance Success/Wordcount Blogathon Facebook page where participants will share blog post links, find new blogs to follow, and seek guest bloggers.
It’s free!
Participants who post every day of June can win prizes!
And you’ll love the theme days, camaraderie, new followers, and sense of accomplishment that participating in this blog challenge brings.
C’mon over! Sign up here and blog along with us!
**kmm
I did it!
26 new books recommended in 26 days this April!
AprilA2Z Challenge 2015 is complete!
Was it worth all the effort? Let’s look at the numbers: Google Analytics says that my April readership was up 15% from March. Hooray! My Akismet site stats give a more detailed picture, showing a huge increase during first week of April, with lower numbers for the rest of the month, but page view total still about 20% above March 2015.
Of course, the opportunity (with deadlines!) to move 26 books from my “to be reviewed” shelf to the “y’all must read this & here’s why” files of BooksYALove is probably the main reason that I jump in to April AtoZ Challenge each year.
I might not have gotten to visit as many fellow participants’ blogs during the past month as I’ would have liked, since April also brings the Texas Library Association conference, but I will be visiting others during May and beyond because I do enjoy finding new ones to enjoy throughout the year.
A huge thank-you to the A2Z organizers who take time away from their own blogging to set up the challenge, visit participants’ blogs, retweet our #AprilA2Z tweets, and give us all a boost.
So, will I be posting 6 days a week from now on? No way! I plan to post frequently, with book birthday Tuesdays and audiobook Thursdays guaranteed, plus 1-2 more recommendations weekly.
You’ll definitely want to stay tuned to BooksYALove this summer, as SYNC and Audiofile Magazine once again will provide 2 FREE young adult audiobooks for you to download each week from May 7 through August 13. I’ll post direct links to each pair on Thursdays, starting next week; you can also sign up for reminders on the SYNC site here.
If you subscribe to BooksYALove by email or RSS feed, please do come over to the site occasionally and comment so that I know you’re out there! I don’t think that the site stats or Google stats can measure your smiles, trips to the library, or visits to your favorite bookstore resulting from my recommendations.
So many more great books coming up in the weeks and months ahead!
Let me know what you’ll be reading.
**kmm
Are you ready?
26 book reviews, alphabetically aligned, in 30 days!
This year’s AtoZ Challenge begins on April 1st, and I think that I’m ready…
You still have time to sign up and build your blogging muscles: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2015/01/the-2015-to-z-challenge-list-is-open.html BooksYALove is number 507, if you’re checking.
I’ll also be digging in to the 2015 Diversity Reading Challenge – 12 book categories to stretch perceptions and horizons (listed here).
And you have till April 10 to register for the great giveaway package at DiversityInYA’s blog here – 20 winners each get 5 books from their amazing list, which includes some I’ve recommended on BooksYALove, some on my upcoming list, and some that I can’t wait to read.
See y’all on the first!
**kmm
