(More) Blog changes and what's coming up this week.

Refreshing the look of this blog has led to further thinking about the content and format. I'm getting inundated with books. I'm  not complaining about this. Quite the opposite! I love coming home to a package, or greeting the postman who has a nice little pile of packages which won't all fit through the post box. I've got such a wide range of books, of all genres and for all ages. Please keep them coming!

From the style of reviews I have been writing, I can't review every single book I receive. And I don't like that one bit! I want to tell you all about them, why they are so funny, why certain books shouldn't be read at night (if you are prone to being scared, like me), why some books you must thrust at your friends.

The thought of not reviewing the books I read was very concerning. I've been worried about it for a bit. However, I have a solution, which is starting up this Saturday!

A review, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (I'm English! This is a famous English Dictionary :) is:

"write a critical appraisal of (a book, play, film etc) for publication in a newspaper or magazine"

Well, book review blogs are a little different :) I always give publication of the details, genre, what the book involves (for example suspense, violence), what I thought of the characters, and any bits I didn't like. So far, my reviews are mostly what I'd term as long-ish. Several paragraphs long.

Life is ever changing, and the next few months will be interesting times for me. Part of this is my own writing. I haven't been plagued by the infamous Germ Gremlins all weekend, I was in the wonderful land of first round of edits. The other part of it is life in general :)

Combined together, this might mean I have to produce the new style of review on NRC (to be seen on Saturday) during the week. Just because the reviews are shorter doesn't mean that the books aren't as good. I'm using this as a way to keep reviewing all the books I receive with the reduced time I may have. All books are read and loved by myself and the other contributors.

I'm hoping to have a friend in Australia, who helped redesign the site (and do all the complicated things I couldn't do) review books for me. She will be joined by another friend from America, who will review when children and worm holes permit (a sci-fi lover).

There will always be reviews here, that I can promise. And interviews. And competitions!

Tomorrow I'll be posting an interview with a publicist. From then until Saturday lunchtime I'll be taking a mini-vacation, filling it with lots of books. And chocolate :) After the vacation, I'm hoping the schedule for blog posts will look like this:

Monday: What are you Reading? Meme (and a review)
Tuesday: Review
Wednesday: Review
Thursday: Review
Friday: Friday News post plus review
Saturday: Saturday reviews (shorter style)
Sunday: Review (sometimes from my Australian reviewer).

The rating system has changed hopefully A) to make it user friendly for all reviewers who contribute here and B) to make it easier for people who join the blog for the first time to understand the ratings.

I hope you'll still stay around for the reviews. I'd love to here what you think about what I'm planning, whether there are any other changes you'd like to see, and any comments in general.