Weekly Geeks 2009-12 … Link Love

This weeks assignment for Weekly Geeks is something I’ve been meaning to do for so long, but just never got around to. The idea is one that Dewey used in the very second edition of the original Weekly Geeks. So it’s super awesome that Chris chose this one for us all to take part in.

Here’s what we’re to do:

1. Write a post encouraging readers to look through your archives (if you have your reviews in a particular place on your blog, point them there), and find the books that they have also written reviews. Tell them to leave a link to their review on your review post. For example, I've written a review for Gods Behaving Badly and Jane Doe leaves a link to her review of Gods Behaving Badly in the comments section of my review.

2. Edit your reviews to include those links in the body of the review post.

3. Visit other Weekly Geeks and go through their reviews. Leave links for them.

4. Leave a note somewhere on your blog to let people know this is your new policy.

5. Write a post later this week letting us know how your project is going!

This is a big undertaking but as Dewey put it, it's 'community building'. Have fun!

I’m a bit late to this week’s project, but I plan to spend what’s left of the week looking through all fellow Geekers archives and linking up to any I’ve done. This is something I try to do whenever I post about books, because it’s a terrific way of providing exposure to a whole whack of opinions and perspectives. Normally I would just search out reviews from blog that I’m subscribed to in Google Reader. But I’ve just learned of a wonderful resource created by Nicki of Fyrefly’s Bookblog called the Book Blogs Search Engine. Testing it out I searched for the title of a book sitting on my TBReviewed pile using these search terms "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic"+ review and voila 2 pages of blog posts about this book!

And if, I’ve reviewed a book that you have too, but I don’t have a link to you – just let me know and I’ll add one. You can leave a comment on my blog, or send me a message at shiloki@gmail.com 

As I was looking through some of the Weekly Geek posts this week I was struck by this …

“please please please don't be shy about leaving links. The reason why I'm saying this is because I can feel reluctant about it myself. I worry that I'll look like a spammer, even though rationally I know there is no reason to.”  - Nymeth @ Things Mean A Lot

The reason why this made such an impression in my mind is because I’m incredibly shy, even when I post someone else’s link I’m worrying that it’s not appropriate, so the idea of commenting on someone’s review and saying “hey I reviewed this too – here is my post” nearly makes me break out in a sweat :P Anyways Nymeth said perfectly what I have been thinking lately. We review books not only for ourselves, but also as helpful guideposts for other readers – so the best thing we can do as a group of book geeks is share as many opinions as we can!

Here is a link to my master list of all the reviews I’ve posted - The Book Zombies Review List They are listed alphabetically by author’s last name and I try to keep it updated at least once a month.



© 2008-2010 Joanne Mosher of The Book Zombie. All rights reserved.

13 comments:

Eileen said...

I used to leave links to my reviews in my comments more often, but then I stopped because it occurred to me that self-linking might be bad blog etiquette. (Hey, look at me!) So I've been shy about that too ever since. But this looks like fun.

So I write a post encouraging others to look through my review archives and I leave links in the comments section of reviews other bloggers have written of books that I've also reviewed? And do I do this on any book review blog or just members of the Weekly Geeks community?

the_young_dude said...

I have a baby blog, so I'm grateful for the advice.. it's indeed an excellent way to perfect a review..

Fyrefly said...

Thanks for plugging the Book Blog Search!

I still feel like a total spammer leaving links to my reviews on other people's blogs, so I've taken to only doing it if it clearly says somewhere "send me your links!" - and I make sure to put that line in all of my own posts. :)

Kailana said...

The Book Blog Search is cool! I might have to start including links to other reviews!

Ladytink_534 said...

I'm sure most people are the same way but the way I look at is I'd love for you to leave a link to what you've done on my review so I'm going to hope you do too! Lol.

Ana S. said...

It's a relief to know I'm not the only one who breaks into a sweat :P I always write my "Did I miss yours?/Got more?" comments at the bottom in the hope they'll encourage people. I always feel a bit less shy when I see one of those.

Susan said...

I sometimes leave my review if i'm comfortable with the blogger, but often I am too shy and don't want to be pushy. And yet I love the idea of linking and want everyone to send me their reviews of books i've reviewed so their blogs can be found!!!! so good post and idea reminder, Joanne.

Unknown said...

Hey thanks for the recommendation on the Book Blog Search... I'll definitely use it and try and link more reviews to my blog. Btw, your blog is great! Glad I found it through Weekly Geeks.

Lightheaded said...

On another note, gee I never really bothered with Google Docs before but now I can see how I could use it to create a master list :P Thanks for that!

Jeane said...

I looked through your list, but we don't have any reviews in common. I have read some of the same books, just not written of them yet! So, I'll let you know when I do.

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

So glad that you and Nymeth pointed out Fyrefly's search engine. I had no idea there were so many book bloggers and had fun searching through them. I like this policy, but I admit with the more popular books I usually skip the link part of my post. Need to be better about that.

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Anonymous said...

Reading these kind of posts reminds me of just how technology truly is an integral part of our lives in this day and age, and I think it is safe to say that we have passed the point of no return in our relationship with technology.


I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Ethical concerns aside... I just hope that as technology further innovates, the possibility of copying our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I daydream about every once in a while.


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