Month: June 2007

A book review blog is kind of a hard weblog to review when you’re failing miserably at reading even just two books a month – like me. I like reviewing this type of site, though, because it gives me some more ideas of books to add to the ol’ Amazon Wish List, and for a not-so-avid reader, that’s definitely a plus.

I loved that when this site loaded, it was a very simple layout and very easy for me to find my way around. The archives were sorted by date or by category, including type of book. There are two side columns surrounding the main content, with both columns listing a plethora of information. One of my favorite additions is the bit on the sidebar that shows the book that’s currently in process.

EB is the author of the weblog and has one of the best and straight forward about sections I’ve ever read: “I’m not here (on the internet) to bore you with my personal life, or to give you my full life story. I am doing this, because I love literature & (to read) books and write about books and it is nice to give recommendations and/or reviews for other booklovers to read. I don’t pretend to be objective or only write a blurb (I don’t write for a publisher or paper etc.), but what I will give you is my humble but honest opinion.” Perfect!

The first thing I noticed with each post were the added extras to the post. For instance, the latest review done on October 16th, has lists the number of words in the post, the number of images (if any), and the estimated reading time. It’s all listed very unobtrusively, and is something I haven’t seen before.

The reviews are done in a short, but informative manner. They don’t spoil the endings of any books, but still manage to give potential readers enough knowledge to know whether or not it’s something they might enjoy. Inside each review is a link to the Amazon page where you can buy the book, and there’s also a link the author’s created suggesting if you like the review, to consider buying EB a coffee. It’s a subtle way of asking for donations, and it’s probably one of the least tacky ones I’ve ever seen.

Overall, I’m a fan of this book review blog. If I were a more diehard reader, I’d absolutely be apt to check back now and again for new recommendations.
NULL

I’m not sure about the title of this blog… Guilty Secret seems to imply that something is being hidden from someone. Our author is incredibly forthright and open about her entire life here, and keeps little short of nothing secret from the reader. And my guess is, the blog itself is secret from her long-time boyfriend but the content within is material I’m sure she’s gone over with him a million, billion times.

The blog is a fairly young piece of writing, having started just this summer. The content is extensive, as our author writes without ceasing and has a lot to say. The look and feel of the blog is very clean, white background, black text, easy navigation. The only complain that I have is that there are no “jumps” to cut the incredibly long entries down and display a simple stub for the reader to click upon to visit the rest of the article. The entries are very long and detailed, and scrolling becomes the rule rather than the exception.

Our young author is based in England, maintains her first name anonymity throughout the blogspot-based blog. She refers to her boyfriend as “Baddie.” She is 23, he is 28. She is madly in love… he says he loves her, but… it seems that he likes things the way they are. She wants to be married, and wants him to commit to her, to their life, to their relationship. But he just doesn’t seem like he’s wanting the same things.

They’ve been together for about five years, and to me, it sounds like she wants him to crap or get off of the proverbial pot, if you know what I mean. Which brings them to couple’s counseling.

I found the blog compelling to a point, and then got to a place where I wanted to yell at her and at him. I am not sure our author is actually in love with her boyfriend. I think she’s in love with the IDEA of being in love, and the prospects of being in a long term committed relationship. And he is obviously in love with taking drugs and his own personal lifestyle…

She pours her heart and soul out, but I get the impression that she should take a really good look at her own age (23) and her own life, her dreams of working overseas (was going to Spain before University, didn’t go because of a job opportunity; might come to the USA to work for a while, he seems like he isn’t interested in HER life choices but wants to live where HE wants — LA or NYC, and isn’t too committed to the idea of … anything).

Our author is very adept at looking at other relationships and seeing the flaws in them, especially those of her siblings, which she refers to by number. In a recent entry she discusses a situation with her brother where he states his girlfriend wants him to choose her or choose the drugs, and he won’t drop the drugs… she’s very good at point out what other people should do, but really needs to DO something with her own life.

And when just about every entry has a “category” of “drug taking” it becomes obvious that there are serious problems in the lives of the people she’s surrounding herself with. She herself walks away when Baddie involves himself with “jubes” and other drugs… but nothing changes, and I get the feeling it just won’t.

She’s very young, very smart, and should really learn to love herself and live her life without stagnating in a relationship that is after five years obviously a co-dependent mess. I’m psychologist, but at 23 you shouldn’t have to be going to a therapist to try and fix your relationship. That’s for 43. 23 is for living. I hope she gets to do some before finding herself pregnant and miserable with two other children at 30. I don’t feel compelled to revisit this journal. The writing is decent, but after reading the entire thing, I’m hoping that changes take place in both of their lives. I wish her the best.NULL

A name of Guilty Secret implies to me that this could be an adult oriented website. And it is, just not in the sense of it being a non safe for work site. The site is actually about a relationship and one person’s side of what is going on.

The design of the site is a basic two column layout with the main content on the left and a sidebar on the right. There is a custom header which is a little nice considering that it is an old style image of a woman whispering to a man. The colors are a soothing cream and brown that works well for the site.

The blog, as I said, is about one side of a couple’s relationship. They have recently entered therapy and my best guess is that this is just a way for the author to get her thoughts in order before sessions. The posts are long and well written and bring you in very quickly and easily.

The author has gone the nickname route for everyone she mentions which is a good thing. I find it kind of amusing that all of her siblings are given numbers and that her boyfriend is given the nickname of N or Baddie depending on her mood.

This blog has the potential to be either one of those fairy tail happy ending or be a sad story. Right now it is still on the fence. For the author’s sake, I hope for the fairy tail as that is what she wants.

I think this is a great blog. There is a lot of emotion that is poured into it and it gushes emotion to the reader. Most people will be able to relate to the author because who hasn’t had a relationship that was on the rocks at some point? I look forward to more from this site, and I think you should check it out too.NULL

Thanks to my typical habit of going back to the very first entry of a site when I review it, I was able to immediately find out the purpose behind this blog. To quote one of the authors of this two-writer blog: “The purpose for this blog is to inform you the reader how we as Christians have allowed Satan to distort our understanding of these institutions and how we can seek God’s face to reclaim them as tools for building His kingdom.”

The Two Institutions Mike Hall (the author of the previous quote) mentions are Family and Church, and their the basis of this blog that’s been up and running since April of this year. The authors average about a dozen lengthy posts a month on this topic, which often feature links or quotes that back up the general idea of the a particular point. I kept getting tripped up by the “Read More” links at the bottom of each entry, because there was never anything additional to read when clicking on it in each entry.

The layout looks like a typical Blogger-style design, even though it’s hosted on its own domain. It’s a two-column layout, with the bigger of the two columns containing the blog entries. The sidebar, like nearly every other blog in the world, is full of archive links, other blogs, bible study tools, and other various external websites the authors wanted to share.

Blogs like Two Institutions are tricky to review. Not everyone will agree with what’s being written and some will have very adverse opinions about each topic. Both of those phrases describe my feelings towards this blog. Posts with subjects like “Bad Girls Come From Bad Dad’s” (punctuation not altered from text on blog) did nothing but infuriate me and assure me that the Constitution lists “freedom of religion” for a reason.

The 3.5 rating isn’t because I disagreed with the content of the site, but because the site is just better than average. It doesn’t engage readers, but informs them. This blog has the potential to involve random readers that might come across it on accident, but the entries, in my opinion, take on too much of a lecturing tone to encourage any feedback.NULL

I figured out that iT Right Say would be an IT blog right away. It just seemed like the perfect name for an IT type blog.

Unfortunately all I can gather from itrightsay is that there is no real purpose behind it. The posts are just the technical details of any item they can find. And as such I can only assume that the purpose of this blog is to generate income from all the google ads.

This is not worth reading or even looking at. Don’t waste your time.NULL