Seeing the World Through Books

For those (like me) who didn’t grow up with computers and sometimes get frustrated trying to find what they are looking for on other people’s blogs, here are some helpful hints so that you may have an easier time finding what you are looking for here.   On this site, everything in green is a clickable link (even on this page). 

1.  The Home page will take you to the the most recent ten full-length reviews.  That’s A LOT of scrolling to do, unless you find something that interests you right away!

2.  Most people will want to skim through  excerpts of the most recent ten reviews , not the whole review.  Just scroll to the Categories section in the gray column on the right side of the page, and click on “0: 2010 Reviews” at the top of the column. (A page number at the bottom of the page allows you to keep scrolling back to earlier reviews in the archive, in groups of ten)  If you find something that appeals to you, just click on the link at the bottom of the excerpt to get to the full review.  There are also tabs for reviews from 2008 and 2009.  For older books, you will need to check the Authors and Titles tabs.

3.  The   Authors,   Titles,   Classics,  and  Favorites tabs  are self-explanatory.

4.  If you are interested in books from particular areas of the world, go to the Categories section in the gray column on the right side of the page, and scroll way down to the name of the country under “World.”   (When I last checked, there are books representing 112 of the 195 countries in the world.)  These are books written by authors from that country, or involving action in that country.

5.  Genres are listed alphabetically in the Categories section on the right side of the page–Biographical,    Mysteries/Thrillers,   Non-fiction.  etc..

6.  You may always, of course, search by author or title in the Search window at the top right of the page.  It’s not as efficient as the Authors or Recent Books tabs, as it sometimes turns up lists and other things, too, but it will turn up an excerpt of the review(s), from which you can click to see the full review.  (A search for “Henry James” will also turn up the reviews of all the Henrys and all the Jameses in the database.)

7.  And finally, if you want to leave a comment on a review (please do), here’s how:

*If you have not registered and are not signed in, please go to the Meta section at the very end of the Categories column on the right side.  Both the Registration and Log In links are there.

*If you are on the Home page, look down to the very end of a full-length review, and after the green horizontal list of categories, way at the end of the review, you’ll find something that says, “no comments,” or “one comment,” or something like that.  Just click on it to get a window for comments.

* Once you leave the Home page by clicking on any title, however, you will get a window for comments at the end of every individual review or page, like the one at the end of this page.

In any case, you’ll have to sign with your name and e-mail address.  (The web address is not required.)  Your e-mail address will not show up on the site.  The comment may not show for a few hours, either, since I have to read it first.  Once your comment has been approved, however, you won’t have to wait ever again to make future comments.

Hope this makes sense and that you find it helpful.  The whole site is actually a series of interconnected “card catalogs,” for those who still remember what those were, and with a little poking around, I hope you will find the site comfortable and easy to use.  Thanks for visiting.  Mary Whipple