Sunday Salon: Bloggiesta!

Maw Books hosted this year's Bloggiesta, three days of blogging fun, challenging participants to work on their blog.  I didn't think I was going to participate, so I didn't actually sign up to join in the fun; but then as I was sitting on my couch, notebook on my lap, I got the bug.  You know what I'm talking about, that strangely productive but towards something other than what you should be actually doing way.  I should be working on my syllabi and lesson plans for the coming semester.  Instead, I started working on my blog.

Then, as if Fate was extending a hand, the Weekly Geeks for Saturday involved the Bloggiesta, and I realized that this post was also perfect for a Sunday Salon.  So we have sort of a three for one deal going on today!

Notes so far:

- I created pages for Reviews by Title and Reviews by Author. I also put links to those pages/posts in my header.  This was very time consuming, but I'm ecstatic that I've got it done now.

Update:  I now have a page listing all of the books I have available for giveaways.

- I 2010'ed my Reading Spreadsheet, pushing the '09 sheets back and creating new spreadsheets for this year. This is where I track my reading: pages, male v. female, dead v. alive, genres, etc. Everything is nicely set up with formulas and ready to go.

- My bookshelves are loaded with more than 1,000 books, probably closer to 1,500, so I went through and eliminated about 50.  I know, I know that's a pretty small number but I have a very very hard time getting rid of books.  Look for giveaways in the coming months as I'm not sure what to do with all my "extra" books.  I was going to put them on BookMooch, but I already have 140 points over there.

- I plan on completing the mini-challenge over at Beth Fish Reads asking participants to write either a list or opinion post.  I want at least one of each for my rainy day posts when I run out of ideas or steam.  Possible topics for My List Post:  5 Books I Wish Were Movies and 5 Movies I Wish Were Books, 5 Books I Wish Had Sequels, ....    And for My Opinion Post: Why Intro to Lit should be required of all college freshman, Reading and Book Choice in High Schools, It takes a reader to make a writer, .....

Update:  I've completed the Books/Movies list.  Look for the post and the giveway tomorrow!

- I learned a neat trick about linking over at Galley Smith.

- Following some advice I read on Bookish Ruth, I ran my blog through Website Grader and got some very neat advice on how to improve my site.  Since I was over there, I also ran my blog through Blog Grader, which oddly enough I did not find as helpful.

-A mini-challenge over at There's a Book inspired me to create a cheat sheet for my book reviews, which will come in handy as I've joined a ridiculous number of challenges.  Now I don't have to type in and search for the appropriate challenge URL every time I write a review!

- Beth Fish Reads has a mini-challenge about cleaning up the labels you put on posts, and this is something I have really got to buckle down and do.  But I don't wanna!  I know I need to figure out my labels, and then go through each and every post, fixing them.  But I don't wanna.  I hope to get to this today or tomorrow at the latest.

- I have a confession.  I have never backed up my blog.  But thanks to Farm Lane Books, my blog is now safely stored just in case Blogger freaks out on me.

There are still quite a few mini-challenges and other tips and tricks that I want to try out on my blog, but it's going to take some time.

Update:  I now have a Favicon and a Gravatar based on the image I used for my Google Doc spreadsheet!  Thank you Trish from Hey Lady!

Time Total (so far): 3 hours 21 minutes
Update:  6 hours 53 minutes