Celebrate!

VOTING CLOSED JANUARY 31. Thanks to all who supported A Traveler’s Library, and I hope you visited all the other nominees, including my favorite music blog (links below).

Whoo!Whoo! A Traveler’s Library has been chosen as a finalist in the 2010 Bloggie Awards Travel Blog category. And if that is not enough excitement for one day—my partner on the road trip–Music Road is a finalist in the Music Blog category.

So I’m asking all my readers to cast a vote for A Traveler’s Library AND a vote for Music Road.  Go to the Bloggies Award page and do whatever it is they ask for you to do.  Once you find the Travel nominees, vote for A Traveler’s Library, and when you find the music nominees, vote for Music Road. And of course tell everybody you know that THEY should vote for A Traveler’s Library, and Music Road, too. (You can use the buttons below to spread the news.)

The competition is really tough.  Four other blogs that I admire are also finalists in the travel category. But sorry, Dave and Gary and Kristen and all that bunch of lovely gals at that other site, but A Traveler’s Library needs a trophy on IT’S shelf! May the best blog win.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library

©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

A Little Celebration for A Literary Birthday

Yesterday was the one-year-anniversary of the beginning of this blog about travel literature and movies. Actually, I learned a lot more than ten things about blogging in my first year on the job, but I don’t want to keep you here all day, now, do I?

1. People like posts that list 10 things. This is related to why they watch car races and trapeze acts. They’re waiting for disaster. They read fervently hoping you will run  out of steam by “8″ and they can cry triumphantly, “LAME!”
2. On WordPress, choosing a theme is the equivalent of gettting married. You’re going to spend a lot of time together, so take time to get acquainted. Both of you need to be flexible. Give a little on color, get a little on SEO.
3. It takes more time than I thought it would. Writing a blog about Travel Literature means you have to read a lot of books. Some of them are really long books with no pictures. Duh!
4. Guest Bloggers are life (and blog) savers. I truly could not have kept the flow going here without the help of a long list of guest bloggers. (I’m going to go back and tag each guest post with “guest”, so you can find them). I LOVE every one of them.
5. Twitter is myfriend. People will come and see what’s behind the link you drop there, but only if you work extra hard at a clever come-on. ‘See my post on “x”.’ is not clever.
6. Stumble Upon is my friend. S.U. has consistently drawn more traffic to my blog than any other source.
7. Friendship is a two-way street. I spend more time helping on-line friends than writing posts.
8. There is terminology to learn. A post is a one-time thing. A blog is forever (or until you run out of ideas.)
9. (Lame, yet?) To expand upon Woody Allen, 98% of success is showing up more than one day, which is how long it takes most would-be bloggers to run out of ideas.
10. You will never get to read everything in your RSS feed, so get over it.

Coda: Sadly, most people who are reading this post have never been here before, and will never come back again…unless they are moved by my (nearly daily) appeals that go something like this:

If you liked this post, please add A Traveler’s Library to your RSS Feed by clicking that big orange button up at the top of the page. If  RSS sounds like a snake to you, perhaps you would prefer that I send you a personal message every day. I can do that. Subscribe to A Travelers’ Library by Email by clicking on the blue type. And this month, if you subscribe by e-mail, you get THREE chances at the Grand Prizes in my Great Big Travel Literature Giveaway.

And if you want to see another post about blogging go here.

Korean Palace Garden

Don’t forget to enter the Great Big Giveaway by leaving a comment here, and win  a book that takes you to KOREA: The Calligrapher’s Daughter by Eugenia Kim.This beautifully realized book traces the history of a Korean family that survives Japanese occupation and the Korean War. See my review here. Only one day to enter–drawing at midnight tonight MST. Don’t forget–Mention the name of the book in your comment if you want to win it. (See contest announcement to review rules)

Pictures are both through Flickr, with Creative Commons license. Click on the picture to go to the photographer’s page.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library

©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Prison Cell

Traveler’s Library breaks some blogging rules. What I would like to know is, what works for YOU.

• What kind of posts do you like?
• What are you looking for when you come here?
• If you just Stumbled in–did you find what you were looking for?
• What countries, regions, authors, movies, do you want to see covered?

SOME FACTS TO THINK ABOUT

This is the 220th post of A Traveler’s Library. Which is about 219 more than 80% of starting bloggers post, according to what I’ve heard in the blogosphere. Even if the one-post-and-I’m-bored scenario is an exaggeration, the fact is that few people stick with it for very long and fewer blog five days a week, which is what I have been doing.

Like most bloggers that stick with it, I’m interested in what makes a blog tick–and keep ticking.  The gurus have some rules:

1. Keep the blog posts short–200-300 words.
2. Keep the language simple–middle school is pushing the limits.
3. Mix it up–have some super short posts; some that are only pictures, or one picture; some that are mainly lists of links to interesting things you have seen on the web.
4. Talk about things that are in the headlines–preferably celebrities or Twitter trending topics.
5. The Internet is crawling with geeks, so talk about geeky stuff.

Okay, let’s look at A Traveler’s Library:

1. The length of posts tends to be around 500-600 words. When it is very short, readership plummets.
2. According to the nifty tool, websitegrader.com, the vocabulary here is college level.
3. When I have short posts, link posts, photo posts, readers go elsewhere. When I have extended discussions, they stay to read.
4. Obviously I am not oriented to breaking news, and do not even talk about new books all the time, although newly minted books do  draw more attention than older books.
5. The closest I have come to geeky talk was talking about audio books and Kindle.

One place that A Traveler’s Library agrees with the gurus–content is king.  I work to bring you varied and interesting subjects with intelligent discussion.  But it is important to know What do YOU want to discuss here?

Reading a blog post a while I ago, I saw comments referred to as another form of microblogging.  What a great description! So, hey, I’m setting you free –blog away!

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library

©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Party Time Balloons

Party Time. The Great 5 Day 5 Book Giveaway. Win a book here.

Five Readers will win One Book Each. Just browse through A Traveler’s Library posts and leave a comment on a post here or tweet @pen4hire, naming a book that I have discussed that you would like to win. No guarantees, because the winners are picked at random. Click here for Details of 5 Books 5 Days Contest. And here for Basic Traveler’s Library Contest Rules.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library

©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

VMB in Kastro, Sifnos Island, Greece

Yesterday A Traveler’s Library hit one of those landmark days, and I was not even here to celebrate. (I’m in New Orleans ensconced in my favorite hotel, Hotel Monteleone.)

Ta-Da–100 Posts!

Somehow, it seems appropriate, though, that I had a guest post on India here yesterday, because it is symbolic of the ways this blog has introduced me to people, places and books to read for travel.  I might not have met Sue Dickman, yesterday’s guest poster,  had it not been for the 30-day challenge started by Michelle Rafter.

I certainly would not have had much to say about India, since I have not been there myself.  But by using guest experts, A Traveler’s Library roams beyond the  destinations that I have traveled to personally. We have had guests posts on New England, Croatia, Mumbai, and now India again.

And I met the nice folks at Wandering Educators, who invited me to be the Traveler’s Library Editor. I wrote their earlier this month about popular posts from April at A Traveler’s Library.

In the first 100 posts, we have traveled to an amazing 53 different places! I hope you’ll join me as we travel to more places and learn about more great books in the 2nd hundred posts.

TEN random selections from the First Hundred:

• Post Number One: 3 Civilizations, 4 Museums and the Morality of Collecting. A book with an important message. And you can join my favorite cause to return the Parthenon marbles to Greece, if you agree.
• Post Number Three: 4 Thrillers to Inaugurate Your D. C. Tour Don’t wait for the next inauguration to go to Washington, D.C., read Baldacci.
• Post Number Nine: Secrets of the Alhambra. A favorite destination and a great book.
• Post Number Twenty: Most Romantic Destination. My contribution to Valentine’s Day.
• Post Number Twenty-Nine:Victor Hugo and Paris. My brother, who is always right, recommended The Hunchback of Notre Dame as a guidebook for Paris.
  
• Post Number Thirty: Crete and History. Another favorite, and I love the books because I found them in Crete.
• Post Number Forty: Nice Movie to See, But Do I Want To Go There? This post about the movie Slumdog Millionaire received the most viewers and the most comments.
• Post Number Forty-One: The Don’t Even Go There Book. I think this post got lost in the hoopla about Slumdog Millionaire, but The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is one of the best I have read in years.
• Post Number Fifty: Listening a Book While You Travel This one struck a nerve with travelers who like audio books.
• Post Number Fifty-Eight: 5 Road Trip Books and The List I love road trips, and although I am wary of “best” lists, gave in this once because the 5 best American road trip books seem pretty obvious.
  

Onward toward that First Year celebration  January 10, 2010!

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library

©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Reading quotes like this, “My main advice to a first-time traveler would be to read something from, or at least set in, the place they’re going.” and “The books that are most compelling to me have always been books that transport me to another place or time…”, it is all I can do to stay chained to my computer chair instead of flying directly to JFK.  But before going to Manhattan, according to DelVecchio, I need to read…” Bartleby the Scrivener and Washington Square, which are both set in the 19th century of course, and Three Bedrooms in Manhattan, a Simonen book from the 1940s that has a very Hopperesque feel to it. Enemies, A Love Story is another great book, also set in the ’40s.”

And besides, I can, if I don’t mind skipping the tactile and olfactory  joys of a bookstore, shop at Idlewild on line.

I encourage you to stray away from A Traveler’s Library and read the interview with Del Vecchio. The Book Slut’s introduction reveals that she is one of us, also. “My preferred way of learning about any subject is through reading literature,” she says.

Thanks goodness for places like Idlewild Books.  Here are a few more bookstores for travel literature:

• Get Lost Books , San Francisco
• Globe Corner, Cambridge MA
• The Complete Traveller, Antiquarian Bookseller, NYC

Do you know of another wonderful store that understands that travelers need more than guidebooks and maps?  Please share.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library

©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.