Well – it’s time for some changes at ClubReading. The current site has served us well for a long time, but it is feeling it’s age. As you can see, the new site start page is a blog. This will give us a chance to share and dialog with the community, while still having a place for a conversation.
The new books part of the site is written using the Zend Framework. I have to admit, the new books part of the site is not complete. There are still some very rough edges, but it will meet the basic needs:
- Search Amazon and add books to the site
- Display the books in a variety of formats
- Maintain lists of books
A couple of new features:
- Books can now be rated, and the ratings are searchable/browsable.
- The comments section is being hosted by Disqus
Like I said, I know the new site still needs a lot of work, but it’s time to put it in place and start really exercising it. FYI – if we run into any security issues with the new books site, I’ll take it off-line and correct as necessary.
What should you expect here? Any number of things, including:
- Posts about books, authors, reviews
- Interesting technology that may or may not relate to reading/writing
- Rants about anything…and nothing in particular
Enjoy!
I think the new header on the blog…photo of book covers…is very cool.
And I do like the book list…the way you have made the author’s name a link to all the books by that author…and the way you made my name a link to all the books I entered.
Great updates to Clubreading.com
HEY!! Do I not get to see your lists any more? How will I know what you are reading, since we never talk???
This site is going to be fun; thanks for doing this, Bill.
Great point! Ok – now you can see all the Public lists on the Lists page. Check it out. You can still see your own private lists of course, but only the public lists of others.
I like the ratings idea…and I added to it. You can sort books by rating now. It’s going to be hard not to rate everything a 10 though.
Thanks for the lists! I am really having fun here with the new site. Loved how easily new books are added.
I’m glad to hear it! It really doesn’t need to be complicated
There are still a lot of kinks and bugs to work through, but it’s coming along.
Regarding the blogs…
I see in the left column the “latest comments.” I have to admit that I do miss being able to quickly see if there are any new comments that I personally have not viewed.
But…I suppose that’s the way with blogs. As I said, I’m not very blog savy.
If you want to make sure you see all the posts/comments, you can subscribe to the RSS feeds for both. If you are using gmail for email, then you already have access to a great rss reader, http://www.google.com/reader“ rel=”nofollow”>Google Reader. The links are in the Meta section.
Here’s the link to the Posts feed, http://www.clubreading.com/feed/
Here’s the link to the Comments feed, http://www.clubreading.com/comments/feed/
Enjoy,
Bill