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A Year of 5 Minutes for Books

August 10, 2009 by Jennifer

Has it been a year already? Well, yes — actually a year and a month. Our official anniversary was July 10, but you know how kids with birthdays at inconvenient times like summer vacation and Christmas often have to celebrate some other time? I think that’s what happened to us.

It’s been a wonderful year, and I didn’t want to just let it slip by unnoticed.

Some things have remained the same, but there have been some changes as well. We’ve featured at least one giveaway each week (on Wednesdays with additional ones scheduled on other days at times). We’ve had some fun giveaway events for Mother’s Day and Summer (and this Wednesday will kick off our two-week Back to School Giveaway). We added a “current giveaways” link on our navbar, so be sure to check it out each week to make sure you aren’t missing anything.

For the most part, our team has remained the same. Carrie, Melissa, Lauren, Lisa, and I Jennifer have all been in it since the beginning. We added Dawn back in January, specifically to help me with the popular fiction titles. Our names are all linked to our reviews, if you want to check out each reviewer’s tastes. You can always search by category on our right-hand sidebar, to look for more books in your favorite genre, as a gift idea for a niece of a certain age, or by reviewer.

Another resource that I hope will be helpful to you in selecting books or gifts is our brand-new “5 Star Reads” page. This is reserved for the best of the best. In fact, there are some books that we left off the list, because they were just 4 + stars (since you can assume as a rule that we find any book that we review worth a recommendation, even if it wasn’t our favorite).

You can visit our 5 Star Reads page to check out the books that earned this rating, and also find it linked in our sidebar for quick reference. We also created a 5 Star Reads category, with which we’ll tag future 5 Star Reads.

We’ve loved hosting a different community event each Tuesday. We enjoy visiting around as well as giving your blogs some exposure. We’ve made new landing pages for each of the carnivals to better explain them to newcomers. Check them out.

If you happen to have a button in your sidebar (thank you!!), you might want to update the a href= reference in the code to match the new landing page for each of them. We’ve linked to past editions on each page as well.

Fourth Tuesday — What’s on Your Nightstand

Third Tuesday — Kids’ Picks

Second Tuesday — Children’s Classics

First Tuesday — Bookclub

The Bookclub is the one Tuesday even that’s had some changes (okay — a lot of changes). We are trying to keep the focus on classics, but also maximize participation. While some of you LOVE the opportunity to read or re-read a classic each month, we’ve realized that while many of you have wanted to join in, life gets in the way.

We toyed with several changes, and we’re still evaluating, but we’ve made a schedule for the rest of 2009 that we hope will garner even more participation and interaction. We are going to explore some popular fiction titles along with classics. The new schedule can be found at our Bookclub landing page. Past bookclubs are also linked. A reminder about the next month’s selection will be posted in the left sidebar.

We’d love it if you left us a little “bloggyversary” greeting. We’re so thankful for your participation and support. It’s our pleasure and privilege to bring you these book reviews.

Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.

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Comments

  1. Literaturecrazy says

    August 10, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    It’s been a fun year.

    The only thing that would really help me in reading/digesting your reviews, although I’m not sure if this is the “comments/questions/suggestions” forum for this, would be to have a rating on all the books. I like the five-star reads link on the right, but it would be nice to have somewhere in the body of the review a quick one, two, three, four, five rating.

    Thanks for all the work you guys all put into this.

  2. Jennifer (5 Minutes for Books) says

    August 10, 2009 at 5:00 pm

    Thanks litcrazy–We’ve thought about that, and I’ll put it up for consideration.

    Since we have more reviews than we know what to do with, you can consider any book you see reviewed as 3 star or better in general. 3 stars meaning it was okay but not great, and 4 and 5 both being recommended.

    Books that we just don’t like at all, we generally put aside before finishing or choose not to review.

  3. Amy says

    August 10, 2009 at 5:03 pm

    Oh, 5 Minutes for Books, how I love thee! 🙂 You have forced me to finish (some) books I might never have “gotten around to” otherwise! Happy anniversary!

  4. Bytes of Memory says

    August 10, 2009 at 7:03 pm

    happy blog-versary! I have loved reading all of the reviews and getting involved in the book clubs 🙂

  5. stephaniesmommybrain says

    August 10, 2009 at 8:15 pm

    Happy Anniversary!! Has it truly been a year already?! I love the reviews and Tuesday link-ups!! 🙂

  6. whimzie says

    August 10, 2009 at 9:24 pm

    Happy Bloggiversary! Thanks for adding so many books to my To Read list. I’m a busy mom so my reading time is precious. Walking into a library or bookstore can be overwhelming. I’m glad to have a source that helps me find just the right book for the limited reading time I have.

  7. Kipi (In My Own Little Corner) says

    August 10, 2009 at 9:49 pm

    Happy Blogiversary, 5M4B! I have loved participating in the bookclub and reading your reviews. You’ve influenced me to pick up several books that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Thanks, too for letting me write a little now and then. Hope this is just the first year of many!

  8. Krystal says

    August 11, 2009 at 6:35 am

    Happy Blogiversary! I just recently started reading 5M4B, but I love the reviews. I want to get started in the bookclub soon too. Thanks so much!!

  9. Dawn says

    August 12, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    I am beyond thrilled to be part of such a wonderful and thoughtful site! It’s been a pleasure to read the community’s comments and linked-up posts, and my fellow reviewers are an amazing group of readers and writers. Kudos all around!

  10. Trish says

    August 14, 2009 at 5:28 pm

    Congratulations on an amazing year! This is such a wonderful site, and I have found many great reads from it and enjoyed all the reviews and discussions.

    Keep up the good work!

  11. edj says

    August 15, 2009 at 9:23 am

    CONGRATS!! (Sorry this is late; I’ve been traveling and w/o internet) I am thankful for all you do, ESPECIALLY for the books I’ve won 🙂

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