The Blog Improvement Project task for the past few weeks has been blog post bingo. We had to look at the 12 types of blog post below, and over the past three weeks, try to write as many of these different kinds of posts as we can.

I’m celebrating as I have just completed all twelve.

Bingo!

 The 12 Types of Blog Post

1. A Link Post – Links I’ve stumbled across this week
2. A Short Post I’m One of the Best Book Blogs in the UK!
3. A List Post – 8 things to blog about when you haven’t read any books
4. An Opinion Post – What do you think of adverts?
5. A Poll or Question Post How do you decide which is the best blog?
6. A How-To Post – How to find more time for reading
7. A Long Post – Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel Q&A
8. A Review Post – Lanterns on Their Horns – Radhika Jha
9. A Definition Post – Can you read a book with bad foxing?
10. NEW: A Personal Post –I think I’ve had Swine Flu
11. NEW: A Resource Post – The Most Useful WordPress Plug-ins for Book Bloggers
12. FREE SPACE – A Prediction Post – Who will be longlisted for the Booker Prize?

I found it a lot easier to complete than last time. This is probably because I am more used to varying the type of post I do.  I found the definition post the strangest to write – I wasn’t really comfortable with writing definitions of things and although I tried to make a question out of it, I didn’t think it sat very well on my blog. I don’t think there will be any more definition posts on this blog for a while.

I apologise for failing to write a technical ‘how to’ post. I half wrote one on separating ping backs from comments, but it got far too technical for me – I had to rope my husband in, and then realised that there were so many variables depending on how you host your blog, so I had to abandon it! I still think it is an important thing to do though, so if you have the time – search for how to do it, being very specific about the way your blog is set up.

Which type of blog post do you find hardest to write? 

Suey at It’s All About Books wrote an thought-provoking post about a friend who said “I don’t have the luxury to read”, then Rebecca followed that up with an interesting post about making reading a priority. 

I thought I’d add to them by listing all the ways I manage to fit lots of reading into my every day life.

.

• Don’t watch television.
• Don’t go to the gym – build exercise into your normal life by cycling to work, taking the children swimming, going for a walk with the family. You can spend your gym membership on a few books instead!
• Read more blogs – controversial I know, but I’ve found the more blogs I read, the more books I discover that I really want to read. This means I am more likely to make more time for reading.
• Don’t iron your clothes – this is a bit extreme, but I hate ironing, so try to buy clothes which don’t need it in the first place. Then, if I know I’m not going out all day I’m not going to waste time ironing my clothes!
• Listen to an audio book while you’re driving, cooking, cleaning etc.
• Don’t watch many films.
• Try to ensure all your chores are done early, so you have lots of free time during the evening to read.
• Take a book with you where ever you go. You never know when you are going to have to wait around for a bit.
• Make double quantities when you are cooking, then freeze half – that way you only need to cook every other day.
• Subscribe to Daily Lit – that way you can read books via email. If you’re at work they will never know what is in that email!

What do you do to be able to spend more time reading?