web Book List

Posted August 15, 2005 • Comments Off on Book List

One of the things that’s always been a cornerstone of my website (at least until I started doing this) was my book list. I started keeping track of everything I read on July 17, 1996, and for a long time I did really well. Everything was dated and rated and loquaciously commented upon, and I was pretty pleased with it. People read it and enjoyed it, and I made a little money from Amazon commissions.

After I moved up here, things got more complicated, and I skipped a few years (not in a row) and screwed up a few years (starting off strong then failing). It got to be hard to find time to read, let alone time to remember when I read things and how they were. And I read a lot of stuff I’d read before, and a lot of stuff that wasn’t worth keeping track of.

Recently, learning about how a blog works, I came to realize that what my book list really needed was automation. So today I created a new blog and built a new template, and lo and behold:

The 2005-2006 Book List

It’s practically ideal. I can add books without worrying about ftping and editing html and dropping >s and <s (this used to be a big problem back in the day). I finally have a look I like, so I don’t need to dread every July when I’d have to come up with a new layout and new stars (if you look at the previous years, you’ll see). And I can easily (thanks to the built-in Amazon search engine in ecto) add tiny pictures of the book covers, something I’ve wanted to do for years and years.

There are problems, though. For some reason there’s a big gaping space above the title, and I don’t know why. Vertical-align properties don’t work properly in the cells (partly this is because of the divider row with the HR in it, but partly it’s just weirdness). I’ve dealt with most of it, and I have it pretty well in hand, but that big space at the top is giving me headaches. I wish I could get rid of it.

And “save as stationery” in ecto doesn’t seem to work AT ALL.