rants, raves, and reviews: the book blog
I’ve been a bookworm since I was 3 years old and started to read. Since 2011, I have been using Goodreads to track my reading and my reviews, and I have completed multiple reading challenges of over 45 books per year. However, my reviews end up feeling chatty and informal, often ranty or rambly – essentially, more like blog posts than reviews. I wanted to create a separate website to house my posts: bright, colorful, and most importantly casual, and wholly my voice. Thus, the book blog.
5-star and 1-star reviews
The design uses a clear centerfold that mirrors the spine of a book, so every review feel like a spread. Reviews are color coded by rating, with the most confrontational colors saved for the 1- and 2-star books, a warning not only that the book was bad, but that I'm going to say that it was bad. I also include related books, tags, and metadata about the book. Feature articles are listings that reflect the color coding in a banded style.
The homepage is a simple listing of the most recent reviews, along with the ability to filter by star rating and tag. It is intentionally sparse, leaving the focus on the reviews. Review pages include multiple ways to get to other book reviews, like related books, "If you liked," and tags, so the homepage is truly just a starting point, to launch the user into a more colorful book world.
