New look, new host, new library

ATVL has had a makeover, which wasn’t without its struggles. I recently decided to move to a new blog host, largely because of my unremitting hatred of the block editor (and block widgets, too, btw. No element of the new “block” system is immune from my loathing).

When I started looking around, I discovered that there is also a plugin that is specifically designed to allow book bloggers to maintain a book library on their own blog, which seemed like a really cool thing. If you’re interested, you can find out more here. The plugin isn’t very expensive, and now that I have learned how to use it, works a treat – however, one of the main reasons that I have a new look is because the theme I had been using for years (Hemingway) didn’t work with the new plugin. It broke all of my links.

The database also endlessly customizable – I was able to add a “project” field to my database that allows me to identify books read for my various reading projects. One of the coolest things about the plug-in is that it creates a review page, which functions as a sort of an index. It’s only useable on self-hosted blogs, but if you have one of those and are interested in hearing more about how it works, drop a question below. I’m really enjoying using it.

Also, as part of this migration, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to streamline my wordpress site dashboard. I’ve been holding onto a few old free sites that have limited content on them. I’m not good at keeping up on multiple blogs – I barely have the energy for this most of the time. I’ve decided to move all of my content – including old projects – onto this blog over the next few months. What that means is that readers who have been following me around the internet (and if you’ve been motivated enough to follow me around the internet, thank you for that) will probably see posts that you’ve seen before. My plan is to, eventually, delete all of my old blogs and just stick with this one. So, you’ll be seeing a greater variety of posts, including more modern fiction and, although my general theme of women writers from the 19th & 20th century will still be the bulk of the posts.

Thanks for hanging around!

3 comments

  1. Can I ask which host you are using? I gave up blogging because I couldn’t cope with the block editor but when I look at the bottom of your blog it still says hosted by WordPress.

    1. Absolutely! I am hosted by Ashley, who runs Bookhost, which is a hosting service specifically for book bloggers. You can find her here:
      https://bookhost.io/
      She also built the book database, which I have added as a plugin. She will add the old classic editor plugin to your blog as part of the migration package. She’s great and very communicative and I highly recommend.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.