Hello everyone. I'm new to BL, a friend who's a book blogger recommended this site and I really like it. I'm trying to create my blog but I'm having a very hard time. I see so many nice blogs and love all of the customization unfortunately I know nothing about css and have never used photoshop or anything like that. I've spent the last two days trying to make a header with no success and I was just wondering if I just use one of booklikes custom themes and don't do anything to it if anyone would want to still read my reviews?

I think I'm just going to try and figure out how to get them up for now and then come back and try to personalize it later with a theme, header, buttons, etc. I'm using gimp which is free but I've never used it so it's very frustrating trying to create something with software I'm not familiar with. Would a plain site be okay for a while? I'm also in the process of getting my own domain to create a blog site and I'm going to start working on that soon. Again I have no wordpress knowledge so I have a lot to learn but I really want to create a blog and just love reading, writing reviews and interacting with other bloggers, and people who love books.. Sorry for such a long post, I just wanted to see if you'll thought a plain blog would be okay for now until I can learn a little bit more.

Perhaps these tutorials might help you
http://mandym.booklikes.com/post/470414/booklikes-tutorials

Thank you nospin that was exactly what I needed. I had a much older link that only had a few tutorials which helped some but those you posted are perfect. And I completely agree Bookstooge. I'm going to concentrate on learning how to use the site to put my reviews and posts up and then worry about the looks. I'm getting a really nice theme soon so maybe I can use that here also :) I think I'm trying to run before I can walk. Thank you both.

Also, whichever way you clean up the list of blogs that were automatically assigned to you as blogs you're "following" when you signed up here, do make sure you're not "unfollowing" the official BookLikes blog, so as not to miss the new features -- and recaps/tips and hints on existing features -- that are being rolled out every Thursday.

The development of this site is still very much a work in progress, which on the one hand means you may not (yet) find everything you're used to from other sites you're familiar with, but on the other hand it's great to actually witness it growing weekly ... and BookLikes staff are extremely responsive to wishes, feature requests, questions and bug reports from their membership.

Yes, that's one thing I'm really enjoying about the whole thing Themis and I've never really used any other sites that much. My Goodreads is a mess, I'm going to organize that next lol. So I'm not really locked into any particular way of doing things which is nice but on the other hand I'm not used to doing certain things either but I'm having a great time learning : ) I can't wait until I'm through organizing everything so I can check out other people's blogs and find that next "great book" along with meeting everyone. Then I'll try to teach myself how to make a nice header and background. Just having a blast atm :)

And I don't know how well I actually write Bookstooge. I'm not a professional writer by any stretch of the imagination but I've had quite a few people enjoy a review or two that I've written. I just try to be honest and share my enthusiasm along with how any given book makes me feel so I hope some of you'll will enjoy my reviews, besides it's really great practice and through feedback I can improve my writing skills.

Reply to post #6 (show post):
Your approach to reviewing sounds perfect - honest enthusiasm is wonderful.

You'll do fine here.

Thank you nospin. You can see it more in my more recent ones. Unfortunately the more excited I am about a book the more I usually type. I envy those people who can write such awesome and short reviews. I type super fast and get a bit carried away at times lol. I could probably type a whole book on why I loved any given novel but don't want to bore people to death :)

Reply to post #8 (show post):
Oh, I have a feeling "boring to death" is definitely not something people will be associating with your posts here ...! :)

:)

I think I am just being exceptionally stupid, but I have quite a lot of trouble navigating this site. I added a book and managed 'somehow' to see other people's reviews of it, but now I click on Book page for the book I get nothing.
Can someone explain to me in words of one syllable what to do to see other reviews of books I am reading? (I blame my meds.)
Diolch yn fawr iawn.
Gill

Reply to post #11 (show post):
To see other texts, please use tag Search on Dashboard - just type book title to see other writings about a book. For the time being each book edition has got it's own book page (you can enter it by clicking the book cover and then link "book page of this edition" in book window).

We're working hard now on new book data base where all editions will be visible on one book page with all reviews. We hope to reveal it soon.