Seasonal Plume

I’d like to sing praises of the Now Reading WordPress plugin, which was just what I was looking for. In any case, I’d like to finally officially put up my library, and it’s now linked on the main navigation. ♥ I love how the plugin works. Yay! I haven’t integrated the widgets yet with my miscellany section, but it will get there soon. Book reviews will still be posted here in the main blog, and linked/included on the book page itself. :)

On to the actual plugin review — the plugin was very easy to install (no PHP files to edit), and easy to get used to as well. Clean interface, plus almost all information you would need in a library plugin — book status, rating, review section (even if I’m not using it), when you started reading and when you finished. Plus meta tags for everything else! I had fun adding a few meta information of my own, like the language of the book I’m reading (English? Filipino? Translated from what language?) or the series it belongs to. I could probably keep going on and on with the meta information, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. ;)

I did modify my installation a bit to serve my needs a little; such as:

• return the post ID connected to the book; this was important to me because I didn’t plan on using the reviews section of the plugin, but keep posting my reviews here in the blog (since I review not just books but writing tools/sites/etc as well); I needed the post ID in order to be able to add the actual post into the book’s page (with the help of the Get-a-Post plugin)
• allow for books with no finish dates in the average_books function; since I plan to store past books (as opposed to “books from this point onwards”) as well in the library (like Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice) and I wouldn’t know when I started/finished them as it’s so long ago, I needed to modify the function to make sure it excludes those books from the computation
• fix usage of the $echo parameter for the book_rating function; I do a lot of if() statements in my templates (if there is this information, if there is that, etc) and since I was showing rating information, I needed this to work

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the plugin isn’t robust enough on its own — not at all! It’s just a little more customization to meet my specific needs.

Speaking of customization, this plugin was fun to customize to fit my theme. There’s a bit of a challenge in the sense that there was a lot to look out for, but oy vey, I was quite pleased with the end result. Actually, it made me feel like I wanted to change/redesign my website layout to fully utilize the wonderfulness of the plugin’s customization ability!

I obviously don’t have any complaints, but if there’s anything I’d be interested in seeing in the future, it would be the two following things: a link to the Amazon detail page once you turn up search results for the book in the WP admin panel, to check if it’s the edition you want (especially important for books that don’t have cover images); second, the ability to easily update the “edition” of a book. I’m guessing that this might be easily done by updating the ISBN in the database, but I haven’t looked too deeply yet into how the plugin is made to be able to say it for certain. I’d love that feature since I’ve added a few books I’m still looking for, and I might not get the editions I wanted.

I’d definitely recommend this plugin to any WordPress blogger who’re looking to incorporate their reading habits into their blog. It’s fun, powerful, and most especially easy to use.

P.S. If anyone have got plugins for this plugin (imagine that, even plugins for a plugin! *squishes it*) I would love to hear about them. ♥

Yay for website revamps! Finally, the website’s WordPress installation is all upgraded, and I’ve finally done a new theme for it. Just in time — I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to update the layout before NaNoWriMo hits. I’ve been working almost all day on getting the theme up, as I only came up with the layout idea mid-morning. Battling WordPress and my plugins were also quite a challenge, but they’re all good now!

(I still have to reorganize my categories and tags — seriously, the way I use both? It’s pretty much haphazard, and it’s a mess.)

Also, in prep for NaNo, I’ve installed a word count meter right here — you can see it at the bottom of the page. I reallyreally hope I’d be able to keep writing once the second week hits. I wouldn’t be surprised if I slack off, really, but I’m hoping for the best. Tomorrow I will probably either work on a few more websites, or do more Nano-thinking.

I should write some more, but I’m bushed.

So, yes. I’m getting myself psyched for this year’s Nano. I have a few items that are in my to-do list that should help me prep for Nano, and I’m putting it up here for posterity’s sake:

• Make a new layout for Seasonal Plume. Why is making a new layout supposed to help me psyche up for Nano? Simple. It’s something new and creative and will urge me to, well, write in this blog. Which means I have to have something to write about, right? Only I’m not entirely sure how I’d like the design. Keep this general layout? Return to a more traditional blog-type layout? I have no idea.
• Choose a wiki for story notes et al. I’d always been so interested in wikis that I just know I must use one. A number of people at the Nano forums have recommended TiddlyWiki which sounds really good, but I’m wondering if the AJAXy component of it is a bit too “liquid” for me. I’ll have to play around with it first. The drawback of having a “traditional” wiki like MediaWiki (which I’m more used to, user-wise) or PmWiki (which I’ve installed before but have not been able to extensively use as much as the former).
• Decide on a story. Yes, you heard that right. I have not decided. One of my ongoing projects (which never seem to be near completion) is writing in novel-format about certain events in my life. Think The Notebook. :p Yes, I am a sap like that. Only, obviously it is very personal, and how the hell am I supposed to write it? I’ve heard Nano tips that one shouldn’t write something very personal for Nano because it will make you very emotional and bog you down, and I have a feeling it’s true. But if not that, what? I will probably ramble about possible story ideas soon. (It should be soon, because it’s the middle of October already!)
• Choose a software to write in. I’ve decided I won’t use Word. I’ve written short stories and poetry on Notepad, which serves my needs well (and being a web developer/designer, I’m more used to it). But I’m not sure if I’m ready to default to Notepad with a 50k-word novel, plus it’s such an elementary application that I don’t think it will serve my noval needs that well. Suggestions are welcome!
• Figure out a physical battle plan. Meaning, when will I write? How will I write when I have a full-time job, I leave home at 6am and I get home at 9pm due to my horrendous travelling time? I can bring my darling Mr Darcy (my Toshiba Satellite M100) with me, but it’s not small enough to be working on while you’re on a bus (and neither do I want it on my lap while I’m working). It’s just not conducive to working. I think I should get my Palm Tungsten fixed, but that might take a few weeks yet, and I haven’t ever tried writing a story on it. I’d get annoyed at my slow-ness. Besides, I don’t work well creatively when there are many people about. So, when will I write? Will I be able to stick to writing a few thousand words everyday, even when I’m so tired I’d probably snap everyone’s head off?

Lists, lists.