Using Google Reader to Improve Your Writing
"Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man"-Sir Francis Bacon
As a teenage writer I often wonder how it is that some people know as much as they do. I think a lot of times this is because as teenagers (and sometimes going into adulthood) people lose that essence of why reading is important.A while back I wrote an article about Reading For Teenagers. While I will still stick to some of these ideas, I also realize that this is mostly for fiction reading, and that some of us want to indulge in more knowledge rather than tales of fairies, and dragons. This is where Google reader comes into play.
Now most people know what Google Reader is, but let me give you a quick run down based on what I know about. Essentially Google Reader allows you subscribe to other people’s blogs and get an update each time that they ad a new post. From here, you can click to their page and leave a comment, star the post which allows you to find it easily later.
Good Aspects Of Google Reader
-Lets you follow multiple blogs without filling up your email inbox.
-Shows individual posts from different authors as unread so you don’t have to back track what you might have missed.
-Allows staring of post so you can read it again later.
-Shows you trends of how much you read a certain blog, and lets you know which blogs you are actually reading all of.
-Shows you similar blogs to the ones that you read, and gives you an analysis on how many
-Allows you to share posts with friends, add tags, and even type notes about certain posts.
Bad Aspects Of Google Reader
-Can get cluttered if you don’t read it everyday.
-Doesn’t have a “leave comment button” or have social network share buttons unless the author has added them to their feeds.
So how is this going to help me as a Writer/Blogger?
As I briefly touched on it back in Reading Seems to Please More than Imagined reading is a very important step in the writing process. For those that don’t believe me pick up a book and try to tell me that after reading part of it you aren’t aspired to go write out as good a book as the author (or better if the book sucks). Reading gives you a better sense of what works, and what doesn’t.
Reading blogs poses no exception. If you want to be the best, you need to read the best. It will give you ideas, and give you a better sense of what works and what does. In addition Google reader will also help you see how successful bloggers are getting readers, and the more readers you have, the more likely it is that you are actually starting to share something valuable with your readers.
So what do you think, is Google Reader a good source of information, or is it really just a hype? Also what other readers are out there, and how do they compare to Google in your opinion?
I think this is something I just looked at and didn't bother returning to. Oh, not the post, but google reader Izzy.
But I agree whole heartedly to the premise you used. I guess we are "men" in our own right!
Z
Dragonblogger says
I use google reader but honestly don't read as many blogs as I used to, I prefer email blog updates, so I don't have to open my Google reader nowadays.
irtiza says
i use google reader to read my subscriptions.