A warm welcome to all the YA Lit lovers...and more (since I set up a Blog Room where books aimed at grown-ups will be discussed too). My name is Roberta, and I'm glad to be in such good company, among many non-teen readers who have a penchant for YA books. Though I'm Italian, I've developed the habit of buying the untranslated versions of the books I'm interested in, since 1) most of them are not available in Italian; 2) I like to capture their original feel; and 3)...I found out that Italian translations are often censored here and there (don't ask - it's beyond me. I can only assume that Italian teens need to retain their uncorrupted purity and innocence, because of course they still possess those virginal qualities).
As hinted at in my Profile Page, I decided to blog YA myself after I found out that most of the books I had read (and enjoyed a lot) largely didn't feature on the blogs I happened to visit. For every book, I'm also going to give you some essential info - aside from the actual blurb, of course - at the beginning of its review, so that you can judge if it's your thing or not. Of course, I still hope you'll take the time to read the whole review LOL.
In short, my aim is to bring some maybe overlooked, but often worthy novels to your attention. I hope I'll succeed. Have a nice stay!
In short, my aim is to bring some maybe overlooked, but often worthy novels to your attention. I hope I'll succeed. Have a nice stay!
I just read two bloggers that had blog anniversaries and that make me sort of look at people's blog archive. You seem to have an anniversary yesterday (It's Oct 15 as I write this).
ReplyDeleteIt's strange I swore I read this intro already because I usually read a blogger's intro even if I no longer look at every posts. It's a good intro, it reminds me I should write one for my current blog which I always do before starting a blog but I guess most of my blogging habits seems to have disappeared. I don't even tinkle with the template or design like I used.
Have you ever thought of changing your blog header after all these years? Was this the header you always had? I often find the title 'Offbeat YA' just a little too close to the edge of the border. Maybe it should be center above the tag line? I find spaces between text and images need some sort of balance but that's just me.
I used to offer blog design critiques which I have done 3 or maybe 4 times but those bloggers didn't want to change their blog or maybe they just don't know how. Sorry for the ramblings.
Congratulations on 9 years of blogging!
Have a lovely day.
Wow! Getting a comment on my very first post after 9 years feels surreal, in a good way though. Thank you! And I suddenly realised that I didn't even tweet about my blogoversary...I always seem to remember it before the date, never on the right day LOL.
DeleteYes, the one above is my original header. I made it myself, using a combination of premade images and PhotoFiltre. I can't draw, you know that - but I managed to digitally sketch all the books' faces except for the smiling one. It was painful though LOL. And that accounts for the cartoonish look - I can't draw curved lines to save my life, and learning to use the program to do that would have been too much hassle. I see what you mean about the title, but the reason why it's on the left is that it balances the image on the right - the angry book and the O are equally distanced from their respective sides of the banner's frame (13 pixels exactly where they're nearest to it - I actually counted them, because I'm finnicky like that 😂).
Now that I look at your header again, it's balance but I guess the space between the title and the books is just too wide to me. I would put more space to the left and right side, maybe 26 pixels instead of 13? I thought you got the book drawing somewhere else instead of drawing it but they look good.
DeleteHave a lovely day.
Thanks! Maybe one day I'll experiment with my header again, when I have more time.
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