Reminders are dead, long live newsletters 6

Posted by eddie
on Tuesday, April 29

Ok, so everyone hated the emails reminding you to update the status of books you’ve been reading for over a week. I know that it often takes much longer than a week, so I didn’t intend it to be a subtle jab re: reading speed.

I just pushed a change that implements weekly newsletters that include your current read in a matter-of-fact way (so you can update it if you need to), along with recent activity from your friends on Visual Bookshelf (along with a digest of this blog). Everyone should receive one over the next 7 days. You shouldn’t receive any more “You’re reading x, still true?” emails.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

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  1. martha – April 30, 2008 @ 01:57 PM
    I have finished 2 books, so tried to click the "I'm finished" button on facebook to update status from 'currently reading'--- but nothing is happening. no updates or error message. is this my problem/setup or with the app? i don't mind a reminder if this button works!
  2. Lindsey – May 01, 2008 @ 03:58 PM
    Much better, thanks!
  3. ali – May 02, 2008 @ 07:36 AM
    thanks
  4. Susan – May 03, 2008 @ 08:27 PM
    This sounds great. I'm usually reading between 4-7 books at any time & not only forget to update on here - but sometimes forget to return to certain books! Thanks!
  5. Paul Leopardi – May 10, 2008 @ 10:36 PM
    I read mathematics books. They are not like novels. They often take a lifetime to "read", since I keep them as references and refer to them again and again.
  6. penguindreams – May 14, 2008 @ 08:42 AM
    I just received my first 'newsletter'. This does sound better than the older method. Still, like Paul, I am often reading books that take more than a week (or month) to read. So a weekly check is much too often. On a different hand, there's a category I'd like to see added. Right now, a number of the books I have listed as 'currently reading', I'm not. They're books that I have, and am going to be reading (any time from 'real soon now' to 'before the heat death of the universe'). It would be good to have a category of 'on hand waiting to be read', with no status reminders/queries. Should be a good category for encouraging conversation/wall comments -- maybe someone looks at the list and encourages me to read the book right now, or to save my time and eyeballs and just pass it on to someone I don't like much.
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