My New Book Review Site!

[Ash]

I've created my own website!!

Since I love reading books so much I thought I'd create my own book review website.

When you first go to it, you'll notice that the color setup is the same as Badmovies.org.  (black & green)

Believe me, that was not my intention.  

It was only after I had done a bit of work on it that I realized that the color scheme was the same but it is by no means a copy.

For the time being, it is a Geocities site.

That will change sometime in the near future once I purchase my own domain name.

I urge all of you to check it out and I'd appreciate any feedback you might want to give.

Please tell me what you think of it thus far....remember, it was just created yesterday (2-25-03) so I still have a lot of work to do on it.

Basically, only the homepage is pretty much done.

Also...can any of you think of a better title for my site?

ASHTHECAT'S BOOK REVIEW is kind of lame.

A LOT of changing and refining have yet to come!

Here's the address:  
http://www.geocities.com/ashthecat3/night_vision.html?1046271286420

[nshumate]

Here are my comments re the design:

1) Trim down the number of fonts you use.  Variations on a single font (or at most, two) will help it look cohesive; using too many fonts makes it look like graffiti.  And don't use large fonts for blocks of text like the "Currently under construction" paragraph; keep large fonts for headers, and smaller ones for content.

2) Get rid of that Comic Sans font.  This may be just me, but I hate it hate it hate it.  I think it looks amateurish and goofy.

3) Trim down the graphics, at least on the main page.  We don't need to see the close-up versions of all three book covers on the main page.

4) I also don't like the custom skull cursor thingie, but that again may just be me.

In general, I think that book review sites especially can benefit from a more gridlike layout which calls to mind print in general, and newspapers in particular.

I would recommend that you look around, find a site whose design you like, and copy it.  Or look into some of the linkware webpage templates out there.  Off the top of my head, I can point you to elated.com, but there are plenty more out there that a Yahoo search will find for you.

Next:  Some content! :-)

[The Burgomaster]

Not a bad site! However, I agree with Nathan about the floating skull thing . . . it's distracting.

By the way . . . you look a lot like Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD (which is not a bad thing, I guess).

[Ash]

Thanks for the advice guys!

I deleted the skull.

I agree that it was somewhat distracting but yet I kind of like it.

I may put it back on sometime.

I also will eventually reduce the size of the book cover pics once I start adding more things here & there.

Anyone else want to give me their valued input??

I'd appreciate it!

[Gerry]

Nathan Shumate wrote:
>
> 1) Trim down the number of fonts you use.  Variations on a
> single font (or at most, two) will help it look cohesive;
> using too many fonts makes it look like graffiti.  And don't
> use large fonts for blocks of text like the "Currently under
> construction" paragraph; keep large fonts for headers, and
> smaller ones for content.

I agree with all that.

> 2) Get rid of that Comic Sans font.  This may be just me, but
> I hate it hate it hate it.  I think it looks amateurish and
> goofy.

I hate it too.  I wouldn't use Comic Sans for anything except a birthday invitation for a 2 year old's party.

I would also recommend optimising the site for 800X600 resolution which is the default screen size for most computers.  Horizontal scrolling is the kiss of death as far as I'm concerned on a web site.