Maud Newton's blog

        Out of the literary blogs listed, I found Maud Newton's the most interesting. Why? Well, first -- the aesthetics. It has a pleasant looking casual font, and begins every post with a picture. These don't necessarily add much to the overall content, but it helps to catch one's attention initially and encourage them to dig deeper. I found this to be an issue with many of the other literary blogs. The content may have been good, but if there wasn't something that immediately drew me in, there's a good chance I would never have read any further.

        This seems like a pretty obvious one, but another thing that makes the Newton blog good is that the author of the blog is quite a good writer herself. There are far too many blogs on the internet that are poorly written -- people tend to forget that beyond all the pictures and glitz a blog is, in essence, writing. Maud maintains a very readable style that is casual and simple yet still serious in relaying the message.

      This blog seems to jump around from topic to topic without too much of a common thread at times. I can't quite decide if this is a good or a bad thing -- it keeps my interested piqued from not getting worn down by the same thing over and over again; but at the same time, I can never quite figure out where it's headed or what the overall theme of the blog is. I think the concept of jumping around from topic to topic is good, but maybe could be executed a little bit better (having somewhat of a common thread or explanation behind why she is posting such and such). For example, she jumps from a post about her grandfather's rocking chair to a post about a painting imagining a dog's life after death. 
It took me a little while to find it, and I was almost about to complain about a lack of an about me -- but I found it and it is very informative. I think having a good about me is an essential part of a blog -- don't we want to know something about who is writing it? The blog also has a link to her published writings, which shows how accomplished she is as a writer -- something that adds merit to her posts. Finally, all of the posts are very well organized into easily accessed and navigated archives.



     I can't find much wrong with this blog, and I think that it is a great example on how to write a successful blog.

Entirely unrelated picture to catch interest