Watching You, Watching Me

Just a few jottings about how I watch the rest of the crime/murder/mystery fiction genre.

• I have already identified a number of interesting blogs that relate to the genre and monitor these through an RSS reader, a piece of software available free at http://www.rssreader.com
  After installing it on your computer all you do is add the URLs of the RSS feeds that you want to monitor. If you are generally on your computer frequently then it works pretty well. The RSS reader checks for new items once you are online.
  I've included my own blogs on this so I can see what others are getting. Helps with picking up mistakes, problems and typos.
  My installed version of RSS reader is getting a bit long in the tooth and perhaps I should look at upgrading it. I'm a bit put off by the fact that the instructions say I have to remove the old version first and I don't want to lose the content I currently have.
  
  
• Recently I have added 50 or so of those blog URLs to the widget you can see running in the side bar currently called 51 blogs I am watching. If the RSS feed from the blog I've linked to is working properly (and in 90% of the cases it does) what you should see is the name of the blog (sometimes altered in my list for clarity) and the title of the latest posting there. As something new is posted so that link gravitates to the top of the list. I'm actually finding it a useful tool myself because I can see at a glance what is new, pop over to the person's blog (it opens in a new window) without having to look at my RSS reader. This widget is supplied by blogger.
  
  
• I also have a number of Google Alerts coming in, that I've set up at Google. They scour new internet and blog pages for set terms like crime fiction, murder mystery and "mysteries in paradise", and new alerts arrive in my email on a daily basis. You'd think that perhaps I'd find few blogs that I don't know about but in fact in only the last week I've found another 4 like minds to monitor.
  

My guess is that there is a critical mass to the number of ways in which I can keep this "watching" going. I was away from home recently and when I finally got to run it my RSS reader was bulging at the seams with unread items, but I eventually got through them.

I like to let people know that I have seen postings of interest and so I try to leave comments, but with the number of blogs that I monitor, this is obviously not always possible. However I do enjoy getting comments myself and so if you've read this posting and have found it interesting/useful or just downright appalling, please comment.