Cross-eyed

Yeah, I've been blog-hopping. Most blogs are nicely laid out, but a few, man. The way they're set out hurts the eyes.

Blue text on a black screen, in my opinion, is asking for fewer readers, especially when the author writes a lot. In fact, coloured writing on a black screen is a big no-no to me. I don't want to spend the next half hour with striped vision, thanks very much. I can even understand the thinking behind such a screen: author of dark and sensuous material, must have dark and sensuous weblog. Thank God it's not red writing!

Readers don't like to be confronted with such things; be modest and think of them, plowing through row upon row of stark writing (and I don't mean the style).

I found a beige colour with black writing enough. Nothing fancy; which neatly segues into writing itself.

You could easily take the metaphor further and agree that a bold, stark weblog is appropriate for the author's books of a similar ilk. A couple of weblogs I read are a virulent pink (a colour I loathe) that expresses exactly what the author is all about: romance, in all it's prettiness and unashamed femininity. Another weblog has a militaristic feel because the author writes about the military. It gives the reader exactly what's expected.

In a nastier mood, I could say it's all whitebread: bland, uninteresting, atypical and cliched. I won't because on the other hand, the reader knows what to expect. You don't go to a military romance site if you're looking for, say, legal romance. If you mention a particular author's name, someone will say 'oh, she writes ....' and you'll know what to expect when you get to the site.

Yet another author does precisely nothing to indicate the genre. Nor do I, but I'm not copying.

My weblog is like it is for another reason: I was a desktop publisher and learned what was easier on the eyes and what wasn't; what lent itself to long reading without any eye-strain.

Books are the same. Lurid cover - sensual or erotic text; space battle cover - sci-fi military text; doctor cover - medical text; and so on. You know what to expect.

However, there are those covers who hide what's inside or give minimal clues. These are the best. So unassuming, so innocent to what's going on between the covers. You've seen them, read them, enjoyed them.

I guess that's what I call what lies beneath books. I love 'em. And I'm thankful I've found weblogs that are similar; I'm tired of the garish, the outlandish and the just-to-damn-hard to read.