Texas Bookshelf, Texas Parlor, Will's Texana Monthly

Texas Bookshelf in Context

After starting Will's Texana Monthly: Reviews, News, and Electric Observation back in January of 2006, upon retiring from the Texas Room at the Houston Public Library, WTM gained some success in that folks wished to receive it as offered by email as a package e-mailed e-journal. In the beginning, I simply composed it as a Word document and then copy/pasted that into the body of a monthly email. Out it went.

Folks said they wanted more, but in blog fashion, which at the time was new to me. Eventually, I relented and added a blog the Texas Parlor. The Parlor was mostly a placed where I jotted Texana information that may be useful to a person with a broad desire to notice various information sources for one reason or another. In the beginning, I often only put a fragment or phrase or at most a sentence or two about some internet net, and posted it as such. Posting was erratic. More recently, I've begun being a bit more narrative and have started using graphics more frequently. Making it a little more inviting.

At the turn of the year I collected a broader statement of Texana bibliography of about 600 pages and issued that as Will's Texas Annual. It had lotsa long lists of publications for the year, general trade, government publications, etc.

After starting the Texas Parlor and into volume 2 of the Texana Monthly, I began pdf'ing the Monthly with Adobe and distributing it as an attachment. That allowed for better graphics stability and also reduced the size of the file by about 1/3 so I could add book jackets and other such imagery that would not have been stable otherwise.

About half way through volume 2 I found myself longing to continue the more in depth work of the Annual, so I began issuing some monothematic issues of the Monthly. One was on the Texas Institute of Letters, another on children's picture books, and one on Texas vampire literature later as an issue within volume 3 of the Monthly.

As volume 3 (2008) began, I was drawn to making a blog just for the book reviews in the Monthly. The Texas Bookshelf is that result.

The Monthly and the Parlor will continue with their varied missions, and the Monthly book reviews will appear on the Bookshelf.

I'm thinking of finding a place to warehouse the Monthly issues and the sections of the Annual online somewhere.