Do you read me?

     We are experiencing very erratic mail deliveries just now, all the more vexing when I'm waiting impatiently for a book to arrive. But Postman Pat at his best could hardly compare to this amazing story about getting a book to a reader!
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      Not nearly as impressive, apparently, is the content of the reading scheme many UK children learn to read with. My primary school used "Dick and Dora" (anyone remember them? - Nip the dog and Fluff the cat were members of the family, too, as I recall).
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     And still on readers, does anyone use Google Reader? I'm finding it very untrustworthy! It tells me emphatically and repeatedly (when I 'refresh') that a favourite blog has "no unread items" when I know because I've visited it directly that it certainly has got new posts on it, and what's more, on occasion it will only reveal the latest post two days after it has been published. So I am missing good things unless I check every site manually, which means there is no point in using the wretched Reader.
Disgruntled, Cornflower Books.

Comments

[Harriet]

Great story if a little insane. I use google reader and have always trusted it implicitly. But then I never do as you do, check the blogs independently, so what do I know. It's so handy that I shall continue even though you have sown the seeds of doubt.

[Elizabeth]

Here in Canada I feel Amazon is so good at getting books to people, and free delivery yet, they should really take over for the post office!! I have not had any problems with google reader...it seems to be pretty consistent in getting posts up in a timely fashion. As for the primary reading I did it was with Dick and Jane and if I remember correctly they had a dog Flip along with Mother and Father in the home!!!!

[BooksPlease]

My primary school used the Janet and John books - I see they've made a comeback. I use Google Reader - I haven't noticed the same problem, your posts seem to be quite quickly on it anyway. Google Reader gives the time for this one as 2.43pm. Is that about right?

[Dark Puss]

What is "Google Reader"? Fortunately I only read a few weblogs (and no "blogs" at all!) so manual visiting isn't too painful.I remember the dreaded "Janet and John" too.

[Juxtabook]

Compared with Peter and Jane, Biff and Chip are a riot. We (5 year old and I) enjoy the Oxford Reading Tree - you are meant to discuss the book (pictures and text) with your child as well as hear them read . Columnist obviously doesn't get it. Introductory readers whether based on phonics or 'look and say' are always going to be thin on plot. One wonders what qualifies people to become paid columnists! Odd because columnists often wonder what qualifies us bloggers!

[Becky]

Just a reading note: am galloping through The Lost Estate--it's an interesting book to approach in that manner, given its dreamy approach. It's also the last week before our much-anticipated February break, so I feel much like my less-prepared students! I am looking forward to discussing the book on Saturday.

American kids of my era (early 70's) still had some "Dick, Jane, and Sally" books, complete with Father who worked and Mother who wore skirts and stayed home (but, as my mother would point out, also worked). It amazes me to see how much and (seemingly, at least) how quickly things have changed.

[violet]

I love google reader, have been using it for almost 2 years. Al though it has it's problems, I wouldn't trade it for anything else. I find it really user-friendly.
I don't know why you are getting updates that late. For me it takes 5 mins, half an hour max.

[Silver Hands]

I subscribe to your blog in Bloglines, which I generally find to be pretty good. Occasionally the server will be down for maintenance or there will be some temporary problems, but it's never very long and using Bloglines does save so much time. There are of course also RSS readers/aggregators you can use within browsers e.g. Sage (if I remember its name correctly) in Firefox, and desk-top based ones, but I haven't tried them so I can't say if the experience is overall better. There are also similar services like Pageflakes and Newsgator, and there are customised news page services which can perform the same function.

[Cornflower]

You're right, Margaret, I use my own posts as a check and they do appear on Reader very quickly, but there are a couple of sites which seem particularly affected by the erroneous "no unread items" tag.

[Susie Vereker]

Though sometimes faintly amusing, I don't think that Biff and Chip are as exciting as Ben the Blue Pirate - I wonder if I've still got the pirates somewhere in the magic cavern that is my loft. (By the way Cornflower, your new blog doesn't remember my name but other Typepads do. Should I press a button?)

[Diana]

I'm shocked that you're having problems with GReader. I love it. If you use Firefox, you can download the add on Better Google Reader and change many of the settings (like the hide read items thing). I only recently stopped using that add on, but it helps with the functionality of GR.