The next First Thursday book discussion is coming up in the new year, on January 4. This post by staff member Maggie M has the details on the book, Rebecca Serle’s “The Dinner List” and the online author talk with Serle, on January 10. I just caught up with last week’s online talk with Stephanie Land, author of December’s First Thursday book, “Maid.” (If you missed that discussion or Land’s talk, Maggie’s post on her book is a great primer.)
To keep up with this and future First Thursday discussions, you can of course check the website or the Program Guide in your mail (or online, under “Events Quick Links”), and follow DBRL on social media and by email. But did you know you can also get updates about First Thursday, specifically, using… a feed reader?
Feed readers may be familiar to you if you were online during the blog era. For everybody else, the simplest way I have seen to describe feed readers, a.k.a. RSS readers, comes from longtime RSS app developer Brent Simmons, “It’s like podcasts — but for reading.”
Even if you have never listened to a podcast, you probably have had the odd YouTuber admonish you to “like and subscribe” for more videos. With RSS feeds, you can subscribe to websites directly. Perhaps you have signed up for an email newsletter or two; RSS is kind of like that, minus all the emails. This post will walk through the basic steps. The upshot: you will receive the occasional First Thursday update as soon as new articles are published on this blog. 
Going back to that First Thursday article, note at the bottom the “categories” and “tags.” Each tag and category has a feed, in fact. For example, the First Thursday tag gathers all our posts published so far.
To subscribe to First Thursday’s feed, we need to get the feed’s URL. In this case we simply add /feed to the end of the First Thursday tag link above, like this:
https://www.dbrl.org/tag/first-thursday/feed
That’s step 1. Step 2 is to subscribe with a feed reader.
There are numerous RSS readers out there. Though I use FeedLand to demonstrate in this post, the process for subscribing is more or less the same across all RSS apps. FeedLand requires an email address to sign up; however, everything happens on its website. So, it does not spam you nor add to your inbox count. There is no app to install, fee to pay, and maybe best of all, no new password to forget.
When you sign up on FeedLand’s site, it asks for an email and a display name. After you hit “Send,” check your email inbox. You should have a confirmation message from FeedLand’s developer, Dave Winer, with a log-in link.
Upon opening the link, FeedLand asks if you want to subscribe to some feeds to get started. You can decline this, it’s okay if you already clicked Yes. At the top of the screen in FeedLand, you should see a “+ Feed” button. Clicking “+ Feed” brings up an entry box. On mobile, you tap the ⋮ (vertical dots) at the top, then “Subscribe.” This is where that feed URL comes in…
First, we copy First Thursday’s RSS feed, here it is again: https://www.dbrl.org/tag/first-thursday/feed
Then, we paste it into the box in FeedLand, and click OK. You are now subscribed.
A screen with more information about the feed will appear. Clicking the FeedLand logo near the top of the screen will take us back to that first screen, your Feed List.
First Thursday should be listed in your Feed List. To view the latest First Thursday posts, we go to Menu at the top (or the ⋮ button on mobile), and choose “My news…”
The News screen will probably feel immediately familiar if you have used social media. When new First Thursday articles are published, they appear at the top of the News screen — refresh the page to get the latest posts. Click on a headline to open the full article on our blog, or preview an article from FeedLand by clicking on the article text (below an article’s headline). Scroll down to see older posts.
That’s about it. First Thursday’s feed is but one of many on this blog. The easiest way to find a feed here is to browse the tags and categories at the end of our articles. Follow the earlier steps to get the feed link and subscribe. You can also unsubscribe from a by unchecking its box from your Feed List screen.
Most news sites offer RSS feeds, as well. Many email newsletters do too. YouTube channels, Reddit, and Tumblr have feeds. You can usually find feeds for other sites and platforms by googling “RSS <the website’s name>” or using Feedsearch.
More DBRL RSS feeds:
- Blog posts tagged or about food:
https://www.dbrl.org/blog_categories/food/feed - Teen reader reviews:
https://www.dbrl.org/tag/teen-reader-reviews/feed - Adult reader reviews:
https://www.dbrl.org/blog_categories/reader-review/feed - Staff (adult) book reviews:
https://www.dbrl.org/blog_categories/staff-book-review - Arts & crafts for kids & teens:
https://www.dbrl.org/tag/crafts/feed - Music (adults):
https://www.dbrl.org/tag/music/feedand:https://www.dbrl.org/blog_categories/music/feed - Teen music reviews:
https://www.dbrl.org/tag/music-review/feed - Poetry:
https://www.dbrl.org/tag/poetry/feed - New DVD roundups:
https://www.dbrl.org/tag/new-dvds/feed - Literary Links:
https://www.dbrl.org/tag/literary-links/feed - The Selector’s Selections:
https://www.dbrl.org/tag/selectors-selections/feed - One Read:
https://www.dbrl.org/one-read/blog/feed - Live & Learn:
https://www.dbrl.org/blog_categories/live-and-learn/feed - News from DBRL:
https://www.dbrl.org/news/feed
Or to subscribe to all updates from each of DBRL’s blogs:
- Kids & Families blog:
https://www.dbrl.org/kids/feed - Teen blog:
https://www.dbrl.org/teens/feed - Adults—i.e. this—blog:
https://www.dbrl.org/adults/feed
