Creating a classroom recommendation list by using a in class blog

As an English teacher I am always giving my students recommendations of books to read for their AR or for their personal interest. Often this suggestion is followed up by a look of, “Yeah right, why would I like anything you suggested, you give me homework.’ Instead of doing standard book reviews in your class where minimal time is spent in the production of props and everything is thrown in the garbage afterwards, why not create a long lasting blog. This way the students can easily access the blog and get recommendations from their peers instead of a big bad adult. You could even post pictures of the covers along with the blog. For ease of use a common ranking system could be used (good enough to read again, okay, don’t pick up this book). Also the books could be lumped into genres or pinpointed by certain key words (ex: baseball, action, best friends, etc- similar to how videos are searched for on Youtube). Having a blog of this sort would make it virtual, interactive, searchable, and from their peers.