Potluck #56 To Tweet or not to Tweet...Twitter

I was not at all familiar with Twitter when I started this exercise, and I am certainly no expert now. Before I went to the website, I thought I would check out some of the peripheral links that were provided from iHCPL, much as I sometimes like to watch previews or special features of movies before I actually watch the main feature. I started with "The Truth About Twitter" which was reporting mostly on the phenomenon of Celebrity Twitter. When I read what the "stars" are tweeting about, I was not particularly impressed.

From there I watched the video clip on Twitter and looked at "10 Traits of Highly Effective Twitter Users" (perhaps some of the celebs should read that as well) and finally went to Twitter.com and clicked on the search feature and explored some of the "trending topics." Again, I found little that was of any value to me even under the swine flu topic. I did a few other searches for topics that were suggested to me like Whole Foods Market, but did not see any useful info.

After I explored the search feature for awhile one of my co-workers mentioned that her husband who is an astronaut used Twitter and had a pretty good following. So I checked that out; it was better since that was a bit more interesting subject, but nothing that I would want to follow on a minute by minute basis.

Another co-worker pointed me to the Celebrity Twitter site and I played with that for awhile. Of the few people I did know on the site, none really were saying much of anything. There seemed to be great interest in what people were having for lunch or what they were watching on the tube. I followed a few celebrities I did not know just to see what they had to say.

The last part of Twitter I explored was the Twitter Elite link. It was (slightly) interesting to see the rankings of the various Twits out of the top 100 ranking. I still do not understand why they are so popular though. Another blogger suggested the Twitter site is for people with short attention spans. Perhaps, but based on the popularity of the site, that must be a pretty large group of people.

I guess I just don't get it. I can see where Twitter could be very useful if you have a reason to use it, but like cell phone calling and texting, most of it seems to be done to fill up empty minutes in our lives. So I will opt out of creating an account until I have something to say or I can find someone with something worth reading on the site.

Apologies From a Luddite.

Books, Readers & Beyond: #54 Social Networking Through Books

Exercise 1

I would not call myself a member of a book club, although I do sit in on some of the book club discussions here at the branch -- the science fiction book club and the staff book club, which is much more general. I have not joined any online book clubs at this point.

The obvious advantages of an in-person club include the warmth of human contact. You get to see real people with all of their wonderful quirks and foibles. You also generally get to hold the book in you hand, which is wonderful for cookbooks or other books that might contain illustrations. Then too there is the excitement that can be generated spontaneously over a title that everyone starts talking at once!

I readily admit that online book clubs can have some real advantages also. You can meet people from anywhere, and that in itself can be stimulating. You also do not have to put up with the aforementioned quirks & foible's of other people. After all, human interactions can be a very messy business -- b.o., halitosis, nervous ticks, shyness, to name a few. You may also possibly be a lot more open to speaking your mind (definitely a two-edged sword). Finally, an online book club could, in theory be a lot more flexible in the meeting schedule, as well as cutting down on travel expenses.

Some of the online book clubs sound like fun and I may well try one when I have more time. I am particulary interested in Shelfari because I am always coming across titles that sound interesting and wondering if I should read this or that one, or at least put it on my 'to read' list.

Exercise 2

This branch (Freeman) hosts a staff book club, which is very informal and open to all staff. Not only books, but just about anything related to reading that someone wants to share is okay. The library also makes room for a sci-fi book club, a great books discussion group, a mystery book club and a Teens Read club.

It might be neat to start a book club that caters to the tastes of men -- a military fiction or adventurers book club or something of that sort -- even though we can't restrict it to just males. From what I have read, it has been tried in some other libraries with pretty good success. Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield would be a good book to start with. This is definitely a 'guy' book with very little (in my opinion) appeal for women. On Shelfari.com there were 56 reader reviews of the book. Most readers gave it a 4 or 5 star rating (on a scale of 1 to 5) with only one reader giving it a 1 star, and saying they did not like it.

Exercise 3

The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence was rated by five readers on Shelfari. One person did not like it, and the rest thought is was good to very good.

On the Readerville site, the book received seven reviews ranging from 3 to 4.5 stars (also on a 5 star scale). No one of this site said they not like the book.

Books, Readers and Beyond: #53 Finding Books Online

Exercise 1

One of my favorite nearby bookstores is Schroeder's Book Haven in League City. The is an independent bookstore specializing in Texana, but also offering ordering of new and used books. Schroeder's does have a website (http://www.bookhaventexas.com/) with a nice picture of the store (in an old house in the historic district of League City). There is a searchable catalog as well as ordering details for items not in stock. Schroeder's is part of the biblio.com network of booksellers.

Another book store close by that I like a lot is the LifeWay Christian Book Store. I have been in the store a few times and really appreciate the clean, uncluttered feel of the place. They sell a lot more than just books. There are DVDs, CDs and various other Christian related items, such as T-shirts, etc. The web site is searchable with a store locator and other standard website features, as well as some streaming video clips (various product advertisements) and links to other Christian resources e.g. blogs and podcasts.

Half Price Books also has a store very near this branch (Freeman). This bookstore specializes in used and remaindered items. Like the big boys (B&N, Borders) they sell music and movies, but they are normally 2nd hand, which is okay with me. Going to any good used book store is like going on a treasure hunt. The website has a store locator feature with maps, news & publicity and a few other things, but it is not as 'impressive' as B&N or Borders and doesn't try to be. It does not even have a search feature to search for specific items, probably because they do not try to operate as an online bookstore. They want you to go to the local store. This chain has been in business now for a good number of years and is a good place to go for items you can't find at bookstores that specialize only in newer titles.


Exercise 2

A search online for The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence, brings up the amazon.com conglomerate as the first match (no surprise here), and from there I find pretty much all the info I need. It is Out of Print in hardcover, but readily available either new ($6.99) or used (starting @ $0.01 minus the s&h) in paperback format. The CD version is available starting at $39.95. A downloadable version is available from Audible.com for $15.71 (a special promo). There is also a school & library binding edition available from Amazon for $15.40.


Exercise 3

Well, once I had wasted enough time fiddling with trying to download an audio book, and Grace kindly set me on the right track (ebooks), things began to get a lot easier! Up to that point, the whole thing was pretty much an exercise in frustration. (It always helps to read the instructions!)

So, I went exploring to see what was available in ebook format, and I have to say I am rather impressed with what I found. I went to several of the free ebooks sites, http://www.free-ebooks.net/ as well as some others, but of course, your are required to register, which means another password to remember. Not wanting another thing to remember or keep track of, I ultimately decided to use the NetLibrary access from the library homepage. (I can, at least, remember my library barcode and PIN without having to look them up.)

On the Netlibrary site, I just started exploring, trying various limiters such as science fiction and short stories. I got a lot of interesting results: Gnarl! by Rudy Rucker (sci-fi short stories) and various other collections, but in the end settled for A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterfiles by John Murray because I had already read the hard copy and thought it would be a good point of comparison. Also, the books on the Netlibrary site are scanned cover to cover, so it looks much as the hard copy would l00k.

My main observation is how uncomfortable reading is on a computer. I guess the experience will be somewhat different on a Kindle Reader or some other device that you can move around, but on a computer, while you can still move around to a degree, the computer more than likely is not going to. Even with a laptop the options are much more limited than with a hard copy book. Furthermore, while reading online, I had to click on the next tab to turn the page, and then wait for it to load. (I rather like the physical act of turning a page; it's sort of the same thrill as opening a package)

Since I do most of my reading in bed at night before I go to sleep (not counting work hours staring at computer screens), trying to read an ebook does not particularly appeal to me. I also like to have a book in hand when I am in a queue, so relying of the vageries of batteries or power supplies holds no real thrill either.

Advantage wise, hard copies of books are portable, durable (mostly), inexpensive, versitle (think illustrated or even pop-up). Personally, I am a bit hard pressed to think of the disadvantages of books. Disadvantages of ebooks, however, include all of what I mentioned above, as well as a whole new level of eye and neck strain. I see many people every day with their faces only inches away from the screen, shoulders hunched, etc., often for hours at a whack. Can that really be good for a body physically, especially for long stretches of time?

Computers have lots of wonderful advantages, but when it comes to reading, especially for pleasure, I want an old-fashioned book with me. (Forgive me, Captain Pickard)

Books, Readers & Beyond: #52 What to Read

Exercise 1

I searched Novelist for a YA book, The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence, book one of his High Seas Trilogy. Under the 'search similar books' tab I removed a number of the criteria which were too specific, e.g. Cornwall England or Teenage Fiction, Canadian. What I got was a surprisingly interesting list of titles, including, of course, some other titles by Mr. Lawrence, but also Shackleton's Stowaway by Victoria McKernan and several other titles that are now on my want to read list!

Next I tried the What Do I Read Next? site but got an 'internal server error' and moved on to What's Next at the Kent District Library. After finding the title, and selecting the "find similar items" tab I got a list of 82 titles ranging from Robinson Crusoe by Defoe to Gordon Korman's Escape (2008) with lots of titles, in between even some non-ficiton and easy readers. I did not find a way to get a more specific list.

From there I went to Library BookLists and Bibliographies. Here, I found some neat lists, but could not search by specific title. I went to the Booklists YA Fiction and then to Adventure Stories/Suspense and finally to Young Adult Survival Adventure Books and found a 6 page list of titles that was very good, including The Smugglers by Lawrence which is the 2nd book of the High Seas trilogy.

Even though the results were not similar, they were still quite interesting and I learned a lot. I am especially impressed with the Novelist Plus site because of the ability to narrow the results. I also liked the Library BookLists site for the really interesting reading lists that people have put together and posted for all of us book geeks.


Exercise 2

Susan a (rather precocious) fourth grader comes to the library looking for books about horses. She is a good reader and has read all of both the Saddle Club series and the Black Stallion series. She wants some new fiction about horses but also a non-fiction book about real horses. I do a quick search in Novelist Plus, with 'horses' in the search box and limit to older and younger kids. (Of course, Susan is looking over my shoulder at this point!) We pull up a list of titles, but she quickly notices the subject heading of 'girls and horses' in the box on the left and tells me to "Go there!" Clicking on that subject brings up and list of titles with one sentence descriptions. She has already read the first entry, but likes the third title Horses of Dreamland by Lois Duncan. For a non-fiction book, we go back to the previous page since I noticed several non-fiction titles there before clicking on the 'girls and horses' subject link. Scrolling through the titles, with Susan looking over my shoulder, we see a book on draft horses, Horsepower, the Wonder of Draft Horses. Susan chooses this because her uncle has a carriage business, which is how she came to love horses in the first place. She says, "My uncle will like this book." I tell her that's great and ask her if I can help her with anything else. She says her older brother (13 years old) asked her to get him some books on ghost stories. But he is not that great of a reader and would probably like something shorter, maybe even some short stories; he tends to lose interest quickly. Going back to the original search I enter 'ghost stories' in the search box and limit the search to teens and older kids. Susan thinks her brother will like the first title on the list, Ghost Town: Seven Ghostly Tales, because it talks about the real towns where the stories are based. She then asks if we can find a book of true ghost stories. I scroll through a few pages looking for nonfiction titles without finding anything appealing. Going back to the start screen I enter 'true ghosts' as a search term and come up with a list of true ghost stories. Susan likes the sound of the second title, Totally haunted kids; true ghost stories, which describes cases of children encountering ghosts. She thinks her brother will like this title, so we call it a day, and another satisfied customer heads towards the checkout desk.


Exercise 3

Looking for authors similar to Dean Koontz, I first tried the What Should I Read Next? site, with very poor results: only a couple of other Koontz titles and a few others that did not sound particularly promising. I moved to the Library Booklists & Bibliographies site and went to the Booklist: Adult Fiction link. This brought up a long list of various genres and sub genres and I scrolled until I found a 'horror' link, which I looked through for some read-alike info, but was unable to find anything. I went back to the Adult Fiction link and scrolled some more until I came across a 'readalikes'. This list included Harris County Public Library but I did not find a readalike list for Dean Koontz. Backing up a page I tried the Wake County Public Library list because it indicated a "very long list" of readalikes. This list proved more fruitful; it was alphabetical by first name of the author and I quickly located an 'If You Like Dean Koontz" list. Steering clear of the other two authors in "The Big Three" triumvirate (King, Saul), I found some less well known authors/titles that seemed worth checking on: Afterlife by Douglas Clegg and Creepers by David Morrell. From here I went to the Novelist Plus page because there is a very straight forward link to 'author readalikes' on the front of the site. Among the authors who are readalikes for Dean Koontz fans, I found another two authors who sounded intriguing: Charles Grant (Millenium Quartet), and Dan Simmons (Summer of Night).


Exercise 4

This one was pretty straightforward. I am not familiar with this title or author, but it sounded like a YA or juvenile series, so I went directly to the Mid-Continent Public Library site. From there a simple search by the book title yielded the needed results.

Series Title: Song of the Lionness
Series order: Alanna: the first adventure; In the hand of the goddess; The woman who rides like a man; Lionness rampant.

Week 3: #5 More Flickr

My Masonic Home
Originally uploaded by gregb77586

This is the Masonic Home in Alexandria, Louisiana. (Acutally, this is only part of the facility.) It is where I spend a good chunk of my childhood. It is no longer a home for children, but is on the Historic Buildings of Louisiana list and is now the Grand Lodge for the Masons in that neck of the woods (Rapides Parish). Unlike Oliver Twist, my experiences in a "home for children" were for the most part very positive. And somewhat to my amazement - and embarrassment - I can still sing the Masonic Home Song, which one of the house mothers composed, and we sang in public on various occassions. (I was very young!)

Week 3: #5 Flickr

Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel
Originally uploaded by gregb77586

This exercise is a bit confusing, so it's a good thing some of the other staff are further along than I am.

I was acutally at the Banff Springs Hotel once. It was tough, but I survived it. (Of course, I was younger then)

What you can't see in this picture is the Bow River that runs beside the hotel. There is a terrace with a fantastic view of the rapids just below. Perhaps I can find one of my old pictures (circa 1978) and post it later. It is really pretty incredible.

Week 2 No.4 What Sarah is Wearing?

I think the Sarah video pretty much says all that needs to be said (about online safety) -- but who's listening? Unfortunately, we all, (not just the kids) as human beings, have a tendency to leap before we look. Living is just such a messy business!