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

Exercise One:
I am currently a member of a book club that I started with some friends and neighbors almost 6 years ago now. It is a diverse group of women who have learned a great deal from each other and the books we've read and discussed. We meet once a month usually at my home. My preference would be to participate with people in-person rather than online though I do like using Visual Bookshelf by Living Social on Facebook to see what others are reading and keep track of my own reading. I do not regularly give a review when finishing a book but happily give others my feedback when asked personally for it. I do enjoy reading others reviews though. I'll leave the writing up to the talented people like Secret Asian Girl and LoneStarLibrarian.
Exercise Two:
Our library has a book club that meets monthly though I have never attended a meeting. Our patrons are busy people and I am not sure there is a demand for another book club here at Fairbanks. Judging from what people ask us for we would be better served having computer classes and workshops for typing a resume.
I did checkout all the resources as listed on #54.
Houston Great Books Council - I found a group that meets at the Panera Bread at 12220 FM 1960 Road W. So when I am ready to tackle Canterbury Tales someday I know where I can go and discuss it. Don't hold a seat for me quite yet.
ReadingGroupGuides - I have used this website many times in the past to get discussion questions for my book club to help keep our members talking about the book. It of course is a good source of ideas for what to read next but that usually isn't a problem as I have a list of books I want to read a mile long by the time I'm done with all the professional reading I try to keep up with. We also take turns picking the book for book club and rarely does anyone have trouble finding something to read. Based on my most recent visit here I would add Things I Want My Daughter To Know to my list of suggestions for book club.
Reading Group Choices - Another website I am familiar with and enjoy, however it doesn't have as large a selection of books to choose from for the discussion questions. I do enter the drawings when I visit the site. It seems some of the links are not updated regularly; i.e. the News and Events section's most recent listing is from 2007.
Readerville Forum - My least favorite of the four because in order to search you must login. The last thing I need is to join yet another blog/forum/website etc.. Not being able to search for a specific discussion, I just looked around at some of the discussions but found like my book club there was more discussion about off topic stuff than books including bacterial meningitis, Java installation and when they will be making a movie of the book. However, Readerville has additional resources so there is more to it than just the Forum.
I have a LibraryThing account which I started in June 2006. I've always wanted to enter the books I own but still have not done so.
I took a look around Goodreads but since I knew people on Shelfari I opened a Shelfari account instead of using Goodreads.
And finally, I have a visual bookshelf on my Facebook.

Exercise Three:
I looked up People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. On Shelfari they had 181 reviews of this book and 7 posts under the discussions. Most of the reviews were favorable though not all. One of the reviews quoted one of my favorite passages from the book. "...there were people who could see that what united us was more than what divided us. That to be a human being matters more than to be a Jew or a Muslim, Catholic or Orthodox." Goodreads had far more reviews of this book at 7574 and they broke down the reviews into categories for 5 star, 4 star, 3 star, 2 star, and 1 star ratings and gave you the average rating which was pretty helpful. And lastly, I looked at Visual Bookshelf on Facebook for People of the Book and found 923 reviews, 5323 people who include this title on the "bookshelf", 2 discussions, and 50 books under "similar titles."

From HBO Films: John Adams

Last weekend we completed the John Adams mini-series. There is a part where Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton are discussing the establishment of a national bank. I am not sure how much of what is said by Thomas Jefferson's character in the movie can be attributed to the real man and how much is "screenplay" however, it is uncanny how closely what he said more than 225 years ago resonates with situations we face today.

"I fear our revolution will have been in vain if a Virginia farmer is to be held in hoc to a New York stock jobber who in turn is in hoc to a London banker. The opportunities for avarice and corruption would certainly prove irresistible."

Irresistible indeed...

Books, Readers and Beyond: #53 Finding Books Online

Exercise One
Using Google the three closest booksellers to our library are Scholastic Books, Hollingsworth's Books, and Faith Assembly Bookstore. I wouldn't consider any of these traditional booksellers. There is a Scholastic Books warehouse just around the corner from our library at 7400 Security Way #200 Houston, TX 77040 and they do have a small store where you can go in and purchase books and of course they have warehouse sales periodically however they do not operate the same as a traditional bookstore. Of course they have an online presence but not in the sense that you can browse their offerings or inventory however it is loaded with resources for librarians, teachers, parents and kids. Hollingsworth's Books at 9118 Vinetree Ln, Houston, TX‎ 77066 appears to be in someone's residence but they do have a webpage thru Biblio.com where you can search the inventory. Books start at $7.00 and go up to $800.00 with 4674 titles available. Faith Assembly Bookstore is the third closest bookstore to Fairbanks Library. The bookstore has no web presence other than address and telephone listings. The closest traditional bookstore is Waldenbooks in Willowbrook mall which is a subsidiary of Borders. Finally, Barnes and Noble Booksellers at The Centre in Copperfield is just a few tenths of a mile further than the Waldenbooks.

Exercise Two
I searched for People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. I wanted to take a closer look at BookMooch so I searched there for a copy but found none available. It is also listed as "not available yet" on What's on My Bookshelf. Of course Amazon has it for sale in hardcover it is $16.29 and $9.00 for the paperback. Both are also available in previsously owned (used) versions starting at $6.00 for the hardback and $12.99 for the paperback. The audiobook on CD is also available new for $26.37 or used starting at $6.75.

It's funny how sometimes the timing of these exercises and the things I do everyday in my job overlap. For example, the seniors at Jersey Village High School are reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and I've had four students in the past two days come in and ask for the book on audio. Our branch doesn't own this on audio and the copies owned by the library either weren't available in the desired format or were too far away and therefore would take to long to receive. So, I first directed the students to Overdrive (one of my favorite HCPL resources). The next day I had a third student come in and ask for Frankenstein on audio. I went to Overdrive but the 2 copies available just the previous day were now checked out and I am guessing wouldn't be available for 14 days since they had just been checked out. So we went to Project Gutenburg where I was able to find the audiobook which can be downloaded for free. Later this same day a 4th student came in for Frankenstein, I showed him Overdrive but now not only were the two copies still checked out but now there's 1 person on the waiting list.

Exercise Three
So for this exercise I downloaded the ebook of Frankenstein in graphic novel format from Overdrive. I enjoyed reading this graphic novel and didn't mind at all that it was on the computer screen as I suspected I might. The screen was nice and big showing both left and right hand pages at the same time, or just one page at a time. You can also adjust your fit to make the page larger. The largest setting is obtained by closing the navigation pane. "Turning pages" was very easy and overall Adobe Digital Editions is very easy to use. Since that only took a few minutes to read, I checked out The Union Square Cafe Cookbook. I didn't like this one because when it comes to cookbooks, I love/need photos! This had no photos. I am unsure as to whether or not this is an aspect of the ebook or the book in any format. So I tried another cookbook just so I could see the photos and decide whether or not I could enjoy looking at cookbooks this way. The second one I chose had no photos either????So one more try for a cookbook with photos and I chose The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book which also had no photos. So I am not sure what to think now if those cookbooks really don't have photos or if just the ebook versions don't have photos?

One very nice feature of the ebooks on Overdrive using Adobe Digital Editions is you can return an item you are no longer needing when you are finished. That was very nice. So you can check something out, browse it and if you decide you don't want it you don't have to wait till your checkout expires for it to come off your account. Which really helps since you can only check out ten items via Overdrive. As far as I know you cannot do this with audiobooks. You just wait for the item to expire. Lastly, I downloaded Luxe by Anna Godbersen, a young adult title I've always wanted to read. I read long enough for my leg to fall asleep as I sit in a bar stool at my kitchen counter. Off the top of my head, since I tend to be a night owl, library hours vs the 24/7 availabilty of online digital editions comes to mind as one of the biggest advantages of ebooks. Having all these books at your fingertips and downloadable to your computer in a matter of mintues, even seconds really, is awesome. The time to download an ebook is incredibly fast in my experience. Luxe is 451 pages and didn't take more than a minute to download and view on Adobe. However, I can't imagine dragging the computer in to my daughter's room so I could read her a bedtime story from the computer though, even though sadly, those days for me are over. It's not a kindle after all. I am not sure but I think I would miss the tactile experience of reading a traditional printed book. Seeing as how I am torn between taking my laptop to bed with me to read more of Luxe or powering down and just reading the book on the nightstand next to my bed (The Red Necklace by by Sally Gardner) it could easily be a toss up. If we abandon the printed book for digital versions what would we do when the power goes out? especially when the power is off for days or weeks like it was for many last September? Technology is great as long as it's working.

Stupidest thing I heard today

Mayor Oscar Goodman is upset over President Obama’s comments that corporate executives from companies getting federal bailout funds shouldn’t be going on corporate trips to Las Vegas, saying the comments were hurtful to the convention industry.
When CNN news anchor Campbell Brown asks "Mayor Goodman, do you really believe that the president owes Las Vegas an apology?" Mayor Oscar Goodman replies, "Not so much an apology as more of righting a wrong."
The definition of apology: is a noun that means an expression of regret for having done something wrong.
What exactly is he trying to say here? Does he even know?

Danielle's Horse Show

Books, Readers and Beyond: #52 What to Read

1. I first chose Geraldine Brooks author of People of the Book because I enjoyed that book so much. However when I performed the search on Novelist Plus it offered no Author Read-Alikes. Next I tried Kate Jacobs and it returned one Author Read-Alike for Jennifer Chiaverini. Next I tried searching Library Booklists and Bibliographies for both Geraldine Brooks and Kate Jacobs and received no hits. I also tried Fiction_L Booklists but there were no lists for Kate Jacobs or Gerladine Brooks. On What Should I Read Next? I received the following suggestions for Read-Alikes for Kate Jacobs.

Over the Moon at the Big Lizard Diner - Lisa Wingate
The Hakawati - Rabih Alameddine
Flames of Rome, The: A Novel
RUN WITH THE HORSEMAN - Ferrol Sams
Table For Five - Susan Wiggs
The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society: A Novel - Beth Pattillo
Summer Blowout - Claire Cook
A Case of Bad Taste - Lori Copeland
Island of Lost Girls: A Novel - Jennifer Mcmahon
Off Season - Anne Rivers Siddons

It seems most of the sites are helpful if you read people like Nicholas Sparks, Janet Evanovich and Dan Brown but less helpful for authors like Kate Jacobs author of three books and Geraldine Brooks author of five books.

2. Using NoveList Plus I found the following two books for my fourth grade female patron: The underneath by Kathi Appelt and illustrated by David Small
A dog's life: the autobiography of a stray by Ann M. Martin
and for her 13 year old brother:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Seer of Shadows by Avi

3. Using What Should I Read Next? You have to type in a book and the author and depending on the Dean Koontz book you choose you get a different listing of suggestions which included; Bernhard Schlink's The Reader, Sara Gruen's Flying Changes , and Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir by Tony Hillerman. Using Library Booklists and Bibliographies lead me to Wake County Plublic Library's page If You Like Dean Koontz ... where I found 11 suggestions including these three authors; Greg Bear, Bentley Little and John Saul.

4. Using Mid-Continent Public Library's Juvenile Series and Sequels webpage I found the following information for my patron who wants to read Alanna: the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce and the other books in the series in order.
Series : Song of the Lioness
Book Title
1 Alanna: The First Adventure
2 In the Hand of the Goddess
3 Woman Who Rides Like a Man, The
4 Lioness Rampant