#LIBRARYTHING ROCKS

[uhhhhmanda]

Fun fact! You can get an accurate chart like this on Librarything, which is like if Goodreads didn't suck ass AND wasn't owned by Amazon!

Here's how my "To Read" list stacks up:

[books-coffee-and-the-woods]

Reading update:

Finished Picnic at Hanging Rock last night and loved it, and now I must read Secret at Hanging Rock (the posthumously released final chapter that explains what really happened, which has already been spoiled for me multiple times but I still want to read) and watch the movie.

Started Silver on the Road today. This was a cover-pick, because the library website recommended it and cover art reminded me of a Charles de Lint book (I think the same artist did some of his books but I'm too lazy to get up and check lmao), and I didn't actually realize it was a western until I started it. Still, it's good so far and I'm excited to see where it goes.

Also in light of recent events (an apartment complex next to my coworker's house being reduced to ash after someone's BBQ propane tank exploded) I'm thinking I should revive my LibraryThing account so if anything terrible happens here at least I'll have a database of my books....the problem is I'm so bad at keeping up with it that it inevitably gets out of date lol

[pathstepper]

I put one of my bookshelves on LibraryThing this evening. It was fun & satisfying but it had a really weird selection of books. If you were to look at what I catalogued and try to guess who I was you would think I was a very dedicated and religious pagan who played a lot of retro ttrpgs and had a particular interest in addiction recovery, vintage YA fiction and Alaska. But then there is an odd one here and there like crunchy philosophy, knot tying, 80s/90s alt rock.

A lot of the books are inherited from my parents, a few are from way back in high school, and I wouldn’t keep them if I wasn’t at all interested, but it’s all kindof random and disproportionate. I’m excited to put more in my account to I guess round it out a bit more.

When it comes to my step of the day I will pick a book from my shelf:

I haven’t read this lately, but it belonged to my mother and it sounds pretty adorable.

[ibtk]

Book Review: A SUPER SCARY NARWHALLOWEEN by Ben Clanton (2023)

(Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.)

Halloween is fast approaching, and the upcoming holiday has all the sea creatures worked up. Narwhal is characteristically over the moon with excitement - he loves Halloween, but can't decide what to be (witch? mermaid? candy corn of the sea?). Meanwhile, Jelly just wants to hide under a rock until November 1st - he doesn't much appreciate a good frighten, and witches and monsters are downright terrifying. But when narwhal goes missing - presumably eaten by a carnivorous sea serpent - Jelly has to convince the gang to super-fy and swim to Narwhal's rescue.

A SUPER SCARY NARWHALLOWEEN has the same silly charm of the previous seven books in the NARWHAL AND JELLY series, with the added bonus of some Halloween hijinx.

Read it if you like: unicorns; narwhals; waffles; pumpkins; pumpkin waffles; wordplay; mermaids; Halloween; super-heroing; and glow in the dark art.

On that note: I can definitely picture Leslie Knope reading this series to her triplets.

[aquila1nz]

Incidentally, LibraryThing does the same thing with books, you can tag your books with anything, and then volunteers combine essentially identical tags in the background, so if you've ever wanted to tag your book collection like fanfic, go for it.

“The Archive of Our Own has none of these problems. It uses a third tagging system, one that blends the best elements of both styles. On AO3, users can put in whatever tags they want (autocomplete is there to help, but they don’t have to use it). Then, behind the scenes, human volunteers look up any new tags that no one else has used before and match them with any applicable existing tags, a process known as tag wrangling. Wrangling means that you don’t need to know whether the most popular tag for your new fanfic featuring Sherlock Holmes and John Watson is Johnlock or Sherwatson or John/Sherlock or Sherlock/John or Holmes/Watson or anything else. And you definitely don’t need to tag your fic with all of them just in case. Instead, you pick whichever one you like, the tag wranglers do their work behind the scenes, and readers looking for any of these synonyms will still be able to find you. AO3’s trick is that it involves humans by design—around 350 volunteer tag wranglers in 2019, up from 160 people in 2012—who each spend a few hours a week deciding whether new tags should be treated as synonyms or subsets of existing tags, or simply left alone. AO3’s Tag Wrangling Chairs estimate that the group is on track to wrangle over 2 million never-before-used tags in 2019, up from around 1.5 million in 2018. Laissez-faire and rigid tagging systems both fail because they assume too much—that users can create order from a completely open system, or that a predefined taxonomy can encompass every kind of tag a person might ever want. When these assumptions don’t pan out, it always seems to be the user’s fault. AO3’s beliefs about human nature are more pragmatic, like an architect designing pathways where pedestrians have begun wearing down the grass, recognizing how variation and standardization can fit together. The wrangler system is one where ordinary user behavior can be successful, a system which accepts that users periodically need help from someone with a bird’s-eye view of the larger picture. Users appreciate this help. According to Tag Wrangling Chair briar_pipe, “We sometimes get users who come from Instagram or Tumblr or another unmoderated site. We can tell that they’re new to AO3 because they tag with every variation of a concept—abbreviations, different word order, all of it. I love how excited people get when they realize they don’t have to do that here.””

—

Gretchen McCulloch, Fans Are Better Than Tech at Organizing Information Online 

(My latest Wired column is up and it’s about AO3 and taxonomies!) 

[marshamello13]

Book Review: “Black Rock”

“Black Rock” by David Odle

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from LibraryThing in return for an honest review.

Thomas Loggins, a small-town pastor, is a family man, with a loving wife and daughter. But all that changes after he meets new congregate Benjamin Clark. He knows a terrible secret from Thomas' past. Now Thomas has to choose between saving himself or his daughter...

This book was not for me. I had a hard time finishing it. I found the protagonists to be unlikeable. To the point that I found myself actively rooting for the antagonist.

1 out of 5 stars

[dennisbmurphy]

As you can see from the photo I have a pretty extensive personal library. I'm an avid reader. 90% of the library are nonfiction, mostly history politics, some economics, and reference books.  I am particularly proud to own the set "Story of Civilization" by Will and Ariel Durant.

I was considering buying a handheld scanner, wondering if once I did, if I could scan the books into Excel and then it would actually translate from the ISBN number to the to display the author and the title, etc.  But I'm not sure that that would be done in one step using a handheld scanner.

So I did a Google looking for apps that might work and found LibraryThing.  This application has a desktop web-based version through the Internet.  You can connect to it with an app on your phone which then enables your camera to scan the barcodes on the back of the books.   I already tried it with two books!

I found it also works with CDs and I'm hoping with vinyl albums.  I have well over a thousand CDs as well as over a thousand vinyl records of music ranging from classical to Jazz to punk to Rock.  Ijust scanned a Dua Lipa CD.

Under the "More" tab there's also mechanisms for exporting.   There's also a barcode scanner that can connect to your laptop in the store which I think I'm going to buy for $15.

Being able to catalog them makes it easier to search for what you're looking for, but also in case of a fire or some other damage to the products you have a catalog for insurance.

[ladyherenya]

Books read in November and December

Between trying to write a novel for NaNoWriMo and discovering oh-so-addictive Korean contemporary romantic dramas on Netflix, I didn’t read as much in November. But after reading two months worth of books in October, that felt like the right decision.

And then December was busier than I anticipated.

Favourite cover: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

Reread: The Girl in Times Square by Paullina Simons (November).

Next up: Miss Bunting by Angela Thirkell.

(Longer reviews and ratings are on LibraryThing. And also Dreamwidth.)

November

When We Were Warriors by Emma Carroll (narrated by Victoria Fox): A collection of three stories about children in England during WWII, loosely connected by an American soldier who turns up in each story. “The Night Visitors” is about a group of London children evacuated to Frost Hollow Hall and I would have appreciated it more if I’d read Carroll’s novel Frost Hollow Hall. I enjoyed revisiting the characters from Letters from the Lighthouse (which I have read and loved) in “Olive’s Army”, and “Operation Greyhound” is about an important issue that none of the other wartime fiction I’ve read has explored: finding safe shelter for pets during air raids.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente (narrated by the author): Even though blogging acquaintances had reviewed this positively, I was still surprised by how delightful and meta it is. It felt, very intentionally and thoughtfully, written in the same vein as the first novels I ever read: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and The Magic Faraway Tree, with a dash of Narnia. Twelve year old September doesn’t have siblings or friends accompanying her into Fairytale and I wondered if that would limit how emotionally invested I became in her story, but I cared a lot about September and her relationships. And the prose is just lovely.

Three Little Truths by Eithne Shortall: This is about the different women living in a Dublin street. I liked the way their lives and stories fitted together. The conclusion has the potential to be bitter, setting women against each other, but is much more forgiving -- and manages that realistically. It makes for a quieter ending, but that isn’t a weakness. Not every story needs to be sharp and shocking. I think having so many characters meant enough time wasn’t given to Martha and her daughters and how they are dealing with the aftermath of trauma. The book could easily have just focused on them.

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory: Alexa and Drew meet when a hotel elevator briefly breaks down. Afterwards Drew asks Alexa to be his date to a wedding, and a fake relationship quickly turns into a real one, complicated by them both living in different cities. This was okay, which is to say that I enjoyed reading it but don’t feel inclined to spend any more time reviewing it.

The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave: This is darker than Hargrave’s middle-grade fantasy but otherwise it felt very much like the same sort of adventure and even in the final act, when it had clearly turned into a vampire story, I was still expecting that it would have the sort of bittersweet ending her other books have. It doesn’t. Intellectually I can recognise the merit in what Hargrave is doing here. But from an emotional perspective, I found the ending thoroughly disappointing. As a teenager, I would have hated it.

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett (narrated by Nigel Planer): When Death is, well, fired (for want of a better word), he finds himself a different job. But his absence causes problems for those who die, particularly for Windle Poons, the oldest wizard at the Unseen University. It wasn’t a book where I felt like I really related to the characters. (It was published in between Moving Pictures and Witches Abroad, and I like those two a lot more.) But it was entertaining and had its moments when it was surprisingly funny or thoughtful. I like reading about the antics of the wizards more than I expected to.

Permanent Record by Mary H. K. Choi: Pablo is working nightshift when pop star Leanna Smart comes into the store. I read most of this, put the book down to do something else... and then never picked it up again. It was interesting, particularly for its portrayal of a teenager who has dropped out of college and is struggling to find direction -- something I think should be explored more in YA fiction -- but I think those qualities which made it interesting also made it a bit too real to be really enjoyable? I don’t even know.

December

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente (narrated by S. J. Tucker): September returns to Fairyland, a year older, to discover that Fairyland has been changed by her previous adventures and that this sojourn is not going to unfold how she’d expected and hoped it would. As a story about changes, consequences, coming back to a place you love and entering adolescence, this is poignant and astute; it resonated with me so much. I also liked its many nods to the portal fantasy I grew up with. But I found some of the landscapes, and the people September meets, less appealing than those in the first book. I’m not sure why.

Notebooks of a Middle-School Princess: Royal Crown by Meg Cabot: I enjoyed this more than the previous two in the series. The focus is on Olivia’s family and friends in the days leading up to a coronation. Olivia’s family is Mia’s family -- after reading all The Princess Diaries books, I care about them, and I continue to think it’s interesting (but also very believable) that Olivia has such a different relationship with Grandmere than Mia does. And I like how Olivia navigates relationships with, and advice from, her peers. She’s got a lot to learn because she’s thirteen, an age where there are a lot of changes, but she’s realistically level-headed.

Warrior of the Altaii by Robert Jordan: Jordan’s first novel was written and sold in the late 70s, but never published until now. What I found most interesting were the differences and similarities between it and The Wheel of Time, one of my favourite series. In terms of the protagonist, prose and plot, it’s very different: its first-person narrator is a already a warrior and leader; the story revolves around why the nomadic Altaii try to take a city; and it’s all over by page 350. But many of the worldbuilding elements are variations on things which are also in WOT. If I hadn’t read WOT, I would have still found the worldbuilding interesting but probably not enough to make up for not really connecting with any of the characters.

Soul Music by Terry Pratchett (narrated by Nigel Planer): I knew about the Discworld series for years and years before I read any of the books and I’ve wondered when I was going to meet Susan. Sixteen year old Susan fills in for her grandfather, Death, after he disappears. Meanwhile Anhk-Morpork discovers “music with rocks in it” I enjoyed watching Susan learn about Death, Pratchett’s parody of rock music was a lot of fun, and the combination of those two storylines means this book isn’t a rehash of Moving Pictures-but-this-time-with-rock-music. However, I didn’t find the final act -- and its resolution -- quite as satisfying as Moving Pictures’.

[authormarialberg]

Library Thing Early Reviewers

Library Thing Early Reviewers @LibraryThing Thank you. #inspiration #motivation #bookreviews #books

I joined Library Thing when I created an author page for Gator McBumpypants Hears a Scary Noise. They have a selection of books each month that you can choose from to potentially win in exchange for review. In all these years I have never won, but they recently revamped their system. This month I won two e-books to review: One Thousand Good Answers by Sarah Herrin and Rocking Change: Changing the…

[diversereadingchallenge]

[Image Description: Book cover of Halfway to Schist by Peter Bridgford. It is a pencil drawing on a white background, and shows a shoreline with mountains in the background. There are pine trees by the shore, and four human figures shown in silhouette.]

Title: Halfway to Schist

Author: Peter Bridgford

Prompt: 17 -  A book where the main character struggles against and/or overcomes homophobia

Summary (from Amazon): Jane "Red" Rogers is the daughter of two geologists, so her childhood has been overshadowed by all things having to do with the rock cycle, plate tectonics, and glaciation.When her mother commits suicide, Red and her father embark on an adventure to restore an old family fishing lodge on an island in the Georgian Bay area of Canada. Along the way, Red must navigate around the submerged hazards resulting from the friendship with a local boy and an Anishinaabe man and his grandson-all the while trying to fit in with the rich teen aged crowd at the local hotel.With each misadventure Red encounters, her mother's journal continues to teach her how the lessons of geology and glaciation are as applicable to human beings as they are to her beloved rocks and ice.

Review:  I received an early copy of this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program.

I enjoyed this book. Red is a great protagonist, and I enjoyed the focus on friendship. 

It is slowly paced, and some parts especially at the beginning I found boring, and the dialogue felt stilted. 

Overall, I would recommend to anyone who likes coming of age novels and doesn't mind a slower pace. There is a content warning for sexual assault. 

[alexanicholsauthor]

How I spent this past week…

Not doing a damn thing! Seriously, I just needed a break, a vacation from all the craziness of being an independent author / social media superstar (😆). More importantly, the people I love needed some Alexa time, and if I’m being completely honest, so did I. Want to know what I didn’t do? Write. Or get on social media. Or answer emails. Or anything else.

Well, that’s a bit of a lie.

I did hook up (not like that, pervert. I wish…) with Tera Patrick, who responded to my interview request and even blessed me by following me on Instagram. The interview will be on my Patreon and available to all tiers, as will a few other tidbits related to her. I can’t wait. So much fun. Tera’s an awesome chick, and she’s been my #1 favorite adult actress since I was a little(r) pervert. To be able to interview her was mind-blowing.

Now about my ass. 😅

Or, the area right beside my ass. See, I apparently played so much Skyrim during my off time that I somehow managed to pinch a nerve, and I’ve been walking around like a peg leg pirate ever since. (Much to Anne’s amusement, who keeps calling me Gimp and Limpy and reminds me of how easily she could whoop me now that I’m crippled whenever I innocently talk smack to her) Workouts are out the door until I heal, as are… other things of an exertive, physical nature…

Needless to say, with all this excess energy, I’ve been writing up a storm. 😅

ANYWAY!

I got me some good news, yo! The Secret Life of Miel is now an audiobook! And so is Girl Fight! Both are available on Audible now, and by the time you read this entry, they should also be on iTunes and Amazon. So yeah. Ballin’. You can also find samples of them on my SoundCloud page, in case you’re curious to hear what they sound like. I have some incredible narrators…

More importantly, I have the most incredible readers. I love you guys so much, and don’t think for one minute I don’t appreciate you. Because I do. Which is why I want to offer all of you a free audiobook code, good for any audiobook on Audible, regardless of author or price. Just message me on any of my social media accounts (or email, if you wish) before Monday, and I’ll shoot you one. No strings attached. Just because you’re awesome, you deserve it, and I love you so much for making me a part of your life.

Limit one code per person, of course. If for some reason you don’t know how to contact me, here is a list of my various social media accounts:

📧 Email: alexa.nichols.author@gmail.com

🤢 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlexaNicholsAuthor/

🐤 Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlexaNichols69

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexa.nichols.author/

💩 Tumblr: https://alexanicholsauthor.tumblr.com/

🖼 Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/alexanichols69/

📚 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14667616.Alexa_Nichols

❓ Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Alexa-Nichols-3

📑 Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/AlexaNicholsAuthor

✍ WritersCafe: http://www.writerscafe.org/AlexaNichols

📖 LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/profile/Alexa_Nichols

🔊 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/alexa-nichols-622741502

I look forward to hearing from you. All you. As always, thank you for reading. You rock. ✊

[scumdogsteev]

I just added I Slept with Joey Ramone: A Punk Rock Family Memoir by Mickey Leigh to my LibraryThing.

[jannianni]

A Chance This Christmas (Road to Romance Book 3) by Joanne Rock-DNF at 13%

DNF at 13%-the first 13% is just basically repeating the events that chased Rachel out of town so many times that it is either excessive filler or the reader is supposed to be forced to pity Rachel.  Poor Rachel, her dad embezzled the town.  Poor Rachel, she has the Scarlet Letter because she kissed her ex-boyfriend's friend.  Poor Rachel, she has to hide herself and sneak around town so they won't come after her with pitchforks.  It was redundant and irritating.  Furthermore, it already made it abundantly clear that Gavin, the one she shared the controversial kiss with, is famous, handsome, perfect, and will be the hero and Prince Charming.  I cannot finish this book and I cannot imagine how it is the third book in a series.  

Please note: an electronic copy of this review was generously provided via LibraryThing’s EarlyReviewer Program in exchange for an honest review.

[houstonlibrarian]

New Post has been published on Librarian Chat

New Post has been published on http://www.librarianchat.com/?p=312564

Family Story Time aims to make reading fun at Lorain Public Library - The Morning Journal

Family Story Time aims to make reading fun at Lorain Public LibraryThe Morning JournalPreschoolers from Ms. Hunter’s Precious Angels Child Care Center, in Lorain, participate in the interactive song “Bean Bag Rock” during the Lorain Public Library System Main Branch’s Family Story Time on March 27, 2017. Eric Bonzar —The …read more

Read more here:: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=de&usg=AFQjCNEEOEwMabzaJDX5khi9jHqblKO-zw&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&ei=lrLZWIC1GIOQ3AHK0IKwAw&url=http://www.morningjournal.com/general-news/20170327/family-story-time-aims-to-make-reading-fun-at-lorain-public-library

[marshamello13]

Book Review: “Tangle of Time”

“Tangle of TIme” By Gin Westcott

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from LibraryThing in return for an honest review.

While working digging for rocks four college students are buried in a series of tunnels. Mae, her boyfriend Greg, and his two friends, Toke and Dexter, are forced to find their way through these tunnels before they die from dehydration and starvation. But somehow they find them selves transported back in time to the 1840s. Can they find their way back to their time or are they stuck in the past forever...

Overall I had a tough time getting through this book. I found all four of the main characters to be unlikeable and kind of flat. While I found the idea of this story to be interesting, I thought the story dragged and not much happened.

Two out of five stars.

[rbaech]

I just added Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock by Sammy Hagar to my LibraryThing.