Michelle, a blogger from Consuming Louisville, has a great idea for libraries with slashed book budgets. She’s actually looking for a Louisville area library with a bookstore wish list, so that she can help fulfill it. She calls her project “Libraries Are Free, But Books Aren’t.”
RAO thought this was an idea that could be used elsewhere.
By Sarah Statz Cords
A topic that’s a bit off-topic today, but one that seems to rear its ugly head rather more often than not, at least in my experience.
I am down with the idea of reader’s advisory 2.0. I love blogs and litblogs, and databases that help me find read-alikes and the next books in series, and wikis and podcasts and online videos and all those things that not only help me work more closely with readers (and listeners, and watchers; one of my favorite patrons and I could talk BBC productions and their availability in our library system until the cows come home) but which are fun to use as reference sources and tools for my own reading interests. But I worry that there is a side of 2.0 that is not being addressed: how annoyingly, frustratingly, and completely maddening it can be when you come up against a technical wall that you feel you cannot scale.
I have always been a believer that the squeaky wheel gets the grease (my work history as a former waitress cemented that belief), and I can’t help but feel the best way to fix problems is to first get a lock on what the problems are. So: what are your biggest technological frustrations? I’m not saying we can solve them but I feel there’s a discussion to be had here. I can even start: I am tired of having a million log-in names and passwords. Even if you stick with one password, which leaves you open to risk, there’s always the issue of, does your user name in this product start with a capital letter? Which email address did you use when you signed up for this or that service? And, did they have to call it RSS, or Really Simple Syndication? Because I have no idea how that really works, and having it referred to as “really simple” is not helping my self-esteem.
So: I realize this is a big question. What frustrates you in our “faster faster more more” technological world, and how do you deal with that frustration? Are there any technical help sites that you find particularly useful for basic information and help? Tips for password management? Commiseration? We’d love to hear it and provide a forum for discussing it.
For your patrons who saw the Eat, Pray, Love repeat program on Oprah today and need something similar, check the Read-Alike Quick List
in Reader’s Advisor Online. There’s also a Related Theme List. Enjoy!
Okay, okay, but doesn’t everybody need a good laugh this time of year?
The Guardian announced the long list for “Britain’s most dreaded literary prize” last week, and now we have the short list–with hilarious excerpts.
Lest you think this is just fluff for readers of trash, the nominees include Norman Mailer, Jeanette Winterson, Gary Shteyngart and Ali Smith, among others.
“‘Spike, you’re a robot, but why are you such a drop-dead gorgeous robot? I mean, is it necessary to be the most sophisticated machine ever built and to look like a movie star?’
She answers simply: ‘They thought I would be good for the boys on the mission.’”
-Jeanette Winterson
—
“This is not pleasurable. How could anyone find having burning hot candle wax dripped onto the flesh of their belly pleasurable? But I don’t want to tell her to stop cos the last time I told her to stop I got belted in the mouth.”
-David Thewlis
Enjoy.
By Sarah Statz Cords
I’m starting to get a bit nervous about the number of media reports that warn us, in various ways and to varying degrees of alarmism, that reading is on the wane. Consider:
Studies: Adults Aren’t Reading As Much;
Kids Reading Fewer Books Despite Harry Potter Hoopla;
Poll: Fewer Adults Reading Books;
Web Readers Hit the Books Less Frequently;
And the articles go on and on and on. But how do you feel about this? I know how it makes me feel–sad. Of course hundreds of thousands of titles were published last year. But if numbers of readers are truly declining, how long can publishers keep that up? So the important question, to me, becomes, how can we encourage reading? And, is that even something we want to do? I think it begs a companion question: what is the importance of reading, and why should we spend time and resources encouraging it?
Those amazing ladies over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books seem to have turned up a potential controversy. Remember all the hype about Janet Evanovich and Stephen J. Cannell partnering on a big book for Fall – It’s called No Chance and was to come out in early October.
But all the references to it in both author websites have either disappeared or now take you to the dreaded 404 File Not Found. What’s up? Any guesses?