Tuesday Thingers – Autumn Rouse

Tuesday Thingers: Recommendations

Autumn — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:03:37 +0000

Tuesday Thingers

Today’s topic: Recommendations. Do you use LT’s recommendations feature? Have you found any good books by using it? Do you use the anti-recommendations, or the “special sauce” recommendations? How do you find out about books you want to read?

i will say, i wanted this to be a feature i would get a lot of use out of. i liked the idea that i could access this list at the library and pick up things i might not otherwise know about. i alternate between knowing exactly what i’m looking for when selecting books, or being totally paralizyed by indecision and overwhelm.

but despite this, i’ve not yet gotten anything on the list of recommendations. i think i tried to find some that looked interesting based on the critera they listed for mentioning it; “Why this is recommended” but the ones i was primarily intrigued by weren’t available at my library at the time.

also, lately i’ve been toying with various book-selection methods that are almost a psychological experement of sorts. i’m interested in what makes me want to read a particular book. so far i’ve tried:

jacket/cover art- i don’t read any of the reviews or synopsis, just let the title and the cover art speak for the book.
taking out random books and reading the first chapter.
going to the shelf where my favorite books are and turning 180 degrees and taking something from the shelf opposite
selecting subjects at which i am terrible and trying to find a humanizing book about it.

my results have been hit or miss, but to some extent i find the time spelunking in the library as much a worthwhile pursuit as the payoff of an excellent read. and i have found a few gems this way…

Tuesday Thingers: Book Swapping

Autumn — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:45:26 +0000

Today’s topic: Book-swapping. Do you do it? What site(s) do you use? How did you find out about them? What do you think of them? Do you use LT’s book-swapping column feature for information on what to swap? Do you participate in any of the LT communities that discuss bookswapping, like the Bookmooch group for example?

Oh my god. My inner librarian is quivering in terror at the very prospect. i am a HOARDER of books, and only RARELY a lender of same. and usually only to particularly trusted fellow book lovers. not getting books back upsets me immensely.

on the other hand, i tend to be hard on books myself; i’m a spine breaker, a spiller of food, a taker of books into the bathtub and poolside, a ditcher of cover flaps. so i’m pretty reluctant to borrow books either since it requires me to be more careful than i want to.

i like the idea and see it as a good thing to do, but i feel about it much the way i do about public transportation: i’m in favor of the idea for everyone else, but only resort to it myself in desperation.

Tuesday Thingers: My Summer Vacation

Autumn — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:21:15 +0000

Since we’re past the Fourth of July and the summer season has officially started, what are your plans for the summer? Vacations, trips? Trips that involve reading? Reading plans? If you’re going somewhere, do you do any reading to prepare? Do you read local literature as part of your trip? Have you thought about using the LT Local feature to help plan your book-buying?

i am going on a road trip, by myself, forÂ 6 daysÂ through southeastern Oregon, northern California, and northwest Nevada to see my very favorite singer in all the land Neko CaseÂ i am excited about this to a sort of ridiculous degree. i will have never been to ANY of the places i am going, and i am deliberately avoiding the interstates. as such, atlases and guidebooks are going to be crucial. moreover, there will be approximately 30-35 hours of driving all told during this trip, so i am planning to lay in a supply of audio books for the road as well. i’m thinking the theme will be: transformation classics. coming-of-age, travel tales, books which contain scenes of desert revelation. oh, yes.

cant fricken wait. only 6 1/2 more weeks to go….