I've used Reader's Choices and Reader's Group Guides quite a bit when helping people with book clubs. They've been around for awhile and are a nice "one stop shop" for bookclubs to get ideas about what to read, and discussion questions. Booksprouts wasn't very interesting to me - but it might be useful if I wanted to run a bookclub. Didn't check the other two.
Open Culture looks pretty interesting - I think that's one I'll spend some time playing with later. Someday when I'm more organized, Book Mooch could come in very handy. I almost prefer Paperback Swap - I liked the way you can browse. Book Mooch didn't have a separate category for mysteries, which was sad. :-( I might just use Swaptree if I want to get rid of some of my cds - of course, I'm sure I'll find just as many I'd like to get...
I don't think the book is going away any time soon. Even with the convenience of handheld readers, people of all ages still seem to prefer the paper format. Online or books in other mediums are a great option for classrooms, though. I'll read journals online in a spare moment.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
35 Books 2.0
I have an account with LibraryThing, and enjoy using it when I think of it. :-) I don't worry too much about cataloging my own books, but I do like to keep note of what I've read and what I thought about it. I have a large notebook at work that I jot down what I'm interested in and what I thought when/if I finally read it; partially because I like the feel of handwriting it. :-)
I didn't care for lib.rario.us very much - when I do catalog my own things, I want more control over what I'm doing. We have an extensive music collection, for example, (probably 1500+ by now - I lost count some time ago) and "rock" isn't descriptive enough. There's southern rock, indie rock, alternative...etc. I had at one time a spreadsheet of everything - mainly so I didn't buy duplicates at Cheapo. For me, that's one main reason to keep track of what we have, and the spreadsheet served that purpose quite well. Itrackmine looked interesting - I plan on playing around more with that one. I know I've lost track of things I've loaned to people - this might help me remember to get them back!
So far I've not been very interested in reading on my phone - I read so fast that so far none of the electronic sources keep up with me - I can turn pages much faster. I do think Twitterlit is fun, and use that. I don't have twitter updates sent to my phone, but read them through the internet.
I just checked out Bookcalendar, and they've just added Twitter. I'm their first follower! Yay me. :-) Anyway, I love reader's advisory tools. When the Uncle Edgar's newsletter comes, I grab my highlighter and am busy for awhile. I also like that I can get a feel for a book without having to read it - very helpful for reader's advisory. I've used the "what's next" database before, but not lately - this was a timely reminder. I wasn't so impressed with the results from "What Should I read next?" - the searches I did turned up some strange results.
I didn't care for lib.rario.us very much - when I do catalog my own things, I want more control over what I'm doing. We have an extensive music collection, for example, (probably 1500+ by now - I lost count some time ago) and "rock" isn't descriptive enough. There's southern rock, indie rock, alternative...etc. I had at one time a spreadsheet of everything - mainly so I didn't buy duplicates at Cheapo. For me, that's one main reason to keep track of what we have, and the spreadsheet served that purpose quite well. Itrackmine looked interesting - I plan on playing around more with that one. I know I've lost track of things I've loaned to people - this might help me remember to get them back!
So far I've not been very interested in reading on my phone - I read so fast that so far none of the electronic sources keep up with me - I can turn pages much faster. I do think Twitterlit is fun, and use that. I don't have twitter updates sent to my phone, but read them through the internet.
I just checked out Bookcalendar, and they've just added Twitter. I'm their first follower! Yay me. :-) Anyway, I love reader's advisory tools. When the Uncle Edgar's newsletter comes, I grab my highlighter and am busy for awhile. I also like that I can get a feel for a book without having to read it - very helpful for reader's advisory. I've used the "what's next" database before, but not lately - this was a timely reminder. I wasn't so impressed with the results from "What Should I read next?" - the searches I did turned up some strange results.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
More Travel - 33
I love the idea of user driven travel sites - who better to get the real scoop from than someone who has been there? I've had the experience of thinking a place looked really interesting, and then being disappointed when I got there. (For example, my husband and I both thought that if someone had planned an entire trip around the Alamo, they would have been very disappointed!) I played around with a few of the sites, using places I'd been as examples - San Francisco (lived there) and Scotland. The sites I spent the most time on were Boo, Gusto and Igougo.
I liked the guides on Boo - there was even one for Helensburgh, the town where my niece and nephew live. There were quite a few pictures that looked similar to ours. :-) I think all men take a picture of John Logie Baird, one of the inventors of television...Of course, there will be more information for the larger cities, but that's to be expected. I did have more luck in the Travel guides rather than trying keyword searches.
I didn't think Gusto had as many places to choose from, but I did like the individual travel guides created by members.
I tend to use flickr or facebook more as a travel journal - post the pictures and add commentary to them as I go. For the next trip I take, I may use Vicarious or My life of travel.
I liked the guides on Boo - there was even one for Helensburgh, the town where my niece and nephew live. There were quite a few pictures that looked similar to ours. :-) I think all men take a picture of John Logie Baird, one of the inventors of television...Of course, there will be more information for the larger cities, but that's to be expected. I did have more luck in the Travel guides rather than trying keyword searches.
I didn't think Gusto had as many places to choose from, but I did like the individual travel guides created by members.
I tend to use flickr or facebook more as a travel journal - post the pictures and add commentary to them as I go. For the next trip I take, I may use Vicarious or My life of travel.
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