I know it has already gone viral, but its still great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2PM0om2El8&feature=player_embedded
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Books into Film
I have decided that the movie industry must be entirely out of movie ideas. I realize that turning a good novel into a good movie has been attempted since the beginning of movies but the last few years seems to be the only thing happening. And they seem to be converted from books into movies quicker than ever.
Lets look at 2009/2010. We had Lovely Bones, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, My Sister's Keeper, Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince (of course), New Moon, Dear John, Alice in Wonderland, Inkheart, Angels & Demons, The Lightening Thief, Eat Pray Love, The Informant... and those are just the ones off the top of my head!
Now it seems that every best seller book I read is being turned into a movie. The Help by Kathryn Stockett is one of my favorite reads of 2010 so far. It is already being filmed. I just discovered today that Water for Elephants is being filmed starring Rob Pattison of Twilight Saga fame and Reese Witherspoon. I love Reese, but I hate Rob. I am now torn because it was such a great book! I have also previously mentioned that Never Let Me Go is going to be coming out starring Keira Knightley. And The Book Thief is also going to be released as a movie in 2011, as is Half a Yellow Sun and those are the ones I already know of, in addition to the continuing Twiglight Saga and...sniff sniff, the final in Harry Potter.
In some ways I am very OK with all of the books into movies. It draws people in to read the books and it supports the movie industry as readers go to see the movie version. This is a big bonus. The only thing I can wish for is that movie theatres would have "films that were Books" displays in the same way many libraries/bookstores and their websites have "books into films" displays.
It does irritate me how inaccurate the movies are compared to the books, but compared to the benefits I will suck it up.
So in summary my friends- be sure to take a closer look at the movies you are watching, if you enjoyed it there is probably a book that preceded it. Check it out and enjoy it too!
Lets look at 2009/2010. We had Lovely Bones, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, My Sister's Keeper, Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince (of course), New Moon, Dear John, Alice in Wonderland, Inkheart, Angels & Demons, The Lightening Thief, Eat Pray Love, The Informant... and those are just the ones off the top of my head!
Now it seems that every best seller book I read is being turned into a movie. The Help by Kathryn Stockett is one of my favorite reads of 2010 so far. It is already being filmed. I just discovered today that Water for Elephants is being filmed starring Rob Pattison of Twilight Saga fame and Reese Witherspoon. I love Reese, but I hate Rob. I am now torn because it was such a great book! I have also previously mentioned that Never Let Me Go is going to be coming out starring Keira Knightley. And The Book Thief is also going to be released as a movie in 2011, as is Half a Yellow Sun and those are the ones I already know of, in addition to the continuing Twiglight Saga and...sniff sniff, the final in Harry Potter.
In some ways I am very OK with all of the books into movies. It draws people in to read the books and it supports the movie industry as readers go to see the movie version. This is a big bonus. The only thing I can wish for is that movie theatres would have "films that were Books" displays in the same way many libraries/bookstores and their websites have "books into films" displays.
It does irritate me how inaccurate the movies are compared to the books, but compared to the benefits I will suck it up.
So in summary my friends- be sure to take a closer look at the movies you are watching, if you enjoyed it there is probably a book that preceded it. Check it out and enjoy it too!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Shanghai Girls
Lisa See is an American author who looks like she could never understand the hardships she writes about in Shanghai Girls, her newest novel released in May 2009. In fact, after reading Girls I was surprised to look at the back cover and see someone who looked as Caucasian as I; but Ms. See is of Chinese decent, and her family has very much lived many of the events discussed in this book. I felt awful making such assumptions that just because she didn't look Chinese, doesn't mean she wasn't or that she didn't truly understand what she was writing about. That lesson is taught in the book and you think I would've caught it then, if not before. So shame on me for my assumptions, and thank you Lisa for this great book and all of your knowledge!
Shanghai girls is about the life of a pair of sisters as they make their way through wars, immigration, working, stereotypes, fear, death, trauma, happiness and every other possible event or emotion one could feel. It’s a quick read, its an easy to follow read but it is an engaging read and you just can’t put it down.
I had originally checked it out as an audio book. Thinking it sounded good but not something I would get around to reading soon, so I put it in the truck. Well, it was so engaging I checked out the book because I can read faster than it is read to me. I was so engrossed in it that I still kept the audio book in the truck, skipping to where I’d finished reading and then when I got home I could skip forward the pages I had listened to.
What I admired about the book was that there were inconsistencies-and when thinking about them, I realize they were intentional. They were used to make the reader think and realize the struggle these “beautiful girls” went through and the decisions made.
I had a few moments where I, yet again, realized how much a person can learn from reading fiction. As an example, there were moments in the book involving Chinese gods and traditions that I was really to appreciate for the moments they were instead of being curious as to their roles in the culture and what these gods represented, etc. I knew this because only a few months ago I had read Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife where I had read about the gods who were a large part of the novel.
I didn’t like the ending at all. It felt like the beginning of a series. I understand why it ended that way-the story isn’t about the daughter, its about the sisters. But I still didn’t have finality. There is still so much they are about to experience as sisters which is just as important as the other stories and struggles and messages we experience in the book.
In addition to this book I have discovered Lisa See is amazingly informative on the Chinese culture in California and specifically Los Angeles and Hollywood. In addition, her Facebook page includes a lot of two way communication on the topic. I have gathered that this is where part of her family settled when they came to North America and that they were a large part of "China Town" in Los Angeles. I was very surprised at the wealth of knowledge evident on both her website and her Facebook page. I wish more authors were like that.
Shanghai girls is about the life of a pair of sisters as they make their way through wars, immigration, working, stereotypes, fear, death, trauma, happiness and every other possible event or emotion one could feel. It’s a quick read, its an easy to follow read but it is an engaging read and you just can’t put it down.
I had originally checked it out as an audio book. Thinking it sounded good but not something I would get around to reading soon, so I put it in the truck. Well, it was so engaging I checked out the book because I can read faster than it is read to me. I was so engrossed in it that I still kept the audio book in the truck, skipping to where I’d finished reading and then when I got home I could skip forward the pages I had listened to.
What I admired about the book was that there were inconsistencies-and when thinking about them, I realize they were intentional. They were used to make the reader think and realize the struggle these “beautiful girls” went through and the decisions made.
I had a few moments where I, yet again, realized how much a person can learn from reading fiction. As an example, there were moments in the book involving Chinese gods and traditions that I was really to appreciate for the moments they were instead of being curious as to their roles in the culture and what these gods represented, etc. I knew this because only a few months ago I had read Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife where I had read about the gods who were a large part of the novel.
I didn’t like the ending at all. It felt like the beginning of a series. I understand why it ended that way-the story isn’t about the daughter, its about the sisters. But I still didn’t have finality. There is still so much they are about to experience as sisters which is just as important as the other stories and struggles and messages we experience in the book.
In addition to this book I have discovered Lisa See is amazingly informative on the Chinese culture in California and specifically Los Angeles and Hollywood. In addition, her Facebook page includes a lot of two way communication on the topic. I have gathered that this is where part of her family settled when they came to North America and that they were a large part of "China Town" in Los Angeles. I was very surprised at the wealth of knowledge evident on both her website and her Facebook page. I wish more authors were like that.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Computers with Legs & Spiffy Personalities...
I promised myself that I wouldn't relate my blog to work often. However, even before working in a library I believed in libraries. I believed in their place in culture, the community and doing it for free. I believe in their ability to provide access to everyone.
The NPR blog wrote this and I like it. They claim Libraries are the next cool thing because we're green, local, librarians are fighters and everyone likes a fighter-and because librarians aren't geeks anymore. Library personnel are apparently your computers-with legs and a spiffy personality. So says NPR. So have a look at the blog post!
The NPR blog wrote this and I like it. They claim Libraries are the next cool thing because we're green, local, librarians are fighters and everyone likes a fighter-and because librarians aren't geeks anymore. Library personnel are apparently your computers-with legs and a spiffy personality. So says NPR. So have a look at the blog post!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Social Economics & the Masses.
Is it just me or is the world finally embracing economics? Is it just me or are they doing that because they are finally explaining economics in a way that makes sense to people.
It all seemed to have started with Freakaonomics, a fantastic book that showed us that whether or not we realize it that we are influenced in many ways-particularly by incentive.
Then Malcolm Gladwell came with Blink, A Tipping Point & Outliers. All of these books explain parts of our psyche in a psychology meets economics meets sociology kind of way-and I love it!
I have Blink on my night stand now and I’m halfway through. I haven’t delved into others of Gladwell’s yet, but that is because I am reading Superfreakanomics, a sequel if you will to the first. So far, it seems an even easier read than the first while still providing us with seemingly useless knowledge that proves patterns that are useful-and that is what makes them fun!
What I love about these types of books is that they give you useless trivia you never wanted to know but is fun to know-prostitution isn’t as financially rewarding as it used to be and if you teach monkeys to use money they will inevitably use indulge in crime and prostitution. But they also show you things we should know and we should be thinking of. For example they illustrate just how much big companies have influence over our laws and legislation. The statistical analysis they show is that car seats, as an example, are no more protective-even when properly installed- than a good old fashioned seat belt for those over two-when it comes to major injuries. They are more helpful for minor injuries. They argue that the reason car seats are a huge deal instead of getting automakers to make smaller seat belts for children for the backseat of the car is because of the powerful lobbying of industry. I think this is absolutely worth investigating and understanding. I think on some level we all know that the industry influences our politicians, even here in Canada. I mean, it can be the only logical reasoning for some of the decisions we see. But do we realize it has gone so far as things we now see as the norm are only the norm because industry has convinced us and our governments it should be?
This conversation can go on its own tangent and maybe it should-we can talk about bottled water, the book Consumed and things like that. But that isn’t my point today. My point is to illustrate how appreciative I am of the books like Freakanomics, Superfreakanomics, Blink and others who bring humor and easy writing to the world of economics so that we might begin to understand these things.
And for the record, Superfreakanomics doesn’t say you shouldn’t use a car seat. In fact they encourage it because it is found to protect better against small injuries which you are more likely to sustain.
It all seemed to have started with Freakaonomics, a fantastic book that showed us that whether or not we realize it that we are influenced in many ways-particularly by incentive.
Then Malcolm Gladwell came with Blink, A Tipping Point & Outliers. All of these books explain parts of our psyche in a psychology meets economics meets sociology kind of way-and I love it!
I have Blink on my night stand now and I’m halfway through. I haven’t delved into others of Gladwell’s yet, but that is because I am reading Superfreakanomics, a sequel if you will to the first. So far, it seems an even easier read than the first while still providing us with seemingly useless knowledge that proves patterns that are useful-and that is what makes them fun!
What I love about these types of books is that they give you useless trivia you never wanted to know but is fun to know-prostitution isn’t as financially rewarding as it used to be and if you teach monkeys to use money they will inevitably use indulge in crime and prostitution. But they also show you things we should know and we should be thinking of. For example they illustrate just how much big companies have influence over our laws and legislation. The statistical analysis they show is that car seats, as an example, are no more protective-even when properly installed- than a good old fashioned seat belt for those over two-when it comes to major injuries. They are more helpful for minor injuries. They argue that the reason car seats are a huge deal instead of getting automakers to make smaller seat belts for children for the backseat of the car is because of the powerful lobbying of industry. I think this is absolutely worth investigating and understanding. I think on some level we all know that the industry influences our politicians, even here in Canada. I mean, it can be the only logical reasoning for some of the decisions we see. But do we realize it has gone so far as things we now see as the norm are only the norm because industry has convinced us and our governments it should be?
This conversation can go on its own tangent and maybe it should-we can talk about bottled water, the book Consumed and things like that. But that isn’t my point today. My point is to illustrate how appreciative I am of the books like Freakanomics, Superfreakanomics, Blink and others who bring humor and easy writing to the world of economics so that we might begin to understand these things.
And for the record, Superfreakanomics doesn’t say you shouldn’t use a car seat. In fact they encourage it because it is found to protect better against small injuries which you are more likely to sustain.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Book Journals
I own three different book journals. I have looked at and almost bought many more. I love the concept of a book journal. It’s different sections allow me to stay organized with an area for me to think about what I read and journal/review, an area for me to keep a list of the books I want to read, and those I’ve lent/borrowed. They are fantastically useful-if you find the right one.
I own: 501 Must Read Books Book Journal, book notes Journal, and Read, Remember, Recommend: A Reading Journal for Book Lovers.
501 is great because it is small & portable and has the 3 parts to the book. First,half the book is for reviews. It starts with the star rating system, title & author, date you read and then leaves lots of lines for you to fill in. The flaw is that its small so I end up using an extra “review” almost every time, but because there are so many pages it doesn’t seem to fill quickly. The second half of the book is actually broken into 3 small parts: books lent, borrowed and reading wishlist. What I like about this one is that the layout is a simple list style with one line to list the book, who you lent it to, the date and a check box for whether or not it was returned. The books borrowed section is the same. As a result they have 20 spots per page and over 10 pages a section-lots of room! Even the Reading Wishlist area is efficient. Title, author, who recommended it, and a check box for once it has been read. Done.
The third part of the book journal is how it gets its name. It is an 8 page list of 501 must read books, alphabetical. With check boxes for if you’ve read them. I would be curious to know how they came up with the list. It ranges from young adult books like Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland to books like Three Men in a Boat, and other obscure classics, and of course the ones you would expect to find. As this journal is a couple of years old I would say you won’t find anything newer than 5 or 6 years old in the list. The only problem I have with the list is that it is a simple check list. Check box if you have read. No where to indicate ones that you may want to read-because few of us will read all 501. But that is easily fixed by keeping a small travel highlighter in the back pocket of the book and highlighting the ones I want to read.
Other great features to this book include a built in book marker so that you can mark your last review, the mentioned pocket in the back and an elastic to keep everything pressed tightly together. Another great feature-there is cover art for some of the 501 books throughout, as well as “did you know” facts throughout the review section- like, did you know: “Children’s and Household Tales, published by the brothers Grimm in the early 19th century, were collected in the French and German countryside as part of their research into linguistics. These old folk tales include Cinderella, Snow White, Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel.” …and now you know.
The flaws of the book are minimal-lines for titles are not long enough, lines for “recommended by” are too long. Review space isn’t long enough either. And there are no tabs for the different sections or indicator so with the exception of that one book mark you are flipping the pages till you find the right place. But the size is right and it is simply laid out.
book notes journal was a gift from my husband. One that I wanted badly. I thought it would be fantastic- it has a section tabs for Recommended Reads, Reading Notes, Favorite Quotes, and Books Borrowed and Lent. Each of the tabs are stiff pockets so if you run out of room you can tuck your pages in it. This is what sold me, as I always run out of room in a book journal in less than a year. It also has the elastic closure so that nothing falls out and other cute features like book quotes through and a highly useful section for listing resources.
The Recommended section is great-3 straight forward lines for books recommended to you-Title, Author, Recommended by. The Books Borrowed/Lent is a straight forward grid: Title, To, From, Date. This set up is the best I have seen because most give you an event amount of space for loaning and borrowing. But here there is no limitation to one category. With this type of layout Now I just have to put my name in the From or To in order to indicate whether I lent it or borrowed it.
Despite these great features I have discovered the more I used this book journal the less I like it. Why? Well, let us start with the publishing quality. When I found this book on the book shelf most of the tab pages were in upside down. So when hubby bought me one I warned him and he looked for one whose tabs weren’t upside down-but alas instead of upside down tabs I have some upside down review pages. Not such a huge deal since a line is a line, but it looks unprofessional and frustrates me every time I come across another.
Second, in the review section they alternate giving you one page for two reviews and the next page is for one review. At first, this seemed wise to me. If I knew I had a lot to think about or review I just turned to a full page review, and when I didn’t I used a short one. Now the problem is that all of the long ones are filled. So, why not do what I’ve done before and when you finish a short one then continue the next page? Because the next page is a long review and therefore full. So I am skipping a couple of pages in order to get to the second half of the review. Its now a semi-disorganized mess.
Also, when I looked and wanted this book I loved that the review section appeared to be about 1/3 of the book. Alas, I discovered 3 months into owning the book that halfway through the reading notes section is actually another section-so did they forget a tab? It wouldn’t surprise me since they can’t manage to put the pages in right side up or the tabs in other editions. This hidden section is called Books Read and is just simply a place to list all of the books you read. Which actually is not a bad feature-I don’t analyze or review every book I read, otherwise I wouldn’t do anything else. But nonetheless it means that my actual space for reviewing was half that I expected and is more or less full long before the rest of the book.
The quotes page was a unique feature to this book and a great place for me to write down page references or passages that were my “ah ha!” moments. But at 14 pages I have begun using it as extra review space because I simply don’t need that kind of room.
All in all its not a bad book, but it wasn’t a cheap one either. It is my only hardcover version, and is very pretty. It is also quite large-7X5 most likely. But for the 30.00 price tag attached to it I would not recommend it, when the 501 Must Read is more conveniently stored/carried, has all the basics, and was a whole 5 or 6 dollars. But at the same time, I love the books lent/borrowed section and use it exclusively among my other journals.
Lastly we come upon my newest book journal-I just got it last week. Read, Remember, Recommends. I follow the blog called Book Club Classics, which I have mentioned before. And she raved about this book as well as the teen version. Amazon even allows you to look inside. I did, I liked what I saw. At first I bought a copy for the library-specifically for the book club so I can keep track of the books they’ve read, are reading and like.
There are some great features to it. First, tabbed sections include an Awards & Notables List, To Read, Journal Pages, Recommendations, Loaner Lists and Resources. The selling feature is without a doubt the huge section that lists all the major award winners nationally and internationally-including Canada-and lists of recommended books by notable papers and blogs. This section even allows room to make your own list and rom to add award winners as announced over upcoming years. This section is about 150 pages long!
The award section is composted of a grid where The award title appears at the top followed by a listing of the year, the title, the author, symbols representing other awards it has won, a column to check if you own the book, one for Recommend, one for To Read, and one for want. It even has a little “how to” at the beginning that explains the different awards and how to use the boxes. It suggests that if you would like to read the book you should simply put an / in the To Read column, and once you’ve read it, finish it off to make an X. Kind of ingenious and simple all at the same time.
After having seen the awards section I showed Read, Remember, Recommends to my book club and suddenly had to order 10 copies-including one for me! Plus I ordered a copy of the teens version for the library and a couple as door prizes in the upcoming year for the library too.
The To Read section of the book contains the same boxes with more room for title, author and one line for notes. What is different from this book to the ones I have already reviewed is that the To Read section is more where books recommended to me go and the Recommendation section is where books I would like to recommend go. I find this a little strange and useless, likely because I don’t keep track of books I would recommend to others. If I liked the book I will likely recommend it to someone, depending on their reading style.
In the To Read section, it also contains the same boxes as the awards section. So once I’ve actually read the book I can check off whether or not I would recommend it, adding another reason that the Recommended section is useless.
Ahh the Journal Pages. I have a love/hate relationship with the journal pages. It is like they took the journal pages of book notes and its secret section for listing all of the books you’ve read and combined them into one. Each page is split into a main column and a thin narrow one. There are plenty of lines on each page. The instructions direct you to always record the author & title but then it is up to you. You can either use the lines for journaling about the book you’ve read and use the thin column to record page references. Or you can just simply record the titles and the date you read them.
The problem is that there is no specific start/end place for an entry because of the multi use ability. And every line is bold so you can event bold at the end of a review to start the next place. It becomes hard to tell the difference from one to the next and the use of a small travel highlighter again becomes necessary. But I have decided to use the pages as a list of the books I’ve read. This book has become more of an organizer for me than a book journal. The awards section is the best I’ve ever seen, the resources section at the end is a mountain of information, the To Read section is one of the best I’ve seen as well. This book falls short in the review area and also, the loan/borrow section is the same as most others so I don’t like it after owning book notes.
In terms of a book lover’s list organizer and resources keeper this book wins hands down and is my new favorite. But as an actual journal it fails. I love their check box system. But the bizarre journal pages leave me grumpy. On a PS note, this book is also larger and thick- you’d have to have a luggage sized purse in order for it to be “hidden” away.
So I guess it depends on what you are looking for in a book journal. But for me, I want all three of these. I love the portability of 501, I love the loaner list portion of book notes, and I love most of the things about RRR (though it is essentially missing a journaling section).
I hope this helps anyone out there looking for a journal, and if any book publishers out there have a new one they would like me to look at-you now know what I want in a book journal! I challenge you to give it to me for a review! I love to use book journals, even if there isn’t a perfect one out there.
I own: 501 Must Read Books Book Journal, book notes Journal, and Read, Remember, Recommend: A Reading Journal for Book Lovers.
501 is great because it is small & portable and has the 3 parts to the book. First,half the book is for reviews. It starts with the star rating system, title & author, date you read and then leaves lots of lines for you to fill in. The flaw is that its small so I end up using an extra “review” almost every time, but because there are so many pages it doesn’t seem to fill quickly. The second half of the book is actually broken into 3 small parts: books lent, borrowed and reading wishlist. What I like about this one is that the layout is a simple list style with one line to list the book, who you lent it to, the date and a check box for whether or not it was returned. The books borrowed section is the same. As a result they have 20 spots per page and over 10 pages a section-lots of room! Even the Reading Wishlist area is efficient. Title, author, who recommended it, and a check box for once it has been read. Done.
The third part of the book journal is how it gets its name. It is an 8 page list of 501 must read books, alphabetical. With check boxes for if you’ve read them. I would be curious to know how they came up with the list. It ranges from young adult books like Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland to books like Three Men in a Boat, and other obscure classics, and of course the ones you would expect to find. As this journal is a couple of years old I would say you won’t find anything newer than 5 or 6 years old in the list. The only problem I have with the list is that it is a simple check list. Check box if you have read. No where to indicate ones that you may want to read-because few of us will read all 501. But that is easily fixed by keeping a small travel highlighter in the back pocket of the book and highlighting the ones I want to read.
Other great features to this book include a built in book marker so that you can mark your last review, the mentioned pocket in the back and an elastic to keep everything pressed tightly together. Another great feature-there is cover art for some of the 501 books throughout, as well as “did you know” facts throughout the review section- like, did you know: “Children’s and Household Tales, published by the brothers Grimm in the early 19th century, were collected in the French and German countryside as part of their research into linguistics. These old folk tales include Cinderella, Snow White, Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel.” …and now you know.
The flaws of the book are minimal-lines for titles are not long enough, lines for “recommended by” are too long. Review space isn’t long enough either. And there are no tabs for the different sections or indicator so with the exception of that one book mark you are flipping the pages till you find the right place. But the size is right and it is simply laid out.
book notes journal was a gift from my husband. One that I wanted badly. I thought it would be fantastic- it has a section tabs for Recommended Reads, Reading Notes, Favorite Quotes, and Books Borrowed and Lent. Each of the tabs are stiff pockets so if you run out of room you can tuck your pages in it. This is what sold me, as I always run out of room in a book journal in less than a year. It also has the elastic closure so that nothing falls out and other cute features like book quotes through and a highly useful section for listing resources.
The Recommended section is great-3 straight forward lines for books recommended to you-Title, Author, Recommended by. The Books Borrowed/Lent is a straight forward grid: Title, To, From, Date. This set up is the best I have seen because most give you an event amount of space for loaning and borrowing. But here there is no limitation to one category. With this type of layout Now I just have to put my name in the From or To in order to indicate whether I lent it or borrowed it.
Despite these great features I have discovered the more I used this book journal the less I like it. Why? Well, let us start with the publishing quality. When I found this book on the book shelf most of the tab pages were in upside down. So when hubby bought me one I warned him and he looked for one whose tabs weren’t upside down-but alas instead of upside down tabs I have some upside down review pages. Not such a huge deal since a line is a line, but it looks unprofessional and frustrates me every time I come across another.
Second, in the review section they alternate giving you one page for two reviews and the next page is for one review. At first, this seemed wise to me. If I knew I had a lot to think about or review I just turned to a full page review, and when I didn’t I used a short one. Now the problem is that all of the long ones are filled. So, why not do what I’ve done before and when you finish a short one then continue the next page? Because the next page is a long review and therefore full. So I am skipping a couple of pages in order to get to the second half of the review. Its now a semi-disorganized mess.
Also, when I looked and wanted this book I loved that the review section appeared to be about 1/3 of the book. Alas, I discovered 3 months into owning the book that halfway through the reading notes section is actually another section-so did they forget a tab? It wouldn’t surprise me since they can’t manage to put the pages in right side up or the tabs in other editions. This hidden section is called Books Read and is just simply a place to list all of the books you read. Which actually is not a bad feature-I don’t analyze or review every book I read, otherwise I wouldn’t do anything else. But nonetheless it means that my actual space for reviewing was half that I expected and is more or less full long before the rest of the book.
The quotes page was a unique feature to this book and a great place for me to write down page references or passages that were my “ah ha!” moments. But at 14 pages I have begun using it as extra review space because I simply don’t need that kind of room.
All in all its not a bad book, but it wasn’t a cheap one either. It is my only hardcover version, and is very pretty. It is also quite large-7X5 most likely. But for the 30.00 price tag attached to it I would not recommend it, when the 501 Must Read is more conveniently stored/carried, has all the basics, and was a whole 5 or 6 dollars. But at the same time, I love the books lent/borrowed section and use it exclusively among my other journals.
Lastly we come upon my newest book journal-I just got it last week. Read, Remember, Recommends. I follow the blog called Book Club Classics, which I have mentioned before. And she raved about this book as well as the teen version. Amazon even allows you to look inside. I did, I liked what I saw. At first I bought a copy for the library-specifically for the book club so I can keep track of the books they’ve read, are reading and like.
There are some great features to it. First, tabbed sections include an Awards & Notables List, To Read, Journal Pages, Recommendations, Loaner Lists and Resources. The selling feature is without a doubt the huge section that lists all the major award winners nationally and internationally-including Canada-and lists of recommended books by notable papers and blogs. This section even allows room to make your own list and rom to add award winners as announced over upcoming years. This section is about 150 pages long!
The award section is composted of a grid where The award title appears at the top followed by a listing of the year, the title, the author, symbols representing other awards it has won, a column to check if you own the book, one for Recommend, one for To Read, and one for want. It even has a little “how to” at the beginning that explains the different awards and how to use the boxes. It suggests that if you would like to read the book you should simply put an / in the To Read column, and once you’ve read it, finish it off to make an X. Kind of ingenious and simple all at the same time.
After having seen the awards section I showed Read, Remember, Recommends to my book club and suddenly had to order 10 copies-including one for me! Plus I ordered a copy of the teens version for the library and a couple as door prizes in the upcoming year for the library too.
The To Read section of the book contains the same boxes with more room for title, author and one line for notes. What is different from this book to the ones I have already reviewed is that the To Read section is more where books recommended to me go and the Recommendation section is where books I would like to recommend go. I find this a little strange and useless, likely because I don’t keep track of books I would recommend to others. If I liked the book I will likely recommend it to someone, depending on their reading style.
In the To Read section, it also contains the same boxes as the awards section. So once I’ve actually read the book I can check off whether or not I would recommend it, adding another reason that the Recommended section is useless.
Ahh the Journal Pages. I have a love/hate relationship with the journal pages. It is like they took the journal pages of book notes and its secret section for listing all of the books you’ve read and combined them into one. Each page is split into a main column and a thin narrow one. There are plenty of lines on each page. The instructions direct you to always record the author & title but then it is up to you. You can either use the lines for journaling about the book you’ve read and use the thin column to record page references. Or you can just simply record the titles and the date you read them.
The problem is that there is no specific start/end place for an entry because of the multi use ability. And every line is bold so you can event bold at the end of a review to start the next place. It becomes hard to tell the difference from one to the next and the use of a small travel highlighter again becomes necessary. But I have decided to use the pages as a list of the books I’ve read. This book has become more of an organizer for me than a book journal. The awards section is the best I’ve ever seen, the resources section at the end is a mountain of information, the To Read section is one of the best I’ve seen as well. This book falls short in the review area and also, the loan/borrow section is the same as most others so I don’t like it after owning book notes.
In terms of a book lover’s list organizer and resources keeper this book wins hands down and is my new favorite. But as an actual journal it fails. I love their check box system. But the bizarre journal pages leave me grumpy. On a PS note, this book is also larger and thick- you’d have to have a luggage sized purse in order for it to be “hidden” away.
So I guess it depends on what you are looking for in a book journal. But for me, I want all three of these. I love the portability of 501, I love the loaner list portion of book notes, and I love most of the things about RRR (though it is essentially missing a journaling section).
I hope this helps anyone out there looking for a journal, and if any book publishers out there have a new one they would like me to look at-you now know what I want in a book journal! I challenge you to give it to me for a review! I love to use book journals, even if there isn’t a perfect one out there.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Electronic Book Databases.
First before I get started on what I’m talking about today I have to say I am writing this under the shade of my new gazebo sunshade in my backyard. I feel like a princess-it’s huge and gorgeous! Ahhhhhhh….
Now the important stuff!
One of my favorite things to do with my books-other than read them- is to “play” with them-I like to alphabetize, categorize, journal about them, recommend them, catalogue them-just generally touch them. I love the feel of books.
So it stands to reason that I have a book catalogue. And that my friends is what I want to share with you today. I have had several calls at work from people asking to help them design databases for home libraries and comic collections. Plus, I do it a lot at home. I have tried several incarnations- an excel sheet, a program online called BookDB. And finally my Ipod app, called, appropriately, iBookshelf. Now all of them were highly useful if all you were wanting to do was catalogue, but iBookshelf wins hands down for professional looking, easy data entry and easy entry removal. With BookDB it looked like a database you would never want anyone to see-geeky and complicated. It really wasn’t, but at first glance that is how it looks. I should point out too that all of the applications I’ve tried have been free, because, well, I’m cheap and the less I spend on other stuff, the more I have for books.
What is great about iBookshelf is that when I turn my iTouch on its side it becomes a slideshow of my books' cover art. I can scroll through them in alphabetic order to see what I have. The thing that makes entries so quick is that you only have to enter is the ISBN number. Then it searches its databases and enters the author name, title, cover image, publishing date, edition, genre, etc all on its own! This of course becomes a bit of a problem when you have an edition for which there was no ISBN number, or it can’t find the ISBN number-and that does happen. But in that case I just suck it up, search by title alone, choose a different version of the same book and make a note in its notes field that I don’t own this exact edition.
Another feature is that it isn’t just for books you own. When you catalog an entry you can choose own, borrow, loan or want. Then on the main screen you can choose to just view the books by this category. So if I am in a book store looking for a new purchase I can peruse my want list, or if I can't seem to find a book I can look through my loan list to see if I gave it out, etc.
When you choose own you can choose to enter a library name. So for example, I have a bookshelf upstairs, a bookshelf of my husband’s books and a shelf in my bedroom, and 3 more in the basement next to my husband’s books. So I use this library feature to enter in the location of the book in my house. In the borrow field I can enter in who I borrowed the book from, when I borrowed it and when I returned it. I can also sink this feature with my day timer and set a reminder to return the book. The loan feature allows me to note who I lent a book to, when and whether they returned it and when.
The downside to this feature is that the backup is done through email and I have yet to figure out how to reinstate a backup as I lost everything when I upgraded to OS4 (lets not even get me started but apple, I’m loving you a little less recently. Your fantastic applications are the only thing making me stay in this relationship).
This is still the best free application I have came across, even if I do end up having to type them all in again. Why? Because it is quick and simple. It looks good too. And its portable. With excel or the BookDB, if I didn’t have my computer with me-or at least a memory stick and access to a computer with the same programs, I couldn’t access my home library list. But with the iBookshelf, it doesn’t matter because my itouch goes everywhere I go!
So of those I have tried, if you’re an ipod user, go with that. If you’re not I would stick with excel. It’s customization allows for you to make your database whatever you need it to be.
Now the important stuff!
One of my favorite things to do with my books-other than read them- is to “play” with them-I like to alphabetize, categorize, journal about them, recommend them, catalogue them-just generally touch them. I love the feel of books.
So it stands to reason that I have a book catalogue. And that my friends is what I want to share with you today. I have had several calls at work from people asking to help them design databases for home libraries and comic collections. Plus, I do it a lot at home. I have tried several incarnations- an excel sheet, a program online called BookDB. And finally my Ipod app, called, appropriately, iBookshelf. Now all of them were highly useful if all you were wanting to do was catalogue, but iBookshelf wins hands down for professional looking, easy data entry and easy entry removal. With BookDB it looked like a database you would never want anyone to see-geeky and complicated. It really wasn’t, but at first glance that is how it looks. I should point out too that all of the applications I’ve tried have been free, because, well, I’m cheap and the less I spend on other stuff, the more I have for books.
What is great about iBookshelf is that when I turn my iTouch on its side it becomes a slideshow of my books' cover art. I can scroll through them in alphabetic order to see what I have. The thing that makes entries so quick is that you only have to enter is the ISBN number. Then it searches its databases and enters the author name, title, cover image, publishing date, edition, genre, etc all on its own! This of course becomes a bit of a problem when you have an edition for which there was no ISBN number, or it can’t find the ISBN number-and that does happen. But in that case I just suck it up, search by title alone, choose a different version of the same book and make a note in its notes field that I don’t own this exact edition.
Another feature is that it isn’t just for books you own. When you catalog an entry you can choose own, borrow, loan or want. Then on the main screen you can choose to just view the books by this category. So if I am in a book store looking for a new purchase I can peruse my want list, or if I can't seem to find a book I can look through my loan list to see if I gave it out, etc.
When you choose own you can choose to enter a library name. So for example, I have a bookshelf upstairs, a bookshelf of my husband’s books and a shelf in my bedroom, and 3 more in the basement next to my husband’s books. So I use this library feature to enter in the location of the book in my house. In the borrow field I can enter in who I borrowed the book from, when I borrowed it and when I returned it. I can also sink this feature with my day timer and set a reminder to return the book. The loan feature allows me to note who I lent a book to, when and whether they returned it and when.
The downside to this feature is that the backup is done through email and I have yet to figure out how to reinstate a backup as I lost everything when I upgraded to OS4 (lets not even get me started but apple, I’m loving you a little less recently. Your fantastic applications are the only thing making me stay in this relationship).
This is still the best free application I have came across, even if I do end up having to type them all in again. Why? Because it is quick and simple. It looks good too. And its portable. With excel or the BookDB, if I didn’t have my computer with me-or at least a memory stick and access to a computer with the same programs, I couldn’t access my home library list. But with the iBookshelf, it doesn’t matter because my itouch goes everywhere I go!
So of those I have tried, if you’re an ipod user, go with that. If you’re not I would stick with excel. It’s customization allows for you to make your database whatever you need it to be.
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