Books, Books and More Books

So I convinced the book group I run at work to read The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I love the series and they wanted to read something a little sci-fi/fantasy. I figured this would be a good option since it's a bit of both plus so much more and it didn't require a map and list of characters in order to figure our what's going on.

The group meets this coming Thursday night, as long as the weather isn't horrendous as usual, and I've heard from two of the members. One rated it a 6 on a scale of 1-10 and the other said that at first she didn't like it, but after the first few chapters she changed her mind. I'm curious to see what everyone else has to say. Fingers crossed.


As for the other things I'm reading: I'm about a 1/3 of the way through The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsen. I'm listening to it while I walk and since the weather has been total crap, I haven't been able to get outside without falling on my butt. When I started the second book, I was annoyed that the first section was nothing but Lisbeth on vacation which had nothing to do with the main part of the plot line. Then when it ended so abruptly, I was jonesing for the 3rd one. Now I'm quite enjoying the third one and am sad that there may never be a fourth book. I'm definitely going to have my book group read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.


I'm also listening to Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande. I've had this on my "To Read" list for quite a while but never got around to it. While I was waiting for something else to come in on audio, I decided it was finally time. So far I find it quite intersting, but I wish Mena would spill the beans about what exactly she did to get ostrisized by everyone. I almost feel like I missed a book and this is the sequel.

End of the Journey

Overall this has been an interesting exercise. I was familiar with quite a few of the tasks, had fun playing with the ones I didn't know and am kind of glad it's over.

I'm already using the things that I like and will probably cancel the rest of the accounts I set up, but it was still nice to learn about new technology and social networking so when someone mentions del.ici.us or podcasting I'll know what they're talking about.

SuffolkWave

I love, love, love Suffolkwave. I think it's very easy to use and I download books all year long then transfer them to my IPod when I walk. Suffolkwave gives me another way to listen to books so I can then read three of them at once - an actual book at home, a BOCD in my car and a downloaded book on my MP3 player while I walk.

Suffolkwave really comes in handy when I have to read books for a meeting like Battle of the Books. If the books are available to download, I can get through them a lot faster and it takes me half the time.

It's also nice to use when traveling. When I go home at Christmas, I can load a few books on my MP3 player to use while I walk there and if I finish them, I can always use the computer to download more.

Suffolkwave also gives you the option of adding titles to a wish list. If I'm not ready to download something or I need to read a series in order, I can add the titles to my wish list so I remember them for later.

Suffolkwave isn't all puppies and rainbows, though, it does have its downside as well. The two major complaints I have are selection and availability. There aren't always a lot of titles to choose from. Often, I'm looking for popular YA titles to download or a series that everyone is talking about, but it's not available on Suffolkwave. My other complaint is that often there is only 1 copy available of a title and if someone has it checked out, you have to wait for it. It seems strange since it's not a physical book, but I guess it has to go with licenses, etc.

Overall, though, I think Suffolkwave is a great program.

Podcasts

I went to a Podcast meeting at SCLS about a year ago where Andrew Bollerman of Sachem showed everyone how to create their own podcasts. It was kind of cool and a neat idea. He said he did them with his teens and they posted them on the Library's website (at the time, I believe he was working at Hampton Bays).

As far as listening to podcasts goes, I'm not really interested. I find it boring to sit here at the computer and listen to someone talk. I did try looking at a few different types just to check it out though.

I looked at a cooking webcast where a woman from Good House Keeping showed you how to make different things. It was ok and I might go back to look at specific recipes, etc., but I didn't feel the need to subscribe to it in order to watch it every week. Before I found this one, there were also some creepy ones with weird people cooking.

Then I tried an audio cast of a walking tour of a London neighborhood to see how the travel podcast was. The idea of this one is to download it to your ipod, etc. then use it when you're in London or whatever other city they're covering. This is an interesting idea and probably would be useful because it's an insider's view of the city one is traveling to. Often, people only visit the main tourist areas and miss the lovely, local ambiance. Again, I'm not going to subscribe because just listening to it at my computer made me start to yawn. However, I might think about it if I'm traveling.

Lastly, I went to the Lindenhurt Library's site because I know their Director is big on podcasting. They have a section on the website where children's books have been read, author interviews have been done and where they're using podcasting as a way to document local historical narratives. They also have a section set up for music where you can listen to the school's jazz band, etc. All of these things are a nice idea, but again, thinking about sitting at my computer listening to these things for 15 minutes, half an hour, etc. puts me to sleep.

We're going to try a TAG here at the Library in September and I mentioned to Ms. Peter's who will be running it that maybe as part of the TAG the teens can do book talks or book commercials for their favorite titles or recent books they have read and we can put them on the teen page of the Library's website. I'm not sure if anyone will listen to them, but it will definitely give the kids something creative to do.

YouTube

I've used YouTube here and there to look things up, like when Jennifer Lopez fell at the Grammys. I totally had to see that again. LOL. I also watch movie trailers here and there - checked out the Eclipse trailer today just to see what it looked like (and can I just say that Kristen Stewart's hair extensions look horrible). I also used YouTube once to watch an instructional video on how to tie a tie.

This time around I used it to check out some of the Glee music videos because quite a few of my friends love the show and can't get enough of it. I thought, "Well, let me check out a few videos to see if it's something I might want to watch." It actually looked interesting and the singing is pretty good so I headed over to the catalog to reserve season 1.

I don't think I'll be downloading the soundtracks any time soon, but it was good to see that not only did I have to reserve season one since it was checked out, but that all of the Glee soundtracks that we own are also checked out. Apparently the Library is up on the current pop culture which is always a good thing.

Library Thing 19

Since I update the Myspace and Twitter feeds I guess I shouldn't really talk about them. Although I will say that I'm not having much luck getting people to follow the Library on Twitter.

As for facebook, I love facebook. I'll admit it, I'm addicted to facebook. I don't really use it as the social networking tool that it's meant to be though. I'm mostly on there to play games. I do enjoy looking at other people's pictures and catching up with people I haven't seen in a while, but I don't really post anything of my own.

To help the Library, though, we could post pictures from programs on Facebook and Flickr to show people how much fun everyone has at the Library. Between the music and cooking programs it's a rip-roaring time! We could also use FB to post when new books from popular authors come in or to announce when new DVDs are released to the public since that's all anyone seems to want anyway. LOL

Web 2.0 Directory

First I went to the entire directory and browsed a little bit. I'm thinking about trying my hand at cooking, ok, stop laughing, so after looking at a couple of sites, I signed up with one called Foodari (kind of like my favotire site shelfari but only for recipes). You don't need to register if you only want to browse recipes, but if you want to store your own recipes and find friends that can share recipes then you need a profile. I decided to register just to check it out. What I didn't realize is that although you can view videos on how to make different things and get tons of recipes, the site is UK based so everything is in grams and a lot of the items used in the recipes are not normal to the things you'd find in US recipes.

Then I looked at the Top 20 list and was surprised as to how many of the applications I've actually used at one time or another especially now that I have an iphone. I have the Urbanspoon, Yelp, Twitter, Pandoa, Flickr, Zillow and Facebook apps on my phone.

Friends have sent me links to Bebo and LinkedIn so although I looked at them and have accounts, I don't really use them.

I tried using Flock as a browser at home for a while, but didn't take advantage of all of its uses and wasn't completely enjoying it so I went back to Internet Explorer.

I have a Pageflakes account and use that on occasion, but not very often. It's kind of like having your own Google page where you can customize what links are on it - flickr, games, calendars, facebook, etc. so everything is within the same interface without having to go to separate pages to use them. I learned about Pageflakes at the last LI Library Conference I went to I gave it a try. It's too bad I'm set in my own ways and that it takes forever to load.

I've shopped on Etsy before and really like it. They have such cool and unusual stuff which is right up my alley. Sometimes things can be a little expensive, but it's cute so who cares! :)

I also have apps on my phone for Foursquare and MyTown where you check into the places you visit to earn points and badges. You can post where you've been to Twitter and Facebook and can also add your friends from there as well. I'm still getting used to them so half the time I go someplace I forget to check in until I'm already on my way home.

There are so many cool apps out there that I'll probably keep looking. I hope you guys find one that you like as well.