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The Ever Evolving LibraryThing

trav — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:39:14 +0000

I’ll say it again… if you’re not on LibraryThing you are REALLY missing out. The only downside is that the updates and new features are rolling out so quickly that I can’t keep up. Every few weeks I feel like I’m learning a new service.

They have a new home page (think Facebook, but for books) which is all about your ‘profile’ and not so much your library. But it’s totally customizable, so it is only what you want.

Plus, they’ve gone beyond just the groups and have allowed users to ‘friend’ other users and get updates to their recent book aquisitions and profile changes.

I’ll stop there as I move on to try and figure out the whole “local bookstore has it in-stock” feature. Which, I imagine, will be another post.

Let me know of any LT features or highlights that might make this small bibliophile’s life a little better!

Kennedy chimes in

trav — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:54:36 +0000

Amos Kennedy stopped by the site letting us know that he did move… as far as Gordo, AL. Also, he said that the DVD documentary Proceed and Be Bold is finished and will be available this September.

Now where did we leave off…?

trav — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:31:29 +0000

The batteries are recharged! I honestly don’t know how some bloggers do it year after year, I just don’t have the stamina. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t read the blogs! Nothing recharges the ‘ol blogging batteries like lurking about all of your sites.

Lots of changes coming soon, to this site and the publishing industry in general. It’s going to be interesting! Much of which I think is summed up by Adrian Tomine’s New Yorker cover this week. I’m going to frame it for my office.

So a belated congratulations to both the Theorist and Susannah, each for the new chapters they have just started! It rocks!

So thanks for sticking around and not deleting me off your RSS reader. We’ll be back up to speed soon. Too much time has passed and too much has gone on, I just have to figure out where to jump in.

New SoftWear

trav — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:26:58 +0000

Um, so this is obviously one of those things that looks good on paper… but once you see it, you can’t believe it actually exists. It’s billed as being for laptop users in colder climates, but I have to think, I sure could have used this while reading The Terror over the winter months. Reading 700+ pages about being trapped in ice while it’s freezing outside is just too much. This might have come in handy. Nah…

{via O’Grady’s Powerpage}

Library Book Sale

trav — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:45:07 +0000

The Alabaster Library is having their annual book sale, April 26th and 27th. Paperbacks are 50 cents and hardbacks are $1. They said 50% of the stock is pulled from the shelves and 50% is donated, all sorted by category.

Ghost (Writer) in the machine

trav — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:03:35 +0000

Philip Parker is the most prolific author in history, according to Amazon. The NY Times ran this article about Philip Parker and his amazing technicolor technical writing machines. Apparently, Parker unleashes his computers on the Internet, which look in every nook and cranny to glean all stats, numbers, data, etc. Then Parker peppers in a few introductions and transition pieces, hits another button to format, create charts and an index and…. bam! You have a collection of 200,000 “published” books (actually they’re sitting in a POD database waiting until someone buys one).

Most are dry niche-technical stuff. The kind of specialist info you might expect from a data miner like the one he is running. But he says that he’s looking to produce works in one area-of fiction… the romance novel.

“I’ve already set it up,” he said. “There are only so many body parts.”

Wow. Writing so formulaic that someone thinks a computer could do it? It will be interesting to see if it ever happens.

Pilfering a Pilcrow Post

trav — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:44:14 +0000

I saw this over at fadetheory and had to share. First off, I had forgotten that the “paragraph symbol” is called a pilcrow (which is just a neat word). Second, I had no idea the “backwards P” that begins paragraphs is actually a bastardized ‘C’ for the latin word for ‘chapter’.

Now cool is that? We all learned something today. If you already knew all this, then you get a free lifetime subscription to {head}:sub/head.

New favorite haunt

trav — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:20:17 +0000

We spent last weekend over in the Peach State, getting lost in Atlanta. Between bouts of “where the !@#$%^&! are we” I managed to squeeze in a few bookstore visits. My goal was to visit only stores I’d never been to… and I hit the jackpot.

(more…)

Poster Gallery

trav — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:12:41 +0000

This gallery, of Birmingham-area event posters, is pretty cool and some good use of photography. It’s a collection from all of the acts that have played at The Bottletree. How could I have not found this sooner? I love some of the typography.

Alabama Author Expo

trav — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:40:13 +0000

The Alabama Author Expo is tomorrow Saturday, April 12th at Vulcan Park. I’m not sure why they scheduled it for the same day as Alabama Bound, but there will be a handful of authors there and a special kids area.

These authors are slated to be there for signings: Jo Kittinger, Jim Lowe, Charles Ghigna, Kathy McCoy, Roger Reid, J.D. Weeks, Aileen Henderson, Anne Weston, Darden North, Edie Hand

The event is slated to run from 11am-3pm with a Q&A with the authors starting at 2pm.