TBIF: Thank book/blog it’s Friday!

BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report

Book reviews posted this week: All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, by Janelle Brown (with book discussion at Bookworm with a View)

Reviews soon to come:
Perfect Life by Jessica Shattuck (ARC via LibraryThing Early Reviewers – publication date August 3, 2009)
The Last Bridge by Teri Coyne (ARC via LT ER – publication date July 28, 2009)
Wife of the Gods: A Novel by Kwei Quartey (for TLC Books Tours in August)

New additions to the LibraryThing “To Read” collection:
The Weight of Silence: A Novel, by Heather Gudenkauf, for an upcoming TLC Book Tour
(This one arrived in Thursday’s mail, just in time – I was about to report “NONE” in this space.)

Thanks for the Reviews! Books that I’ve noticed on other blogs this week:
Fiction:
The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood (ARC review)
The Opposite of Love, by Julie Buxbaum
Nonfiction:
Harry, A History, by Melissa Anelli (Harry who?)
Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, by Sudhir Venkatesh
Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking, by Julia Child

Random bookery:

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BBAW (Book Blogger Appreciation Week) 2009 has been officially announced! The dates are September 14-18, and award nominations opened this week (they will remain open until August 15)**. If you blog about books and reading at all – even if they’re not your primary topics – join in the fun, and register to participate!

If you missed last year’s event, or your blog has been born since then, here’s a little background:

Book Blogger Appreciation Week was started by Amy Riley of My Friend Amy in an effort to recognize the hard work and contribution of book bloggers to the promotion and preservation of a literate culture actively engaged in discussing books, authors, and a lifestyle of reading.

WHY? Because books matter.  In a world full of options, the people talking about books pour hard work, time, energy, and money into creating a community around the written word. 

Anyone who blogs about books is invited to participate.  In fact, we want everyone who blogs about books and reading to be a part of this week! Let’s come together to celebrate the contribution and hard work of book bloggers in promoting a culture of literacy, connecting readers to books and authors, and recognizing the best among us with the Second Annual BBAW Awards.  There will be special guest posts, daily blogging themes, and giveaways.

** I’ve seen mention on some other blogs about award voting being open – not yet! This is the nomination stage ONLY – submit your picks in any or all of the award categories. The final slate for voting will be compiled in late August:

BBAW Award Nominations will be open until August 15, 2009.  At that time, the nominees will be shortlisted by a preselected panel.  Nominees will be asked to submit their best content for review by the panel.  Final voting will begin in September.

(Please enter the URL of the blog you are nominating and not the name as many blogs have similar names.)

Anyone – book blogger, or blog reader – can submit nominations. If you’d like to nominate this blog for any awards, the URL is www.3rsblog.com :-).


Tuesday Thingers, hosted at Wendi’s Book Corner: “Tag!! You’re It”

This week, Wendi shares her last little bit of wisdom remotely Library Thing related from her Seattle Blogger/Author/Publicist get-together:

We actually talked about the Early Reviewers program, and one lucky attendee shared a piece of advice. She told me that the more you tag your books, the more likely you are to snag a similar Early Reviewer book! For example – if it is a historical fiction book, and you have a bunch of historical fiction tagged within your library, you are more likely to get chosen.

Now, I don’t actually know if this is true, but the attendee we spoke with seemed to be having a lot of luck snagging review copies! SO. . .

Questions: Do you tag? If so, do you tag for your own purposes (make lists, sort, clouds, etc)? Do you tag to help classify a book (historical fiction, self-help, sci-fi, mystery, etc)? What is the most helpful thing for you about tagging?


My Answer: Here are my tags, and how many times each of them has been used (so far):


LT’s recent introduction of collections may change my tagging habits, since they duplicate some of the tags I’ve been using. Most of the books in my library have at least two tags, one for status
(to be read, currently reading, read) and one for genre (fiction, memoir, history, etc.). Many, although not all, have a tag indicating whether I have the book in my possession (on my shelves) or not (given away or donated) – I find that information useful, so I’d like to get those tags associated with all of the books if I get some time to work on it.

I’ve tried not to let my tagging system get too detailed or complicated, but I have added some tags that help me identify special characteristics of certain books, like review copy or autographed. I like the fact that you can sort your books based on tags, but I haven’t figured out whether you can search on a tag combination (“read”+”memoir”, for example), which might occasionally be useful. I like being able to assign multiple tags and the fact that tags aren’t mutually exclusive. I sometimes wish the genre tags were standardized across LT, but on the other hand, it’s good to be able to tag my books any way I want, as long as it makes sense to me.

If tags do play a role in determining who gets Early Reviewers books, that may explain why most of the books I’ve received have been general fiction or memoirs.


Booking Through Thursday: “TBR, Part II”


btt button

Follow-up to last week’s question:
Do you keep all your unread books together, like books in a waiting room? Or are they scattered throughout your shelves, mingling like party-goers waiting for the host to come along?

Yes and no.

I keep most of my not-yet-read books together, segregated by shelf from books I’ve read, unless I’m getting low on space – then they may mix it up a bit, until I get the chance to move things around. I keep review books on an end-table shelf and don’t put them in one of the bookcases, so they don’t go “out of sight, out of mind.” I keep books that I intend to read “soon” – meaning any time in the next few months – in a couple of stacks on my nightstand.

It’s been several years since I began giving away most books after I read them, so most of the ones in the house right now are books I’ve yet to read – so much potential, so much promise! (It also means that the “keepers” are extra-special.)


Friday Fill-ins#133

Serendipity

1. Cereal and milk make a quick and easy dinner (but I’ve been pretty good this week and haven’t indulged in it!)

2. Perfect Life by Jessica Shattuck is the book I’m reading right now (and was reading last week, too – this week hasn’t been quite as generous with the book time!)

3. July brings back memories of when my son was born (25 years and one week ago).

4. The punchline of that joke was obvious.

5. They say if you tell your dreams it will help you remember them.

6. I won’t do it if I stop first to think it over.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to nothing planned, tomorrow my plans include seeing where the day takes me (besides Starbucks, Target, and the grocery store) and Sunday, I want to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (we already have our tickets!), followed by lunch at Octopus!

And after the weekend…two days of work, one day off to get ready for BlogHer’09, three days in Chicago, three days off to recover from BlogHer’09, and two days of work. Not a bad way to wrap up the month!

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8 comments

  1. I came across Gang Leader for a Day quite by accident in the bookstore a few of months ago and ended up bringing home a copy. I hadn't seen it mentioned in blogland until now. I'll have to check out the review. Thanks for the link.

    My tags in LT are more for me than others, but I at least stopped abbreviating so much in order to make it easier for others to understand. It is still a work in progress.

    I like your statement about your unread books: "so much potential, so much promise!" How true!

    My husband isn't a strong believer in cereal for dinner and so I haven't induldged in that in ages. Sometimes I miss it. 🙂 My answer to this one, by the way, is very similar.)

    #5 is so true! I tend to forget my dreams if I don't write them down immediately or tell them to someone, which usually means my husband while he's still dead asleep.

    I hope you have a great weekend, Florinda! Enjoy Harry Potter.

  2. LOL I did not speak about my pile of books to review in the btt-post 😉 Lots of books in da house. I give away books as well, or Bookcross them, but I like to keep the ones I cherish. They're for remembrance, like photographs.

    you can find my btt-post in my blog.

  3. I've been thinking about participating in BBAW, but I wasn't sure if I could (since I'm not exclusively a book blogger). Off to go sign up now… 🙂

    Enjoy Harry Potter! I went to a midnight release and I'd like to see it again. It wasn't my favorite of the films, but I thought it was very good.

  4. Wendy (Literary Feline) – That book was one of the selections for the DearReader.com E-mail Book Club this week, and I'd been reading the sampler when I came across the review. I think I'll continue reading the book…eventually :-).

    My tags in LT are mostly for myself too, which is why I've tried to keep them simple and consistent. I have not always succeeded :-).

    My husband's dreams are actually more interesting to hear about than mine are – he has some really strange ones!

    Enjoy your weekend, Wendy!

    Gnoegnoe – I haven't officially Bookcrossed in a long time, but I like to think that giving away books I've read perpetuates the BC spirit, at least :-).

    Jessi – I'm not exclusively a book blogger either, but I am absolutely participating in BBAW again this year. It's so much fun, and I found a lot of great new-to-me blogs through it last year. Glad you're signing up!

  5. I just started tagging on LT after I read this week's Tuesday Thingers. I'm only going to tag future books – I'm not going back through the old ones.

  6. You ARE going to have a nice end to the month, aren't you?

    I was a little afraid of clicking the link to the restaurant. I wasn't sure what I was going to find. 🙂 Looks good though, not something out of the show "Bizarre Foods." 🙂
    Have a good weekend.

  7. Kathy (Bermudaonion) – I have some tags on older books that I should change, but I'll probably only do that as I come across them. I want to do some more with the collections, though.

    Mike – Seriously, that place has the best miso soup ever. But I was a little nervous the first time I went there, too, on account of the name :-).

    Susan – I just might take that dare – but I will probably lose all of my cool points with you when I do :-D!