While you were waiting...

I graduated, attended my first BEA, and completed my first year as a school librarian! Woo hoo!

I've also been binge reading through my stack of books from BEA (and related books in various series), as well as contemplating which blogs to continue/discontinue/start. And I'll continue doing so for a bit.

BUT... in case you missed it, I had to share a link to this post by A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy. A compelling press release about author Albert Borris and his forthcoming debut novel. Can't wait to read the book, and my prayers go out to Mr. Borris and his family.

what's the word?

Maybe it is all of the stress hormones affecting my brain, but lately I seem to have trouble coming up with the words I want and need. I can feel them flitting among my neurons--avoiding those that would transport them from mind to mouth or fingertips.

In any case, the word I am currently looking for would describe my sense of delight at discovering the convergence of one of my favorite books with one of my favorite bands in a movie I am trying to convince my kids to bring me to see:

Coraline-Other Father Song

new(ish) blog

So, I didn't fall for tumblr afterall. ;-)

Bookmobilekids is now "bookmobile reviews" on WordPress. Though, I may run out of free space there and eventually return to Blogger.

Decisions, decisions--my external internal struggle. Such is the life of a Libra with Gemini rising.

In any case, check out my current space for book reviews: http://bookmobilereviews.wordpress.com. More to come here and there, soon.

somebody should do this for twilight...

I spent much too much time on Facebook last semester, and have vowed to cut back. However, these inspired retellings of Hamlet and Pride and Prejudice have me pondering hours and hours of additional Facebook time. Certainly, Bella's whining and inner turmoil are FB status/newsfeed worthy.

creepy goodness

My kids' other mother? Yikes.

Loved the book. Introduced my 4th grade students to the audiobook. (Resulting in a waiting list for the book in our library!) Can't wait for the movie. Check out the Coraline website for more creepy goodness!

[Found at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy]

Parts of a book 101 and blog abandonment?

I was writing a post for my Materials for Children class and wanted to talk about an illustration on the inside cover of the book. I originally referred to it as the "flyleaf" but wasn't sure if this is correct. I found this great diagram (I must-see for inner and aspiring librarians) on what may be an abandoned blog.

Which brings me to my random question of the moment: At what point do you consider a blog abandoned? The one I found hasn't been updated since February. I have blogs that I haven't updated in ages, but I don't consider them abandoned (yet). I still think of them wistfully, and often think, "This would be a great post for my old blog xyz." I miss them. Do they miss me? Have I abandoned them? Should I? What's the concensus on MOPD (multiple online personality disorder)?

BTW, that illustration is on the endpapers or endsheets of the book.

books that make you dumb?

Virgil Griffith, Caltech student and creator of Wikiscanner, has released a new web report, "Booksthatmakeyoudumb." He correlated the average SAT/ACT scores of more than 1300 US colleges and universities with the 10 most popular books listed on their Facebook pages. Fun to look at and see where your favorites lie.

Several books scored way higher than I would have expected. (Reminds me of the "WTF?" group on Shelfari.) Enjoy! [Found at lisnews and librarian.net]

social cataloging

Someone from class just recommended GoodReads and invited others to join and share reading lists over this (rapidly-expiring) winter break. As much as I'd like to join in the fun, I've already taken my sister up on her invitation to join Shelfari - in spite of the fact that I was psyching myself up to LibraryThing.

How to choose?

By friends? Ideally, my online "book circle" would include my sister and my classmates and expand from there. Is there a solution to the conflicting sites that I don't know about? Blogging seems to transcend this obstacle, but not other social networking apps. I know people who have multiple, topic-specific blogs, or pages on both MySpace and Facebook, for example. But multiple bookshelves would be way too much work.

By features? I couldn't find a good, recent article comparing features. The best I could do was this 2006 blog article comparing Shelfari, LibraryThing and Gurulib (oh, great, there's another one to consider). And what about aNobii? Saw that one mentioned on Wikipedia under social cataloging.

By popularity? Is there a front runner among social cataloging sites? Shelfari and LibraryThing seem to stand out in my awareness.

By reputation? Is membership in one of these sites more becoming of a future librarian than the others? Is one more literary? (Or less so, if, say, one wanted to share a secret passion for romance paperbacks or cozies?) Or is one more hip, as in a Mac vs PC, "us and them" sort of thing?

Which site do you use? Why?