# 9 LibraryThing

(This photo courtesy of Flickr)






http://www.librarything.com/catalog/rosenpage


This link should take you direct to my library shelf at LibraryThing! I like the fact that I can add heaps and it mixes up my books and obvious likes and dislikes and suggests what to read!

Brilliant! And it is spot on too! As I have only added a couple of pages to the library I was amazed when it suggested ten "reads" it thought I would enjoy in non fiction and I'd read and could endorse seven of the ten. Equally in the "Non read" column I'd tried but given up on three authors of the ten!


If you go to Your Profile tab, LibraryThing will even show a list of contacts who have shared the same books; by highlighting their name it takes you to their lists!

# 9 More blogs and feeds

http://blogs.enotes.com/news-blog/2007-10/enotes-authors/
A good source for a few authors but I'm giving it a chance as it is new- and I like the look of the posts so far. eg Alice Walker gives brief bio / lists her books and gives notes at an academic level for bibliography- easy study if you want to follow up a topic such as Black American Writers.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/ A commercial site which is useful for finding if a popular novelist has published another book. Easily cross referenced. Works on alphabet /surname then click to their latest cover. Good for genre lists

Playing and Plants!

It is a blue sky day, from one window, I can see the geraniums and pelagoniums in a dazzle of brash pinks and reds, and from another the rose Banksia Alba cascading over the better behaved beauty of Duchess de Brabant with her soft pink flush (rose) and the annoyance of General Gallieni (rose) that he has been neglected yet manages to colour red/salmon/ pink . All this and instead of weeding to thank them, I am inside pecking away on myLibraryThing site and my garden continues to wait. Yesterday, I mowed the lawns- a task which took over two hours as I had not done the upper garden the week before and the growth would make any farmer envious. At present I have to do it every week or I suffer for it! I try telling myself its a good workout. One of these days I'll borrow a digital camera and try showing some of my favourite plants. I have two strelitzias (Bird of Paradise) in bloom and they always look so smug with their noses in the air-they know how stylish they look, and some beautiful iris.
Despite the beauty outside I've added two pages to my "Library" and even added some tags (despite my initial misgiving) which I think could be an aide memoire, rated most of my additions, and evn written a couple of reviews!

Oct 30th

Yes, I'm still playing! Still exploring... I have joined up with " librarything" and established the beginnings of a librarylist. I find fascinating viewing the differing authors popularity through the site although the consensus tags irritate.

If you are looking for a particular style it rocks! For example, I saw a reference to Longitude a book by Dava Sobel which I had read some time ago(and thought great) Clicking on the title brought up all the relevant library info but also a list of similar style books - which I found over a period of time. However, there was one I hadn't read so that will go on my "to read" list. I suspect I will use the Librarything more for this type of info in the future- like having a readers advisory a click away!

Back to 9 and books!

Some blogs which I have enjoyed reading- starting with

A
Susan Wittig Albert a mystery writer with an encyclopaedic knowledge of herbs. She has an excellent webpage http://www.abouthyme.com/ and she also shares another with her husband(also a mystery writer) http://www.mysterypartners.com/ Susan reveals much of her love for the small town life in Texas in her China Bayles mysteries and I find her characters and gardening details noteworthy! With her love of writing she edits a book review page- see more on her site. Her blog tells more! http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/A3734S7RAY2KDF


Jeffrey Archer is an entertaining writer, and his blog reveals much. Despite his deserved
success, I found his admission of his perturbation on sending his latest ms. (after the 12th draft) delightful. http://jeffreyarchers.blogspot.com/

B for bloglines !

Also for Bloomingwriter.blogspot.com another author/gardener iun Nova Scotia. Lots of
photography of plants.

C is for celtic otherworld Do Read! http://celticotherworld.blogspot.com/

D is diazz - http://lifeisajourneyforever.blogspot.com/ Close to home!

D is http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/

D is for a dictionary with a difference http://www.doubletongued.org/

Maybe I should stop there, otherwise my oos is going to keep me awake again!

Task 10 (And still more! )Oct 29th

Just want to try again to settle it in my memory! Image icon, browse, select the cartoon from my pictures file ...

Before I forget, last night whilst working with the cartoons, accidentally I clicked on Links- it was a fortuitous moment. So many links to graphic oriented sites eg, how to make logos, how to make barcodes- about the only one missing was a forger's set for currency. Amazing! (And another time filler!)

Task 10 Oct 29th

Love the images it is possible to create. Had a go with Technorati -Bit difficult to follow the accent- still, I can't even say "Good morning" in his language so I should be grateful.

However , love comic strip generator and http://www.signgenerator.org/ Really fun.

At the start I kept getting frustrated as my words spilled all over the cartoon- definitely needed to keep an eye on my font and the number of words. Also, found it important to alter the text at the side before clicking! In other words as easy as flying for the mermaid and the fish!

Thanks to www.comicstripgenerator.org/

I had a great time working with several cartoons but, when I wanted to upload them to the saved draft of the blog, I had a problem. (Makes a difference having a blog toolbar with the image icon!) My colleague saved me!

Oct24 - Angel Raphael's special day!

Just finished reading "Miss Garnet's Angel" by Salley Vickers- a book recommended by a friend. To be honest I wasn't all that impressed at the start- but as I read, I began to see the growth in the main character, the opening of her eyes. The journey begins with her friend's death, then a decision to go to Venice, and there she lives close to a chapel, featuring a stone statue of the Angel Rafael, and becomes interested in tracking the story of Tobias. The book narrates it from the point of view of Tobias's father, then from the view of the son and the realisation that narrow barriers restrict growth. The healing of the various characters, from the Old Testament (or older) the girl afflicted with plague (medieval) to the "twins" engaged in today's restoration, the discovery of an ancient panel which features the Angel and Miss Garnet's vision of the Angel Rafael form a cohesive, satisfying story. At the end one remarked the date and translating I discovered the coincidence. Hence today's title!

Task Whats in a name. Oct 22

Reading my blogfeed "Phrase of the day" I decided to check out some other famous phrases and noticed Gertrude Stein's quote -a rose is a rose... " and checked further. Decided I had to include the poem on my blog so copied and dropped it in!

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose
Loveliness extreme.
Extra gaiters,
Loveliness extreme.
Sweetest ice-cream.
Pages ages page ages page ages.

Oct20th Task 9

My colleague showed me a great blog - the shifted librarian! Empowering!

Whilst reading my RSS feeds I came across another site which I thought of interest -if you are a childrens' librarian have a look. The site is called the ALSC Blog located at http://alsc.ala.org/blog and the posting by Jenny setting out some of the toddlers' storytime
suggestions would be useful. Although I'm no longer doing a regular storytime for this age group I know it takes some time to collate books and music and action rhymes on a theme and it would be easy enough to set the details on the blogsite so others can enjoy/save time.
I do a radio programme and frequently do reviews on chn/ teens books, maybe other librarians could post the new "rave reads".

Oct20th 2007 Task 8 RSS

RSS
Really Simple Syndication - so that's what it means!
I read the task exercise with some trepidation but I followed the instructions and ....(drum roll please) it worked! Thanks to Bloglines I am getting fantastic feeds, ( I stopped at 17, after all three meals a day is supposed to be enough. I suspect I'm turning into an i/net grazing machine!

My reading intake has slowed dramatically. Read one book last night recommended by two subteens. Book one of The Warrior series by Erin Hunter it was titled "Into The Wild"
For children who like cats it will hold extra appeal- a good story so I can understand why youngsters want to follow the Clans in the series.





http://www.bloglines.com/public/rosenpage

Oct 19th Mosaic! (Task 6)

Flickr is a great resource-fascinating photos, but oh, the joy of "bighuge labs" and make a mosaic!
FUN!

I know I'm going to insert more of these in the future-you have been warned!

Oct17th 2007 Tasks 5 & 7 Techno from Google to Blog

Charlotte Higgins, arts correspondentWednesday October 17, 2007The Guardian

Against all the odds, and seeing off competition from favourites to win Ian McEwan and Lloyd Jones, rank outsider Anne Enright, 45, has been awarded the Man Booker prize for what the judges called a "powerful, uncomfortable and even at times angry book", The Gathering.

For that, some might read depressing and harrowing. She herself told Radio 4's Today: "When people pick up a book they may want something happy that will cheer them up. In that case they shouldn't really pick up my book. It's the intellectual equivalent of a Hollywood weepie".

Just ctrl c plus ctrl v to publish this info. courtesy of Google and the Guardian. Seeing I mentioned Ian McEwan's great book a couple of day's again. Naturally, was hoping for Kiwi
Lloyd Jones to be named -now I'll have to catch up with Anne Enright' s books.

I have made some mosaics on Flickr ( using bighugelabs) but I'm on dial up at home so when I tried to add them to site my system timed out. I'll have to try to repeat it at work if I can get time.

Oct17 2007 Task 4 week 2

Have requested a friend with Bebo/acl learn 2 . Had another look around Bebo, My space and Facebook. I've added a rosenpage photo for my profile -the photo was a great find for my blog-a rose 'n page! Finished that section- now I can get back to playing with flickr!
Some magnificent photos! I may have skipped ahead with my maps...

Cookbook today- an oldie but a goodie. " Terrific Pacific!"
have a crack-every recipe tried has been appreciated!( I know some chefs who have used it!)

Oct !6th 2007

Managed to find some fascinating maps-particularly liked one showing so many others learning the ACL Learning programme in USA,Australia and NZ. Makes me feel so much better!
Found a good map of Waiheke too!

Day off today so busy at home- washing, mowing lawns etc.
Book for today Nicola Mones "Lost In Translation." Loved her "Cup of Light" and " The Last Chinese Chef" sensuous, skilled writing and good plot. I understand it has been made into a movie; must catch up with it sometime.

Oct 15th 2007

Blog- where does the name come from? Such a vomit sounding word and according to me yesterday, deserved. On my home computer when I typed in various versions of my log in none would work. Today, it popped up first time through the ACL site but still not through Google.
According to Help it may oblige me if I try going through my gmail account. As it is my day off tomorrow, I'm hoping I may insert some pictures from Flickr -some great images there.

Book for today- a photographic work titled Horses, Their Temperament and Elegance in the photographs of Gabrielle Boiselle
If you know any adult who loves these magnificent creatures tell them about this book. White Star are the publishers and Congratulations are due for producing such an art work.

Oct12 2007 Books and Blogs

Hi!

Have you ever wondered about the terms Bebo, Facebook and Myspace? To me they were vague spaces in the i/net galaxy -about as far away as alpha centauri. I have decided that I am not a geek. Perhaps that's a positive... but I duly searched, puzzled, admired and signed.

Book for today, a small one, easily read. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. Quality not quantity. Since reading it, the intensity of feelings have dismayed me with their wave like memories rushing onto the shingle.

Enough for today!

Oct 11 2007 books

Hi there!

Creating a blog! Some write in an interesting way- but what is fascinating to one may be dregs to another. Books are safer...

Just finished a ten star book Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. Its the months of a year(plus one) of a 13 year old boy, Jason , covert poet and stammerer. Set in 1982 in England its journey is tremendous. I wanted to ring up someone and say"listen to this writing" So I'll copy a sentence or two.

" Private, said a sign, hung on the slatted gate, where the name should go. Newborn flowers in the garden were Licorice Allsorts blue, pink and yellow. Maybe I heard scissors. Maybe I heard a poem, seeping from its cracks. So I stood and listened, just for a minute, like a hungry robin listening for worms."