Twitter

At the beginning of this project, I was a bit intimidated about using Twitter. A while later I actually started my own Twitter account, just to see what it was like to use. It wasn't hard to keep it to 140 characters, as there's a countdown ticker right next to the box you type in, which is actually a little distracting! I did find that it was hard to come up with anything worthwhile to say with only 140 characters. Maybe I'm just used to writing and reading long sentences in notebooks and novels, instead of texting, but it hasn't become something I use very often. It seems to be used mostly for quick flashes of self-promotion, so it can be useful if you have something good to promote (like the library), but it sounds like there's a lot of endless mind-looping clutter out there. My husband and I do like to read Bret Easton Ellis's twitter account from time to time (he's the author of American Psycho), he writes short and witty comments on pop culture and seems to have figured out how to use the medium in an intelligent and clever way that conforms to the Twitter restrictions while also keeping the essence of his writing style, which is rare! Most other celebrity twitter accounts I've found seem to be full of conversations between various people (if a Twitter post begins with @username, that means they're addressing this tweet to that specific user) or are full of no doubt interesting links (??) that are hard to follow as an outsider.

This article by Margaret Atwood about how she came to love Twitter shows the good side of the beast:

The Twittersphere is an odd and uncanny place. It’s something like having fairies at the bottom of your garden... a playful but also a helpful group. If you ask them for advice, it’s immediately forthcoming. ... So what’s it all about, this Twitter? Is it signaling, like telegraphs? Is it Zen poetry? Is it jokes scribbled on the washroom wall? Is it John Hearts Mary carved on a tree? Let’s just say it’s communication, and communication is something human beings like to do.

But if the medium is the message, what message is Twitter sending? That communicating can be done in the mysterious grunts and code of shortened URLs and keyboard symbols? That we're too rushed to really spell out what we mean and anyways, you should know all about that by now? Is it a short punch to the ribs of the people nearest you in cyberspace, hey look at me!

I may try Twitter again at some point to see if I can find any book tweeting going on, but it seems very utilitarian to me and without a lot of poetry, beauty or lasting meaning. I could be wrong though.

LibraryThing

I've had a LibraryThing account in the past and am becoming somewhat tempted to create a new one after looking at it again for this assignment! I deleted my account before because I wasn't using it very often and found it a bit clunky and ugly to use (Goodreads and Shelfari are two other similar online book sites where you can list your books, read reviews and find other people who like the same books and they are both more attractively designed.) Also, as I continue to mention, I don't like having so many accounts on different websites! Yes, it's free, but all this freedom comes with a loss of privacy. I sometimes worry about all the forgotten accounts I may have floating around the internet, with I don't know what personal information attached to them. So.

My other complaint with all book sites like this is that it takes a while to load all the books in your collection and pick the right covers for them, give them a rating or review, tag them by subject and sort them into categories (to be read, wish list, that kind of thing), etc. If you get fussy it can become a bit complicated and take time away from reading. On the other hand, it's a great way to network with other booklovers and find great new book recommendations.

I've looked up The Waves by Virginia Woolf on all three online book sites I mentioned, LibraryThing, Goodreads and Shelfari, just to see what information and user content each site had on the same book. LibraryThing had only 19 reviews, with 2000 people who had listed it in their library, and only showed the way others had tagged it, who else had it in their library, with a list of ten similar novels. Goodreads had page after page after page of reviews (it says over 4000 but many of them are just a rating or a very brief comment), with links to discussion posts, lists and groups that had mentioned the novel. Shelfari had 30 reviews, with 1075 people listing it in their library, and it also included a long section with information about the characters, setting, themes and symbolism and included memorable quotes, all of which would be very useful for understanding the book and deciding if you wanted to read it. Shelfari also has the best design of all three (you can see all your books on beautiful virtual bookshelves), although I think the most popular may be Goodreads and that's part of the fun with these sites, being where everyone else is! So now it's just a matter of deciding which site I want to use and when I want to take the time to enter all of my books all over again......

Online Productivity Tools

I've briefly tried out Google's Calendar and I'm sure it's fine, but I far prefer paper. Not only am I tired of giving out my personal information to so many different sites (even though I already have a Google account through Blogger, they still wanted a bit more personal info for the Calendar application and I don't appreciate that or see why it's necessary), but I've used paper daytimers for years, I like writing everything by hand and I find the online calendar to be too big and clunky. Also, since I don't have a cell phone or whathaveyou, I wouldn't be able to access the Calendar while I was on the go and away from a computer. (I know there's environmental downsides to using a lot of paper just as there are for keeping electronic devices on all the time to check your email/calendar/facebook/etc but paper feels more natural. And I'd rather use machines less often.) But the good thing is that at least once you are logged onto Google through Blogger or Gmail or whatever other way they have of dominating the internets and have given them another tiny piece of yourself, you can use the Calendar too. If you want to.

I might be more inclined to use Google Documents, but since I already have (admittedly outdated) Microsoft Word on my laptop and don't use it that often at this point, I'm not interested in it right now, but maybe later I'll check it out. It's good to know it's available if I need it and that I could backup my documents online, especially if my laptop goes down again!

Flickr & YouTube

And now comes my last day attempt to catch up on all of the assignments!

I've used Flickr for years now as a way to host photos in a more professional way than Facebook or Photobucket (another online photo hosting site). The problem with it is that unless you have a paid account, you can only host up to 200 visible photos. The good things are that you can get the photo in three sizes, small, medium and large, which you can't do on other sites, Facebook photos seem to be shrunk, more for family and friends than for something you want to show off to everyone, while Photobucket only preserves the photo at quite large sizes and it takes a while to manually resize it in order to repost it elsewhere on the internet. Flickr is for people who take photography more seriously, who want to share and promote the beautiful images they've captured and who want more than the family photo album feel of Facebook. There are privacy settings you can control on each photo you post to Flickr, whether personal, for other Flickr contacts, or for everyone to see. Nevertheless, I would say if you only want to share pictures of your kids and pets, use Facebook. I've used Flickr in the past as a way to host my photos for blogs, as not all blogging sites host photos for you. I've also joined a few groups on it and found it useful to have an online backup of my best photos when my laptop wasn't working properly.

I occasionally watch videos on YouTube, a few music videos and some book trailers like the one for Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters! I'm sometimes annoyed by how often people are beginning to substitute written content on a blog for some video they've found on YouTube, I'd rather read a well written blog post than watch a video. But I seem to be in the minority on that one and I suppose a variety of media can add interest. YouTube is easy to use, I've even watched a whole Jane Austen miniseries on it when I was living in Lake Louise and not near a library!

Facebook, Gmail & RSS

I've gotten a bit behind on the CPL 2.0 assignments since I was gone on holidays, but I'll try to catch up quickly.

Social Networking: For me, facebook is a moderately useful way to keep in touch with my family and a few friends, but despite enjoying blogging, I do not like the status update function or the endless inane wall postings or quizzes, games, etc. I avoid spending time there unless I want to quickly contact someone because I'd rather write or talk about something more worthwhile and in greater depth. I also try to keep my friends on facebook down to people I currently know or want to keep in touch with, I find it weird that people I might never talk to for years could still see my photos or anything I or a friend felt like posting on my wall. Since it's connected to my real name (and my parents and in-laws have an account too!), I'd rather it remain fairly professional.

Google Universe: I've recently signed up for a Gmail account and enjoy using it. For one thing, once you're logged on to it, you can more easily access other Google services, such as Blogger, without having to log in to another account again. (Too many usernames and unbreakable passwords cluttering up my brain!) It also seems to have a higher standard for the strength of your password, which is probably good. Gmail also claims to cut down on the spam and I have found less of it since I switched there. I would recommend Gmail simply for how much it's connected to everything else and I use it more than my Yahoo email account now.

RSS: For this assignment, I actually used Google Reader to set up all my RSS feeds. I've heard it mentioned by other bloggers the most and since it is another Google product, once I'm logged into Gmail I simply have to go to the Reader link, without having to create yet another account at yet another site and pass out more of my personal information all over the internet (and worry if someone is hacking into one of my many accounts and if my passwords are strong enough, etc!) Once I click on the Reader link from Gmail, it opens up in another window and a number pops up at the top of the screen to show how many new postings there are on all the blogs I follow since I last checked in, similar to the number stating how many unread emails you may have in your inbox. I then scroll through the list of blogs I follow until I see where the new posts are, it's very efficient and much better than a list of links to click through! Adding new blogs to follow is easy as well, I simply enter the URL of the blog I want to add into the 'add new subscriptions' section. RSS feeds always confused me before, so I am quite pleased to find this so easy to use!

I noticed on someone else's post about RSS readers, they said they didn't see the point of them since on Blogger there is the Reading List on your Dashboard for quickly reading all the updates to blogs you follow in chronological order, but. Keep in mind you can only follow other Blogger blogs through that method! Wordpress is also a popular blogging site which you can't follow through the Blogger Reading List. A separate RSS reader is for following all kinds of sites all over the internet using all different kinds of blogging software. I will definitely be using Google Reader for a long time to come.

I think I'll catch up on the rest of this tomorrow!

Wikipedia x2

Now it seems I am in danger of becoming addicted to the Wikipedia edit! I thought I would just check to see what the articles about some of the towns I've lived in look like and found something to fix. I've lived in Rosebud, Alberta on two separate occasions, it's only an hour from Calgary and has a dinner theatre, Rosebud Theatre, as well as Rosebud School of the Arts for theatre studies. I attended the school for a year a few years ago and it was a wonderful experience. It's also a wonderful place to visit, a tiny and very friendly hamlet in a beautiful valley, a great escape from the city. The theatre there is very family friendly, with a lot of comedies and musicals.

That aside, I found that the wikipedia article for Rosebud Theatre had the 2009 season of plays, so I updated it with the information for their 2010 season, found on their website. They're going to be performing a musical version of The Secret Garden this Christmas, which is one of my favourite books, so I may go!

Wikipedia 2.0

Oh gosh. After years of trusting Wikipedia (to a certain extent at least), I have at last found a flaw and corrected it! Whew. My heart beat a bit more wildly there.

I was feeling a bit down about this assignment, given that there are many people better informed than me on many of my favourite topics (such as Jane Austen or Marcel Proust). But a little random browsing for the name of the Hawaiian dude who did a beautiful version of 'Over the Rainbow' with the ukulele (turns out his name is Israel Kamakawiwo'ole) brought me to something to edit. Not an error, but information that was incomplete!

It turns out that under cover versions of 'Over the Rainbow' they were missing one... by Rufus Wainwright on his Judy Garland tribute album, Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall.

I feel I have pulled off some kind of caper. (And it was disturbingly easy.)

City of Copycats

So, onto those teen novels I said I'd review. I decided a while back to pick a teen book to present at a library workshop. However, I've found it slightly harder to find one I actually wanted to read! I first looked for a contemporary light teen romance, but none of the books made me want to read them. I also tried a few popular historical teen novels, like The Luxe and A Great and Terrible Beauty. Not so much in wanting to read those all the way through either.

Then I had a better idea: why not go with the most popular teen genre, ie the sparkly paranormal romance / urban fantasy type of series that aren't quite as popular as Twilight or Harry Potter, so we at the information desk haven't heard of them that excessively, but are still doing quite well on the shelf. I've seen the covers prominently displayed in the bookstores, so with a little help from Amazon and NoveList, I cherry picked a few.

Based on what was available in my library's paperback spinners, I ended up starting with City of Bones, the first in Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series. It had a captivating first few pages and I read it in less than 24 hours, putting off getting a doctor ordered x-ray until I was finished. So obviously, the characters and plot are intriuging.

What started to become an problem was that well... various aspects of the story began to seem a little too familiar. There are characters in the story known as the Silent Brothers, who have no eyes, mutilated faces and lips sewn together. They don't talk obviously, but communicate through thoughts. Needless to say they are described as creepy. The problem is that if you have watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer all the way through to season 7 (my geekiness, let me show it to you), you might wonder if these guys sound suspciously like the Bringers, with oh what was that? No eyes, very creepy, can't talk, communicate through thoughts. Right.

I was annoyed but still carried on because oh, the quips were still good, the action still fairly strong. But. I was noticing a Harry Potter-esque vibe to the whole story, which at first was good, because it's nice to find another strong and interesting easy read type book from time to time. But then there was this development in the story, where the characters are looking for a certain object. And then it gets a little too Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone the way they find said object inside a painting (not a mirror, but still).

Whatever, I said. There was a fairly pointless and plot-less battle scene between vampires and werewolves, which seemed to be there only because vampires and werewolves are popular at the moment, they were not the main types of people in the story. (Personally, I go in for werewolves more than vampires, but that's largely due to Benicio Del Toro in The Wolfman. Ahem.) And for a story where there's supposed to be a big quest on to save some thing or person or other, it took a lot of time to get going with said quest, with a lot of pointless and annoying incidences that didn't seem to make sense or further the story.

Finally, I reached the end. And with it came a massive Star Wars stolen plot twist that threw me to the edge of rage. I was angry, as I very rarely am angry, at the end of a book. I went to Amazon to check the reviews and see if anyone else had noticed all this blatant stealing of ideas. Yes, people had and they mentioned many more that I hadn't even noticed. It turns out more of the supposedly interesting and unique ideas in this book were taken from other books.

And the best part? Cassandra Clare started as a fanfiction author for guess what... Harry Potter. (Fanfiction is anyone writing a story about characters or situations from a book or movie. If it's based off a classic novel, like Wide Sargasso Sea is on Jane Eyre, then sometimes it gets published. See also: a lot of Jane Austen 'sequels' or spinoffs that are often not that great. If it's based off something with a current copyright, it stays on the internet. Here is a popular site should you desire to read or write some. Because fanfiction is mostly not-for-profit and because the people reading it want to continue to live in the fictional world of the book or movie, the standard for the writing is well, not that high and it is also mostly praised without critique. And a lot of teens online read this because it's based off their favourite stories.)

When I read this, it made sense. The story is somehow addictive despite its flaws, but there still remains that smug undertone of I can do whatever I want with this story, steal from other stories, and people will like it because wow, I have one attractive character (originally based off of Draco Malfoy and from there on modified enough to pass as 'original'), a story with some angsty action, a few good lines and an internet following. This is likely why she was published in the end, but the lack of professionalism in the writing of something that was published (there are various editing errors as well, people mention things and then later claim never to have heard of it before, that were also annoying and could have been fixed easily), really really bothered me.

All that aside, City of Bones remains very readable. (In the end I even caved and picked up the next book in the series when I saw it at the library, but got distracted part way through by Vampire Academy and from that on to poetry, Proust and Jane Austen...) But there are better books out there! Like Scott Westerfeld's Uglies, which I also read and which is amazing.

(To its credit, the second book in the Mortal Instruments series, City of Ashes, doesn't seem to be as badly written, but nevertheless, I don't feel too compelled to finish it.)

So there it is, the strong and bitterly nerdy feelings a teen novel can generate!

CPL 2.0: Delicious

I first heard of Delicious a few years ago on the internet as a place where people stored links to their favourite fanfiction. Needless to say, I was somewhat surprised when the Calgary Public Library also started using it to store all of its Best Websites!

But this is what's great about Delicious: anyone can store anything and share it with anyone else. I am most familiar using tags (or 'labels', as I see blogger calls them) on blog entries. It works the same way as on Delicious, except you can only search the tags used within your own blog, to find all the entries tagged with one particular keyword, you can't search across all of blogger to find everyone who's ever used the same tag!

This is where Delicious is really helpful and interesting. You not only get to save your own bookmarks (which is all I thought it was used for when I first heard of it), you can browse everyone else's too. (You can also save yours as private if you really don't want your friends finding out you like fanfiction...)

I've looked through the Help section of Delicious, just to understand how it works. Some of the finer points on tag options are a bit confusing, but other than that, it is helpful to figure out how it all works. I still can't find the display options link though! I've found it fairly straight forward to use when helping a patron, the Canadian Citizenship tag bundle in particular! A few of the links I wouldn't go to Delicious to find, such as The Alberta Library Online, as it's quicker just to google it.

Overall, Delicious is well organized (oh how I like alphabetical lists!), yet open for every user's input. I will likely create my own account there at some point.

ps: You can tag/label your posts here, as I've already mentioned, with cpl 2.0 so that it's easier for the inspecting powers that be to find them. This is useful if you're blogging about a variety of things and want to find every post on a particular topic later. Just a thought!

Two Victorian Sensations

So just a quick review of The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, as previously mentioned. (note: I am not doing this at work, although I was tempted to!)

The Woman in White is the Victorian version (it was published in 1859) of a thriller -- what was known then as a 'sensation novel.' Not only was Wilkie Collins one of the first to write in the mystery genre, beating out Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, by several decades, but he also combines social issues of the day (like the very limited rights of married women) with an exciting story and get this: humour. This is not the cutesy cozy mystery type of humour or even the creepy dark Hannibal Lecter style of humour either. It's found instead in fascinating, larger than life extremely quirky characters who may be villainous and selfish but are endlessly fun to read about.

Fingersmith was published in 2002, much more recently than The Woman in White, but it is inspired by it. Many of the plot elements of the older book are reworked in this one, such as the use of doubles in order to steal an inheritance. Insane asylums feature in both novels, as do drawing teachers, cantankerous uncles and charming villains. Again it is a Victorian novel of crime but with a strong feminist twist and an unconventional love story.

While I have enjoyed Sarah Waters' historical fiction in Tipping the Velvet as well as Fingersmith (she's also written a third novel set in the Victorian era, Affinity) -- her scenes have strong visuals and stay in the mind -- I have to say I enjoyed The Woman in White more. It seems so alive and full of energy, a myriad of characters teaming through the narrative, and no rules stopping them or the story. If that sounds good, Wilkie Collins also wrote another early mystery entitled The Moonstone, about a magnificent diamond stolen from India and what happens to it afterwards.

Alright, next review will be about some teen fiction! (The Victorians are fun, especially when it's a sensational melodrama, but still. Their books are in general far too long...)

Introducing CPL 2.0

And so I start to blog as part of my job. I have been blogging for about four years now on a variety of sites and have met friends around the world (even indirectly my husband!) through blogging. It's been a very rewarding experience.

Now as a research assistant at the Calgary Public Library, I'm taking part in some online training (known as CPL 2.0), hence the work blog. I'd also like to review books I've enjoyed here, because 'jardin de livres' or a garden of books is undoubtedly a library! And I am surrounded by many books, electronic and physical, every day at my job.

As far as the CPL 2.0 training questions go, I'm excited to be learning more about the internet, specifically Twitter. I've already used various online programs like Flickr and LibraryThing, but I'm so used to writing longer blog posts, that the thought of condensing a post down to 140 characters, when I don't text on a cellphone or enjoy using abbreviations, seems a bit intimidating. I'm sure practice will help, while learning with everyone else.

And as for books, I'm hoping to review Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins soon!