Category: Tuesday Thingers

This week on Tuesday Thingers Wendi writes: we are looking at Buzz! That’s right! Library Thing has a page to share what people are saying about Library Thing. The best part? They have areas for quotes from sites (including Wendi’s Book Corner and a few others I’ll bet you’ll recognize), What Librarians are Saying, Prizes and Awards, Should It Be Illegal?, quotes from mainstream media, and even Tweets! So, take a peek and see what people are saying. :)

Questions: Were you aware that Library Thing had a Buzz page? Were you surprised by anything you saw or read on the Buzz page?

My answer: I had no idea this was on LibraryThing. I don’t find it the easiest site to find things on – except for of course cataloguing my books and finding book reviews, which are the two things I do most on the site. I tried to find it on my own but failed and had to get there from the link on Wendi’s blog.

Lo and behold there is a quote from me on there!

“I like being able to have an image of the book and other members’ listings and reviews. You can find photos of authors and suggestions for more reading. It’s easy to add in books as LibraryThing does all the work for you using data imported from booksellers and a long list of libraries.”

BooksPlease: Ramblings of a Book Worm

It’s about a third of the way down the page the last entry in a blue centre column called “Librarians say”, which is amazing – I’m not a librarian any more, although I used to be one! The link is to a Booking Through Thursday post on cataloguing I wrote nearly two years ago on my old blog on Blogger. I’m thrilled!

This week’s question from Marie is

Most of us book bloggers like to write book reviews- if we don’t love to write book reviews- but here’s today’s question. When it comes to LT (and your blog), do you review every book you read? Do you just review Early Reviewers or ARCs? Do you review only if you like a book, or only if you feel like you have to? How soon after reading do you post your review? Do you post them other places- other social networking sites, Amazon, etc.?

I review most books that I read, although in the summer this year I came to a full stop with reviews, so there are several I read that have no reviews. One of the reasons for writing this blog was to write about the books I’ve read – I hesitate to call my posts reviews and some are only a few comments on points that have interested me or quotations that I want to remember. I’ve found that I remember a book much better if I’ve written about it, so I try to write something about each one.

I’ve only had a few books from the Early Reviwers Programme and have reviewed each of them. Sadly I didn’t receive the last one I snagged so I’m hoping the one I snagged in November will arrive soon.  I’m a little behind on reviews at the moment as I have three to do. I like to review books soon after I’ve finished them, but it’s not always possible. It helps if I’ve made notes as I read but sometimes I’m so caught up in the reading that I don’t manage it.  I’ll review a book whether I liked it or not, but as I’m quite picky about the books I choose there aren’t many that I actually dislike. I don’t finish reading books I dislike, unless it’s a review copy and then I try to write a balanced review saying what I liked, what I disliked and why.  

I’ve posted 17 reviews on LibraryThing – some are the full reviews and some are links to my reviews on this blog. I can’t decide which is better as it can be off-putting to leave LT to read a review on another blog. My local library has a facility on line to post reviews and I have posted one on there which is a shortened version of my blog post. I have also posted one review on Amazon a few years ago before I had my blog.

What’s the most popular book in your library? Have you read it? What did you think? How many users have it?

It took me a while to remember where I would find this information. I looked at nearly all the tabs on my LibraryThing page and finally found it under Zeitgeist. The most popular book is the book most people on LT own and it is Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone (37,356). I have a few, not all of the Harry Potter books and thought I didn’t have this one as I didn’t recognise the title – but I do, although my copy is called Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I hadn’t realised that the American version had been renamed – I wonder why? Maybe someone can enlighten me?

It’s not my favourite book and I don’t think it’s one I’ll read again, but I did enjoy it and the film too.

Today’s question from Marie:

 Blog Widgets. Do you use them? Do you have them on your blog? Do you know what I’m talking about? :-) A blog widget is that list of books “From my LibraryThing” and such, that you’ll sometimes see on someone’s sidebar. If you use it, do all of your books show up or do you have it set to only show certain books? Do you have a search widget, which would allow your blog readers to search your library? Have you ever made a photomosaic of your book covers? You can find widgets and photomosaic information on the “Tools” tab in LibraryThing.

I don’t think I’d come across the word “widget” until I started blogging and it wasn’t at all clear to me just what a widget was. My dictionary defines it as “a gadget, or any small manufactured item or component”, and a gadget is, of course, a “small ingenious device; a what-d’you-call it”.  I rather like them – they are so clever and neat.

I have several on my blog including some from LibraryThing – the Early Reviewer logo and a link to my LT catalogue, plus the Random Books from my library, which I like as it changes each time you look at the blog. I also use a widget linking to the books tagged currently reading. I use other widgets too – I like the Quote of the Day and the WordPress Recent Comments ones in particular. As I’m not very technically minded sometimes I mess up my sidebar by adding widgets, somehow making some of them disappear – it’s something to do with the order they’re in I think, or maybe not I don’t really know.

I read about making a photomosaic a while ago on LT and thought I’d have a go at doing it, but it’s still a thought so far