Books, eBooks and LibraryThing

I Love Books. 

I want to make sure there is no doubt in anyone's mind that I not only like to read but I love books. Growing up my mother and I were members of the Doubleday Bookclub,the Literary Guild and the Book of the Month Club. My summers were rated by how many books I read and sometimes how many times I reread a book. I admit to reading Gone With The Wind at least three times during 8th grade and high school.

Memory Lane - circa 1960's

During my high school years I discovered Richard Brautigan's classics which included "Trout Fishing in American" and  "A Confederate General At Big Sur". I  wrote a paper on James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time"  and "Giovanni's Room" followed by  Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "A Coney Island of the Mind". My best friend chose Edward Albee so I was emerced in "Tiny Alice" and the "American Dream".

Read farther and you will see what brought on this trip down memory lane!

Fast Forward 2011-2012

During the last year I have been debating the advent of eReaders.The number of bookcases and boxes of books in my house has pushed Chuck to the edge and he strongly suggested I find an eReader. So on this blog and EverydayGenealogy.com I have documented how I chose the Kindle over the Pandigital and Nook eReaders.

While I have learned to embrace the Kindle there was still the issue of all the books lining bookcases and filling boxes in the house. Over the years I heard fellow genealogists talk about LibraryThing.com and casually thought about entering my genealogy books 'in the cloud'. The thought of putting ALL my books up there was a bit daunting.

Scanners, LibraryThing and Tori

As Tori is fond of telling me and all my friends and family know - Tori Rules.  Since she was a small child she has had a fascination with cash registers and scanners. Not the scanners we use to scan pictures or documents. Tori's love is barcode scanners like those used in libraries, warehouses, Home Depot and virtually every department store in the world. She will find the self checkout in any store and make me go through it whether I have one item or twenty.

After another shopping trip and Tori going on and on about how much she wanted a scanner I told her to see if LibraryThing supported scanners and if they did I would buy one.  About 10 minutes later she had all the information and was THRILLED that they did.

Her next assignment was to go online and do some price comparisons. The girl was MOTIVATED! She was a bit sad to find out the the local electronics stores were considerably higher than Amazon so she would have to wait a few days for her scanner.

ISBN Numbers, Bar Codes and All The Others

As promised LibraryThing works great scanning books that have barcoded ISBN Numbers. The scanner as advertised has a handy stand or can be held for quicker scanning. Below is a video of Tori explaining to me how it worked after she had scanned two or three books.

Later she took her laptop and started some serious scanning on my two of my bookcases.  Here is where we come into 'All The Others'. The books my friends and I were reading in high school do not have 'standard' ISBN numbers that we are used to seeing in the the 21st century, let alone barcodes. They have a Library of Congress Category Card Number buried in the copyright information.

Some quick research explained that the ISBN number started between 1967 and 1970 and was enhanced in 1974. My books from the 1980's and 1990's have an ISBN number on the back or as part of the copyright, but certainly not a barcode.

Tori scanned 230+ books that day from two of my bookcases and one of her bookcases. I went back this week and hand entered 100 books that either did not have an ISBN or had one but did not have a barcode.

eBooks vs Books

One thing I have learned during this scanning adventure is how much I LOVE books: holding them, leafing through them and the memories they hold.  An eBook would not have brought back the same high school memories like seeing my best friends name in the Edward Albee book in her handwriting. I have not seen her in decades, but I felt just as close to her in that moment as I did in 1970.

Tori tells me that in her 6th grade class the students are allowed to bring eReaders to class. She is deciding if she will use her iPad or buy a Kindle Fire with her Christmas money.  It will be interesting to see her grow up in the 'eBook' world.

Take Care,
Pattie

eBooks, Used Books and Me...

eBook or paperback. Amazon or Barnes and Noble. To be or not to be. The great philosophical thoughts of the ages.

Now that I have started using my eReader reader (Pandigital + Barnes and Noble) I am faced with the reality of my addiction to used books on Amazon. I received gift cards for both Amazon and Barnes and Noble over the holidays and found myself torn between the two retailers.

There is nothing more fun than seeing how many used books I can buy with a set amount of money. Browsing my Wish List on Amazon and then looking at Amazon's suggestions based on my browsing and buying habits is like letting me loose in a candy shop. For my $35 gift card I bought 5 books and one new movie!

I decided to apply my Barnes and Noble gift card to my 'e' account on their website. I do not quite understand why I had to designate it for 'eBooks', but I did not read all the disclaimers that closely. I knew I would find something I wanted. This is where the fun is limited - NO USED BOOKS! Mmmm an entire industry gone! I decided to search for Christmas and genealogy related books. While there were many Christmas books, there were not a lot of bargains and to my dismay there was only one genealogy eBook. The experience was not a lot of fun.

I do have two 'new' books to read on my eBook but I also have those 5 'new' books arriving from Amazon. I tend to pick up the paperbacks quicker than the eBook, so I may never finish George W's book "Decision Points" or start Elizabeth Edward's "Resilience". But I have started reading my newly arrived paperback "The Roosevelt Woman" from Amazon.

I do need to start working on my genealogy again, so reading may become a luxury. And there still are a few Everyday Genealogy Calendars left to sell!







I recommend "The Roosevelt Women". It has a great family tree to help the reader understand the relationships and it written in a very easy to read style.

Feeling the Pressure!

Aren't hobbies suppose to be fun? That's what my friend Pam keeps saying about genealogy, but sometimes we ambush ourselves.

First, there is the 'secret genealogy' project. The basic work is done and I am about fifty percent done with the proofreading. I was actually feeling pretty good about it. My deadline is the end of the month and even with the car accident I was making good progress.

BUT.....

There it was at the door when I got home. The LARGE box from Amazon. This is usually a 'happy moment' because a book I ordered has arrived. Not this time. This was my in-laws anniversary present. A 12" electronic photo frame and of course we know who is loading all those pictures, making sure they are properly cropped, focused and censored. Censored? Unfortunately there have been a number of divorces in the family, so I have to make sure to not include the 'exes'.

The good news is 99% of the pictures are scanned. I just have to transfer them, but I know I will find problems with the pictures and start touching them up.

And did I mention I also have to build a website and come up with a plan to announce the 'secret project' to the world?

Talk to you next week - after my appointment with the orthopedist to talk about the numbness in my left hand since the car accident.

Life is never boring!