I'm glad that I don't live in Grafton, OH. Two overdue notices apparently equals a court date. Just another reason for me to stick to Paperback Swap and avoid the library if at all possible.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Aug 25, 2008
Aug 6, 2008
(Non)Recommeded Reading?
So a few weeks ago, Rakicy and I taught his mom how to use Google Docs. In our demo, we were trying to show her how two people could edit the same document simultaneously. I didn't really feel like typing a large block of text to use as a demo, so I cut and pasted my booklist for my internship proposal.
Fast forward to today...Rakicy's mom calls and says that she read a book on my list and it was really good, so she thinks she might read some more of them. Uh oh! Because they were alphabetical, she started with Joan Bauer's Rules of the Road. This is probably the most conservative book on the list, and lets just say that they go downhill (in terms of lining up with her world view) from there.
Rakicy called her back and said that they may not all be her style. She said, "that's okay, I'll look them up on the internet first." Hmm...do we think that she will find the blog entry about the next book on the list or the very offensive movie poster first. I could go into the Google Doc and delete all of the titles that might offend her, but wait that would be most of the rest of them.
Fast forward to today...Rakicy's mom calls and says that she read a book on my list and it was really good, so she thinks she might read some more of them. Uh oh! Because they were alphabetical, she started with Joan Bauer's Rules of the Road. This is probably the most conservative book on the list, and lets just say that they go downhill (in terms of lining up with her world view) from there.
Rakicy called her back and said that they may not all be her style. She said, "that's okay, I'll look them up on the internet first." Hmm...do we think that she will find the blog entry about the next book on the list or the very offensive movie poster first. I could go into the Google Doc and delete all of the titles that might offend her, but wait that would be most of the rest of them.
Aug 3, 2008
I have a problem...
I love books. I've written about this before, but really I have issues with books. I know the library exists and is a great way to avoid buying books, but in the event that I "love" a book I want to be able to 1) write in it (sorry B!) and 2) not give it back. I use the library to check out things I need as demos for teaching, but I rarely read books from there. This means I buys lots of books. I don't really want to calculate the amount of money I spend on books, but let's just say that I keep bookstores in business. This is mostly because I'm a sucker for a deal. If Borders sends me a coupon, I interpret it as a sign that I need new books (hence the filter "skips the inbox" for Borders coupons during the summertime). B-N was home to a Scholastic warehouse that opened to the public twice a year, until it sadly closed for good this summer. This was a major event in my life. The great thing about the sale was that it had lots of books for $1. Who can refuse a book for $1?
Fast forward through 2 1/2 degrees in English, and I have too many books. That's very hard for me to admit, but it's true. I have to get rid of the junk. I have books I've never read, mass market "junk" that I read in airports, books I had to buy for classes that I didn't want to take, etc. But ever since I took a Shakespeare class as an undergrad and bought the Riverside Complete Works of Shakespeare, I've had this issue with selling books.*
A couple of weeks ago I heard a friend talk about paperbackswap.com and my gut reaction was "I don't have any extra books." This afternoon I played around on the site. I'm by no means purging my library, but I did manage to find 20 books (a tiny fraction of my collection) that I could live without. I posted them, redeemed my two introductory credits and thought to myself "nobody wants the crap I just posted." Not true...I was shocked. Granted I have only swapped one book, but I'm thinking that this may be the solution to my book addiction. It allows me to get an even swap (I realize that this doesn't fix the volume of books issue), and it forces me to think about what I really need. Do I need 3 French-English dictionaries? probably not. The book that I sold (an old French book) was a great deal for the person who snagged it, but I was able to replace it with something I might actually read. Thanks Joe!
*I packed up my books to take the the campus "sell back" and looked at Shakespeare. Even though the book had cost me nearly $100, I felt could not in good conscious sell back the complete works of William Shakespeare. This moral dilemma quickly spread to other areas of my life, and I haven't sold a book since.
Fast forward through 2 1/2 degrees in English, and I have too many books. That's very hard for me to admit, but it's true. I have to get rid of the junk. I have books I've never read, mass market "junk" that I read in airports, books I had to buy for classes that I didn't want to take, etc. But ever since I took a Shakespeare class as an undergrad and bought the Riverside Complete Works of Shakespeare, I've had this issue with selling books.*
A couple of weeks ago I heard a friend talk about paperbackswap.com and my gut reaction was "I don't have any extra books." This afternoon I played around on the site. I'm by no means purging my library, but I did manage to find 20 books (a tiny fraction of my collection) that I could live without. I posted them, redeemed my two introductory credits and thought to myself "nobody wants the crap I just posted." Not true...I was shocked. Granted I have only swapped one book, but I'm thinking that this may be the solution to my book addiction. It allows me to get an even swap (I realize that this doesn't fix the volume of books issue), and it forces me to think about what I really need. Do I need 3 French-English dictionaries? probably not. The book that I sold (an old French book) was a great deal for the person who snagged it, but I was able to replace it with something I might actually read. Thanks Joe!
*I packed up my books to take the the campus "sell back" and looked at Shakespeare. Even though the book had cost me nearly $100, I felt could not in good conscious sell back the complete works of William Shakespeare. This moral dilemma quickly spread to other areas of my life, and I haven't sold a book since.
May 3, 2008
Library Hours
In my egocentric conception of when everyone else does work, I discovered that the world--or more accurately Milner Library--does not revolve around my schedule. I got up early this morning and was extremely proud of myself for heading off to the library to work at 8:30 on a Saturday morning. Unfortunately, the library does not open until 9:00 on Saturday.
In less frustrating news, I'm a huge fan of Project Gutenberg and Google Books. Instead of having to drive to the Newberry Library in Chicago to look at obscure, early 20th century publications of child diaries, some lovely person had already scanned them in. Likewise the search featured that combs the document for specified words saved me literally years of my life.
In less frustrating news, I'm a huge fan of Project Gutenberg and Google Books. Instead of having to drive to the Newberry Library in Chicago to look at obscure, early 20th century publications of child diaries, some lovely person had already scanned them in. Likewise the search featured that combs the document for specified words saved me literally years of my life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)