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Books read, 2009

// January 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Random

At the end of 2008, I posted a list of books that I was currently reading, as well as this list of books that I wanted to read in 2009:

• Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson (science fiction) (finished January 2009)
• Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen (fiction) (via DailyLit.com; abandoned after 4 chapters)
• Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (fiction) (iPod copy abandoned after chapter 2; RSS copy via DailyLit.com still unread)  Kindle edition finally read May 2009
• Exposure Photo Workshop, Jeff Wignall (finished January 2009)
• Cambridge Guide to Emily Dickinson, Wendy Martin (non-fiction) (never actually opened this one, but I had it checked out for a long time!)

Books I intended to read in 2009 (and how that worked out):

• Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky (non-fiction) (May/June 2009)
• Tribes, Seth Godin (non-fiction) (downloaded audio January 2009–still haven’t listened!)
• The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson (fantasy) read February 2009
• Hero of the Age, Brandon Sanderson (fantasy) read March/April 2009
• Wise Man’s Fear, Pat Rothfuss (fantasy) – not yet published, more than a year behind schedule…
• Until I Found You, A Novel, John Irving (fiction)
• The Big U, Neal Stephenson (fiction) (February-March 2009)
• The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson (fiction) – I read a couple of chapters
• Anathem, Neal Stephenson (fantasy) – I have read one chapter
• A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway (fiction) I read a few pages.
• The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (fiction)
• Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace (fiction) – bought the Kindle edition on the library’s device June 2009, bought the paperback in August 2009 and finally finished it 12/29/09!
• Clay’s Quilt, Silas House (fiction)
• Deer Hunting with Jesus, Joe Bageant (fiction)
• Everything is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger (May/June 2009)

Other books I actually read, 2009:

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (audio) (January 2009)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (audio) (February-March 2009)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (audio) (March-April 2009)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (audio) (May 2009)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (audio) (May – June 2009)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (audio) (July – August 2009)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (audio) (August – September 2009)
• Slide-ology, Nancy Duarte (March 2009)
• Presentation Zen, Garr Reynolds (March 2009)
• Pro Drupal Development (read first several chapters February 2009; over my head)
• Using Drupal, Angela Byron, et al (er…)
• The Warded Man, Peter V. Brett (fantasy) (April 2009)
• Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present by Cory Doctorow (May/June 2009)
• Social Software in Libraries, by Meredith Farkas (April 2009)
• Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow (May 2009)
• Tales of Beadle the Bard, by J.K. Rowling (May 2009)

Books read with Miss6, 2009

• Ramona Quimby, Age 8, by Beverly Cleary (february)
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume (March & April)
• Beezus and Ramona, by Beverly Cleary (March)
• Earthquake in the Early Morning, by Mary Pope Osborn (January)
• Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, by Betty MacDonald (April & May)
• Midnight on the Moon, by Mary Pope Osborn (June)
• A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engel (June)
• James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl (June/July)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl (July)
• Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, by Roald Dahl (August)
• Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder (August – read chapter 1)

I lost track of these in the fall, but we also read Roald Dahl’s Witches, Clementine, gave The Hobbit a try, and are almost done with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  She reads tons of books on her own and is impossible to keep up with!

Books I’d like to read in 2010

• Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson (fantasy)
• The Long Division, Derek Nikitas (thriller)
• Anathem, Neal Stephenson (fantasy)
• Until I Found You, A Novel, John Irving (fiction)
• Clay’s Quilt, Silas House (fiction)
• The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (fiction)

After finishing Infinite Jest, I’ve sort of been casting about.  It will be a hard act to follow.

Books read, 2008

// January 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Random, librarians

I was inspired by my friend Anna to write this post. The written list of books read migrated to LibraryThing when that service debuted, but it and my GoodReads catalog have become a mishmash of things read and things to read. Alas.

Full disclosure: I adhere to my own version of the Nancy Pearl rule–if I can’t get into a book after a couple of tries, I put it down and don’t look back. So far, I have not been struck by lightning. <g>

So, in no particular order:

Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson (science fiction) (currently reading)
Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen (fiction) (currently reading)
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (fiction) (currently reading)
Exposure Photo Workshop, Jeff Wignall (currently reading)
Cambridge Guide to Emily Dickinson, Wendy Martin (non-fiction) (currently reading)
1. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows (YA fantasy–audio)
2. The Android’s Dream, John Scalzi (science fiction)
3. Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer (YA fantasy)
4. Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer (YA fantasy)
5. New Moon, Stephenie Meyer (YA fantasy)
6. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (YA fantasy)
7. The Devil’s Picnic (non-fiction) (did not finish)
8. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (YA fantasy–audio)
9. Lighting Photo Workshop, Chris Bucher (non-fiction)
10. Legal Handbook for Photographers, Bert Krages (non-fiction)
11. The Digital Photography Book vol 2, Scott Kelby (non-fiction)
12. Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers, Christopher Grey (non-fiction)
13. Understanding Exposure, Bryan Peterson (non-fiction)
14. Pyres, Derek Nikitas (fiction)
15. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (YA fantasy–audio)
16. Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire (YA fantasy–audio)
17. Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban (YA fantasy–audio)
18. Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets (YA fantasy–audio)
19. Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone (YA fantasy–audio) (Yes, all of them. I listen to them every year.)
20. Golden Compass, Phillip Pullman (YA fantasy) (2nd reading–did not finish)
21. The Big U, Neal Stephenson (fiction) (did not finish)
22. The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson (fiction) (2nd reading–did not finish)
23. Culture Shock Singapore, Joann Craig (travel) (did not finish)
24. Rough Guide to Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei (travel) (did not finish)
25. Sonnets: from Dante to the Present, John Hollander (poetry) (not yet finished)
26. Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (poetry) (not yet finished)

Books I’d like to read in 2009:
Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky (non-fiction)
Tribes, Seth Godin (non-fiction)
The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson (fantasy)
Hero of the Age, Brandon Sanderson (fantasy)
Wise Man’s Fear, Pat Rothfuss (fantasy)
Until I Found You, A Novel, John Irving (fiction)
The Big U, Neal Stephenson (fiction)
The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson (fiction)
Anathem, Neal Stephenson (fantasy)
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway (fiction)
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (fiction)
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace (fiction)
Clay’s Quilt, Silas House (fiction)

New Year’s resolution? To keep track as I go, and to add links and not be so lazy in 2009.

Learning 2.0: Video

// December 14th, 2007 // No Comments » // Libraries, Web Stuff

Yay! Teh Tubez!

I love YouTube and have posted several videos to my blog over the last few months. Here is one that I haven’t posted here before but enjoy very much:

That’s quality stuff!

Learning 2.0: tagging fun

// August 29th, 2007 // No Comments » // Libraries, Web Stuff

What a delight to read the Learning 2.0 lessons on tagging from our Technical Services Coordinator, Margaret! Here goes; my sample search for lesson 12, exercise 1 is (what else?): harry potter.

1. Google finds “about” 125,000,000 hits (only 119,000,000 if I search as a phrase).
2. our library catalog, eQuest, finds 39 hits in a keywords search (harry AND potter).
3. when I search Harry Potter as a subject, I get, sadly, zero. Aren’t there books *about* Harry Potter that we own? Aren’t the Harry Potter books *about* Harry Potter? Trying (and failing, I think) to think like an undergraduate, here.

What parallels do I see between the catalog and tagging on the web? I’m not sure I it’s fair to draw parallels between searching Google and eQuest for harry potter and the tagging found there, because I have no way of knowing where Google is finding those words in those pages. I think a fitter comparison might be between flickr and eQuest. When I search flickr for Harry Potter, I get 85,559 images–including one of my own! That’s still vastly more than eQuest. It’s still sort of apples and oranges to compare flickr images–of course I’ll find more hits among the bajillion flickr images than our million-odd records. Anyway, looking at the results that I get on flickr, I see harry and/or potter in tags, titles, descriptions and notes.

Exercise 2 has us reviewing the tags that we use on our blogs, flickr images and in our librarything catalog. I’m all over the tagging map. I’m most consistent in flickr, where I definitely want to go back and find things: my most common tags are “ak,” “b” and “daughter,” which makes perfect sense, as they are my most-frequently-photographed subjects. I use tags in librarything to give books ratings, rather than using the rating system; I’m not surprised that my biggest tags there are threestars, to_read, wishlist (where I used to keep my to_read stuff!) and scifi.

One last tidbit on tagging: it’s common for flickr photographers to inject a little humor by using funny tags.

Today’s stoopid web quiz

// August 28th, 2007 // 1 Comment » // Random, Web Stuff

OK, so I took a couple of these… I am part Jim, part Ryan from The Office, I would have been in Gryffindor, I am Hagrid (the outcast with a heart of gold), I am part Hiro, part Peter from Heroes, but best of all:

What Kind of Guy Will You Fall For?
	You would fall for the geek. If you’re looking for love, consider spending a little more time studying up in the library. To you, there’s nothing more attractive than intelligence, shyness, and kindness; your future love may have four eyes and zero social skills, but he’ll make up for it in brains and heart.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

File this under “Tell me something I don’t know.” (It’s even Tobey Maguire; I luuuurrv Tobey Maguire!)

Harry Potter and the Body Count: 47

// August 26th, 2007 // 5 Comments » // Libraries, Random

Since I began keeping statistics for this blog, I have noticed that at least two or three people find this site by searching Google for some variation of “harry potter body count” (hit# 3) or “harry potter death count” (hit #4) every single day. The page they find is a short review that I wrote of the fifth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. All these hits have inspired me to write what they’re actually looking for: an actual accounting of everyone who bought the farm at the hand of J.K. Rowling.

THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS POST! FOR EVERY SINGLE BOOK! SO IF YOU LEARN SOMETHING YOU DIDN’T KNOW BEFORE, DON’T COMPLAIN BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Because Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is still relatively new, I will not name those who die but will list them according to how well we knew them. So, without further ado:

Forty-seven characters, both being and beast, died in the Harry Potter series.

Book 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcer’s (Philosopher’s) Stone

• Quinius Quirrel
• an unnamed unicorn

Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

• Nicolas & Perenelle Flamel (presumed)
• Fawkes the phoenix

Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

• Did no one die in this book? What am I missing?

Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

• Bertha Jorkins (Ministry of Magic) (she probably died during year 2, but she was not introduced until this book, so she’s listed here)
• Frank Bryce (Muggle)
• Bartemius Crouch, Sr. (Ministry of Magic)
• Cedric Diggory (Hogwarts student & Triwizard Champion)
• Bartemius Crouch, Jr.

Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

• Karkus, Gurg of the Giants (and a lot of other giants)
• Broderick Bode (by Devil’s Snare)
• Fawkes the phoenix (again, but hey, he’s a phoenix!)
• Sirius Black

Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

• Amelia Bones
• Emmaline Vance
• Igor Karkarov
• Evan Rosier (Death Eater)
• Hannah Abbott’s mother
• Aragog the Acromantula
• Albus Dumbledore
• Gibbon (Death Eater)

Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

• Number of people who died that appeared by name or in person in every book: 7
• Number of people who died that appeared in at least 2 books: 12
• Characters who died who were introduced in Deathly Hallows: 7

I include in that last number four death eaters that I’m presuming died because they fell from their brooms during flight. The total for Deathly Hallows is a whopping 26, more than all the other books put together.

These (significant) characters were mentioned as being dead, but their deaths did not actually occur during the course of the stories:

Book 1: James & Lily Potter

Book 2: Moaning Myrtle

Book 3: 13 Muggles who died when Peter Pettigrew was confronted by Sirius

Book 4: Mr. & Mrs. Tom Riddle Sr. and their son; The Prewetts

Book 5: Fridwulfa (Hagrid’s mother); Regulus Black; (probably others whose names appeared in the scene where Mad Eye Moody gives Harry the photo of the original Order of the Phoenix

Book 6: Merope, Malvolo and Morphin Gaunt; Hepzibah Smith

Book 7: Kendra, Percival, and Ariana Dumbledore; Regulus Black (also in book 5, but in 7, we find out how he died)

References:
List of Characters in the Harry Potter Books (Wikipedia)
The Harry Potter Lexicon

Please leave your changes and additions in the form of comments. I know I’m missing stuff, here.

Update: see an excellent and more complete post at Answers.com.

Update: thanks to meebo guest “hogwartsismydrug” for corrections to book 4’s listings. *you* rock!

Learning 2.0 @ My Library – Play week!

// August 12th, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Libraries, Web Stuff

I was very much looking forward to Play Week #1 (we’ll have another at the end of the program in September), and this week’s host, Kelly, did not disappoint.

Our first play week activity was to get to know LibraryThing. I’ve been a LibraryThing user for a long time. But I headed over there today to see what new things I could learn. Here are some facts about my catalog, which currently stands at a mere 424 books.

The book in my catalog that is in the most other LibraryThingers’ catalog is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, with 20,736 other readers.

Five more Harry Potter books make up the top six, with Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Time Traveller’s Wife rounding out the top ten.

There are six books in my catalog that have not been added by anyone else, and 12 titles appear in fewer than 10 other members’ catalogs.

I have written 15 reviews.

Here is my tag cloud:

My LibraryThing Tag Cloud Originally uploaded by cindiann

Accio Deathly Hallows!

// July 20th, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Random

A co-worker and fellow Harry Potter fan forwarded me a link to this video. You watch, I’ll wait.

There is a whole slew of things to love about this video blog post:

• Its hopefulness captures what I think the best element of the series: that our boy Harry is the kind of fundamentally “good,” heroic person that the little girl or boy inside us all dreams of turning into when we’re confronted with demons or injustice.
• It encapsulates the average fan’s feeling of anticipation regarding the seventh Harry Potter book.
• It’s a well-done video blog post. Not as catchy, perhaps, as “Are you blogging this?” (smile) but destined for greatness via diggdom.
• There are a lot of references that only a true Harry Potter fan would understand.
• It’s a post on the video blog “Brotherhood 2.0,” the video blog of two brothers who have vowed not to communicate by any textual means for an entire year. This is the kind of simple idea (like flickr’s 365 days self portrait project) that will result in something unique and uniquely great.

Harry Potter and the Rising Body Count

// July 19th, 2005 // No Comments » // Random

Note 10/05/07: if you’re looking for an accounting of who dies in the seven books comprising the Harry Potter series, this ain’t it; this is.

Two years after Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released, the long awaited penultimate Potter has arrived, and it’s a doozy. Dark times are gripping the magical and Muggle worlds; the Daily Prophet now reads like a typical Times. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is noticeably shorter than the last two books, and author J.K. Rowling has somewhat abandoned the structure that has been so good to the series, that of Dursleys-train-Hogwarts-train-Dursleys. That’s the only spoiler you’ll get from me, though.

As usual, Rowling spins a riveting tale. I finished the book in about 24 hours. The initial reading of this sixth volume was more satisfying than Phoenix, and rather than sinking Harry deeper into the anger that had flowered there, Rowling chooses instead to begin to show Harry as he will likely be as a man. If he survives book 7, that is (Harry Potter and the End of Days?).

So, when reading it, remember that Rowling includes every detail deliberately. If something is repeated, it is especially important. It’s such a page-turner that I found myself slamming through it just to find out what happens <sob!>; I’m now off to bed to read it for those lovely details.