Browsing the stacks
One nice thing about life here is that it's rather slow compared to the States. One bad thing about evenings here is that it's rather slow compared to the States. Once the sun goes down and I take my shower, I have to figure out how to kill a couple of hours. That was rarely a problem back home. I had books and videos and a TV and a computer and the Internet. If I was really at a loss, I also had a pile of deskwork that needed attention. Here, all of the above options are limited. I've had to branch out a bit and actually have gone through a few fads in the past couple of months. I spent a couple of weeks attacking the logic puzzle book I brought. I spent a couple evenings dusting off the cards and playing solitaire. On the 'net I've read through the archives of Sluggy Freelance and spent time wandering through the Internet Movie Database. I've just come off a Flickr jag, and this week I've become obsessed with LibraryThing.I first heard about LibraryThing via Slumberland in a post back in January. I followed the link and thought it an interesting site. I didn't think it was for me, though. It's all about the books in one's possession, and a good portion of my reading is books borrowed from the public library. I was weaned from the desire to amass a huge personal library when I had to shlepp all my stuff from Chicago to Seattle. Besides, almost all of the books I do have are back in a warehouse in Kent. What fun could it be to catalog my kids' books?
Anyway, I went on with life, but the seed had been planted. A few days ago I was bored and clicked on the LibraryThing link again. I poked around a bit more. I forget the details now, but I do recall being impressed that someone besides myself actually owned a copy of The Tsaddik Of The Seven Wonders. Anyway, I decided to give the site a test drive, opening an account and adding a couple of books that I remember owning. As I played around with adding tags and reviews and seeing what kind of connections my books made with other books and readers, my inner geek was awakened. So to date I've managed to add about 60 books to my catalog. (Technically, "our" catalog, since it is fun to catalog the kids' books.) Some books are from memory, some are books we have on hand here. Unfortunately, I went a bit wild logging in our For Better or For Worse and Calvin and Hobbes collections. People will think that we're a bunch of jokers.
posted by John @ 6:34 AM
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