Social reading (sorry no chatons this week, I am getting down to business here)

I am young(ish), and of a generation that 'knows computers' (more-or-less) so to speak. But this term 'social reading' was entirely new to me. My mother even asked what it was, and I realized today that what I told her was not right, at all (I thought it had something to do with RSS feeds and reading social media 'stuff' all in one place).

Well, lo-and-behold it has to do with the reading of books--that sure made me happy! I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I prefer reading a book over reading social media 'things.' Does this make me anti-social? Well maybe before, but now that I found out about social reading....maybe not any more!

I must admit, I have never used Bibliocommons to do anything besides searching items and placing holds. So this is my first (real) exercise, not only social reading, but with Bibliocommons as well.

So I used my personal library card to log into Bibliocommons. I made a list called 'Currently Reading' and added A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (since that is what I am reading currently)....and voilà, I made my first comment. *I already know I will like this!* Finally, I used this item again to complete Thing 10, I read through the comments and found the silliest one there (I like silliness).

From here....well onto Goodreads I suppose, which I have used in the past to look for things but have never partaken in what it offers.

Hey NB 23 Thingers
I am going to throw out a question that I would appreciate answers to! When we are looking at these comments and users, does this bring together all of Bibliocommons? I am wondering because I always assumed these users were those who belonged to our system, but the person I decided to follow belongs to Park Ridge Library (that does not exist in NB, if it does I don't know where I have been). Thanks!



Well this was a weekly-post lacking in cat-talk. So for your viewing pleasure here is a random picture of Fawkes

So you thought this was going to be about cats?....

...well in reality it's going to be about Lemons (and maybe Tweets & the Twitter-verse, since it's Week 2's topic of discussion)...

Until this very moment, give-or-take a few [several] mintues, I have avoided Twitter because I just never got it. I created an account a few years ago, tried following people, but the only thing that followed were emails to my Gmail account that I never followed-up on.

An aside: One thing I will follow-up on is doing my utmost to give my cat a dog-complex as well as encourage her to become a Lemon, like me, as well (perhaps by administering drops of lemon juice in her water-bowl??). Whoops, I said this wasn't going to be about cats.

My apologies, I got off-topic....Twitter...I created an account, handle (a new definition for my vocabulary, to be filed alongside lemon-cat) HilaryLemon, all that was pretty straight-forward. I found a couple twitterers (another new word?...yes! I checked their glossary) to follow, and then I did something I have been dreading since Twitter became so popular...tweeting (but I had to because Thing 6 told me to do it!).

And it is done, as I said in my very first tweet, I avoided it for however many years, but here is the proof:

Some Lemon- and Twitter-things for your viewing pleasure:

Liz Lemon

The Lemon Song by Led Zeppelin

Twitter-search of 'Lemons'

I got a cat, and a blog (somewhat reluctantly)

For my first post I thought I would relate my experiences of acquiring a new blog and acquiring a new cat:

1) I never really wanted a cat, and I never really wanted a blog....

• No cat reason: I have always been a dog-person, and it's much harder to find apartments that will allow dogs than it is to find ones that will take cats.
• No blog reason: I just never thought I had enough interesting material to write about.

2) ...but here I am with both...

• Reason for cat: an opportunity arose to provide a kitten with a home, and since I can't have a dog at the moment, I thought 'why not?'
• Reason for blog: mostly 23 Things NB, and since we needed a blog to complete this, I thought 'well I have to!'

3) ...and so far it has not been as nearly as bad as I thought, and much easier to get started.

• Cats: I didn't have to do to much to get ready for her arrival and (as many people know) she is self-sufficient, so yeah, easy. And so much fun!
• Blogs: Since I have had a Gmail account for a few years now (I made the changeover from Hotmail) setting up my new blog was, well, very easy and fun figuring out what you can do (notice my hyper-linked titles and I even uploaded a photo with caption and all)!

All that being said, I am as happy as can be with both!


So there is my first blog post and here is Fawkes (the namesake of both Guy Fawkes and Fawkes the Pheonix of Harry Potter stardom). As you can see she has a dog tag. I may be giving her a complex, but I had to fulfill my want and need of a dog in some way.

Happy trails with 23 Things NB!