Thing 35: Books 2.0

You know, you glance down a list of 23 Things and right away you see some Things that attract you more than others. Thing 35 is probably the most attractive Thing on the current list.

I've been on LibraryThing since 2006. I don't feel like picking up another site for cataloging my books since I'm mostly happy with LT in this regard, plus I have a book database on my home computer. Still, I enjoyed seeing what other sites had to offer. I liked that Lib.rario.us is set up to let you enter other media besides books, but beyond that, it just seemed to be playing catch-up to the more established book sites (and light print on a dark background is difficult to read for long periods). Ditto on catch-up for BookJetty. They're justifiably proud of being linked to library catalogs, but I can look up books in libraries--or on Amazon.com--on LT. Plus, as far as I can tell from their screenshot of a book details page, they don't include cataloging information like call numbers, which is something I specifically enjoy. ITrackMine definitely adds value with its ability to track item loans, not only that you lent a book to your friend, but in what condition your friend returned it to you (and if they returned it). This is not something LT is set up for, and while I can do that with my private database, ITrackMine's "circ module" is more sophisticated. The reports feature also looks easier to use than LT's. Too bad the design of the site makes me think of the 1950s. aNobii doesn't seem to do anything that other sites don't do (I see whoever described it on the More 23 Things wiki said, "is yet another collection management site"). I got the same impression with BookTagger, although maybe its online book clubs are easier to manage than the discussion groups in LT.

I'm not likely to be reading a book on my cell phone anytime soon, it being too primitive to support these services. If I wanted to badly enough, I'd find a way to do so, but based on these offerings, I'm not motivated to try. I thought about following TwitterLit on Twitter--they even have an iPhone app I could use--but I realized that I just wasn't that interested. For the other services...look, I carry books with me 90% of the time. I just can't work up much enthusiasm for this aspect of Web 2.0, although I'm glad it's out there in case I change my mind.

I've got over 250 unread books at home. I won't need to use a reader's advisory service for years, if ever. BookStumpers looked promising though, because I too have partially-remembered books from childhood that I'd like to track down. And I might play on ReadingTrails someday, just to get a better feel of how it works.

I'll have to get back to you later about the resources for online book clubs. I have a penchant for books that no one else wants to read. But I'm in a fledgling online book club at the moment, and since its current home (Facebook) is awkward, I may look into these and see if I should recommend that we relocate.

If I enjoyed audiobooks, I bet I'd enjoy these online ways to listen to them. Librivox sounds both ambitious and noble. I'm impressed that Open Culture gleans its materials from reputable universities (when something's "free," you might very well wonder about its quality).

I joined BookCrossing about the same time I joined LibraryThing. I've released several books into the wild; rarely does anyone report that they've found one. But yes, one of my books was last seen headed for Hawaii. It's fun, as long as you can live with the uncertainty of ever hearing of your books again.

The Internet doesn't lack book reviews--why are people wondering if reading is declining? So now I have somewhere else to go besides Amazon.com, Library Journal, Facebook, LT, BC, etc. to look for reviews. You could spend so much time researching books that you'd never have time to read them! (Did I mention the number of unread books I have at home...?). But when I look up a book review, it's because I'm either thinking about reading the book or have just read it and want to know what others think of it. With The Complete Review, it looked like they review only certain books, in an effort to promote them. I suspect our tastes will rarely overlap.

No children in my private life, no children in my professional life. So, not much need to play with Web 2.0 tools for children's books. As for the book rental services, my first thought was that why would I pay for what a library does for free? Then I saw Bookswim rents college textbooks. I'm in school. I should see if they handle MLIS texts. Suddenly, this sounds practical as all get-out.

Ah, Facebook. And ah, Facebook's book apps. I believe over the past year, I've tried them all. I'm currently using Visual Bookshelf, not because I think it's a wonderful app, but because it comes closest to what I want. What I want is for LT to put together a Facebook app, but they've been procrastinating on that since 2007 at least, and I've given up on them. I like the idea of showing off my current reads. When I find myself feeling uncomfortable about it, this is encouragement to weed my friends list on Facebook. If I'm really bothered by someone seeing what I'm reading, chances are, we're not friends in any sense of the word.

Thing 31: More Twitter

I just made a rough count of how many links there were to this Thing--articles, applications, badges, etc.--and came up with 118. If all the More 23 Things have that many links to explore, it truly will be a challenge to get through the program by May 20.

Suffice it to say that clicking through those approximately 118 links to do Thing 31 wasn't happening, especially as I still haven't warmed up to Twitter in the first place (but as promised, I do drop by and update it every now and then and scramble to keep up with others' tweets). I ended up skimming the list, trying to pick out the most promising. Since Thing 27, we have set up a Twitter account at work, so I forwarded the links to David Lee King's posts to our Twitterer. I also glanced over the "9 Ways Twitter Can Help in the Real World" article. I guess I've been hanging out in a law library too long: when the author jokingly listed becoming a super-stalker as one of the 9 hints, I just went, "No, that really isn't funny," and stopped reading right then. (After which, "Get Facebook friends to use Twitter without them even knowing" sounded downright creepy).

Of all the "fun" things listed for Twitter, the most attractive was the one that integrated it with LibraryThing. After all, unlike Twitter, I enjoy using LT. But then I was done in by being too much of a cataloger: when it said that it searched Amazon as the default, I just couldn't bear it (I use Library of Congress as my first search site)!

I've been more attracted to Twitter when I haven't been working through the Twitter website itself. I've got TwitterFon on my iPod touch, and it streamlines Twitter nicely. It's also easy to use when I'm out and about--which is about the only time I'm doing anything interesting enough that I'd consider twittering. I'm interested in TweetDeck too, but it's too big for a dial-up connection to handle and I haven't gotten around to downloading it somewhere else to my flash drive and carrying it home. So as you may guess, since the web is my least favorite way of accessing Twitter, I haven't done a thing with my Twitter page other than choose one of the most basic templates.

No one writes neutrally about Twitter, do they? I glanced over "The 5 Stages of Twitter Acceptance" and noted that acceptance is considered the desireable outcome. Even the suggested articles for those of us "struggling" with Twitter (I am not struggling: it's not terribly complicated to use) mostly seemed to take the approach that using Twitter is what we should want to do. "The Limitations of Twitter" was irrelevant to my situation. I wanted to point out to the author of "What Exactly is the Point of Twitter?" that maybe his friends were constantly on Twitter, so that it made sense for him to check in multiple times a day and stay in touch with them that way, but my friends mostly aren't on Twitter at all, so why should I bother? That said, I did enjoy "The Inspiration that is Twitter." I don't hate Twitter and I find the phenomenon itself interesting--I just resent feeling pressured to enjoy it (sort of, if you don't find Twitter to be a crucial element of your social networking experience, you're obviously not using it properly).

in-between thing: twitter

Some time later, and no, I have not yet experienced the ecstacy that is Twitter. It still feels like I'm saying random, meaningless drivel into the void. I have, however, started finding a practical use for Twitter when it comes to following others. Following groups, organizations, businesses, and so on is proving to be informative. The groups that are on Twitter for professional reasons aren't wasting their 140 characters in random, meaningless drivel; they're posting actual news, using links to connect readers to more in-depth information. In 140 characters, I can decide if the story is something I want to know more about, and if it isn't, I haven't spent a lot of time on it. It might be nice if some of the organizations on Facebook moved this sort of thing to Twitter. For example, I connected to Magers & Quinn (a bookstore) on Facebook. I don't mind hearing about their upcoming events or their recommended books, but Facebook is feeding that onto my Wall, the same as if they were one of my friends. I'd be satisfied with getting that sort of news in a tweet, knowing that I could learn more from their blog, their newsletter, and so on.

Thing 27: Twitter

The hypothetical dedicated readers of this blog will have noticed that I haven't posted since February 4. Now part of this was because of catching That Cold and being busy at work, but it was also because I could see that the next Thing was Twitter and I just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for it. Unfortunately, I still can't.

I signed up for Twitter about a week ago and have tried to post daily. I've found a few people to follow and one person is following me (doesn't that sound like stalking?). I get that Twitter is microblogging, but my preferences run toward macroblogging: when I blog, I want to get into a topic and explore it at some length. This is not something you do when you have only 140 characters to work with.

I agree that Twitter would be more interesting if I had more connections there. More Things advises inviting people you know to join. I don't think I can in good conscience, because there's nothing to offer them. I readily admit, I wasn't enthusiastic about Facebook when I joined, but after a while, I realized that there were things about it I liked: applications that helped me socialize (vs. setting my teeth on edge), ways to find people I'd lost contact with, a way to blog while maintaining some privacy, etc. All Twitter is is the Facebook status feed. If my friends are already on Facebook, what do any of us need another status feed for? And heck, you can write more than 140 characters on Facebook. To be fair, I like that on Twitter you're not obliged to start your tweet with your name--but it looks like in Facebook's next incarnation, you may not have to deal with that either.

I note that others seem to be having trouble warming up to Twitter. The only person I get frequent tweets from has nothing to do with the More Things program. The people I'm following who are working their way through More Things have put out a few tweets and then quit. Heck, even mnmorethings, the More Things own Twitter identity, seems to have given up after January 29!

It's different for an institution like a library. I see that if you had actual news for your followers, Twitter would be a good way of getting them the bare bones quickly. Maybe I just lead too dull a life for Twitter.

I'm going to try to be quietly active on Twitter for the rest of the More Things program, to give it a fair try. Maybe I'll ask the one active tweeter in my life what she likes about it. But like with lots of the photo apps from 23 Things, this is an aspect of Web 2.0 that just doesn't fill a void in my life.