Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Interwebby things

OK, I’m going to get it all out up front: this post is a big, fat fraud.  This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from the Broke and the Bookish is all about our top ten bookish websites, apps, thingummydoodles and wotsits.  I don’t have a top ten of these.  In fact, excluding other book blogs, I have the following:

1.         Amazon.  Sorry but I love the site.  And they are even on my phone.  Penury, thy name is Falaise!

2.         Alibris UK.  This is a jolly good online store for out of print and secondhand books in the UK.

3.         Fantastic Fiction.  Pick an author who writes or wrote in English and there’s a pretty good chance that they will be listed on here, with a potted biography and, more importantly, a complete bibliography.  Good for sad completists and order junkies like me.

4.         London Libraries Consortium.  This site has put online the entire library catalogues of 12 London boroughs.  You can make reservations and order books to borrow from all of them.  Excellent for book lovers in the participating boroughs.

5          Online newspaper review sections.  Oddly enough, I am not a fan of the Times book section online which is poor, despite being behind a pay wall.  I do like the Independent and the New York Times book sections.

And that is just about it.  I do apologise to any of you who dropped by in hope of finding a hidden Internet gem or a technological bookish diamond in the rough.  Nothing to be seen here, I’m afraid.  I’m just not very up to date with the online world.  I used to be a bit of an early adopter of technological things and always knew what was going on out there but now…..not so much.  Indeed, things are now so bad that I have had to lure you here into my web of techie uselessness to ask two questions.

Firstly, I have a Twitter account (@2606Books).  I’ve even followed a few people and posted a few Tweets but I’m a bit mystified.  What, actually, is it for?  What can I do with it?  And how do I find people on it?  By the way, feel free to follow me if you’d like.

Secondly, I’ve just signed up to Goodreads.  So far, I’ve wasted an enjoyable few minutes at work adding a few books to my shelf but other than acting as a geeky list type thing, again, what is it for and what can I do with it?  All suggestions (of a legal and painless nature) will be gratefully accepted.

I’d like to be better connected and I am enjoying looking at everyone else’s posts. So thank you for all your posts.  Next week, the topic is rebels in literature and, as I will be back on more solid ground, I promise to be more interesting.

  

8 comments:

Ellie said...

I love Goodreads to keep track of my books, but I'm a huge book hoarder and have that many that I need some help remembering what I bought 2 years ago and still haven't read. I have a lot of non-blogger friends on there so it's nice to keep track of what they're reading too. Some people use the groups a lot on there and there's giveaways (a few gems amongst the self-published masses).

Bev Hankins said...

I have Fantastic Fiction on my list too!

I've just gotten onto Goodreads in the spring, so I'm finding my way around. But, being a book list geek, I love tracking my books on there (I'm still in the process of adding them all). There is also a link where you can sign up to try and win books and there are groups of all sorts if you're interested in socializing about books & bookish topics. I like reading the reviews and seeing what some of my non-blogging friends are reading.

Anne@HeadFullofBooks said...

I actually used this weeks' meme to create a masterlist of great bookish sites for myself, updating as I went along. I thought I wouldn't have anything unique to add but as it turns out I have a few sites no one less has mentioned.

Anonymous said...

New to Twitter, huh? Welcome! There's lots you can do on Twitter, but I'd suggest starting off by reading this FAQ. It gives you a basic look at what Twitter is, how you can follow people, and what you can do with it.

I'd also suggest that you follow @1book140 -- it's a book club on Twitter. Every month members of the club vote for what to read, and then the discussions roll from there. You can read more about 1book140 here.

As for Goodreads...it's really up to you. I keep track of my books using Listography and Bookpedia, but a lot of readers rely heavily on the reviews when making decisions. I haven't used Goodreads much yet, but this post posits that the reviews at Goodreads are far superior to those on sites like Barnes and Noble and Amazon. Worth a read, for sure.

Hope I haven't overwhelmed you with info. Happy reading, and I hope you find the links helpful!

Falaise said...

Thanks everyone (and especially couchpotatocritic) for the helpful comments - I feel much more clued up now!

Jackie (Farm Lane Books) said...

I have signed up to goodreads, but don't use it very much. I like to read the reviews of others, but I think it requires a lot of maintenence to create good recommendations and I have enough books added to my TBR through blogging already.

I like twitter, but it is a big time suck. I find it most useful for chatting with other bloggers and keeping up to date with events in publishing. I suggest following as many people as you can think of and then just watching for a while - you should start to get the hang of it after watching for a bit.

Sarah M said...

I love Goodreads, and am on it almost as much as my own blog. I cross post all my blogs there, and try to friend all the blogs I follow. This makes it so easy to find who else has reviewed the book, and see what they thought of it.

Blogger said...

Do you need free Facebook Followers?
Did you know you can get these ON AUTO-PILOT & TOTALLY FREE by registering on Like 4 Like?