Member: bergs47

I like a lot of it actually - Silk, Luther, Zen, the mini-series - plus lots of other British series. Silent Witness is a favourite, Foyle's War, Doctor Who and Game of Thrones, naturally! Also older stuff like The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Midsomer Murders, Morse, even Ab Dab.

posted by adpaton at 7:14 am (EST) on May 14, 2013

I do them but very few book reviews are printed - I review quite a lot of dvds though. I get trash which I pass on to an after-care place for teens in Alex. They love all the horror and juvenile comedies. I buy the BBC stuff myself though - and keep it!

posted by adpaton at 4:08 am (EST) on May 14, 2013

Cut backs - they no longer pay staffers for columns. No pay, no work

posted by adpaton at 7:53 am (EST) on May 13, 2013

LOL, you are so right! Should have listed that one as well.
Blou goes like this:

oneindig
here
so ewig

wyd
en grensloos
vry

sonder ophou
aanhou
en aanhou
- sonder perke

waarom
is ek gebreklik gebore
here
- sonder vlerke

posted by Bluerabella at 12:18 pm (EST) on Apr 26, 2013

Goeie Dag!

Mijn Afrikaans is niet zo goed, maar ik lees en versta het wel.
U mijn Nederlands ook?

Mooie taal,die u heeft. Een flink aantal jaren geleden heeft onze toenmalige dichter des vaderlands, Gerrit Komrij, een dikke pil gemaakt om een bloemlezing van Afrikaanse poezie te geven. Baie mooi.

Blue

posted by Bluerabella at 1:48 pm (EST) on Apr 23, 2013

Hi Bergs, have you seen Exclusive having a warehouse sale Hammer St Strydom Park Randburg at R50 a kg started on Thursday but can only get there later today . also, so I am told Exclusive Zone branch Rosebank closing down so stock is 50%off but also nOt yet been there, Greetings for Pesach . K

posted by Africansky1 at 3:18 am (EST) on Mar 23, 2013

Shalom, Bergs,
Thank you very much again for the thread and for your kind note. My paternal grand-grand....-father came to Romania from Lithuania in the 1820s as a youngster, in order to escape the 25-years military service imposed by Czar Nicholas I.
I met a few times in Tel Aviv Jean ANCEL, particularly in 1992 when there was there a seminar of Israeli and Romanian specialists international seminary on the history of Jews in Romania. He was furiously collecting documents on this subject - I'm afraid that he was less effective as a writer of history, because he had suffered a lot during the Holocaust period and he was too bitter for a normal intellectual intercourse with Christian Romanians. I attended a similar seminar in Bucharest in 1996, but I cannot remember if he was there.
A good history (in English) of the Holocaust period in Romania was written some 10 - 15 years ago by an American, Radu IOANID, connected to the Washington, D. C. Holocaust Museum. It was part of a five volume overall history of Jews in Romania, published by Tel Aviv University.
I'm since the age of 13 a History fan, but without any academic training. I was interested by the Holocaust already 40 years ago, when it wasnt yet as "fahionable" as today.
I take the liberty of marking you as an LT friend.
I believe that e-mail is usually more practical than LT for exchanging messages; my address is: nisandel@fastwebnet.it. If it's OK for you, pls let me have yours.
Kind regards and
SHABBAT SHALOM!!!
Alessandro

posted by nisgolsand at 9:14 am (EST) on Jan 18, 2013

I do indeed. And I'm always around, just not as active as I would like. Just returned from a work trip to Mauritius - has the great Mauritian novel been written yet? I'll see what there is on LT.

posted by adpaton at 8:50 am (EST) on Oct 24, 2012

I enjoyed your Roth review - he's a good writer but has become something of a sacred cow.

posted by adpaton at 6:48 am (EST) on Oct 24, 2012

Hi there - I have read "What I love about cricket...etc" but cannot at the moment a) lay my hands on it and b) remember how it ended!! However, I do recall that the teenager in question does become a sporadic 'lover' of cricket (I'm sure it does not end as they are about to attend the test!). I will try to lay my hands on the book and give you a fuller answer! regards
Jonmore

posted by jonmore at 5:31 am (EST) on Oct 15, 2012

Hello,
I enjoy updating books related to history or geographical places. I suppose it is because I know that if I tag a book, say, Henry VIII, the book will now be included in a specific list on that person. I have often used lists of books tagged with historical characters, especially lesser known ones.

posted by joririchardson at 9:02 am (EST) on Oct 12, 2012

Regarding your question about A Handful of Dust. I cannot help you. I do not have a copy of the book which I read more than two years ago. I would encourage you to check out a copy at a library.

posted by jwhenderson at 12:00 pm (EST) on Oct 5, 2012

I have the book but haven't read it because I was told it was sad and I avoid anything sad if I can. I bought the book for my daughter who loved it - plus The Gates and The Bells by the same author. Keeping teenagers reading [reading ANYTHING, even children's books or comics] is so important I often buy her books which I generally read. Now, with Lost Things she was struck by the Wolves which have haunted her and given her nightmares, literally, but she didn't get the WW2 allusion. I'll discuss it with her - thanks very much for the comment. Not sure how my column on Nursey Rhymes ties in with Connolly but please keep reading.

posted by adpaton at 5:16 am (EST) on Sep 3, 2012

That's the right place. I should have looked before I asked.

Very little is getting done on LT these days and in particular, almost no bug fixes.

posted by bw42 at 11:36 am (EST) on Aug 7, 2012

I had not noticed but you are correct. I don't know about the last week statistics but the all-time have not been updated in at least 6 days. Are you going to make a bug report?

posted by bw42 at 11:22 am (EST) on Aug 7, 2012

Well, he was and she did. Nothing wrong with that.

posted by adpaton at 8:38 am (EST) on Jul 24, 2012

I know: I went back to the column to see what I could have said that was so offensive and insulting. Still don't know but, as my editor says, you'll always offend SOMEONE. It amazes me actually how many letters of complaint I do get. Well, at least - as you say - I have readers.

posted by adpaton at 9:22 am (EST) on Jul 17, 2012

Found info on Anna Smith in Musiker- a concise historical dictionary of Greater Johannesburg: Anna Hester Smith 1912-1992 " City Librarian of Johannesburg and Africana Museum director. Anna Smith joined the Johannesburg Public Library in 1938. In 1960 she was appointed City Librarian and director of the Africana Museum. From 1960 to 1965 she built up the library and museum on the foundations laid by R. F Kennedy, her predecessor. She increased the number of branch libraries to 31 and established branch museums, including the James Hall Museum of Transport and the Bensusan Museum of Photography and the Bernberg Museum. She also established specialized services, including art and photographic libraries, a gramophone record library and a cuttings collection.

Smith's greatest contribution was as bibliographer and Africana specialist. Her publications include the notes for the volume Claudius Water-colours in the Africana museum, a catalogue of decorative maps of South Africa and catalogues of numismatics.

Smith edited the Register van Afrikaans Poesie (1957) a standard reference work in Afrikaans literature. With Dr J Ploeger she produced the Pictorial Atlas of the History of the Union of South Africa. She was also the author of South Africa in the spread of Printing series. Her most famous book is possibly, Johannesburg Street Names. Other publications include Johannesburg Firsts, Treasures of the Africana Museum and Chronology of Johannesburg. She also made important contributions to the periodical, Africana Notes and News from its inception in December, 1943.

posted by Africansky1 at 5:22 am (EST) on Jun 20, 2012

Hi Manilo, I shall track down info on Anna Smith. Re the holdings of Wits University library- sometimes one finds via just the title and not the ISBN. I shall query whether they get everything published by the University Press ( which they should). I have just given the Wits Library the v neat republished booklet on the 1935 opening of the JPL library and also the souvenir of the 2012 opening of the redeveloped Library. I too can see a good book on S A authors and literature though there are bibliographies on S A History and SA economic history. But now very out of date. A good website is the Joburg City and its heritage pieces written by Lucille Davie . There was one good item on books on Jhb but I would like to get round to doing a bibliography with brief reviews of all I own ( and anything else I can find). But have a thousand things to do .... not enough time... Best wishes K

posted by Africansky1 at 12:18 pm (EST) on Jun 19, 2012

Hi Bergs, yes the task of adding books is continuing - on to the Jhb stuff now and just about finished the more general South African books. Re Anna Smith, I do not know of a website but I am sure I can find out more about here via the Johannesburg Public library- the librarians there are a v nice group of people and I've just written an article on the JPL for an architecture journal. Anna Smith did the Street Names of Johannesburg, also a book on Pictorial Jhb and then another on the treasures of the Africana museum and I know she was active in the journal of the museum and library. I shall see what I can track down. Best wishes.

posted by Africansky1 at 12:13 pm (EST) on Jun 19, 2012

Ivor - you are so right ! there is little on sa authors and even sa books - i am amazed to find books published and printed by Wits U not even being listed by the U library but listed on Amazon (?)
There is definitely scope here for an authoritive work on sa lit and authors

posted by Manlio_p at 11:32 am (EST) on Jun 19, 2012

If you dont mind I will send you a short list - thanks

posted by Manlio_p at 8:34 am (EST) on Jun 19, 2012

Ivor - I have had the same hassle - was under the impression that all isbn numbers were lodged with the library of congress - tried to publish a book a few years back and this was one of the prerequisites for obtaining an isbn no. However on 2 occasions have entered isbn numbers with no joy from any library on LT - also tried omitting first 3 digits but to no avail. The other thing that i have noticed is that one sometimes gets 3 versions of the same book same publisher,date,etc so obviously a duplicate entry in LT but you notice that 1 has say 6 members and the others a different amount - I have wondered why so many of my books have only 1 member - it seems almost impossible that with the huge subscription base on LT that no one else has a similar book - Hell even Des Troy has about 6 members and i never thought i would see another copy

posted by Manlio_p at 12:18 pm (EST) on Jun 14, 2012

Funny enough one of my old buddies who is a journalist for the Hobart Times in Tasmania put me on to LT.
I had written a little software app to catalogue but it was a pain filling everything in manually - have met africansky on LT - interesting lady - when i was at UCT in the 70's our lecturers would periodically be locked up for "suppresion of communism" and spend a few months on the island. Also at school in jhb (St MArtins) BOSS were constantly harassing the Anglican staff and had a permanent phone tap on the school lines !

posted by Manlio_p at 6:23 am (EST) on Jun 13, 2012

Hi Bergs47 - Thanks for your comments - The Des Troy book is such a poignant reminder of the 60's in SA.
Wonder who the real author was ? I have mostly South African/Africa books as I have spent most of my life travelling and working on the sub continent - I still have a few 1000 books to post on LB so check out some of my other titles - The diary of Michael Gumede is a good read and the complete antithesis of Des Troy
Regards
Manlio_p

posted by Manlio_p at 5:49 am (EST) on Jun 13, 2012

Hi Bergs - its possible that the chinese language edition is banned, I don't know, but it is certainly widely available here in English. My husband has been working in China off and on for 20+ yrs, but it is only in the last three years that we have moved to live here. Free to do so as I retired from the magistracy, kids all grown up and left home and it just seemed the logical thing to do for the next few years. It is certainly stimulating! I was delighted/amazed when the first SA restaurant in China opened here in BJ a couple of years ago - it is called Pinotage, and amongst other delights serves an upmarket Bunny Chow, Bobotie and potjekos! The world is getting smaller;-)

posted by herschelian at 9:36 am (EST) on Jun 12, 2012

Hi Bergs - thanks for putting me straight about Sandringham in Love Songs of Nathan J.Swirsky; I do actually know where Sandringham is so I have no idea why I didn't connect it when I wrote my mini review!
I havn't read Fat Years yet. My habit is always to enter books on Library Thing as soon as I buy/borrow them and then go back and rate them etc when I finally read them. I had a bit of a book buying blitz at The Bookworm (Beijing's famous English language bookshop/library/cafe) last Monday and came home with three new books, Fat Years was one of them.
I am still very much connected with SA even though I no longer live there. Each year I try to spend a few weeks in the country seeing friends, god-children etc. I'll be out for a wedding in late August.
Can you recommend any new SA fiction I should look out for?
Zai jian! Herschelian, (aka Jo)

posted by herschelian at 10:27 pm (EST) on Jun 8, 2012

Not a fan actually. What did you think of the ST Literary Awards Short Lists? Must admit I have read very few of the final delection..

posted by adpaton at 4:40 am (EST) on May 15, 2012

You'd be amazed at how few people are interested in doing anything more with a book than reading it. Even friends of mine who are librarians are quite happy to have their books mixed and unorderly and would never dream of sitting down and actually entering them on-line. Other people I know have started with a bang, as it were, then petered out after the initial enthusiasm wore off, and have now not visited the site in years.

I really admire anyone who enters 8000 books with proper tagging and notes etc. Unless I do it immediately - which I seldom do - I find I have forgotten the salient details and have to go back and check the content of the book so I know what keywords to apply etc etc.

As for my column, I am pretty much moved by the spirit: this year I am trying to reflect current events or holidays/feasts/festivals, although sometimes I am requested by a colleague to explore an avenue of interest. So it's Mother's Day for this coming Sunday - even Hallmark Holidays can have an interesting history.

posted by adpaton at 2:52 am (EST) on May 8, 2012

I've been into my books and it appears as Sue in my author line. I seem to be the only person with this book. Could you check again to make sure it's incorrect?

Thanks

And thanks for reading my column: sharing space with Barry Ronge is quite a challenge.

posted by adpaton at 9:55 am (EST) on May 7, 2012

Oh Gosh, thanks so much for pointing that out! I'll fix immediately

posted by adpaton at 9:51 am (EST) on May 7, 2012

Hi
Sorry never been to South Africa and don't know your brother in law :)

Shelleyrae

posted by shelleyraec at 10:33 pm (EST) on May 3, 2012

Margot Ste3ele q good colleague as was her husband Jerry . They are retired. I like your map of places visited. I only eter books I own _ I cant see much point in a virtual libraqry or books for the future. I've more than enough to keep me busy on what I own

posted by Africansky1 at 4:02 pm (EST) on Apr 25, 2012

Hi thanks for your message. I am a keen collector and gathered books all my life. sometimes need to discard. I have a 3room libraary and now retired I finally have the time to read, catalogue books and sort. and discard. I decided that I did not want task to go on forever so determinedly aim to catalogue an average of 100 books a day, . still to do my Africana (where I am sure we shall share titles). Yes I am delighted with the site and all it offers and keep on talking it up. It is a good option for Libaries and librarians _ I see both Wits and Univ of Pretoria are partof Overcat. I see you are reading David Medalie _ try Marginal Spaces celebrateing the worl of Ivan Vladislavic (edited by gerald Gaylard and published by Wits University Press). Good luck with your books and collecting. I like many of the authors you like under favourites, Try Jonathan Rabid, also David Daiches and David Cecil (now deceased). I like travel writers like Paul Theroux, Norman Lewis, Colin Thurbon
Regards Africansky

posted by Africansky1 at 2:30 pm (EST) on Apr 16, 2012

Thanks so much for the invitation to join the South Africa Group.I do enjoy reading about your country and was fortunate enough to visit Cape Town. Hopefully, sometime again I will be able to return, in the meantime I will keep traveling through my books.
Bueno11

posted by bueno11 at 3:21 pm (EST) on Mar 6, 2012

I do have many more books. It's just difficult to decide what to add. I've put a few more into the library.
Plus, it's like walking into a bookstore-as soon as I sit down to add books, I forget all the titles!

posted by groovykinda at 6:30 pm (EST) on Mar 1, 2012

I was also surprised that she omitted Librarything. I've never actually met her - I don't even know what city she is based in. With email, columnists never come into the office. I suggest you send a letter to Lifestyle, mentioning Librarything.

posted by adpaton at 4:26 am (EST) on Jan 30, 2012

Hi! Indeed, been back in South Africa since October last year and very happy to be back. Also nice to have our London books and South African books finally integrated. Will let you know what I think of the Pat Barker ... haven't read any of the trilogy yet myself. -- Riaan

posted by riaanw at 6:22 am (EST) on Jan 24, 2012

Hi

I read that book a long time ago, and of what i remember, parts of it do resemble the young indian in the urban call centres. but it doesnt reveal the negative side of such a lifestyle.
But then India is made up of much more than just the call centre employees, and so it is not entirely representative.

I am a woman.

Rose

posted by chained_rose at 7:00 am (EST) on Dec 1, 2011

hey bergs

i posted this today and thought you'd be interested:

"Borges and the Jews" by Ilan Stavans. This is a fasciinating study written by an expert on the latin american jewish experience. now available on a PDF file i happened across on line. If you are a Borges fan you will enjoy:

http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/wp-content/files_flutter/6173.pdf

posted by berthirsch at 6:21 pm (EST) on Nov 15, 2011

Hey! Mosselson is a name that no longer exists in the Low Countries. http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nfb/lijst_namen.php?operator=bw&naam=mossel
Maybe your ancestors came from Germany? If Afrikaans is your first language, we could easely write these messages in our mothertongue, I'm sure you will be able to understand Dutch. Last summer I read 'Agaat' (The way of the women) by Marlene van Niekerk. I wonder if you read any books of Dutch or Flemish authors? baukis

posted by Baukis at 5:15 pm (EST) on Nov 10, 2011

Hey!
Thank your for the invitation. I live in the Low Countries, never visited Suid-Afrika, but Riana Scheepers, Etienne van Heerden are my favourite authors. For Dutchspeaking people Afrikaans is quite easy to understand, the language has a lot of attractive words. I'm also very interested in Jiddish/Jewish literature...which shows the lost world of the Eastern-European Jews, the warm familyrelationships and the severe rules, often hard to understand when life is not dominated by any religion. baukis

posted by Baukis at 4:26 pm (EST) on Nov 8, 2011

Hi Bergs,

It might be because I've been at it for a good few years now :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy armchair travels!

posted by akeela at 12:14 pm (EST) on Nov 2, 2011

Hi bergs,
Hmmm, the all-time contributors are still showing under the top 200 (for the week) for me. I did notice it took a while to load, though.
cheers, whirled

posted by whirled at 8:07 am (EST) on Oct 21, 2011

You may write to me, sure.

posted by SuzanneM at 11:20 am (EST) on Jul 11, 2011

Thank you for sharing your story with me! Most of the information regarding censorship in South Africa came from the Beacon for Freedom of Expression database. It is a fantastic resource.

posted by PhoenixTerran at 12:07 pm (EST) on Jul 6, 2011

Hello Bergs, thank you for your interest in the BannedBooksLibrary. Unfortunately, the project is no longer active. (I should really make a note of that on the profile somewhere.) If you are still interested in contributing, please let me know. Browsing through the BannedBooksLibrary group will give you an idea of how things were working when the project was started. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Cheers and Happy Reading!

posted by PhoenixTerran at 8:44 am (EST) on Jul 6, 2011

Thanks for your reply. I love quotation books and must have close to 200. What is your special interest?
Regards

posted by jbdavid at 10:05 am (EST) on Jun 19, 2011

Yeoville is a very very "dark" place now i can tell you....when we went through there were bin fires on the street corners and lots of alarming youths walking around.....

The Blues and the All Blacks of course!!! We've not been down to watch the Rebels yet. I dont like this new format much to be honest.... would much prefer it to have stayed the way it was with just the extra match to play. But I understand how money & Tv run sport these days.....

posted by davybhoy at 9:24 pm (EST) on Jun 4, 2011

Yeah not sure about Freidel. Hes a good keeper but even for a keeper 40 is old. Gomes certainly cost us points with his howlers. All one really wants from a keeper is consistency and no mistakes and Gomes doesnt give us that. Despite Crouches red card, i still think Gomes should have saved 3 of Real Madrids goals plus the goal at the Lane.

I married an Aussie which is why we live here. There were 4 of us came over for the cup. Myself, my kiwi brother in law and my two sons. Bizarrely my eldest son (19) considers himself an Aussie and the younger (15) considers himself a kiwi!!! Both were born here but have Kiwi passports :-)

We all loved South Africa and had a great time. You are right about the cold. THe day NZ played Slovakia in Rustenburg we were absolutely freezing Bitterly bitterly cold......but usually it was okay. Fortunately NZ were playing in Nelspruit & Polokwane as well so we drove up to those cities ...stayed a few days at White River, did Kruger Park and drove through the Blyde River canyon... its a beautiful part of the world. Everyone we met was so friendly. Only scarey part was driving through Yeoville one night. I've never been more scared in my entire life....

posted by davybhoy at 3:57 am (EST) on Jun 4, 2011

LOL..... Believe it or not but after I got your message I checked your profile saw the map and clicked on the link. I then selected my countries, copied the text and went to update profile and pasted it under "about me".

Good season for Spurs last season but I am disappointed we finished 5th....I consider us to be better than either City or Arsenal. We fell away when Hud was injured....and i have to say I am not a fan of Pav either.

It looks like a long close season full of will Modric go or won't he?.......

We had a great time in Africa - went to 14 matches in 17 days....

posted by davybhoy at 12:42 am (EST) on Jun 3, 2011

Sorry about the year delay. I started studying and have not visited the site for a long time. I just finished exams yesterday and have some time between semesters altho in between I have to find time to do the insurance past. No I did not work for Liberty and the reason might surprise you. I started working for the old African Eagle which then changed to Anglo American Life and then to Southern Life. I was retrenched as a manager when Momentum took over.
Best Regards

posted by jbdavid at 10:43 pm (EST) on May 20, 2011

Oh goodness, what with typos, bad spelling, carelessness and irresolution its a wonder I don't have double the number of tags I do.

Thanks very much Berg

posted by adpaton at 9:29 am (EST) on May 12, 2011

Actually, I'm very grateful to you. I seldom have time to 'house keep' as it were and when I try my machine is so unbearbly slow when I edit tags that everything freezes for about 10 minutes. Any others you happen to notice will be recieved with sincere appreciation. I can't promise to fix them soon but I will when I have an hour or so to spare. Thanks again!

posted by adpaton at 5:43 am (EST) on May 12, 2011

I did change it and it seems fine on mine - maybe if you look again?

Gosh, I do so know what you mean about local Librarythingers. I was introduced to it by my cousin who was laid up after a foot op and gave me a lifetime membership for my birthday. However, as soon as she came back to work she lost interest. I too have tried to get librarian friends involved but, as you no doubt realise, it takes a certain kind of person. I love poking around looking at covers and adding keywords and checking recommendations. But then I also enjoy the weather forecast. It's not for everyone.

Oh goodness, the Sunday Times literary awards lists. Most of what I read does not get on or, if it does, gets no further than the long list. Since I am no diplomat my wisest course is to say nothing...

Aubrey

posted by adpaton at 6:45 am (EST) on May 11, 2011

Oh, what an idiot! Thanks

posted by adpaton at 6:25 am (EST) on May 10, 2011

I must admit that the sex scene was disquieting... :-)

posted by SimonMSmith at 7:22 am (EST) on Apr 27, 2011

No, we're not affiliated to liberty life in any way - our book club is called Liberty Book Club and we're a group of friends from Cape Town

posted by LibertyBookClub at 5:44 am (EST) on Apr 26, 2011

You should read G's book, it is good.

posted by SimonMSmith at 10:09 pm (EST) on Apr 24, 2011

no, he's a friend in Sydney. I am ex Pom, married to an ex SA, though... :-)

posted by SimonMSmith at 8:37 am (EST) on Apr 19, 2011

Vladislavic's book isn't an audio - a paperback. I read Jacobson's book on re-visting South Africa "The Electronic Elephant"; I've never read any of his fiction. Speaking of re-visiting SA, there's also David Smiedt's "Are We There Yet?"

posted by Seajack at 12:02 pm (EST) on Apr 11, 2011

Hi!

You don't seem to have "Portrait with Keys" in your South Africa list. I read it recently, finding it quirky, but interesting.

posted by Seajack at 10:10 am (EST) on Apr 11, 2011

Hi there,

Don't update your map. Delete it and make a new one!!

posted by Kinter66 at 4:55 am (EST) on Jan 10, 2011

You might be interested to know we have just recieved a few boxes of books from Jacana, including your cousin's book which will go on the list to be reviewed.

posted by adpaton at 8:13 am (EST) on Nov 3, 2010

Gosh sorry Bergs - I can't answer any of your questions. There are a couple of bookshops on LT, notably one from Pretoria, and publishers as well. Zed Books, for a start. Publishers are generally responsible for book launches but I must tell you they are seldom well attended unless the author is a Coetzee or a Cookson. Most of us are just too busy and the lure of cheap wine and finger snacks diminishes mightily once you reach middle age! But having a launch as an LT event would be a grand idea because there are bound to be lots of people who are not necessarily in the media who would love to attend if only they knew where and when.

posted by adpaton at 3:26 am (EST) on Nov 3, 2010

Hola,

too bad, it would have been fun. enjoy your wonderful cruise.

posted by berthirsch at 6:09 pm (EST) on Nov 1, 2010

Hey Bergs-

do you know yet if you will in Argentina/BsAs in December. We will be there from Dec 3 to Dec 16. It would be fun to meet up and talk books, jewish communities in the diaspora, etc.

re BsAs and the Diaspora - have you seen HABITATS - a journal of the diaspora;they had one edition dedicated to Buenos Aires.

posted by berthirsch at 6:29 pm (EST) on Oct 27, 2010

No, not South African. I learned to read Afrikaans when I was writing my dissertation.

posted by shamira at 10:49 am (EST) on Sep 24, 2010

Hi, sorry I didn't respond to your message sooner ... I haven't logged into LibraryThing in a while. Some of my research deals with South Africa, which is why I have so many books on its politics and history.

posted by shamira at 11:59 am (EST) on Sep 22, 2010

You can't see anything because the feature is not currently available. That's what I meant by "the disappearance of the feature." I don't recall if this was ever explained, on that thread or elsewhere. I didn't reread the whole thread, I just looked for the first post indicating that the feature was gone.

posted by eromsted at 10:14 am (EST) on Sep 22, 2010

thanks for your comment. yes, i only list the books that i currently have on my shelves. The Harold Robbins books, paperbacks, are long gone although well-remembered. Does STONE FOR DANNY FISHER ring a bell for you?

occassionally i will list a book i have borrowed from my local library so that i can then write a review. It is interesting for me to make contact with you in South Africa. I also see that you have visited Argentina;i often visit there.

I may reconsider and list some of my old favorites that i no longer have.

wishing you a good new year.

posted by berthirsch at 6:13 pm (EST) on Sep 21, 2010

Hi there Bergs, very interesting collection of books, you must be quiet the book warm, I am also a fan of Bill Bryson. Speak soon

posted by DylanB at 4:25 pm (EST) on Sep 20, 2010

Actually, I have already joined the Jewish Fiction group, thank you.

posted by carolcat at 3:45 am (EST) on Sep 19, 2010

Don't you think though that The Master takes fewer liberties with the facts? As I said, I enjoyed The Tudors but it certainly does sensationalise history and reduce it to tabloid bytes. Wolf Hall on the other hand takes a radically different approach to Wolsey, Cromwell and Thomas More without massaging the historical facts too much. I know TV can never reflect the sort of interior dialogue we get in good literary fiction as it is of its very nature a surface medium and good TV must be action-driven. It's just that - for an historical purist - the action in The Tudors is of such a lurid and scandalous nature!

posted by adpaton at 1:43 am (EST) on Sep 9, 2010

I don't have MNet but was given the series several years ago to review since my [then] editor knew I was [at the time] a big fan of the lead, Jonathan Rhys Meyers. I have seen only the first season and think it is a grand show - pull of tension, drama, romance and excitement. Of course, it bears even less relation to reality than Phillipa Gregory's books and for that I have to condemn it since a generation who know no better will believe it to be gospel truth and it will colour their perception and dictate their knowledge of the Tudor regime forever.
I review books for the Sunday Times, but I am just one of many. I used to be their thriller reviewer but now they have another one so you won't see my name in print often. I used to do a lot of work for The Weekender before it closed. I also review music and dvds.

posted by adpaton at 1:21 am (EST) on Sep 8, 2010

Thank you for that source. I'm not very expert on detective and thriller fiction, but I'll do what I can (and sources are always welcome, so I've bookmarked it).

Fijne avond, Matthijs

posted by BarkingMatt at 11:28 am (EST) on Sep 7, 2010

On any work page you'll find a number of copies near the top. Click that a couple of times and you'll force a recount.

All the best, Matt

posted by BarkingMatt at 2:21 am (EST) on Sep 7, 2010

That seems to take most of the fun out of it. I'll stick to doing it myself I think.

posted by adpaton at 9:54 am (EST) on Sep 1, 2010

Gosh, are you really in the actuarial profession? I had no idea! I just think of figures as being very satisfying because they are so logical.

I am not sure what you mean by tagging electronically: I just type in my tags then visit my tag list periodically to try and ensure consistency. If I ever have the time I'll work out a thesaurus of terms and go through my books, doing them properly.

Graphic novels are not for everyone and I must say I absolutely agree with you to a large extent re anything with 'man' in the title. Superman and Spiderman and X-men and the whole Marvel menagerie - not to mention the DC caped crusaders - are really for the young and immature. You might say the same of Batman and Judge Dred etc but there is a huge difference, believe me. Barry Manilow and David Bowie were contemporaries, they both sang 'pop' music, but they had little else in common. and so it is with graphic novels...

I quite liked the first half of District 9, just hated it when it turned into yet another Fugitive film with an undisguised xenophobic parable. But then I enjoy fantasy. I know its not for everyone - I inherited my love of it from my dad. But I loathed and detested Avatar! Never allow yourself to be persuaded to see it! It was nearly as bad as an X-men or a Hulk film, which is saying a lot.

posted by adpaton at 9:17 am (EST) on Sep 1, 2010

You do lists, I am a compulsive keyworder. Well, tagger, to use the modern computer parlance.

Good luck finding anyone to take you up on your offer: I have been distressed at how many people - professionals with postgraduate qualifications - barely have a bookshelf in their house. Magazines, cookery books, maybe a few professional journals and a scattering of library books or airport novels, and that's it. They read and discard.

Even friends who have books - including librarians - have them piled willy-nilly into shelves in no order, sometimes not even distinguishing fiction from non-fiction, let alone alphabetising anything. Part of the fun in a library is, to me, the ordering of it, the comparing and contrasting, the extraction of the essence where possible without diluting the flavours. If only I had turned that anal side of my character to accountancy or actuarial science I would be rich now - rich enough to be able to store all my books on shelves instead of in boxes under the stairs, relying on LibraryThing as a memoire of ownership and content.

posted by adpaton at 8:19 am (EST) on Sep 1, 2010

I am, of course, but not the Paton family you mean - ie, no relation to Alan!

The Sunday Times has never done an article on LibraryThing but two of the books columnists have mentioned it - Michele Magwood gave it quite a plug in 2007 and more recently Kate Sidley referenced the site. They were both beguiled by the lists which are probably what interests me the least, although I gather you are an enthusiast.

I have introduced a couple of people to LibrayThing but they are librarians, who have a special relationship with books. I don't think it really appeals to anyone who is not a bibliomaniac, and they are somewhat thin on the ground in South Africa.

posted by adpaton at 6:56 am (EST) on Sep 1, 2010

Hello,
I see you've just added Brooklyn. I wanted to let you know that there is a discussion of Brooklyn currently going on on one of the 75 Book Challenge threads. Go to http://www.librarything.com/topic/95336 to join the discussion!
Lisa

posted by labfs39 at 11:32 pm (EST) on Aug 26, 2010

Thank you for taking an interest.

As you can see I'm not a very good correspondent.

Was there anything in particular that you wanted to talk about?

posted by sheherazahde at 2:10 pm (EST) on Aug 26, 2010

I like cruising

posted by bergs47 at 11:40 am (EST) on Aug 26, 2010

You´re quite right. I need to do another "listing " session soon. Now I´m off to do what millions of moms do in the afternoons...mom`s taxi.

Enjoy the rest of your day. "Speak" to you soon.

posted by startomai at 8:21 am (EST) on Aug 26, 2010

Hi bergs47, thank you for inviting me to join this group.

I must admit, I haven´t logged on to LT for quite some time. Seems like there`s been a revival of sorts :). I found it interesting to read how "making lists" is a hobby for you. I do someting similar, but unfortunately on little pieces of paper that drift around in the study until I have a big Clean-Up. In addition to adding books to LT, I have now started to keep a notebook, which I fill randomly with names of books I still want to read, interesting thoughts, quotes and ideas.

At the moment I`m still happy selectively reading through the "Afrikaans Fiksie" section at our local library.

Annalise

posted by startomai at 8:03 am (EST) on Aug 26, 2010

I've been knitting 4-6 pair of socks a month and I'm not a very fast knitter. I haven't mastered reading and knitting at the same time so it is my reading that is suffering.

posted by ddeej56 at 10:33 am (EST) on Aug 25, 2010

I'm female. I don't have any of your works. Ravelry is very similar to LibraryThing except it is: "Ravelry is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, weavers and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools, project and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration. The content here is all user- driven; we as a community make the site what it is. Ravelry is a great place for you to keep notes about your projects, see what other people are making, find the perfect pattern and connect with people who love to play with yarn from all over the world in our forums."

I used to read 20-30 books a month, but have become addicted to knitting socks and am lucky to read a book a week now. I am a member of several groups on Ravelry that have monthly KAL's (knit-a-longs). Some groups go through a particular designer's book, another has a certain color of yarn each month, a particular designer's pattern each month, etc. It is a lot of fun and gives me something constructive to do while looking for a job.

posted by ddeej56 at 11:21 am (EST) on Aug 24, 2010

On 9/11 it will be one year since I've been without a job. There are 100-500 applicants for every job opening here in Illinois and my profession has pretty much gone by the wayside - mainframe computer programming. My age and sex are already against me and I'm not a minority race. So my job prospects are already really limited. I don't want some narrow-minded employer to have any other reason not to hire me. If employers are looking on facebook they might look here too.

posted by ddeej56 at 10:17 am (EST) on Aug 24, 2010

Bergs,

Well, your comment pulled me out of deep thought writing a review for a novel about the Armenian genocide...and it has been almost three years since I read "The Elephanta Suite"...but the memory popped up instantly...the memory of those connections. Why? Because they were a fun surprise.

Pat yourself on the back! You are a close reader and discovered them on your own and I Knowing about them adds nothing to the stories.

Of course you should not spoil the fun for other readers! Let them discover the hidden surprise -- like a small toy in a Cracker Jack box. Oh, I see you are in South Africa and you might not understand that connection. In the USA, Cracker Jacks are a sweet treat (sugared popcorn) for children that come in a small box. Buried inside the box is always a small toy...the surprise. Do you have something like that in South Africa? My husband and I just watched "Invictus" on our DVD last night. We enjoyed it very much. Nice coincidence...

Barbara

posted by msbaba at 12:06 pm (EST) on Aug 4, 2010

I don't have a clue. I just do. heh.

posted by Collectorator at 11:37 am (EST) on Aug 3, 2010

Sure, I'll enter the series info. I'll have look this evening. Paul

posted by paulhurtley at 8:41 am (EST) on Jul 29, 2010

Hi: I like to keep individual issues of periodicals separate, and create a series to link them, so I encourage you to do the same. I can imagine other approaches, but I think this is the way it is usually done here.

Paul

posted by paulhurtley at 7:17 am (EST) on Jul 29, 2010

Yes, I'd definitely separate them. I think it's the sheer length of the similar part of the title that bunged them all in together. They all seem to belong to the same person: if you look at the owner's library you'll see that they have gone to a lot of trouble tagging the issues separately (it's not so obvious from their view that 100+ of the issues have all been combined). http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lmdhs&author=rahs

So go for it!

posted by EveleenM at 7:01 am (EST) on Jul 28, 2010

Yes I am Jewish
I am also a CPA

Question have any South Africans written anything on American History.
I am always interested in getting other peoples ideas about the US.
When we were in Australia I could not find anything.
Stan

posted by StanleyBalsky at 9:39 pm (EST) on Jul 26, 2010

Hi - thanks for inviting me to join the South Africa group on LT, it will be a marvellous way of keeping up with what is new out in the SA book world (I hope!) - I have recently moved to China, and as a voracious reader my main problem has been finding enough English language books to read out here....the selection is not as wide as all that, they are not stocked in most bookshops, and imported books are hideously expensive. It has been quite a lesson to me in what it is like to live in a society where one is functionally illiterate!

posted by herschelian at 9:44 pm (EST) on Jul 24, 2010

Thank you, Bergs47, for inviting me to join Jewish Bibliophiles, which invite I initially accepted. In checking the members of the group, I find that I share few to none books Jewish themed with them, so I feel I won't have much to offer. My main interests are Jews in the ancient world (Near East archaeology and history), the divergence of Judaism and Christianity, and Israel in the modern world.

Please feel free to share any books you have on those subjects; I'd look forward to that. Best of luck and good reading.

John

posted by oldfolkgc at 1:04 pm (EST) on Jul 24, 2010

Thank you for the invitation to join Jewish fiction. I'll check it out. And yes, I would definitely recommend the 75 books group. Even if you aren't interested in tracking your reading, it is a wonderful group of people and often leads to very interesting discussions. Some recent ones include gender stereotypes of books (can men read Pride and Prejudice or Diana Gabaldon on a subway? Is there an equivalent shameful reading genre for women?), are you a book spy (spying on what other people are reading), can authors who write outside of their experience authentic (ex. a white middle-aged Englishman living in America writing as an Indian teenage girl prostitute)? In addition, there are some wonderful review writers in the group.

Thanks again for the invite,
Lisa

posted by labfs39 at 5:04 pm (EST) on Jul 23, 2010

New Jersey

I have read many more books than I can recall titles to,
so I have been scanning other lists to see If any books ring a bell.

Stan

posted by StanleyBalsky at 9:46 am (EST) on Jul 23, 2010

I did have a look elsewhere on the site. It's interesting -- I'm a big history buff.

Have you read or heard of the book "The Holocaust in Lithuania 1941-1945: A Book of Remembrance"? It's a massive four-volume collection, almost 2,000 pages, of every Lithuanian Holocaust victim the researchers could name. Which is by no means all of them, but their research was very impressive. I have the book in my library and reviewed it.

posted by meggyweg at 1:51 pm (EST) on Jul 19, 2010

Thank you for the info and link. No, I have no connection to Ephraim Oshry or any other Jews. I'm simply interested in the Holocaust and have recorded what details I can find of the authors of memoirs I have read. I don't specifically remember, but probably I found out Oshry's year and place of birth from his memoir, Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry (an excellent book by the way).

posted by meggyweg at 12:42 pm (EST) on Jul 16, 2010

I met Milton many times at UCT. I studied humanities -- political science and history. Did not take a course with Milton as his offerings did not correlate to the requirements I needed to fulfill with my home institution.

Never came across the archive/papers you mention. Are they relations of yours?

posted by spabram at 2:33 pm (EST) on Jul 2, 2010

We are just called the Liberty book club and not in any way connected to Liberty Life

posted by LibertyBookClub at 7:00 am (EST) on Jul 2, 2010

I read most of John Irving's books actually. My LibraryThing library only covers the books I read in the last 5 years (for now). I love that so many books have Vienna somewhere in them :-) though he didn't like Vienna much and said so in his autobiography.

Kreuzfahrt was a tiny book, a special edition containing four stories. I didn't find an english equivalent on the combine page, so I left it as it is. I suspect these stories weren't published in this exact combination in english.

I just checked the page for Castle in the Forest and "LibraryThing thinks you probably will like The Castle in the Forest (prediction confidence: high)", so I might give it a try someday! thanks for the hint

posted by verenka at 3:26 pm (EST) on Jun 29, 2010

Greetings,

I am glad my library helped you learn of a new title about Zambia's Jews. I am not South African, but studied at the University of Cape Town in 2009 during a study abroad semester from the USA. I myself learned of this book while browsing the UCT Jewish Studies Library on the Upper Campus.

Regards,
Stanton

posted by spabram at 11:36 am (EST) on Jun 29, 2010

Hi! You made the first comment on one of my reviews, thanks :-)
I wouldn't bother finishing "Until I find you". It's been a while since I read it (I copied the reviews from my journal) and I remember thinking part 1 and 3 of the book would have been entirely sufficient. Part 4 was kind of soppy and I just didn't find the story very interesting.

posted by verenka at 2:58 pm (EST) on Jun 28, 2010

Yep you are right with the Betty Trask Award that it should be split into winners and nominees (or something). I am more than happy for you to do it as I am snowed under at work at the moment.

posted by andyl at 9:39 am (EST) on Jun 18, 2010

Hello,

Unfortunately I'm unable to help you with your query about The Missing Person's Guide to Love because I find that I am completely unable to remember anything about it: hardly a ringing endorsement I know! Since it was a book I borrowed from the library I do not have a copy to hand to look at in order to job my memory.

Sorry.

David

posted by dsc73277 at 2:40 pm (EST) on Jun 17, 2010

I replied on FL.

posted by C4bl3Fl4m3 at 7:50 pm (EST) on Jun 13, 2010

You can't do paid searches on that either on FL. It's explicitly NOT a dating site and rather an online community. If you want to meet people into likeminded stuff, use the search feature... it will bring up groups and other people who have that under their list of interests. You don't have to be a paid user to do that. Then, join the groups that match and join the discussion. (If you wanted to privately tell me what you're into, I can point you in the direction of the groups.)

For that site, you get what you put into it... but you have to be willing to put into it... you can't just join and expect people to come your way. It really is a community.

posted by C4bl3Fl4m3 at 7:41 pm (EST) on Jun 12, 2010

Yep, I'm a quick learner. :) Thanks for the tips!

posted by lemontwist at 8:09 pm (EST) on Jun 10, 2010

Planning on winning a bracelet this month.

Added a little to my CK.

Thanks.

posted by abloch at 8:13 am (EST) on Jun 9, 2010

Here are the guidelines: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Contributing_photos_to_LibraryThing

and here's where the author & venue pictures that have already been flagged are waiting for votes: http://www.librarything.com/gallery/flagged

posted by rybie2 at 11:37 am (EST) on Jun 8, 2010

Altho I am an Insurance broker did not work for Liberty. When I started in the industry over 30 years ago Liberty were pretty racist and did not really employ non-white agents. They really started employing them after inheriting such from Prudential.

posted by jbdavid at 4:26 am (EST) on May 29, 2010

You'll have to ask that question in the forums. I don't know. I've complained about them before. I'm not going to delete your Amazon list, cause it qualifies as far as "awards" go around here. It just isn't something that Amazon created, so it shouldn't be labeled as an Amazon award. If you can think of a better name than my proposals, go at it.

posted by KingRat at 5:01 am (EST) on May 27, 2010

There is no "list" feature. If you want to make lists, for the moment you need to use tags. It's a poor substitute for a good list feature, I know. But it's better than cramming lists into Common Knowledge in fields where they don't belong.

posted by KingRat at 4:46 am (EST) on May 27, 2010

Books are everywhere... bookcases in every room, cupboards, cabinets... and then there are the books on chairs, piano benches, stairs, and even in the cubbyhole where firewood is supposed to be. Well, I'm off to vote on spam works some more before heading off to today's library book sale!

posted by rybie2 at 9:28 am (EST) on May 24, 2010

You had listed several spammy works from the same user, all with different titles, but approximately half of the titles took me back to the one I linked in my original message. I got to some of them by going through the user's catalog, but couldn't get to all of them. Might have been a problem in the way LT hashes the titles - that happens sometimes. Anyway, they seem to have disappeared from the list, so hopefully somone got through to them and put them over the threshold.

You have been busy - it looks like you have picked up some additional helper badges.

posted by oregonobsessionz at 5:36 pm (EST) on May 22, 2010

Hi Bergs -

I was voting on your many spam reports, but I found that some of them linked back to this one work, and I can't get to the titles listed on the spam proposals page. Did you combine those titles or something? If so, maybe you should uncombine them so they could be voted. If you didn't do anything like that, it probably warrants a bug report. You have quite a few proposals hanging out there with just 3 votes.

posted by oregonobsessionz at 9:28 am (EST) on May 22, 2010

I also go through the Spam Works page Ctrl-Clicking on the works, opening 5 at a time in new tabs. For each one, I ctrl+click on the members and then check out any reviews before voting. For each member, if they haven't been deleted already, I check out their full catalog.

You are doing amazingly well finding the works... all of the ones that I've reported today have been in the catalogs of members you've found.

posted by r.orrison at 10:38 am (EST) on May 20, 2010

Fun, isn't it? I'm using Firefox, and lots of tabs. When I find a spammer's catalog I go down the list of books and Ctrl+Click on each one to open them in new tabs (30 at a time), then go through the tabs clicking on Editions and then Ctrl+tab to go to the next tab while the editions page loads on the one I just left. When they're all on the editions page I go through clicking mark as spam and then ctrl+tab to the next one while that processes.

My personal opinion is that DVDs, and indeed any real things that a user has in what they consider their library, are ok. I have a few DVDs cataloged myself, though the site isn't really ideal for it so I haven't bothered to do all of them.

posted by r.orrison at 10:26 am (EST) on May 20, 2010

Hi Bergs,

Alas no, as I haven’t a lot of our other books (an other lot I did read). As other people save money, I save books for old age. Hope you enjoy this great “environment” as much as I do.

posted by marieke54 at 3:25 am (EST) on May 18, 2010

Hi bergs47,

Sorry to clutter up your profile with messages, but I've realised that in my last one I should have simply pointed you to the second section of 'spam-works guidelines' (sorry, 'copy and paste' doesn't seem to copy across the actual link, for some reason). I seem to get more absent-minded every day.

Regards,
Paul G.

posted by alaudacorax at 8:39 am (EST) on May 14, 2010

I agree, of course, that ITunes CDs are not books, but are they spam? If someone is advertising them that's obviously spam, but in this case I got the impression that someone was using LT simply to catalogue ones they owned.

Have a look at Tim's message #3 on http://www.librarything.com/topic/89778. I also seem to remember CDs being mentioned on the spam proposal discussion thread.

Regards,
Paul G.

posted by alaudacorax at 8:21 am (EST) on May 14, 2010

Hi – thanks for helping with the anti-spam efforts. These new tools for flagging spammers and their “works” are really helping to pare down the mess. I see you have been helping with combining and CK too.

Battles have raged over CDs, videos, DVDs, etc. for at least the 3 years I have been here, including this recent discussion that got a bit overheated. Tim Spalding has been remarkably tolerant of non-book entries in LT catalogs, defending even items such as vintage dresses and a stuffed bobcat. It is helpful for combining if the title includes some designation to indicate that the item is not a “book” in any traditional sense, but otherwise it would seem that anything goes.

posted by oregonobsessionz at 6:18 am (EST) on May 13, 2010

Hi! Once you have logged on to, say, the Afrikaans LibraryThing, you can click through until you get to any page where text is highlighted in yellow. If you then click on the "Translate" (top left), you will get a list of text to be translated -- you can see what has already been done (and you can edit these) or you can provide translations for those pieces of text that have not been translated.

posted by riaanw at 7:59 am (EST) on May 10, 2010

For translations, click on Zeitgeist (top right), then Languages, then choose the site you want from the list under the "Zeitgeist by Language" heading.

Then click on the URL next to the site's name that comes up. Once you're on the site in the other language, you'll see a "Translate" link in the top right of your screen.

posted by riaanw at 4:08 am (EST) on May 7, 2010

I work for the FT in London for its Special Reports team, so it's slightly irregular work. The past week has been rather quiet, hence more time to spend on LibraryThing. Flat Earth News is an excellent read, absolutely spot-on (unfortunately so, one might add).

posted by riaanw at 9:18 am (EST) on May 6, 2010

Thanks! I try to update SA author info when I have the time.

posted by riaanw at 8:58 am (EST) on May 6, 2010

Hi Bergs. I have just a couple recent newsitems relation to Library Thing topics. Late last year a librarian from the National Library wrote to me to ask about the book "The Story of Two Aboriginal Children." I replied to point out that this book had never been published, but only produced in very limited numbers for friends and family. The reply was a request, if possible, for a copy for the National collection, which they were willing to pay for. In the end I printed am edition of three copies, numbered and signed by Marie-Claire and myself, and I sent copy No. 3 to the Library. If we were to put this book on the market I am sure it would sell. But we don't have the copyright, so it can't be done. The only place anybody can read it is at the National Library.
The librarian said the book was beautiful, and that it would be kept for reading in the library only.
The other newsitem is that the South Australian Book Collectors Society had a meeting last Wednesday where Dr. Ross Philpot gave us an informative and interesting talk on Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. He brought a large number of books and curios from his private collection. Conan Doyle came to Australia and gave addresses in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, but the tour was a failure. He had become so engrossed in spiritualism that he confined his leactures to that topic when the people wanted to hear about Sherlock Holmes. I enjoyed the talk by Dr. Philpot. Only a few months ago i read a biography of Conan Doyle.
I am still working on my book about Adelaide booksellers.
What news is there of you and your world?
I hope you and family are well
Cheerw
Glen

posted by GlenRalph at 10:02 am (EST) on Apr 30, 2010

Hello Bergs

Thank you very much for pointing out the fractured name for Walter Havighurst. Upon importing books from another database, I am finding that quite a few need repair.

Glad to be a fellow traveler here on the LibraryThing.

Namaste,

Bill

posted by Bill_Ziegler at 10:30 am (EST) on Apr 26, 2010

One thing that bothers me is that with some old books (like Hotel) , they have many different copyright dates - so the one I picked has x members, x reviews, but then I'm missing the members and reviews from the other versions of the same book. It would be nice if they could lump all the same books together.

posted by katiemertz at 10:26 pm (EST) on Apr 13, 2010

Hi Bergs

Thanks for the welcome. I really like the idea of this site, I am sure it will be helpful in remembering the books I have read. I probably need to expand my reading horizons as I only really read historical fiction, myth based fiction, romance and erotica. Good to see that they have included a group for erotica as I still get funny looks from people if I let slip I read it, even though is has been around for hundreds of years!

I told my mum she has to join, so I'm spreading the word.
shelle77

posted by shelle77 at 7:12 pm (EST) on Apr 12, 2010

Thank you for noticing this error. I added the correct Hotel by Hailey and deleted the one I added by Follett. Just curious as to why you noticed this and how my having it wrong affected you.

posted by katiemertz at 1:19 pm (EST) on Apr 11, 2010

thanks, Bergs. I do intend to try another book by Jacobsen, one of these days! So many books,,,I have 25 on reserve at the library at this time! The link in your message just sent me to my own library. Which one of his books would you most recommend?

posted by loosha at 2:01 pm (EST) on Apr 6, 2010

Thanks. I'm going to take a break from this for a while.

posted by readingrebecca at 7:18 am (EST) on Mar 30, 2010

Cross stitch is a form of embroidery.

Have a good lunch! Nice to meet you too.

posted by readingrebecca at 6:40 am (EST) on Mar 30, 2010

I asked that yesterday when I found the mess. Apparently not. They just have to be "peeled away" one at a time. I spent at least 5 hours at this yesterday, probably more than that, and about an hour so far today.

posted by readingrebecca at 6:39 am (EST) on Mar 30, 2010

I'm almost always up early--it's a hard habit to break. I think we can both work at this without getting in each other's way. There have been several other people working at the same time since yesterday afternoon.

posted by readingrebecca at 6:37 am (EST) on Mar 30, 2010

Someone combined all the books by Janet Evanovich under One For the Money. I have no idea why, but when I discovered it yesterday, there were over 67,000 books under that one title so it's been a huge task.

posted by readingrebecca at 6:31 am (EST) on Mar 30, 2010

Please don't stop! I can't do any of the language combinations--have no language skills other than English so all help is welcome.

posted by readingrebecca at 6:29 am (EST) on Mar 30, 2010

Done.

You can read more about it on

http://www.walesliterature.org/books.cfm?lan=f&switch=book_info&book_id=....

The keyword being "ostensibly".

Danny
---

posted by dheijl at 7:38 am (EST) on Mar 24, 2010

Hello,

It's Gareth Miles: http://www.gwales.com/bibliographic/?isbn=9781845271350&tsid=229.

The book is meant to be read as an account written by the (imaginary) reporter W.T. Davies.

At least that's how I read it...

Danny
---

posted by dheijl at 2:57 pm (EST) on Mar 23, 2010

I generally add data for New York Times bestsellers and their authors. Glad to see others out there working on CK.

posted by Shortride at 6:55 pm (EST) on Mar 17, 2010

I don't know why you think I'm "active" in the combiners group - I'm not.

I don't think you can do what you are asking except by noting it in the disambiguation notice.

You would get better, and more answers if you post your questions into the combiners group and as an added benefit people coming after you could see the answers as well.

posted by justjim at 2:58 pm (EST) on Mar 8, 2010

Hi,
When you are on the author's page, click on "edit assignments". Then assign each work to each author in the table with No 1 or 2 and save.

Regards

Nedrin

posted by Nedrin at 11:25 am (EST) on Mar 8, 2010

I'll see what I can do. But if people haven't actually entered those books as such there's not much anybody can do.

posted by BarkingMatt at 11:11 am (EST) on Mar 8, 2010

Nope, not South African. Usaian I guess, born in Missouri and glad I live in Southern California. I think I entered a lot of SA CK because I entered a lot of CK and some was SA.

posted by bw42 at 1:36 pm (EST) on Mar 2, 2010

Hi - sorry for delay in replying, been away for a while. I use 'sleaze' as a catch-all category for stuff that's titillating, non-explicit, pulp-ish in appearance. That is, unless it's by Steinbeck or Lawrence or Burroughs or some other 'literary' writer whose work is being aggressively marketed by 60s paperback companies, in which case it's just fiction...
Some interesting things you've got. My feeling is that there's quite a lot of 'sleaze' (or maybe 'trash') across librarything, but, as you say, few individual works are represented heavily.
Mark

posted by marxones at 12:19 pm (EST) on Mar 2, 2010

Good to hear from you. I read a lot of crime fiction and had Deon Meyer recommended to me.
I'm also reading it as part of the 2010 Global Reading Challenge: http://2010globalchallenge.blogspot.com/

My blog is at http://paradise-mysteries.blogspot.com/ if you want to explore further

posted by smik at 4:28 am (EST) on Feb 25, 2010

I'm not working on CK, but on combining and separating; somebody combined Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar into a single work, which has the side-effect of combining their Common Knowledge. A number of combiners got the works separated, but some of the Common Knowledge probably got stuck with the wrong work.

posted by lorax at 12:25 pm (EST) on Feb 5, 2010

Cannonical title
Combine works (particularly language versions)
First published date

posted by GwynethM at 1:03 pm (EST) on Jan 25, 2010

In your catalog you have different columns you can choose to display in either A, B, C, D, or E fashion. Click the little gears button to see this, and change at will.

I am comparing the two columns 'Summary' & 'Work: Title and author.' They should be very nearly the same and they are for the most part, but when there is a difference I like to find out why. Sometimes it's due to my own choice, but sometimes it is due to combining errors.

posted by Collectorator at 9:11 am (EST) on Jan 25, 2010

I'm finding where my summary differs from the Work: title and author. It's disturbing.

posted by Collectorator at 8:55 am (EST) on Jan 25, 2010

Hey, bergs47. Yes, in general, you have to have to either get permission to upload photos, or be able to conclusively prove that they are public domain. The pictures I uploaded recently were easy: I had the 1888 book in hand and scanned them myself. If the photos don't meet the guidelines members can flag them, and they will be removed. An overview of this process is on the wiki. There are links there to the author/venue pictures discussion group and quarantine area, where flagged photos are moved. Good luck!

posted by d_graham at 12:48 pm (EST) on Jan 22, 2010

Hi. Thanks for your note. It is good to hear from you. I had a look at some of your holdings and I can assure you that there are many books that you have that I also have on my shelves. This would have become apparent had I progressed further with my cataloguing. But it is a great effort to do 14,000 books, and at present I am researching a book which I am being urged to complete so that it can be published. It will keep me bust for a few months to come.
I would much enjoy an opportunity to "chat" with a fellow-collector who obviously shares my interests, though living in a society so different from my own. (I may put a parenthesis here that my old university, the University of South Australia, has the patronage of Nelson Mandela) I have some South African writers on my shelves, from Olive Schreiner onwards, and an erotica collection, and many English and American authors. I have, too, a reasonably good collection of writings both oriental and western, and a comprehensive collections of books on religion and history.
Please write and tell me something about how you began you library, and tell me, too, how you acquire your books, and what you read - in fact, anything that takes your fancy to write about books and the collecting of them. Best is to wtite to my email address wilmarlibrary@internode.on.net and your email gets an immediate response
Cheers
Glen Ralph
Wilnar Library

posted by GlenRalph at 8:56 pm (EST) on Jan 16, 2010

Thanks for the message. With those numbers you can imagine all the things I've left undone this month :)

posted by susanbooks at 3:56 pm (EST) on Jan 15, 2010

Hello Bergs,

It took some time to read your message. But I think I understood :)

Misty

posted by misty13 at 2:50 am (EST) on Jan 13, 2010

It's pretty straightforward - if you are on your home page, think of the tag-watch module as a box. Along the upper-right-hand side (opposite of the left-hand side where it actually says "tag watch"), hover your mouse until a pencil appears. This is the edit button.

Click on the pencil. Once you click on it, a lightbox will appear and this will allow you to select your tags for tag watch. If you want multiple tags, you simply separate them with a comma. You can also select the number of books to display.

posted by stephmo at 6:52 am (EST) on Jan 12, 2010

Hi there! Thanks for your message. Good to know that you also enjoy the karoo!

posted by Estrela at 12:52 am (EST) on Jan 11, 2010

I have not added any of the science fiction I read in college mainly because I do not want this added to my recommendations. I am sure if I add those books I would reach my goal of 2000 books. No kids books

posted by shazjhb at 1:13 am (EST) on Dec 20, 2009

It is a struggle. Now it is easy because I add as I read but I know I have read more than 2000 books. I have always wondered how many books I read a year so I am looking forward to 2010 because I will keep track by tags.

posted by shazjhb at 11:14 pm (EST) on Dec 16, 2009

Am in Pretoria behind boerewors curtain. Roza

posted by rozapretorius at 1:20 pm (EST) on Dec 16, 2009

Used to be. Now live in LA

posted by shazjhb at 8:51 pm (EST) on Dec 13, 2009

Mmmm.... Very complicated - am technologically challenged - have 30000 books here that I am trying to get rid of - but I cannot just dump them as I paid for them some time in the past - have 4,250 on abebooks under bookseller roza - I would actually like to list all the online ones here just in case someone wants to buy them but do not know how to - get very little time to read - have a life - usually like old crime novels from the golden era - also like Elizabeth Ferrars - come to think of it I like anythinhg I can make money on - very mercenary. Roza

posted by rozapretorius at 3:00 pm (EST) on Dec 12, 2009

Cool! I just picked it up at a used book sale (and logged it in), but I have not read it yet.

Kind regards,

Carolyn

posted by CarolynSchroeder at 11:48 am (EST) on Dec 10, 2009

I have sent you a message on Fetlife....and a friends invite. It helps when you can see what friends are saying within various groups, when they have posted pictures you might care to look at and other varying activities.

I should point out that I will be unavailable for any sort of conversation for a while as I am going in for some surgery in the next couple of days - there is a prolonged recovery period once I have been discharged. I could be a bit quiet over the next couple of weeks.

Cheers

Australwind

posted by australwind at 6:05 am (EST) on Nov 30, 2009

Welcome to LT. I am an irregular visitor here but I have this compulsion to list things... this place suits me perfectly! ;) I am also a member of Fetlife under a different name and I occasionally blog about relationships of an unorthodox nature.

My library show on this site is only a fraction of what I own but I wanted a specific reference list to feed a widget on my blog... hence the library you see here is all about sex, erotica, gender studies, historic perspectives on wanton creatures who would step outside the "norm" and 'how to's' for the budding Top!

Correspondence is encouraged - responses may well be slow in coming but I do manage it eventually!

posted by australwind at 12:11 am (EST) on Nov 29, 2009

Hi,

Welcome to LT! You may add me with pleasure.

Have a good weekend.

Isabel

posted by izzybee at 2:50 am (EST) on Nov 28, 2009

Welcome to LT! It can be quite addictive - my experience with adding books is similar to yours. It's been a very useful aid for keeping track of my stuff, and much of my erotic collection was added after I found the site.

Glad you like Lodge and Updike. That alone suggests that you enjoy books with depth. Have you tried any Anthony Burgess? Don't start with 'A Clockwork Orange'!

I hope you continue to enjoy the site. I've found that it's quite complex, but I've had some fun with the Groups.

Best wishes, Clifford.

posted by CliffordDorset at 12:49 pm (EST) on Nov 27, 2009