Member: mrkinch

*Waves* I've finally gotten myself an account here! Now to get the books in.

posted by Lferion at 5:34 pm (EST) on Dec 11, 2008

I'm sorry for my long absence, MrKinch. I've separated the shop from the guide entirely, so the one can be used while the other is offline; I've been that busy. Seven Stones stocks plenty of readers -most people buy books to read them, after all- though if it weren't for collectors, the guide would still be the giant cash vortex it was for its first few years. The shop's open as of last week, but new inventory was not listed, and I can't tell when it will be. This librarything continues to be the most complete catalog... though not the best way to reach me.

I love bookmooch. The moochers have scooped up about everything I put up there worth having by now though. :-)

Well gee, it looks as though you've located about all the Tom Shippey work that I know of - and I see you rated his Beowulf study, which I hope to be able to do sometime myself. If you ever care to ring me up, email bookshop at tolkienguide.us - cheers!

posted by TheUSTolkienGuide at 3:52 am (EST) on Nov 14, 2008

hhmmm... sounds plausible but i'm not sure.

posted by Crypto-Willobie at 6:56 pm (EST) on Sep 27, 2008

i can give you fairly coherent though unofficial isbn explanation. for a long time isbns [internatins standard book numbers] were 10 digits long, with english language publications beginning with 0 or 1 and other numbers for other languages. the final digit is called the 'check digit' and is determined by a mathematical formula [i couldnt tell you what it is though] that assures there is only One number that can come after those particular firt nine. so for instance the isbn that begins with 087830137 can only end in 2, not 1 or 3 or 4 etc. most library and bookselling systems are programmed with the formula so they always know whether an isbn is 'valid' or not. for some reason they needed 11 possible check digits which is why you sometimes [one eleventh of the time] see an X as the final digit of an isbn.

Then... they began running out of isbns... too many books! so a couple years ago or so [cant exactly remember] they started assigning new 13-digit isbns because with that many digits they can generate a gajillion more isbns. they started by tacking 978- onto the front of old isbns, then started making up new ones. they call em isbn-13s and the 'old' ones became known as isbn-10s instedda just isbns. but when they went to convert books with old isbns they couldn't just tack 978- onto the same 10 numbers because the formula calculated a different check-digit from the 12 numbers than it did from the 9 even though the final nine were the same. many books still have both 10s and 13s and you'll notice that after the 978- the next 9 digits are always the same but the Last one is always different.

i don't have my copies of Tolkien Studies right here but i assume they show both a 10 and 13 digit isbn [boy am i getting tired of typing the word digit which my goofy fingers always want to spell 'didget'!]. i'm not sure how you loaded the info for vol 5 but if you copied off the back of the t.p. you could easily have started typing the isbn-10 and then glanced up and taken the check didgt from the isbn 13 -- happens all the time since most of the two isbns are identical.

sorry this was so long, hope it helped...

posted by Crypto-Willobie at 2:38 pm (EST) on Sep 27, 2008

hi mr kinch... nice tolkien library. re your entry for tolkien studies volume 5, there's an error in the isbn that makes it impossible to Combine separate listings for vol 5.
the final digit should be 6 not 9.
9 is the 'check digit' in the isbn-13 for this title, but it's 6 in its isbn-10. you give a 10 digit isbn so it shd end in 6.

i noticed your stuff when i entered Shadow-Walkers. that's what i'm currently reading on the train to work everyday.

posted by Crypto-Willobie at 10:52 am (EST) on Sep 27, 2008

*G* The Early Reviewer program only requires a review of a minimum of 25 words, so I figure that's a small price to pay for a free book. ^_~ (And really, after trying three times, July was the first time I'd snagged a book -- I think I'd probably do better if I catalogued more of my books.) I'd recommend it if you're interested, anyway.

Good question about the Green Dragon. I hardly ever check it. *facepalm* There's a lot of random talk there that doesn't strictly stick to Tolkien's works, I find, which makes the signal to noise ratio a bit out of whack, unfortunately. I find myself over at the Early Reviewers' group more often (http://www.librarything.com/groups/early...), mostly because they stick closer to the topic at hand.

posted by caras_galadhon at 4:03 pm (EST) on Aug 17, 2008

you dont know me but i just wanted to say that you have a very nice library with many good tolkien books.

posted by bkunker at 8:53 pm (EST) on Feb 2, 2008

I only just realized people could leave comments. Ahem. To answer your question! I'm cataloguing books as I read them. We have far too many for me to consider putting in everything we own! ^_^

posted by helens78 at 11:10 am (EST) on Nov 15, 2007

Blarrrrgh! It's your son!

Hi there.

posted by MarquesadeFlambe at 3:22 pm (EST) on Jan 19, 2007

oh, nifty, replying takes me over here. HELLOS, after your rec i finally got around to setting this thing up. it was a lovely way to pass the time last night. :)

posted by colleenkane at 1:20 pm (EST) on Dec 24, 2006