Random books from sgerbic's library
Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World by Benjamin Barber
Forged under the Sun/Forjada bajo el sol: The Life of Maria Elena Lucas (Women and Culture Series) by Fran Leeper Buss
These United States: The Questions of Our Past, Concise Edition, Volume 2: Since 1865 (Chapters 16-31) (3rd Edition) by Irwin Unger
The White Mountains (Tripods (Turtleback)) by John Christopher
A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King
The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood
Philosophy of History by M.C. Lemon
Members with sgerbic's books
Member connections
Interesting libraries: jjmcgaffey, WholeHouseLibrary
LibraryThing authors: Sherryl Woods (sherrylwoods)
RSS Feeds
Recently-added books
sgerbic's reviews
Reviews of sgerbic's books, not including sgerbic's
Member: sgerbic
Library631 books — see library
Reviews180 reviews — see reviews
Cloudstag cloud, author cloud
TagsHistory (186), American History (114), Mystery (112), Fiction (83), Biography (79), Young Adult (76), Science Fiction (55), 4 stars - darn good book (42) — see all tags
GroupsAmerican History, Atheists review books, The Green Dragon
About me My favorite book is always the one I just finished or the one I'm about to start. They have been my friends and comfort, and have opened doors I would never have known existed.
Through High School my report card reported my average status, totally C's every time. Teachers thought nothing of me, middle of the road student, didn't make trouble, awkward, very weird but not college material, not interested in learning.
I feel like I have been playing catch-up all my adult life. I have been in college almost 20 of the 28 years since High School, class after class I still feel like I'm behind everyone else. Only recently I understand why I feel this way, it is because I am not satisfied being that C student. I keep looking towards the A+ students, wondering what they are reading, why did they succeed? So there are always people ahead of me, when I catch up to those people then I look for the people even higher up, not realizing that I have been making progress all this time.
I have enjoyed organizing my home library here, it has been therapeutic and eye-opening. I can see where I have been and what remains to be done. This has taken me weeks to write all the reviews, and label all the books, but I think for me it is worth it.
Now at 45, with my application turned in for the History Master's program I now know I am not that C student anymore. I still have lots to learn, but I'm not that clueless kid, now I know where the doors are, and looking over my shoulder can see some of the doors I've already been through.
Susan,
April 10, 2008
Homepagehttp://www.gerbic.com
Real nameSusan Gerbic
LocationSalinas, CA
Favorite authorsNone specified
Account typepublic, lifetime
URLs
http://www.librarything.com/profile/sgerbic (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/sgerbic (library)
Member sinceMay 6, 2008
Comments from other LibraryThing-ers
(Leave a comment.)
You remarked:
I wonder why you do not review your books, one of the best features on LT is this ability to quickly see what others think about a book.
The reason I haven't reviewed books (until quite recently) is twofold. One is that I am a pathetically slow, and inconsistent reader. One would think that, since I am still waiting for my next bit of Contract work to commit (currently 3 are pending), I'd spend a lot of time reading, but I don't. I spend a lot of time here, and taking care of family matters (FiL died in January, and it's a really long story -- a lot of which is already in various posts here on LT). The other tawdry excuse is that I had not been in the habit of writing my thoughts about a book until about a year ago, when I started keeping a reading journal. Once I got a feel for what was pertinent and what was not, I compared my notes to other reviews and decided that I need to be more concise. This message is a prime example -- I could keep this stream-of-consciousness writing form going all day! So, that's why I've written only 2 reviews. The one about Chauvet Cave was written by my wife and posted on Amazon or eBay, or ~wherever~, over a year ago, but I brought it back home to LT. I also spend a lot of time writing stories -- some are complete fiction, others are memoirs for my sons to have when I'm gone. It's their inheritance, since their mother and my lawyer got all the money in the divorce, 10 years ago.
You'll notice that there isn't much activity in our currently commonly-shared Group. Perhaps you'll be the one to breathe some new life into it. Otherwise, feel free to stop by the Green Dragon for a pint of ale, and some cheese, and good conversation. You may also find Happy Heathens to your liking.
Mike
posted by WholeHouseLibrary at 9:32 am (EST) on May 15, 2008
Prior to finding LibraryThing, I cataloged our books in a spreadsheet (now 28 columns of info, one of which can contain any of 34 different codes for the idiosyncrasies of each book. I've been accused of being a tad OCD. I still maintain the spreadsheet in parallel with the LibraryThing catalog.
Interesting bio you wrote, but you look much younger than what you mentioned.
See you on the threads!
Mike
WholeHouseLibrary
posted by WholeHouseLibrary at 10:18 pm (EST) on May 14, 2008
By the way, do you know there's a Google Book Search column you can add to your library? Or you can go to GBS from any book's details page - it is (or can be - you may have to add it) in the Buy, Borrow, Swap or View list on the top right. Only thing is, GBS is tied to a particular edition (ISBN), so the column may not have the link if you don't have the exact same edition. The BBSV list takes you to the front page of GBS, and you can search from there.
Yeah, not a lot of stores in Salinas! Have you checked out LT Local yet? There are several stores in Monterey and Pacific Grove - not close, but closer than San Jose.
There are a _lot_ of elements to LT. You'll find them as you explore. But do ask, me or anyone, here or in a Talk topic, 'cause most LTers love telling what they've figured out about LT...
posted by jjmcgaffey at 2:42 am (EST) on May 11, 2008
posted by jjmcgaffey at 5:49 pm (EST) on May 10, 2008
Yes, I moved a bunch of reviews over too - from my 50 Book Reading Challenge here. I had never done real reviews before, but I decided it would be fun to have them. The only thing is, on LT a review is tied to a book so if you remove a book from your library you also delete the review. So I've got a lot of Discard books, some of which I've reviewed...and with 3k books, I haven't gotten around to rating or reviewing most of my books. I need the reminder of what I'd decided the stars meant!
BTW, you put your comment on your profile rather than on mine - there's a 'reply' link at the bottom of the comment that will put it on my profile, or go there and enter it directly. I got the auto-notice that you'd put me on your Interesting Libraries list and came over to see.
posted by jjmcgaffey at 5:48 pm (EST) on May 10, 2008
As you can see I have reviewed "Out of the Silent Planet" now. Apparently when I read it in 2004 I liked it, but felt it was the Chronicles of Narnia all over again, same plot, same history, same characters. It's always fun to re-read reviews years later and wonder "what was I thinking?" I have read several books that I reviewed that I loved at the time, but now years later I can barely remember them. I think that the really great books you remember and think about later.
I noticed that you did the same thing I did with the point system for rating books. I based my system if I would have talked about my book to others or if the book gave me pause. After I reviewed everything I erased the rating system I had in my profile.
I see you have a lot of reviews and we have a lot of books in common (not much of a surprise when you have over 3K books, bet you have many libraries in common). I look forward to reading your comments (something you had a difficult time with Google) and reviews.
Susan
posted by sgerbic at 8:37 pm (EST) on May 9, 2008
posted by jjmcgaffey at 3:37 pm (EST) on May 9, 2008
Leave your comment
Sign up or sign in to leave a comment.