Tuesday Thingers Base Camp

I thought the group looked so empty and sad so I just had to post something. Anyway hello to everyone that's joined Tuesday Thingers the blog ring and also to those who haven't joined us yet, but I'm sure are itching to do so.

Just a little background - Tuesday Thingers has progressed from a group of people that were members of the Early Reviewer Group realising that they blogged about books and other things. It has moved from the stage of links on each other's blogs, to a question being posed each Tuesday about books, reviewing, LibraryThing etc., (hence Tuesday Thingers) and yesterday to a fully fledged Blog Ring.

So, for those of you that already know that, come on in and say hello again, and for those of you that didn't well come on in and say hello for the first time.

I love how the first thread is called base camp. =D

Well as I've just been commenting on a blog about my mountain called "TBR", I thought base camp was apt :)

It makes me feel kind of awesome. And... vaguely like mission impossible music should be playing.

*wanders around aimlessly singing the music*

This is great! We certainly are an organized group!

#4 just make sure that self destructing tape isn't by the books!

Where's my shoe phone? Oh, wait, that's not Mission Impossible. That's Get Smart. Nevermind.

*lol*

It makes me feel like eating granola.

Last night ds was playing on the computer and the music in the background really was Mission Impossible. When I checked, he was playing Club Penguin (who knew).
Then again, earlier in the evening, he was on the computer and I asked what he was doing. "Getting cheat codes." For what, I asked, given that he's not allowed to play anything I would associate with cheat codes. "Club Penguin." Now would someone please tell my who in their right mind is creating web sites with cheat codes for Club Penguin?!
/threadjack Sorry. I guess I'm better off with books than with old TV and kids social networking.

14,230 books.

I can't believe that with only 20 members at the moment we have this many between us!

11 - I'm not surprised at all. we're all a bunch of book whores after all. ;-)

Hey, Tuesday Thingsers. I wanted to give you an FYI that I've changed my user name from jlcardwell in order to match my blog.

Just think how many books it would be if it actually included our whole in-home collections and not just what we've managed to catalog. I know for me I only have perhaps 15% of my books entered so far (yes, that's close to 900 books, but still).

You know, I am always hearing about how I have so many books - too many books - who needs that many books! And here, I have one of the smaller libraries.

It is so good to have found my people. :)

#15 LisaLynne,

You know, we're not even a drop in the bucket of books in this group. I think we should acquire more books. We obviously haven't got enough...
:-)

#16 you are an enabler pure and simple and we love you. My husband, however, may have a fit if another book crosses our threshhold (don't tell him we have at least 3 mooches yet to arrive).

My husband cringes everytime another book arrives too! I keep telling him that there are still books that I don't have and that I *need* them...but I don't think he cares!

I'm a day late, but I finally posted!!! :)

My fiance likes to tell me that when my TBR pile is over 100 he no longer loves me. He's obviously kidding (because it is over 100 right now), but he certainly thinks I have way too many books to read. He doesn't understand! ;)

Ah! I beat you all!!!! I use to own a used bookstore and had an inventory of over 50,000 books!! Now, I am not saying that they were all great books or even that I have read them all...but still - it was impressive when I stood in the middle of the store and felt surrounded (or was that overwhelmed?) but the loves of my life.....

Hi all, these are great questions! Looking forward to discussing more when they're posted as TuesdayThingers prompts. For anyone who has seen the pic of my spice cabinet, I plan to post a disclaimer that the rest of the house isn't as organized!

>13 DevourerOfBooks: DevourerOfBooks ... how did you change your user name? I tried to do this when I started my blog, but the message was "the function temporarily disabled" ... any suggestions?

>22 TooFondOfBooks:, I emailed Lindsey. She did it pretty quickly considering the long weekend. I just emailed her Thursday or Friday and it was changed this morning. Her email is with the rest of them on the "congratulate/complain" page.

You all realize, it could be argued that we are a bunch of people who really didn't need yet another venue to discuss books. Yet, at the same time, here we are and here we happily interact in new ways, with our literature aswirl around us in a sea of works to read and recommend!

My spouse can't complain about my growing TBR piles any more as I'm the proud owner of a new Amazon Kindle and I store all my "book" purchases there. He doesn't even know what the "book" count is up to on the Kindle. And without an additional SD memory card I can store up to 200 "books". Just think what kind of trouble I can get into now. LOL

Hi everyone! Woodbear, how do you like the Kindle? I love the feel of an actual book in my hands and don't know how I would adjust to the Kindle. Do you have any trouble finding books for it?

Rarcar1 I have to agree with you. You can't beat the feel of a nice book in your hand - that is until you are travelling and find yourself having to haul back 4 or 5 huge hardcover books - that suddenly feel like bricks! then, I must admit, a Kindle sounds heavenly to me!

I understand that Amazon is dropping the price by $50 (to $349). Yes, great for travelling, but I love the feel of the weight of a book and turning the pages. (and the "new book smell"!)

If I had the sort of commute where I could read (since I drive, I have audiobooks) or traveled to places where I could not find an English language bookstore, I think a Kindle would be fabulous.

#26 - I absolutely love my Kindle. I was unsure when I purchased it how I would feel about reading an ebook as I don't particularly like spending lots of time reading on my computer. I'm happy to say that my Kindle "disappears" and reading is reading, very enjoyable. It's much easier, for me, to hold then a paper book especially when I have lap full of cats. I've read on it indoors and out with no problems. Because there is no back lighting it reads just like a paper book. If it is dim or dark indoors you need to turn a light just as you would with a paper book. The screen is a flat texture not shiny like a computer monitor so there is no glare in any light and the words/screen don't disappear in full sun light like they do if you have your computer outdoors. I find it much easier on my eyes then most mass market paperbacks. It has an adjustable font size which I see as an advantage. The e-ink is very crisp and clear. I've actually cleaned out my TBR piles and gone strictly to reading on my Kindle. I don't have a home library & I don't keep books so it wasn't gut wrenching for me to pass along my books to used books stores where I know others will give them loving homes.

Being able to purchase a bestseller for $9.99 and have it in my hands in under a minute, due to Whispernet delivery, was a big selling point for me. No more waiting for months on the library hold list. I don't/didn't purchase hardbacks due to cost. I now have a bestseller for about a 1/3 of hardback cost and no paying devliery fees.

Another big selling point is traveling. Our annual winter vacation would consist of me loading up my luggage with upwards of 10-11 paperbacks. There were times when I worried that I'd be charged a heavy baggage fee (LOL). Now I sit a home, fire up the Whispernet service, purchase my vacation books and they don't weigh anymore than 10.3 ounces (the weight of my Kindle). Kindle storage is up to 200 books without purchasing an additional SD memory card. I have, almost, unlimited books at hand. If I'm in the States and don't like what I've downloaded I can fire up the Whispernet service and look for something else to read. I'm not locked into what I've already downloaded. I have the entire Kindle store available.

Sorry to be so long winded. I could go on but better stop here. I guess one could say I love my Kindle. :-)

#26 - I absolutely love my Kindle. I was unsure when I purchased it how I would feel about reading an ebook as I don't particularly like spending lots of time reading on my computer. I'm happy to say that my Kindle "disappears" and reading is reading, very enjoyable. It's much easier, for me, to hold then a paper book especially when I have lap full of cats. I've read on it indoors and out with no problems. Because there is no back lighting it reads just like a paper book. If it is dim or dark indoors you need to turn a light just as you would with a paper book. The screen is a flat texture not shiny like a computer monitor so there is no glare in any light and the words/screen don't disappear in full sun light like they do if you have your computer outdoors. I find it much easier on my eyes then most mass market paperbacks. It has an adjustable font size which I see as an advantage. The e-ink is very crisp and clear. I've actually cleaned out my TBR piles and gone strictly to reading on my Kindle. I don't have a home library & I don't keep books so it wasn't gut wrenching for me to pass along my books to used books stores where I know others will give them loving homes.

Being able to purchase a bestseller for $9.99 and have it in my hands in under a minute, due to Whispernet delivery, was a big selling point for me. No more waiting for months on the library hold list. I don't/didn't purchase hardbacks due to cost. I now have a bestseller for about a 1/3 of hardback cost and no paying devliery fees.

Another big selling point is traveling. Our annual winter vacation would consist of me loading up my luggage with upwards of 10-11 paperbacks. There were times when I worried that I'd be charged a heavy baggage fee (LOL). Now I sit a home, fire up the Whispernet service, purchase my vacation books and they don't weigh anymore than 10.3 ounces (the weight of my Kindle). Kindle storage is up to 200 books without purchasing an additional SD memory card. I have, almost, unlimited books at hand. If I'm in the States and don't like what I've downloaded I can fire up the Whispernet service and look for something else to read. I'm not locked into what I've already downloaded. I have the entire Kindle store available.

Sorry to be so long winded. I could go on but better stop here. I guess one could say I love my Kindle. :-)

Kindle sounds so appealing, but I'm just not convinced that I want to dive into this technology just yet. It's bad enough enough that my phone, my music and even my computer-based livelihood is based on being plugged into a wall-bound energy source for long periods of time, I just can't make my reading life dependent on energy as well. I keep remembering a time last winter when our electricity was out, my cell phone battery was drained, I couldn't check on tv, radio or the web for a status on the raging storm, but we had books, board games, a gas stove, and a fireplace to get us all through -- all centuries old-technology that has lasted for a reason. Kindle's convenient, but I'm approaching it as a luxury to be considered in steadier financial times and not a necessity to keep my reading life afloat.

I apologize that post #30 shows twice. Must be the computer germlins acting out again.

#32 - My Kindle holds a charge for a week/7 days without the Whispernet serivce turned on, which only used for downloading matieral to the Kindle, and reading up to 2 to 3 hours day with it. It charges in a relatively short period of time which I do while I'm sleeping. It is the one concession I've made to technology except for my cherished laptop.

woodbear - can you download ebooks that you get in other places onto the kindle?

I believe so. If it doesn't accept a format outright you can convert to a format the Kindle accepts. Jan who hosts a blog for the Kindle lists several ebook sites and has discussed reading books from those sites on her Kindle. I know that there have been several discussions on the Yahoo! Kindle group about reading various ebooks, not necessarily those purchased from Amazon, but books available at various ebook sites on the net. The Amazon's Kindle home page and the Kindle discussion forum might useful for finding this info also. I'm not very tech savvy so I tend to stick with what is easiest for me personally ~ of course this has gotten Amazon a customer life but then I purchased a lot of books from them before my Kindle arrived.

Useful Kindle links:

The Kindle Reader
Kindlekorner
Kindle Forum on Amazon. Lots of useful information including downloading from other sources
Amazon Kindle home page

>Kindle's convenient, but I'm approaching it as a luxury to be considered in steadier financial times and not a necessity to keep my reading life afloat.

This is where I am with it. It's the sort of thing that may show up on my Christmas list, though...Still, it's like the Oprah book club - if it gets people reading and keeps people reading, gets books into their hands and makes it convenient, I am all for it.

Phew! I've just gone through a bunch of Tuesday Things and put down comments. I didn't put comments on all of them because I think my brain ran out of interesting things to say. I'll try to do some more later. :)

Rainbowdarling, we love you. I absolutely adore getting comments from anyone who is interested in what I have to say. This whole Tuesday Thingers effort has been a lot of fun for me particularly because I have discovered so very many interesting, well-written blogs. I haven't commented much but I truly intend to because I know that personally it means a lot to me to hear from people who have read my blog, even if the only comment they leave is "cool thoughts."
My blog isn't commercial, so it doesn't matter how many hits I get; I just love knowing I'm connecting with other people who have similar interests and perspectives (or opposite or different ones for that matter).
It's all the social aspect for me. I'm a shy person without great social skills, so communicating this way is a boon.

I love it too! I have been adding everyone's blogs to my RSS reader. Google reader is my new best friend because it lets me keep up with everyone.

I haven't commented on anyone's Tuesday Thingers this week yet but that will probably be later on this evening. I love getting comments too, it's always great to know that your opinion or your thoughts or even your life have made someone stop and read for a couple of minutes.

I don't know how I'd keep up with any of the posts without google reader! I still need to add about ten more people to it. It's getting insane! (Can't leave it for a day or there are over 100 new posts to read! Good job everyone! ^^)

#38: My blog's more about the comments and interaction than the hits, too. That's how I think it should be anyway. :) I'm not making money from it and except the occasional book give-away that someone else might have, I'm not looking to get anything from it other than friends. (Awww, how saccharine does that sound?!)

I am just getting into Google reader, but I can see that it is going to make keeping up on the blogs much easier.

Now that I've got some hits on my relatively new blog, I can say that it's more about the interaction! But it was really a great way to get folks acquainted with me.

In the tradition started by Nitestar in hosting the ER Group book bloggers web ring and Marie at The Boston Bibliophile for hosting the Tuesday Thingers meme I liked to throw my hat in the ring and offer to host and admin a blog site to gather and post our book giveaways and contests.

I couldn't sleep last night (look at the post time) and took the liberty of putting together a blogger site for us. Please feel free to stop by, take a look around and let me know if you like what you see or not. In no way will my feelings be hurt if this doesn't fly. It was simply an idea that was keeping me up tonight.

If you have any ideas, comments or concerns please let me know. If there is enough interest I'm more than happy to continue the site. Also, if I can link two blogs to the web ring I will link this new blog that so it will be centrally located.

Here's the link:

Up For Grabs

Woodbear, that's fabulous! What a great idea!

For those of you who have had giveaways on your website...what's the best way to do it?

I received 2 copies of Stealing Athena and I would like to have a contest to give away the extra copy. How do you usually set up your contests? And how do you select a winner?