Thing 20: Social Reading and Books

I did do this "thing" on a previous occasion but I wanted to do it again to discover more about the tools I already use and to see what else has been added since last time.

I read the intro about Goodreads and some of the things that are possible when using it.  I was not aware that creating shelves would generate recommendations based upon the books on specific shelves.  Step one for me will be creating some shelves to reorganize my books onto.  Whenever I work on Cool Tools, I tend to get lost in the things I'm discovering and this was no exception.

When I logged on to Goodreads today, I saw that one of my favorite authors has read a book that I just finished.  David Joy is the author and I ended up reading his responses to questions that readers asked him and I asked him if he has any new books in the works.  I have read all 3 of his fiction books, one having just come out in 2018.  He writes Appalachian Noir and one of the questions was asking him for recommendations of other writers who have similar styles and/or subject matter.  His answer is a treasure trove of ideas to put on my future reading list.  This makes me very excited!

The first time I did this "thing" I started using Goodreads.  I had an account before but hardly ever used it.  Now I keep track of what I read in Goodreads and joined a couple of challenges.  My challenge for 2017 was 100 books and I didn't join the challenge until mid year so it was not easy to do.  I found myself reading books so fast that I didn't remember what they were about.  Therefore, my goals for 2018 and 2019 were lower.  When I met the goal for 2018, I upped it a little.  I listen to most books on audio but as my brain becomes older, like every other part of my body, it's gotten a little flabby.  To counteract the effects of my aging brain, I often get the print book, either digital or hard copy to read along with the audio.  Most times I don't read the entire hard copy but use it to refer to if I get confused.  Ebooks are especially helpful if they have X-Ray enabled. You can just click on a character to see all mentions of them before the point where you stopped reading.

I am not sure if I found this nifty tool from doing Cool Tools but I use it all the time.  It is a Literature Map that you put an authors name into and it will generate a web of other authors who are similar in style and/or genre.  The closer they are to the middle, the more closely they match the author that was put in. 

I also used LibraryThing before meeting Cool Tools but since have upgraded to the unlimited version for the one time fee of $25.

Tech Tools for the Love of Reading

I was about to install the Library Extension for Google Chrome but a pop up message said "It can: read and change all your data on the websites you visit" so I decided not to.  When I looked at the overview of the extension, I saw that it basically does the same thing LibraryThing will do.  It will tell you where you can find the book you want by displaying the libraries that you set up.

I explored the page of recommendations made by Plymouth High School in New Hampshire.  I like the way clicking on a book brings you to reviews written by students in their school.  The whole thing is very nicely done.  Very professional looking and functional. I was impressed with the writing of the students in their reviews.  Read the review for Hush, Hush if you have not already done so.

I am trying to figure out the Blackout Poetry Generator but feel like I'm being dense.  There are a list of instructions that are very confusing to me: 

"First, the script locates every paragraph of text (HTML <p> tag) on the current page. Then, for each paragraph, it performs the following steps:

1.   Split the text up into a series of words.

2.   Use pos-js to annotate each word with the part of speech (noun, verb, etc) it represents.

3.   Adjust the part-of-speech annotations, and add on some other annotations, based on a set of additional hand-written rules.

4.   Run a number of matchers, each one looking for a series of words that fits a certain valid English sentence structure, over the annotated text.

5.   Discard all the matchers that didn’t find a matching sequence of words, and randomly select one of the remaining matchers (the ones that did).

6.   Rewrite the paragraph, blacking out all the words except those that were matched by the chosen matcher.

In a certain sense, then, you can think of this process as turning each individual paragraph on the page into its own tiny poem."

Does this only seem over complicated to me?

I tried using my favorite Shakespeare poem (sonnet?) but the blackout generator didn't do anything to it. Try to guess why this is my favorite, here's just the beginning of it: 

 And why not death rather than living torment?

To die is to be banished from myself,

And Sylvia is myself. Banished from her

Is self from self—a deadly banishment!

175What light is light, if Sylvia be not seen?

What joy is joy, if Sylvia be not by?

Cool examples shown but I can't get it to work!

Meanwhile, thanks to my ADD I found an awesome SparkNotes site that puts Shakespeare's original prose next to a modern day translation.  Check out the link, I spent way too much time looking at this. 

Ok, so I got the blackout generator to work on another page of Shakespeare from Othello.  Here's what I came up with for my poem: 

The imminent invasion takes a vulnerable guess.  

He is having, she expects, affairs. 

Appropriate accommodations accept the couple. 

That Desdemona insists the honest nature, they are devastating. 

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense but it kind of sounds cool, right?

From one of your links I clicked on "Write the World".  I could see right away how this would be a useful tool for the classroom or my library classes.  There is an Educator tab with ideas for ways to use it with students and there is a For Young Writers tab for students.  A writing community can be created just for your classroom or globally.  Writing prompts encourage writers to experiment with a variety of styles and techniques.  Examples are provided from an array of writers from all over the world.  Writing competitions are offered monthly and feedback can be obtained from peers and experts before a writing piece is submitted to the competition.  A different genre is explored in each new competition.  I am thinking of creating a group of interested students to participate in using this site so they can not only learn writing techniques but so they can learn how to read the work of their peers and give appropriate feedback.  I have a feeling this is going to be the most challenging and the most valuable part of this learning opportunity.  

There are even lesson plans provided to help educators to get the most out of this site. Here is a quote from the site explaining how the lesson plans are structured:

"Each lesson plan includes two brief, five-minute prompts; student samples; goals and deliverables; research and resources; and a teaching script to use as a launch pad."

It is so hard not to get sidetracked and start doing the writing exercises! The first lesson plan is titled "Breaking Down the Writing Process, Brainstorming and Getting Started". It begins with a quote from the writer who I have admired the most and followed the longest. 

"The scariest moment is always just before you start." - Stephen King

The first lesson/activity is First Fives which is spending 5 minutes responding to a prompt.  I love the prompts.  Prompt one is to use 10 words only to take us to your home. The examples given are from students in various countries and they are excellent encouragement.  A list can be given, sentence fragments, or a sentence.  No rules, except you can only use 10 words. I like how "home" can be interpreted in as many ways as there are participants.  It could mean where you are from, where you currently live, where you identify with....the possibilities are endless. I couldn't resist so here is mine: 

Childhood

Nightmares

Escape 

Redefine

Identity

Self-sufficient

Capable

Children

Happiness

Safety

The next prompt is called "subtotals" and it challenges the writer to write a story using numbers.

Some of the examples are very long so I won't include any here except for some excerpts that I feel give the essence of the assignment:

"number of compliments given, 4051; number accepted 2249"

Here's a short attempt of mine: 

Number of children, 2; number of miracles witnessed, 2; number of heart breaks, 1, number of divorces, 1; number of marriages, 1; number of engagements, 3; number of pet dogs, 1; number of pet cats, 9; number of years teaching, 18; number of years till retirement, 4; number of years alive, 58.

The instructions condone estimates that help give a clearer picture of the author.  For example,  number of skinned knees, 6 versus 34 gives a different picture of the person writing.

I'd really like to keep going but I have 4 other "things" to complete so I better get this one published.  I plan on using the tools I knew about in new ways and am excited to use the tools that are new to me....especially "Write the World".  

Final note....I promise.  I noticed a link to the NYPL and wanted to let you know that Cool Tools made me aware years ago that I could an NYPL card to use their digital resources.  This has become a tool that I use every day.  I get 90% of my reading and listening (audiobooks) from the NYPL and my life would be much more difficult and empty without it.  Thank you sooo much for all the wonderful tools you have given me over the years.  I think my NYPL card is the most valuable of them all.   

I don't know why part of this is highlighted but I gave up trying to figure it out.