MESSAGE BOARD

The message board is for use by members to post general messages to the group, such as links to new group threads, announcements, questions, offers, invitations to local discussion...etc.

Just a reminder that I maintain a list of all active Club Read members with their real names and locations (if they share it), on the first post of the Introductions thread.

I only just found that out like a month ago.

What do you think of a topic "Has anyone read?" When I’m considering whether to read a book or not, I always wonder if other people in the group have read it and what they think.

that sounds like a good idea to me.

That might be fun. You could try it and see if it takes.

actually I already have a querey for that thread: has anyone read winter? I remember with her companion piece and with autumn I enjoyed her writing but thought the plot odd. Been trying to finish but keep getting bogged down. Is it worth it in the end, or should I bail?

>7 cindydavid4: I liked Autumn and disliked Winter, I gave it two stars. I liked the characters in the first and couldn't relate to anyone in the second. I haven't read any more in the quartet.

yeah thats where Im at. Really loved Sophia at the beginning, and her son Art, but by they time they were finished with Christmas, i liked no one. So I think this is a DNF

>4 dianeham: sounds fun to me too

Okey dokey

>7 cindydavid4: I feel like this has been discussed somewhere else recently but I’ll repeat myself if you don’t mind — Winter was my favourite of that series. I strongly disliked Spring

ok then thanks. maybe I should read Spring then :)

>13 cindydavid4: oh

I started Autumn but put it down. The only book I read of hers was Companion Piece which I really liked.

>14 Nickelini: Im being silly - since you liked winter and I didn't, I'll read one you didn't like to see what happens :) probably will try it anyway

Unhelpful, probably, but I found that the four books of the quartet suddenly gelled much more closely when I reread them all in quick succession. We also found it helpful in our book club to compile a kind of whiteboard diagram of the characters with a different colour for each book.

Just found out that somehow I posted two threads for 2023 (Ill get this computer thing right one of these days) is you are looking for me, go here https://www.librarything.com/topic/347243#n8020636

Ignore the other two that are from 2022. Havent been able to find the other one but if you see it send me the link and I'll get rid of it Many thanks!

ok so how do I delete a this extra thread ?

>19 cindydavid4: probably you can’t. But you can write a post to make it clear it’s not a love thread.

>19 cindydavid4: The Club Read admin (labfs39) may have magical powers to delete the thread. Send the admin a message.

>21 kac522: Sadly no, as I've learned to my own disappointment with duplicate threads. The best you can do is erase the post and instead post something like "Whoops, duplicate thread."

>22 labfs39: Ah, OK. A change to request for LT2 from the Powers That Be?

>23 kac522: That would be nice. I think the fear is that an admin could delete someone's thread accidently or with personal ill intent.

>24 labfs39: Understood. At least you can change the name of the duplicate thread (right?), which will at least help.

>25 kac522: I can. Cindy, let me know if you would like me to change the name of the duplicate thread, and what you would like to change it to

>24 labfs39: A possible compromise would be to allow a group member to submit a request to delete a thread and an admin then approves it.

>26 labfs39: this is a duplicate thread. do not use :)

>27 rhian_of_oz: thats kinda how I thought it worked

>27 rhian_of_oz: That will require LT to invest into a pretty serious development effort for what is essentially a corner usecase... :) But feel free to propose it over in RSI: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/559/Recommend-Site-Improvements

Just to make sure I wasn’t missing something, I queried Abagail if it was possible for an admin to delete a thread. Here is her response:

Unfortunately, there is really no way to completely delete a Talk thread over in LibraryThing groups, even for the group admin. If someone posts by accident, and then subsequently deletes their post (not the thread, but the initial post itself), and no one else posts in the thread subsequently, it will disappear on its own. If anyone else comments however, this isn't possible.

Julie_in_the_Library posted a link that was very helpful in explaining how to achieve certain effects in your posts, like inserting images, etc.

The New How To Do Fancy Things In Your Posts thread

Which also pointed to:

The HTML help wiki

I was just browsing them and learned several neat tricks.

I totally forgot that I was supposed to be running a group read of A Room of One's Own in February. Sorry!

Are people still up for this? If so we could maybe start at the beginning of March instead (or mid Feb - I need to buy a copy first).

>33 AlisonY: Oh yes! I am still interested and pulled my coy off my shelves (but nothing more than that). I am fine with whichever start date you choose from (I have such a list of "to be read soon" books that I am not in a hurry)!

>33 AlisonY: I downloaded a copy onto my Kindle and am also happy with whatever start date you choose.

In that case, maybe we go with a start of beginning of April so people can have a few weeks reading from their planned books. I'm short of reading time at the moment - perhaps I'll be more organised by then!

>36 AlisonY: That's fine by me.

For info I've added a thread for the group read to start on 1st April.

Keying off the idea in post #1 that this thread can be used for "invitations to local discussion...etc.", I thought that even as a non-member I could invite people to check out and add to the recently-revived (by me) list called "Favorite Long Books." It seemed a worthy list that would benefit from more attention and more participating members (only 34 as I write this). My impression was that it had been fallow for awhile, and I'd be happy to check back in a little while and see that it had grown!

Since I'm enough of a light user to not fully know my way around, would there have been a better or more strategic place to post this?

As a corollary: would it have been appropriate or inappropriate to add this as a topic?

Cheers,
David M.

>39 dhm: Hi David, Interesting list. I'll put a link to it here for folks who are interested. Out of the 326 books listed, I have 107. Which are your favorites?

You might also be interested in the thread, The Beauty of Lists, also within Club Read.

Help! why doesn't my kindle have buttons? why cant I remove a book after I read it? ( yes I went to amazon and clicked remove, nnothing happens) Why doesnt the book I want to read come up when I click read now? How can I reread a book? and other questions as they come up Really frustrated I like reading from it but the darn things need buttons! Any help would be apprciated thx

>42 cindydavid4: Make sure you do not have a filter of "Unread" - that will hide your read books. Look at the bottom of the screen - there is Home on the left and Library on the right. Click on Library. Look at the top of the screen - are there any filters enabled? My kindle usually has "Downloaded" and "Unread" enabled as filters.

You reread by opening the book (now it will open at the end), then clicking towards the top of the screen to show the menu, click on the thing that looks like 3 broken lines (next to Aa) and then inside of the screen, click on the page you want to go to or on Beginning (or on Cover).

Removing books - if you are on the library screen, in list mode, click on the 3 dots next to the title in the list and remove from there. If you are using the home screen and not the library one or if you are using covers and not a list, the 3 dots are at the bottom right corner of the cover (can be almost invisible on some covers but they are there).

They went away with the buttons a decade ago. I mourned it but now I am kinda used to to the touch screen...

As for why it does not come up on Read now - is the book downloaded on the kindle? Where do you click "Read now"?

Removing from the Amazon page will work only if your kindle's Wifi is enabled - and the operation itself is queued so it may not happen immediately.

ok, thats what those lines are for. I got back to the first page.

filters are downloaded and unread

I have been using the Amazon page to delete or read now, , should I be using the library instead the book is downloaded ont to kindle and Wifi is enabled

How do I know when a new book comes up? do I need to remove the present one first?

If I have already purchased a book on amazon would it still be readable on the kindle

I am enjoying the lightness, being able to control size and warmth. I have a way cute cover.

thanks for your help! I also just noticed the help link. a little slow on the uptake......

>44 cindydavid4: If your kindle stays on WiFi and you send a book from Amazon, it will download itself. I usually stay off WiFi - that way the battery lives a lot longer. I turn on the WiFi only when I know I have books to download. So I delete from the device - once I connect, it tells Amazon that the book is removed. :)

Be careful because there are two deletes - remove from the device and a real delete. You want the first.

If you had bought a kindle book at any time, you can read it on the kindle. If you bought a paper book, the no, you don’t have access to the kindle version.

Yes, be careful - if you remove a book from your library on Amazon it's gone forever. You want "remove from device", and it's easier (once you figure out where the controls are hidden) to do it directly _on_ the device.

You can be reading several books - there's a Library screen on your Kindle where you can see all the books you currently have downloaded on that device (actually, you can see either all your Kindle books or the downloaded ones). You can be reading one book, decide you want to switch, go to the Library and open another book (download and open, if necessary), then when you're done with that one go back to the Library and choose your previous book and it will open at the spot you left off.

I have a rather old Kindle (not old enough to have buttons, but far from the latest greatest) and very seldom read on it. So I don't know where stuff is - how, exactly, to get to the Library, for example. I went to look and it's low battery so I can't try it out and tell you - charging now, but it'll take a while to get up to functional.

(once you figure out where the controls are hidden)

yes, thats what Im having trouble with. I did find the help guide and will try to figure it out (took me forever to figure out how to turn pages!)

How do you get to the library from the screen with the book cover?

>47 cindydavid4: How do you get to the library from the screen with the book cover?

If you are in a book and you want to go back to the library, tap up at the top of the Kindle screen to bring up the menu. You should see ← Library (or ← Home) in the top left area of the screen. Tapping that text will bring you back to your Library screen (or the Home screen). Navigation between Home and Library is at the bottom of the screen; just tap on the area you want to be browsing in.

If you're looking at the lock screen of the Kindle, you need to swipe up to unlock things. That will bring you either to the book or to your Home/Library screen, depending on where you left things last.

I don't think there are too many differences between the display of the standard Kindle and the Kindle Paperwhite (I have an older Paperwhite, and use it nearly every day), so these directions should work for either model.

Thanks for that, it helps alot. BTW I was joking about wanting buttons, just wish for less complex way of using technology. But Ill figure it out

I need to find my charger for my kindle. I got it over a year ago and something that it didn’t do that it used to do pissed me off. But now I can’t remember what it didn’t do or where the charger is. A mind is a terrible thing to lose.

Mine (a 2012 Paperwhite) just uses a micro USB - and those I have around (though not as many these days, most of my gadgets have gone to USB-C). Did it have a proprietary charger, or just one of the standard USBs? Of course you need to plug the cord into something that will put out enough electricity - but usually a computer will work, or a recent phone charger (they need more and more electricity...).

>51 jjmcgaffey: ah, thanks. You’re probably right.

It takes a village---to learn the ins and outs of a kindle! Cindy, I watched a couple of YouTube videos when I got my Kindle. It helped for me to be able to watch someone operating it. You just have to be careful that they are demonstrating on the Kindle version that you have.

Thanks for the warning and the suggestion I actually was going to message you about my issues with it then remembered ther you are under the weather and don't need to be helping me out. Yes it does take a village which is why I love this place

A reminder that a group read of A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf is starting tomorrow. If anyone would like to join in stop by the thread in CR.

>56 ELiz_M: What?! Noooo!!! The Book Depository was my source for buying books from the UK that hadn't been published in the US yet, especially ones from the Booker Prize longlist. They sold these books at a 10-20% discount from the list price, and shipping was free.

My life is ruined. 🤬

ETA: The above may be a mild overstatement.

>56 ELiz_M: Oh, crap!

And that will hit really badly a lot of people outside of the big countries - BD is often the only ones that ship to some places (unless you want to pay a lot of money for shipping - often a few times more than the book price - and that is when other vendors would ship to you at all)...

>57 kidzdoc:
I didn't realize BD was Amazon.thats what I used it for, until a few instances where I never received the book , so have been using bookfinder.com. But for others its a real shame they are doing this

Inclined to agree with >57 kidzdoc:. US sources sell in US dollars, and Book Depository sold in Canadian dollars at usually less than prices in Canada, with the added benefit of free shipping. ABE's shipping costs as >58 AnnieMod: says are often more than the price of the book. Also agreeing with others that it was the place where you could buy books which didn't have rights in the country where you live.

I can see a large order in the near future!

>57 kidzdoc: I don't how it will compare on prices, but Blackwell's includes the cost of shipping in the cost of the book displayed on the website.

>58 AnnieMod: I don't know if they have decent stock of new, popular books, but my understanding is that Better World Books will ship anywhere in the world for, at most, $1.49. It just takes a reeeeaaallly loooooong time to receive them.

>61 ELiz_M: People don't buy just popular books though. If someone was using them exclusively for popular books, I suspect they will find another solution from almost anywhere in the world.

I use BD mainly for UK and Australian editions these days. The latter are rarely available from anyone not shipping from Australia (BD shipped from there as well but it was from the same interface and with free shipping) and UK editions of less popular things (plays for example) are very hard to find outside of the publisher's sites and BD.

That's rough news for me. I definitely used BookDepository as a source of books that would ship to Japan without the exhorbitant shipping costs (although understanding of course that shipping costs were included in the higher book prices). But it also aided me in getting to buy books you can't find in bookstores like certain history books or more obscure classics like the major Chinese classics I have been purchasing. Now I'll have to go back to waiting till I'm back in the States to buy English language books and that will have to be via Amazon anyway. My suitcase will not be happy.

This is sad for me too. Although they were part of the Amazon, it didn't feel that way because I used them almost exclusively for German language books and Brit stuff like the Big Finish CDs of Doctor Who. And not just that, they were offering (until relatively recently) good deals on German DVDs and even trinkets like the publisher-logoed notebooks, calendars etc. (I'm filling up now a blank notebook in the Insel Verlag format with a sentence from Gryphius on the cover: "Der Augenblick ist mein"--the moment belongs to me.)

I'll miss all that. But really feeling for the people worldwide who have much less choice to begin with!

I mostly stopped using them after the Amazon takeover, but that was only possible because I now have good local non-Amazon alternatives for most things here. Bad news for people who don’t. There was a long period when I used BD a lot and was very happy with the way they worked.

Sad to see that the inevitable has happened at last. I expect it will make this year’s SantaThing trickier to organise too.

>56 ELiz_M: BD just sent me the notice. I'm with Darryl!

>62 AnnieMod: So true. I'm with Annie. I like to discover interesting books from around the world and not be dependent on US publishers to deem something worthy ....(bless the many US small independent publishers)
------------------------
I use BD for everything but US authored books (although I do sometimes have to use Amazon.ca if a book is not available in the US, and I had to go through Amazon.com.au to get that latest Gail Jones novel).

Might use Blackwells (UK) ...of course they don't have the stock BD did, and I don't know how broad their selection is.

Talking about the closing of BD, a different thread elsewhere on LT mentioned Wordery: https://wordery.com

Had anyone used them? At a first glance, they have the kind of books I usually go to BD for (UK editions - including plays) and the prices look comparable (plus they also offer free shipping).

>67 AnnieMod: Thanks for this. I remember it was around when I first started using BD, so good to hear it's still out there and a reasonable substitute for UK books unavailable here.

Yes, Annie, thanks; I'll take a look.

ETA: Not sure it will work for me. Although, I might be able to buy from them anything a UK publisher might be listing on their sites.

dianelouise100 and I are going to do a group read of The Snopes Trilogy by William Faulkner, starting June 1. Any and all are welcome to join us. Danchaikin (Dan) and jpaul (Jennifer) have already indicated an interest in joining in.

It will be very laid back, and we will read one book a month, so The Hamlet June 1, The Town July 1, and The Mansion August 1.

I will set up a thread mid-May or so for The Hamlet. We'd love to have you join us. Any questions?

>70 arubabookwoman: I'll plan to join. Oddly, I own The Town, but not the others.

New thread: CR's Recommendations for Roving Readers - a place for travel related questions and suggestions.

>70 arubabookwoman: Ive not read faulkner that I can remember but this trio looks interesting. Ill give it a try, just put it on Kindle

>72 SassyLassy: oh yes! what fun that would be!

>70 arubabookwoman: sounds great! Looking forward to it.

>70 arubabookwoman: Count me in for the group read of The Snopes Trilogy. I own the complete Library of America set of Faulkner's novels, including the books in this trilogy, and since I haven't yet started reading him it's best for me to join this party.

>70 arubabookwoman: I like the idea of Faulkner in the summer. I don't have these three books, but that should be easy enough to correct!

Sadly, I have just sent off my last (small) order from the Book Depository (may BD rest in peace).

>78 avaland: Yeah... I may have sent in an order or 2 yesterday (and small does not apply to either)... and still thinking about one more before they fold.

>78 avaland: >79 AnnieMod: Ha! It looks like quite a few of us were busy placing last minute orders this week. I will really miss BD.

>80 Yells: I hedged my bets - I sent a small order to wordery as well (see >67 AnnieMod:). They report much longer delivery windows but we shall see -- will report back when I get the books.

>69 avaland: What did you see in there that made you think it won't work? (I am just curious - I may have missed something). :)

I have posted a thread for the Snopes Trilogy group read, Volume 1, The Hamlet. It officially starts June 1, but feel free to jump in any time. We'd love to have you join in!

link goes to shakespear, fyi

>83 cindydavid4: Thamks Cindy. Corrected.

We have an extra paperback copy of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout. Michael misplaced the first, so he picked up a 2nd copy and then, of course, we found the first (of course!) His review of the book is on our thread or the book's page. Willing to send the extra copy to a reader here in the continental US (on our dime). Leave us a note on my profile page.

I'm going to be in Chicago the weekend of September 8 - 11 at the Printers Row book festival, if anyone living in Chicagoland would like to meet up.

Fyi - the cyber attack on lt is ongoing. See link.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/353424

>87 dchaikin: That's scary. It was down for awhile yesterday and I wondered if it might not be wise to make an off-line copy of my library, just in case.

>87 dchaikin:, >88 RidgewayGirl:

I don’t get why anyone would care to hack LT. Other than to cause mischief. Which I also don’t understand

>89 Nickelini: In the linked thread, Tim explains that there was an extortion demand, which LT refused to pay.

>88 RidgewayGirl: They must have back ups.

>90 RidgewayGirl: oh my! How nasty

I had posted the following message on my personal CR-thread but Lisa, our admin, asked me to copy and paste it to this thread. So here it is:

Ok, I've been thinking about this for a long time. I have an idea that I would like to share with you and ask your opinion on. It's a project I've called Book Focus and it aims to make our reading experience on Club Read even richer and more engaging.

The idea is simple: if you want to discuss a book, you start a thread for that specific book. In that thread you can provide your own analysis, interpretation, and appreciation of the book, and invite others to join in. This way we can have an in-depth and lengthy conversation about a book that interests us.

Why Book Focus? This idea arose from the observation that many interesting books are discussed in different threads, but information is often lost, either because not everyone reads all the threads, or because all information is archived after a year anyway. Some readers read a book that other readers had already read and discussed years earlier, but those readers do not always find each other. Book Focus can be a way for readers to comment on a book over time, without time limits.

Book Focus could be organized as a kind of annual spin-off of Club Read. It is of course not the intention to detract from the personal conversations. On the contrary, you could, for example, choose to give favorite books their own place on Book Focus, so that they receive more attention in a time-independent place. Book Focus would be a way to bundle all these reading experiences per book and share them with each other.

Book Focus would not be bound by a time limit. You can start a discussion about a book you want to discuss at any time, regardless of when you read it or when it was published. You can also reply to an existing thread at any time, regardless of how old it is or how many replies there are already. Book Focus would therefore be a dynamic and flexible project.

Book Focus would mainly focus on the type of books that Club Read members read, but in principle there is no restriction on this. The most important thing is that you are willing to share your thoughts and listen to those of others.

I would like to create Book Focus because I would like to be able to continue talking about a book over the years, regardless of when someone reads a book. This allows for interaction between readers over the years and keeps the focus on the book, unlike group readings and challenges that have a limited scope in time.

But this is just my idea. I already have a number of ideas about how everything can be set up, but everything depends on whether there is interest. My idea is to create a cross-annual spin-off of Club Read (Club Read Book Focus) that will run alongside the annual Club Reads. I'd like to know what you think. Would you like to participate in Book Focus? Would you like a project like this on Club Read? I look forward to hearing your comments.

Thank you in advance for your feedback!

>93 Trifolia:. I love this idea! I am horrible at writing reviews but often chime in with my two cents when someone else posts a review.

Something like this?

https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/22182/One-Book-One-Thread

I like the idea a lot

That's a great idea!

>95 LolaWalser: Looks1 good. I agree also with the general idea. I’ve often waned to engage with other members about a particular book, and have resorted to searches in Club Reads. I’ve also tried looking up members from the “Members” option in the main page of a book I’m interested in, and then checking for that person’s posts.
it’s a matter of how best to do it.

I like the idea, club read threads are great to read through for our current reading, but there isn't a great way to look backwards for all the interesting conversations that have been had over the years. And that could be continued with new readers.

Given that there already exists a group devoted to doing exactly this thing, adding that group to your list would seem to be the easiest way to get what you're looking for.

I agree that reviving that other group is the best idea.

But in general I prefer to keep conversations with Club Read members within Club Read. The number of spin-off groups that have been created, initially creating energy, then were subsequently dumped are many and I fear the same thing would happen to this idea.

Personally, I would prefer our own book focus threads here.

>101 lilisin:

One Book One Thread is active, there is no specific level of activity it ought to have, given its very nature. At any time it could be used by one, few, many, or none. It's free to post so membership isn't important, nor is there any intrinsic reason why those who did join would comment on most, let alone all threads; after all, not everyone is going to want to follow every book's thread.

It's a great idea, but I agree that there's no need to create a new group. The advantage of the existing group that Lola pointed out is that it's not year-dependent. You can create a thread there and link to it from your Club Read thread. Anybody who adds this thread to their favorites will be able to follow it in the Groups and Threads section of the Talk area.

>104 FlorenceArt: good idea. I agree that there’s no need for a new group to achieve the aims Trifolia outlined.

I only brought it up because it seemed to be pretty much what Trifolia was suggesting. But if people feel strongly about limiting it to a clique, then a private group with invitation-only membership might serve better.

Alternatively, creating threads IN Club Read with a uniform prefix such as, for example, "Book Focus: (etc.)" might answer too. Note that adopting a uniform prefix also enables grouping such threads together when sorting by thread title.

By the same token, if people wanted to use One Book One Thread, I'd suggest adopting a uniform prefix "Club Read (etc.)" or some such for the threads. Sorting by thread title, and/or ignoring irrelevant threads could leave a list of just the threads of interest.

Israel and CR

Have Paul (Polaris) in your thoughts. He is a onetime member here who lives in London. He also has lived in an Israeli kibbutz. He just posted on fb:

“Now confirmed: Over 100 civilians murdered on a peaceful kibbutz where I once lived happily. I am heartbroken.”

That's terrible. What Israel has been doing in Gaza is terrible too.

I didn’t mean to politicize.

It's all terrible. All of it

My thoughts are with all the people who suffer. In the midst of everything that is going on in the world, this message is so trivial...

>94 Yells: till >106 LolaWalser:
Thank you all for your enthusiastic responses to my suggestion about Book Focus in Librarything. I’m glad to see that many of you share my interest in having more in-depth discussions about specific books that we read. I appreciate all the different perspectives and ideas that you have offered.
I agree with LolaWalser that One Book One Thread is a group that already exists for this purpose and that we could use it without creating a new group. I also like FlorenceArt’s idea of linking the threads from our Club Read thread to make them more visible and accessible. I think this would be one simple and effective way to achieve our goal of having more focused conversations about books.
However, I also understand that some of us may prefer to keep the conversations within Club Read or create a private group for this purpose.
I respect your preferences and I don’t want to impose my suggestion on anyone who is not interested. I think we could have a vote or a poll to see what the majority of the members want and then decide accordingly.
Thank you again for your feedback and participation. I look forward to hearing more from you and reading more books with you.