If you're one of my two hundred or so Facebook friends, you probably know that I'm incredibly addicted to Facebook. Last semester when I was taking a class in Web 2.0 and Social Networking Tools I could hang out on Facebook and claim I was doing homework... and sometimes I actually was. Unfortunately, this semester when you see me on Facebook I'm just slacking off and you should refuse to talk to me and tell me to go work on my e-portfolio.
Like many others, my Facebook world includes an eclectic group of people - friends, newly found school pals, co-workers, family, former employers, fellow SJSU SLIS students, and instructors. One benefit of such a diverse group is the varied and interesting links and opinions that get shared. But that is also one of the danger zones - you can call me paranoid, but these stories show that Big Brother IS watching, and nobody is safe, no matter where you live or whether you're low down on the totem pole or at the top of the heap.
Personally, I think that what happens on Facebook stays on Facebook. No, you can't call in to work and say I need the day off to go to my grandmother's funeral and then post pictures of yourself sitting on the beach with a drink in your hand. Do that and you deserve to be fired. You're too stupid to be gainfully employed. But everyone has a private life, from the janitor to the CEO, and we're all entitled to kick back on the weekend and expect to show up for our job on Monday morning bright eyed and bushy tailed without worrying about being fired.
But why take chances? How to friend mom, dad, and the boss on Facebook...Safely and 10 privacy settings every Facebook user should know will explain how to share your information only with those you really want. I admit that I haven't done most of these - I'm on Facebook because I want to be found. If my profile wasn't searchable how could the boy I had a crush on in first grade have found me? [I'm not disclosing that info; he knows who he is]
Yet another way to avoid schoolwork - which I don't want to talk about but thanks for asking. I found out about this from Suey's blog, It's All About Books and then found the original project on Kim's blog Sophisticated Dorkiness. This week's activity is:
Blog Post Bingo!
Take a look at the 10 types of blog post below. Over the next two weeks, try to write as many of these different kinds of posts as you can.
A Link Post - share a series of links your readers might find interesting
A Short Post - less than 200 words
A List Post - simple as it sounds, a list of some sort
An Opinion Post - take an event, news, or another blog post and share your opinion on it
A Poll or Question Post - post a poll or ask your readers a specific question for feedback
A How-To Post - You’re an expert in something; big or small, share how to do it
A Long Post - more than 700 words
A Review Post - self-explanatory, I think
A Definition Post - show your expertise about a topic related to your blog
FREE SPACE - a type of post of your choice (that is not the same as one of the previous posts)
If you decide to participate and sign up on Kim's blog you can even win prizes.Stay tuned for my upcoming posts!
2008 was the second year that I kept track of all the books I read and listened to on audio, still using librarything. As the final project for a class I took last semester, I created a readers’ advisory wiki resource using Google sites, called Recreational Reading. You can use this site to help you find what to read next, and if you have additional sources, feel free to add them to the site – it’s very easy to use. I felt like I got much less reading done this year because I was so bogged down with school, and in fact, I finished 2 books less than in 2007 but three times more were audiobooks. Here is the list of books I read or listened to in 2008, in the order I finished them.
1.The Sonnet Lover by Carol Goodman
2.The Rope Walk by Carrie Brown
3.Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs
4.Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Stephen J. Dubner
5.Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
6.Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
7.The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood
8.What the Dead Know: A Novel by Laura Lippman
9.Atonement by Ian McEwan
10.Learning to Breathe by Karen White
11.Beaufort by Ron Leshem
12.The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates
13.Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
14.The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller
15.People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
16.Forgive Me by Amanda Eyre Ward
17.Betrayal by John Lescroart
18.Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez
19.Double Cross by Jame Patterson
20.Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman
21.Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
22.The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
23.Another Thing to Fall by Laura Lippman
24.Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
25.The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland
26.Eleven Days: A Novel of the Heartland by Donald Harstad
27.The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman
28.Killer Heat by Linda Fairstein
29.Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
30.Ellington Boulevard: A Novel in A-Flat by Adam Langer
31.The Burnt House by Faye Kellerman
32.The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty
33.The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett
34.Hold Tight by Harlan Coben
35.Phantom Prey by John Sandford
36.Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
37.The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman
38.I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
39.Escape by Robert K. Tanenbaum
40.Nothing to Lose by Lee Child
41.Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
42.If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern
43.Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
44.We Are On Our Own by Miriam Katin
45.The Other by David Guterson
46.March by Geraldine Brooks
47.The Broken Window: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel by Jeffery Deaver
48.The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
49.The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
50.Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy by Shmuley Boteach
51.Belong to Me by Marisa De los Santos
52.Just Do It: How One Couple Turned Off the TV and Turned On Their Sex Lives for 101 Days (No Excuses!) by Douglas Brown
53.The Sister by Poppy Adams
54.The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
55.Mekimi by Noa Yaron-Dayan
56.Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
57.The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton
58.The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman
59.The Mercedes Coffin: A Decker and Lazarus Book by Faye Kellerman
60.The Attack by Yasmina Khadra
61.The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King
62.The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
63.Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert
64.Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
65.The Condition by Jennifer Haigh
66.The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
67.Halfway House by Katharine Noel
68.I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass
69.Heat Lightning by John Sandford
70.A case of exploding mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
71.The plague of doves by Louise Erdrich
72.Kissing Games of the World by Sandi Kahn Shelton
73.The Beach House by Jane Green
74.Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany
75.The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
76.The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
77.The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
78.The Gate House by Nelson DeMille
79.Testimony by Anita Shreve
80.The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer
81.Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell
Of the 81 books I consumed in 2008, there were 7 authors who I read more than one of his/her works in 2008, 32 were audiobooks, 13 were non-fiction, one was in Hebrew, 5 were ‘young adult’ fiction, and 5 dealt with the Holocaust to some degree which is unusual for me since I usually run the other way from Holocaust books.
Some of my favorites and books I would recommend are People of the Book, Bridge of Sighs, The Glass Castle, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The book I most looked forward to reading was Wally Lamb’s The Hour I First Believed and I did enjoy it but thought it was too long and had a few too many plotlines going on. It would have been better I had he stuck to the main storyline. I read several books that included a supernatural element and was able to suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy them but one that I particularly disliked (immensely) was Cecilia Ahern’s I see you everywhere. I decided to give Patricia Cornwell another chance after finding her last books so awful that I stopped reading them and found Scarpetta an okay read. Not great but not terrible either. I read (actually listened to) Twilight because I was curious about all the hype it was getting and I just don’t get it. Too long and nothing happened. I do not plan on reading the other three although I did buy the set for my daughter for Chanuka.
You can find me on librarything, reading social, or goodreads which I'm trying to use just because a fellow reading buddy has friended me there.
Although I have a pile of books from the library, none of them seem to be holding my interest so I plan to head over to the library tomorrow and get started on 2009's list.
1. Do you get to read as much as you WANT to read?
(I’m guessing #1 is an easy question for everyone?)
2. If you had (magically) more time to read–what would you read? Something educational? Classic? Comfort Reading? Escapism? Magazines?
Well, this is certainly a timely question - my semester just ended (at midnight) so I actually have time to answer.
Does anyone get to read as much as they'd like? Of course my answer to this is a resounding no. I'd like to blame it only on school, work, and home responsibilities but the truth is, I'd very addicted to tv and the internet so that too cuts into my reading time. During the semester I do most of my reading on Saturdays, which is my Sabbath, so electronics are off limits. I actually have a bunch of holds at the library that I've timed for my semester break so hopefully I'll be able to get some reading in before the craziness starts up full force.
Well, I definitely wouldn't read anything educational. I read mostly modern fiction, sometimes an interesting nonfiction book I come across. I'm not really into chick lit so when I've been reading too many downers I throw in some suspense or mysteries to lighten it up.
If you'd like to participate in Booking through Thursday, post your answers on your blog, and leave a comment on the BTT Web site.
Originally: New York
Home: Zufim, Israel
After 3 years in San Jose, CA, I'm back where I belong - Israel. I originally made aliyah in 1988 and Zufim has been my home since 2000.
E-mail me: chasidar at gmail dot com.
