I haven't blogged in ages. I intentionally quit blogging for Beloved Books because I just had too much going on and it was a blessing if I had time to read a book, let alone review one. I've had health issues, debilitating issues that prevented me from reading at all. When I shared with my doctor that I wasn't reading anymore, she was very concerned. You see, for beloved bibliophiles, reading is good for our health!
Yes, dear readers, you now have reason to keep on reading. When your spouse starts cracking down on your book purchases, when your friends and family tease you or grumble because you always have your nose in a book, you just let them know that to not read is bad for your health! For avid readers, not reading leads to tension and stress, anxiety, depression, and a total loss of creativity. For beloved bookworms, to disappear in a world of words is the healing balm for the chaotic lives we live. It soothes our souls and clears our minds to focus more clearly on our daily responsibilities. And while there is no scientific research to prove it, I'm convinced that my return to reading has done wonders for my skills playing Word Chums.
So there you have it, your prescription for reading. Please note: This blog post is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Showing posts with label bibliophile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bibliophile. Show all posts
Friday, October 24, 2014
Friday, January 10, 2014
Goodreads
One of my favorite websites is Goodreads. If you love reading, this is the best site to organize, catalogue, and rate books you've read (or want to read). You can join book clubs, add friends, and best of all, Goodreads recommends books to you!
A little bit of detail on how it works: Of course, you have to create a profile with login information. From there, you can create bookshelves to begin cataloguing your books. In the beginning, I only had a few shelves because I didn't know what I was doing, but I recommend you create shelves for all the genres you read (or want to read). You can even create shelves with phrases like "started to read but had to return to library" or "wouldn't recommend to anyone to save my life." I even have a "might read" shelf which is stupid because I have about a thousand books on my "to be read" shelf. As if I'll ever get to my "might read" shelf.
To add books, you simply type in the book's name, author, or ISBN and it'll list the book with the cover, summary, rating, reviews, publishing info and a ton of other information. It'll list how others have catalogued it or if it's on any book lists (I'll explain momentarily). If you have a smart phone, you can actually scan the bar code to add the book to your shelves. This made adding the books I have at home super easy to add to Goodreads. My only regret was that when I scanned the hundreds of books I own, I didn't catalogue them. I wish I would've been a little more thorough in adding them to specific shelves because sometimes I'm looking for books to recommend to someone by a genre and all the hundreds I added in the beginning aren't catalogued. Cataloguing is easy. You simply click the check box next to the shelf and it's added.
Recommendations are one of the best features of Goodreads. Love the recommendations! Recommendations are based off of the books on each shelf and are per shelf. So if I have a biographies shelf, Goodreads will recommend books according to the books I have on that shelf. This is a great way to discover new books and authors in your favorite genres. You can also search "listopia" (which is thousands of book lists) to find new books and authors. As an example, if I wanted to search books published in the 1920's, I can find a list of the best books published in the 1920's by searching for the phrase "1920's."
Another great feature for recommendations are the book clubs. You can join as many as you'd like and there are thousands on the site. I joined a few in the beginning, but it was too much so I'm only active in one book club now, one that I joined a few years ago. It's a small group of women from all over the world and we choose books collectively by suggestions and voting. We have online discussions about our books and other topics, including games, new members, and birthdays.
There is so much more to Goodreads, but I'll end with the giveaways. There are hundreds of ongoing book giveaways. Winners are chosen randomly and you can enter as many contests as you like. I've won a couple books off Goodreads in the last few years and it's a nice surprise because I often forget I've won until a book arrives in the mail!
Goodreads is a very comprehensive site so in order to get an idea of all the features, you'll just have to sign up for yourself. For book lovers, there's nothing better.
A little bit of detail on how it works: Of course, you have to create a profile with login information. From there, you can create bookshelves to begin cataloguing your books. In the beginning, I only had a few shelves because I didn't know what I was doing, but I recommend you create shelves for all the genres you read (or want to read). You can even create shelves with phrases like "started to read but had to return to library" or "wouldn't recommend to anyone to save my life." I even have a "might read" shelf which is stupid because I have about a thousand books on my "to be read" shelf. As if I'll ever get to my "might read" shelf.
To add books, you simply type in the book's name, author, or ISBN and it'll list the book with the cover, summary, rating, reviews, publishing info and a ton of other information. It'll list how others have catalogued it or if it's on any book lists (I'll explain momentarily). If you have a smart phone, you can actually scan the bar code to add the book to your shelves. This made adding the books I have at home super easy to add to Goodreads. My only regret was that when I scanned the hundreds of books I own, I didn't catalogue them. I wish I would've been a little more thorough in adding them to specific shelves because sometimes I'm looking for books to recommend to someone by a genre and all the hundreds I added in the beginning aren't catalogued. Cataloguing is easy. You simply click the check box next to the shelf and it's added.
Recommendations are one of the best features of Goodreads. Love the recommendations! Recommendations are based off of the books on each shelf and are per shelf. So if I have a biographies shelf, Goodreads will recommend books according to the books I have on that shelf. This is a great way to discover new books and authors in your favorite genres. You can also search "listopia" (which is thousands of book lists) to find new books and authors. As an example, if I wanted to search books published in the 1920's, I can find a list of the best books published in the 1920's by searching for the phrase "1920's."
Another great feature for recommendations are the book clubs. You can join as many as you'd like and there are thousands on the site. I joined a few in the beginning, but it was too much so I'm only active in one book club now, one that I joined a few years ago. It's a small group of women from all over the world and we choose books collectively by suggestions and voting. We have online discussions about our books and other topics, including games, new members, and birthdays.
There is so much more to Goodreads, but I'll end with the giveaways. There are hundreds of ongoing book giveaways. Winners are chosen randomly and you can enter as many contests as you like. I've won a couple books off Goodreads in the last few years and it's a nice surprise because I often forget I've won until a book arrives in the mail!
Goodreads is a very comprehensive site so in order to get an idea of all the features, you'll just have to sign up for yourself. For book lovers, there's nothing better.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Dramatic Ramblings of a Bibliophile
The definition of a bibliophile is as follows:
"A lover of books, especially for qualities of format; also, a book collector."
I am these things. A lover of books. A book collector. I'm obsessed with books. Truly, I own more than I can read, and have even more than that on my Goodreads.com to-read list. With this passion, heavens, the idea of books becoming obsolete to me is one of the most frightening things imaginable! I stare at a computer all day long and the last thing I want to do when I get home is read a book on a stinking computer. I'm sure the iReaders (or whatever they are called) seem like a good idea, but they are not a good idea!!! Books have pages to highlight and write notes on, in different colors if you like. Books have a unique scent that says, "Here I am, a true friend who is always here for you and waiting ever so patiently for you to hold me again." Books are tangible, comfort to the touch, soothing to the soul. A book in my hand is the one constant reassurance I have known my whole life. Before I knew Jesus, all I had were books to escape from a world full of hardships and trials. What is an iReader? An electronic device, a cold computer like the one I use all day at work. Blah!
I uncovered a scroll in my office closet. Curious, I unrolled it to find a picture I drew in middle school. It was an assignment for my art class (I hated that teacher, by the way...). We were to draw the career we dreamed of having. I drew a bunch of books and book covers with my name as the author. Will my dream one day come true only to see my grandchildren reading my published book on the computer? Oh, the horror!
What luxury can be found in a room with no books? I dislike any room in my house that does not contain books. A room without books to me is void of any real comfort and pleasure. A room without books is a room without spirit, without soul.
Books provide a world seen beyond our current circumstances, a window to the past, our hope for the future. For who will not succeed that loves to read and who will not know the lesson of value and sacredness that holds a book in his hand?
Sigh...
Tags: bibliophile
"A lover of books, especially for qualities of format; also, a book collector."
I am these things. A lover of books. A book collector. I'm obsessed with books. Truly, I own more than I can read, and have even more than that on my Goodreads.com to-read list. With this passion, heavens, the idea of books becoming obsolete to me is one of the most frightening things imaginable! I stare at a computer all day long and the last thing I want to do when I get home is read a book on a stinking computer. I'm sure the iReaders (or whatever they are called) seem like a good idea, but they are not a good idea!!! Books have pages to highlight and write notes on, in different colors if you like. Books have a unique scent that says, "Here I am, a true friend who is always here for you and waiting ever so patiently for you to hold me again." Books are tangible, comfort to the touch, soothing to the soul. A book in my hand is the one constant reassurance I have known my whole life. Before I knew Jesus, all I had were books to escape from a world full of hardships and trials. What is an iReader? An electronic device, a cold computer like the one I use all day at work. Blah!
I uncovered a scroll in my office closet. Curious, I unrolled it to find a picture I drew in middle school. It was an assignment for my art class (I hated that teacher, by the way...). We were to draw the career we dreamed of having. I drew a bunch of books and book covers with my name as the author. Will my dream one day come true only to see my grandchildren reading my published book on the computer? Oh, the horror!
What luxury can be found in a room with no books? I dislike any room in my house that does not contain books. A room without books to me is void of any real comfort and pleasure. A room without books is a room without spirit, without soul.
Books provide a world seen beyond our current circumstances, a window to the past, our hope for the future. For who will not succeed that loves to read and who will not know the lesson of value and sacredness that holds a book in his hand?
Sigh...
Tags: bibliophile
Sunday, October 23, 2011
My One Obsession
I've done it again. With hundreds of unread books in my home, I purchased more. I cannot stop and care not to try. This weekend's jewels:
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey
Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos
Quarrel with the King: The Story of an English Family on the High Road to Civil War by Adam Nicolson
Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex
Two Women of Galilee by Mary Rourke
The Long Song by Andrea Levy
To Shield the Queen by Fiona Buckley
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/855730.God_Ground_Zero
A Stranger in the Kingdom by Howard Frank Mosher
The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
The above books were all at Half Price Books for $1 or $2 in their clearance section. For half price ($7.98), I purchased The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir which is a November book for my book club.
Happy Reading to you!!
Tags: bibliophile
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey
Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos
Quarrel with the King: The Story of an English Family on the High Road to Civil War by Adam Nicolson
Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex
Two Women of Galilee by Mary Rourke
The Long Song by Andrea Levy
To Shield the Queen by Fiona Buckley
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/855730.God_Ground_Zero
A Stranger in the Kingdom by Howard Frank Mosher
The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
The above books were all at Half Price Books for $1 or $2 in their clearance section. For half price ($7.98), I purchased The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir which is a November book for my book club.
Happy Reading to you!!
Tags: bibliophile
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