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[Sara, Old School Classics]

I considered signing up at Library Thing once before. I think I will do that now. I do not want to lose access to my library or be tied into a site that doesn't work for me any more. Any time the government or big business gets involved things go downhill.

[Luke]

I'm Ublocking as much as I can into shape. Love how Amazon once again has to shove users you've blocked into your face. We'll see what the fallout is, but considering what a clown show Amazon has turned the 'help' section into, I'm not expecting anything much.

[Darren]

re new book page: yeah not fan either - most of the info does seem still to be there, but some of it is not obvious and can take 2 clicks instead of 1 to access
oh, and some of the info can be expanded using "more" but there is then no "less" to compress it back down - that is just really shoddy design/testing

[Lori]

I’ve been inputting my owned books into Library Thing for a few years now. It was only to keep a master list to help me not purchase duplicates when I’m shopping. I’ve not looked at all the app provides. Anyone else familiar?

You’d think a company would want to listen to its customers but heaven forbid it might not be in line with whatever vision they have - which I know is profit.

[Darren]

in other news
the update comments issue that I've been droning on about has improved (a bit!)
some (not all!!) of the comments are back...
..but they've all been tagged with the date they were restored on (not the date they were created on), so they're in a ridiculous order
also, by pushing these restoration updates onto the history it triggers a "Started Reading" update (fortunately they don't also go to Currently Reading!!)

[Kathleen]

In my fantasy, Amazon, after all of its attempts to run the world, makes a misstep somewhere and, in belated cosmic comeuppance, self-destructs, after which Goodreads will fall back into the hands of its founders or their descendants, who will have seen the error of their ways in selling out in the first place.

A girl can dream!

[Sara, Old School Classics]

LOL. Ah, and if only dreams could come true!

[Heather L]

A lovely fantasy, Kathleen. After weeks of not being able to see book info pages, only error messages, it finally reverted to the original format yesterday. So much easier to look up nominated books! Wish they’d just let it alone, but we know that’s not going to happen. 😐

Speaking of things you wish they’d add, there’s a link at bottom of individual discussions to take you “back to top” of the page, but not at the bottom of a group homepage or book info page. How about giving us something useful like that?? 😕

[Darren]

oh and I did a data request for all my GR data about 2 months ago, which they said I should get back within 28 days, and heard nothing (yet!)...

I have manually backed up all my Review text though, so I'll at least have that if I abandon ship

[Darren]

oh and a shed-load of my shelved editions have changed
this is annoying, as I go to quite a bit of time/trouble to pick out an edition that is either the one I've got, or one with the right no. pages or one with a cover that I like

[Heather L]

Darren — Ugh! I hear you, and they’ve done that to me before. More than once. Last year, for example, they switched my beautiful edition of Practical Magic to a garish yellow more recent edition. Okay, I concede some people may like the new cover, but not me.



I also have several beautiful blue Wordsworth Classics. Imagine my shock when I reread To the Lighthouse two years ago and discovered that they had not only changed my cover, but completely removed the one I had. A librarian friend in another group found it for me, but I just checked my shelf to see that GR has, once again, changed it to a black cover — but kept the blue one for another of her books. Argh!

Another year they changed my Alice in Wonderland single edition to the duology, though I had not yet read the second book. I believe in getting credit for what I read, and GR counts collections as one book, not as however many books are actually in a collection. I have books by a few authors that contain 2-4 books, and for each one I look for the original single-title release, or find a cover I like, so as to get full credit in the GR Challenge. Drives me nuts when they mess with covers/editions. 😡

[Sara, Old School Classics]

I share your frustrations, Heather. I have literally had my reviews disappear. I started keeping backups a long time ago, but a few are gone forever. I believe they were deleted when they removed editions I was using.

[Lynn, New School Classics]

I wonder how many of the edition changes and editions being deleted though are human action due to competing goals. On the Librarians page there is often one or another book agent who is trying to get help to start a book page or feature a certain edition in order to promote a client. Many times these agents are adding new edition information that puts their client's book first as the most used edition with silly things like a 2022 publication date for a Jane Austin book for example. I used to get frustrated by changes like that and go in to fix them. But now the volume is so big that it seems the writing is on the wall. Nothing lasts for ever. We are essentially squatting on someone else's property - we don't own this page - so make portable backups. One more thought, old-fashioned pen and paper has advantages. I keep a book journal in a composition book. I know it isn't every word of our discussions, but at least is a record. Plus, I keep a Google spreadsheet.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

I still keep a written reading journal as well, Lynn. Years of habit before GR took over. My entries have become more cryptic, but I can see I need to go back to that medium again.

[Heather L]

I also keep a book journal, as well as a list on my computer of books read by year. I also keep lists of group reads, for this and other groups.

[Darren]

re edition changes:
what has happened to me is not the odd edition here or there
a vast number of my oldest entries have had their edition changed in blanket fashion recently
in the cases I've looked at, I've mostly easily been able to find the edition I originally chose and switched back to it, but this is a royal pain in the @ss
the editions each have a unique id no. so why would GR feel a need to mess with this if the edition still exists?
unless they've been re-assigning pre-existing id nos, which is lunacy.

I appreciate that in the T's&C's it probably says somewhere that the don't guarantee to preserve our data
but since one of the main raisions d'etre of the site is the entering/organisation of user data wrt books, you think they'd make better efforts than this

[Luke]

Sending my best to Salman Rushdie. Here's hoping he pulls through.

[Terris]

That’s just awful! 🥲

[Pharmacdon]

Speaking of complaints about the parent company and messin' where they shouldn't be a messin', how about giving a discounted price on the current reads?

[Luke]

Anyone else complete a reread and find their previous review gone afterwards?

[Pharmacdon]

For of us who use iPad as ebook reader, there are some upgrades coming in the new iOS 16.
https://ios.gadgethacks.com/how-to/20...

[Terris]

Interesting, thanks!

[Luffy Sempai]

Has anyone registered any sign of the user ALLEN recently?

[CindySR]

Aubrey wrote: "Anyone else complete a reread and find their previous review gone afterwards?"

Be sure to check each edition of the book. I have noticed my review will only be on one edition and not the others.

[Luke]

CindySR wrote: "Aubrey wrote: "Anyone else complete a reread and find their previous review gone afterwards?"

Be sure to check each edition of the book. I have noticed my review will only be on one edition and no..."

And here I thought Amazon couldn't get any greedier for clicks. I'm gladder by the day I got a backup of all my data, cause I can just copy paste old reviews as needed.

[Laurie]

Luffy wrote: "Has anyone registered any sign of the user ALLEN recently?"

Luffy, I looked at his profile and it shows he was last active in June.

[Luffy Sempai]

Laurie wrote: "Luffy wrote: "Has anyone registered any sign of the user ALLEN recently?"

Luffy, I looked at his profile and it shows he was last active in June."

Thank you. He might be undisposed indisposed or worse. Life happens, I suppose.

[Karen]

Did anyone else see the article in Reader's Digest July/Aug edition called "Instead of College, I Read These Books"? It had a list of 153 classic books that a teacher gave her students further their education even though they might not go to college. There are several books on this list that are not on the list here, but are very good. It may be useful when choosing books in Bingo categories or for next reads. I can attach the list if anyone is interested.

[Ian]

Luffy wrote: "Laurie wrote: "Luffy wrote: "Has anyone registered any sign of the user ALLEN recently?"

Luffy, I looked at his profile and it shows he was last active in June."

Thank you. He might be undisposed indisposed..."

Jumping in where I sometimes lurk:

I have been an Amazon, and later Goodreads, friend (and occasional correspondent with) Allen for some years. I have been privately informed that Allen has been hospitalized twice, including surgery, and is still recuperating. He hopes to be back online when he is stronger (and, I think, more comfortable).

[Heather L]

Karen wrote: "Did anyone else see the article in Reader's Digest July/Aug edition called "Instead of College, I Read These Books"? It had a list of 153 classic books that a teacher gave her students further thei..."

I didn’t, but found the article and list online.

Article
https://www.rd.com/article/mrs-clarks...

List
https://www.rd.com/wp-content/uploads...

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Thanks, Karen & Heather L.

[Terris]

Heather L wrote: "Karen wrote: "Did anyone else see the article in Reader's Digest July/Aug edition called "Instead of College, I Read These Books"? It had a list of 153 classic books that a teacher gave her student..."

Thank you!!! I love lists like that!
I've read 89/153, but I have several that I still want to read :)

[Luffy Sempai]

Ian wrote: "I have been an Amazon, and later Goodreads, friend (and occasional correspondent with) Allen for some years. I have been privately informed that Allen has been hospitalized twice, including surgery, and is still recuperating. He hopes to be back online when he is stronger (and, I think, more comfortable)."

Thanks, that is the glass half full definitely.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

Karen and Heather, thank you for the list. Always fun to see how many you have read and almost always adds something to the TBR.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Ian wrote: "...I have been privately informed that Allen has been hospitalized twice, including surgery, and is still recuperating. He hopes to be back online when he is stronger (and, I think, more comfortable)."

Thank you Ian for that update. Please send Allen my best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[Ian]

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "Please send Allen my best wishes for a speedy recovery..."

Message sent

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Ian wrote: "RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "Please send Allen my best wishes for a speedy recovery..."

Message sent"

Send him a message from the group! We all miss him, and hope he heals soon.

[Terris]

Katy wrote: "Ian wrote: "RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "Please send Allen my best wishes for a speedy recovery..."

Message sent"

Send him a message from the group! We all miss him, and hope he heals soon."

Yes, good idea! I miss hearing from him also. We want him to know we care :)

[Laurie]

Karen wrote: "Did anyone else see the article in Reader's Digest July/Aug edition called "Instead of College, I Read These Books"? It had a list of 153 classic books that a teacher gave her students further thei..."

This is such a great example of someone who embraced the value of books outside a classroom. I am so glad her teacher gave her the nudge and she took it. There is something wonderful about being an autodidact which many people have been throughout history have been..

[Kathleen]

Katy wrote: "Ian wrote: "RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "Please send Allen my best wishes for a speedy recovery..."

Message sent"

Send him a message from the group! We all miss him, and hope he heals soon."

Yes please! Let him know we're thinking of him. Thank you, Ian.

[Luffy Sempai]

Has anybody read The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens?

Any input would be welcome.

[Luke]

Rest in peace, Hilary Mantel 😔

[Terris]

So sad :’(

[Luffy Sempai]

RIP.

Previously I would have preferred more than 70 years to be on this earth. But now I don't think so. 70 years is enough for me, if it makes me avoid cancer and Alzheimer's.

But with my genetics and luck, I'll probably live up to 75. One of the best English teachers I had said that she wanted a shorter life as opposed to living in her 80s. She got her wish.

[Terry]

Luffy, you may feel differently when you reach 70! — speaking as someone who is almost 72.

[Luffy Sempai]

Terry wrote: "Luffy, you may feel differently when you reach 70! — speaking as someone who is almost 72."

I don't have a witty answer to that. I'm glad you are okay with your life. And that you are enjoying it even. I hope you are right about me!

[Terry]

Okay, fair enough, Luffy. I will re-phrase: May you feel differently when you reach 70.

[Luffy Sempai]

Terry wrote: "Okay, fair enough, Luffy. I will re-phrase: May you feel differently when you reach 70."

No need to rephrase, Terry. I liked your reply first time :)

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

I don't know whether this would be considered good luck or bad luck but it's certainly annoying. Last month every pole winner ended up being a book that had already read. This month with the exception of revisit, every single book that won the poll is a book that I haven't read. My problem? None of the books winning this month are books that I have any interest in it. Oh well let's see what next month brings.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

There are some months when I am already so committed that I love finding I have read all our choices, but I do hate those months when I'm just not interested in what has been chosen. Still, someone else is feeling the same when the books chosen are pleasing to me and not to them, so you are right...you just wait for what develops the next month.