Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion
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Selina
(last edited Apr 14, 2019 01:14PM)
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Apr 14, 2019 01:14PM
Theres another one that local that I sometimes go on called Neighbourly. I don't go on it that much cos a lot of people just go there to complain about stuff. But I've found jobs through it, sold stuff and even bought this macbook I'm typing on, so its good in that sense, as it's local.
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LinkedIn hardly counts as a social medium at all. I really only use it to track down people I went to high school with. Not that any of them answer my friend requests.
Before that was one called friendster, and a yahoo one called oldfriends, I remember using that one to see where my high school mates were. But those kinds of things you only use for a while, not go and check nearly everyday. With facebook its not so much the newsfeeds its using the msg or chat thats useful.
I used to be on msn messenger and liked chatting with people from all over the world, you had it through a hotmail account, which I no longer use as it attracted too much junk. And I kept getting stuff sent to me that was meant for someone else with the same name. Like airline ticket bookings lol.
Fishface wrote: "Instagram is like a photo weblog documenting your every thought and move in photos that automatically disappear after a short time, so you have to keep adding more photos. Pinterest is a way of sav..."Instagram 'stories' disappear after a while. Pictures posted to your timeline stay forever.
That being said, I use Instagram the most since I love taking pictures. Next would be Facebook. The other social media sites I'm on very infrequently.
I'm sharing this on a number of discussion forums here because the news is so very important::https://www.loudersound.com/news/worl...
Fishface wrote: "I'm sharing this on a number of discussion forums here because the news is so very important::https://www.loudersound.com/news/worl..."
I love this.
It's an international contest so feel free to enter! Metal is the universal language!!!
Mod
https://www.loudersound.com/news/worl......"
I hope you enter, Bel. If you do be sure to post a link so we can watch!!
Just wondering: when I was adding a book to the Biography shelves here just now I found a whole bunch of sub-shelves -- Politicians, Political Families, Healthy Living, Death and Dying, Coming of Age and Celebrity -- with no books on them at all. Did someone leave out the step of actually adding their books to some newly-created shelves? Also: does Politicial Families refer strictly to families like the Kennedys, which is full of career politicians, or families who had other kinds of influence on politics, like Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her children and grandchildren?
Mod
Took me a while to figure it out and it was probably me doing it. When you go to add the book to the group shelf and where it says to add a new shelf and then you save it...that only saves the shelf and not the book on the shelf. You then have to go back and save the book or it will just save the new shelf but not the book to the shelf. Hope that isn't too confusing.
To answer your second question, just use your best judgement and I promise I wont be too fussy about it.
OK, works for me. Now you get to finger out which books you wanted on those shelves in the first place!
Mod
Yes. I will go through each book on the shelf sometime and see if they are on the proper shelves, at least the ones I know.
Does anyone still use the dewey decimal system or is it only librarians? Im just wondering if there is actually a better system of organising books.
At home I just have books by topic but not in numerical or alphabetical order. But I suppose it depends on the number of books you have, but why are libraries stuck with dewey. Sometimes I think its odd because books on say plants and botany natural history etc are quite separate from gardening books in the dewey system.
And the 000s are weird, its like they couldnt think of any category for those kinds of books so just stuck them there. Books on computers, facts and information etc.
Mod
Im just wondering if there is actually a better system of organising books.
At home I just have books by topic but not i..."
I think probably just libraries use the Dewey system. At home I arrange my books according to how long I've had them so I try to read the older ones first. Except True crime I have on a separate book shelf arranged in alphabetical order. I only have a few books I've already read and they are on a shelf in my spare bedroom.
I have my books sorted according to genre, and then alphabetically by author. Although, I do tweak that system a bit, too. True crime isn't alphabetical, it is sorted by 'type of crime' ... serial killers, domestic murders, rapes, etc. Also, in all genres, if I have more than one book by the same author I group that author's books together. I hope this makes sense ... lol
Hmm I must be slack I have never ordered my books alphabetically at home. They are mostly by topic and where they can fit. On shelfari it was by topic, but Goodreads I never managed to get a good system in place and it just by recently read, but I did notice it seemed a bit random.
On librarything, they can sort it alphabetically for you. But even Librarything doesnt use the dewey decimal system to order their books. You would think it would, being called Librarything. ?!
That's a question I never even thought to ask, Selina. Why DOESN'T a site like this use Dewey???
I went into an op shop yesterday and someone had arranged all the books by colour. I mean sure looks great but I don't want a green book or a yellow book, I want to find some biographies!!
Selina wrote: "I went into an op shop yesterday and someone had arranged all the books by colour. I mean sure looks great but I don't want a green book or a yellow book, I want to find some biographies!!"
That would only be good for someone buying books only for show! As soon as I read op shop I guessed you are a Kiwi and am right (not me, but the only friend I have who uses that phrase lives on the North Island).
Our friends of the library library puts all the biographies in one area, which is helpful, but they only have a sale one Saturday a month, so I don't usually make it.
I group my books according to type -- Fiction and Poetry, General Nonfiction, Animals and Nature, Humor -- and from there I order them according to how I tend to remember those books. I never remember the author of most nonfiction books but I remember the titles, so those are alphabetical by title. Fiction and Poetry are arranged alphabetically by author because I'll want to read some Donald Hall or Anne Rice and go see which books I have by that author. Animals are arranged by specie.
Selina wrote: "I went into an op shop yesterday...."Karin wrote: "As soon as I read op shop I guessed you are a Kiwi and am right (not me, but the only friend I have who uses that phrase lives on the North Island)."
We call them Op Shops here in Australia, too, Karin.
Diane wrote: "Selina wrote: "I went into an op shop yesterday...."Karin wrote: "As soon as I read op shop I guessed you are a Kiwi and am right (not me, but the only friend I have who uses that phrase lives on ..."
Thanks, good to know! I am not as smart as I thought I was :) :) ! I do know that Aussies and Kiwis share some terms, of course, being relatively close (as compared to most of the rest of the English speaking world), but don't really know all of them or what the overlaps are.
I CAN tell if someone is Aussie or Kiwi when they speak, though, which floors people when they are here since most people here think those accents are from the UK. I'm not perfect, but 98 percent right--there are a few places in Australia that have accents I am not familiar with--there is no such thing as just one Aussie accent.
Karin wrote: "Diane wrote: "Selina wrote: "I went into an op shop yesterday...."Karin wrote: "As soon as I read op shop I guessed you are a Kiwi and am right (not me, but the only friend I have who uses that ph..."
What do you call op shops in america?
The fancier suburbs call their op shops 'antique stores'
Selina wrote: "Karin wrote: "Diane wrote: "Selina wrote: "I went into an op shop yesterday...."Karin wrote: "As soon as I read op shop I guessed you are a Kiwi and am right (not me, but the only friend I have wh..."
In the USA we call them resale shops or thrift stores. Goodwill stores are resale shops.
'Op Shop' is short for 'opportunity shop', which is a shop that sells second-hand goods, and is run by a charity.
Mod
One thing I don't like in memoirs is when author tells you something a hundred times. I was reading one where the author, who writes about love of reading books keeps saying, when I studied in Oxford, when I lived in Oxford, my first year at Oxford. Ok Ok we get it you went to Oxford!
The other I remember was a Jewish comedy writer always mentioning that he's funny cos he's Jewish.
Why do you have to keep mentioning it if its completely obvious. Do actors have to keep reminding us they are actors, politicians have to keep saying they got voted in, and gay people have to keep reminding others yea we're gay. ALL THE TIME.
Mod
I was reading one where the author, who writes about love of reading books keeps saying, when I studied in Oxf..."
This sounds like a good topic for a separate thread!!
I agree Selina, and this also highlights the value of a good editor and proofreader.
Selina wrote: "Why do you have to keep mentioning it if its completely obvious. Do actors have to keep reminding us they are actors, politicians have to keep saying they got voted in, and gay people have to keep reminding others yea we're gay. ALL THE TIME."
I know what you mean. I remember a long conversation I had one day out in the main square at my college with some friends and some of their friends who I didn't know. One guy I will never forget. He started every single sentence with "as a gay physician..."
Another librarian and I are going to check out some op shops in the richer suburbs, their cast-offs books are better quality lol.
Mod
Good luck!
In your public library, are fiction books ordered by genre? Just wondering. Or by author, or both? How bout the bios? Dewey decimal 920s, right?
Mod
How bout the bios? Dewey decimal 920s, right?"
Fiction books alphabetically by author. Dewey Decimal system should be the same everywhere I would think.
Selina wrote: "In your public library, are fiction books ordered by genre? Just wondering. Or by author, or both? How bout the bios? Dewey decimal 920s, right?"
The biographies in my library are under biography instead of non-fiction. They are listed with a B and the author's last name. Eg. -
B Reichl They have their own section.
Julie wrote: "Selina wrote: "In your public library, are fiction books ordered by genre? Just wondering. Or by author, or both? How bout the bios? Dewey decimal 920s, right?"
The biographies in my library are..."
And let me add that many true crime stories in my own library are on the Bio shelves.
Fishface wrote: "Julie wrote: "Selina wrote: "In your public library, are fiction books ordered by genre? Just wondering. Or by author, or both? How bout the bios? Dewey decimal 920s, right?"
The biographies in ..."
I would think they would be in non-fiction unless they have a main biographical character that the book is about.
Most of the crime books are in the crime section not biography in most libraries as they are more about the crime scene, the death, and investigation than the person's life. Unless it is a first person memoir.I think biographies can be further divided into genres rather than alphabetically by surname.
eg. sports, politicians and rulers, entertainers, writers, missionaries.. but then there are people who's lives are so rich and varied that it would be hard to pigeonhole all of them into categories.
Maybe in the USA the perception is that the person's crimes ARE his biography.
Okay, reading all of this got me to Googling ... lolI just read this bit, "Catalog biographies into subject areas. ie. a biography of Tiger Woods should be in golf, not biography."
Apparently, true crime goes into '364 Criminology'.
I have no idea how my library organizes their books, I request books online and just go in to pick them up.
I noticed that a person said you shouldn’t be allowed to self publish if you could not punctuate, spell etc. I would like to state that I am one of those self publishers! I have had multiple strokes that have caused me to have cognitive issues that have robbed me of the ability to recognize my mistakes. So I had an editor go through to correct my book. Then sent it to the publisher who promptly had me start rewriting parts that might cause legal issues and other things. Somehow the edited copy and the original copy got confused . With my brain confused by all the communications , I missed this. The publisher printed the wrong copy with its mistakes and I had ordered multiple copies. So had Amazon etc. this made its way to goodreads. So please don’t be so hard on us until you know the backstory. The book is ‘ Transformation...Never Beyond Hope’ I am told the heart of my story is intact. Making the book a good read that inspires in spite of its poor punctuation etc.
I am quit pleased to have been able to have written this book after my strokes and at age seventy one. Please take a look at it if you can overlook my mistakes.
Thank you
David Goad
Diane wrote: "Okay, reading all of this got me to Googling ... lolI just read this bit, "Catalog biographies into subject areas. ie. a biography of Tiger Woods should be in golf, not biography."
Apparently, t..."
Yep, I rarely see any crime stories in the biography section, and sports people are in the sports section. This also goes for musicians unless, its a memoir and encompasses more than their career, like it would go into their personal lives and their families and their background. Some biographies are just chronologies of peoples careers. And with crime its like this happened and this happened, not really WHY it happened. I dont tend to read criminal biographies its just not really my cup of tea. And sports bios Im not into sports so would find them boring if all they talked about was winning this tournament, same with music bios where its just they did this concert and sold this many records. Also actors where all they talk about is their films that I might not have seen.
Mod
I would like to state that I am one of those self publishers! I have had multiple strok..."
David, I am providing a link to your book. Transformation: Never Beyond Hope. At least this is the one I think you were talking about. I heard another author say the same thing you did about getting the manuscripts mixed up.
Mod
I think of a memoir as being "the world through my eyes" as opposed to an autobiography, which I think of as "the story of me."
David wrote: "I noticed that a person said you shouldn’t be allowed to self publish if you could not punctuate, spell etc. I would like to state that I am one of those self publishers! I have had multiple strok..."
David, at least you tried. If the copyeditors you hired are incompetent, I suggest you hire someone different next time.
I am Patrick Swayze documentary is supposed to be on TV tonight on the Paramount Network. I am hoping we get that channel!https://www.countryliving.com/life/en...
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Gina LaManna (other topics)Christian Picciolini (other topics)
