On Paths Unknown discussion
The Anything Goes chit-chat thread (subject to tiny fine-print rules)
Yes, I enjoyed it too! Finished it a few weeks ago. :)
Traveller wrote: "Guys, we must have a Spring revival! Or rather, a summer revival. I'm going to do my very best to get back into the habit of visiting GR at least once a day, and use that time to work on the group,..."I hope we re-read BOTNS.
I decided to throw out my bookshelf because it is ugly and falling apart, not to mention I just don't have space for a bookshelf anymore. I looked at many diy ideas for storing books when you have little space and the best solution I could find for me was to get shelves for the walls. This works better for me because nothing is covering the floor and I would be able to slowly add as many wall-mounted shelves as I want (or until I run out of wall). Lately though, I've been considering opting more for ebooks than getting more physical books because, especially when you are moving, it is way easier to just shove your one e-reader with your entire library in a bag than box all your books. I consider that a huge advantage compared to paper books, even though I still love them, especially when you just do not have enough space to store the books. Pfft, problems only a book lover would have :p
Yolande wrote: "I decided to throw out my bookshelf because it is ugly and falling apart, not to mention I just don't have space for a bookshelf anymore. I looked at many diy ideas for storing books when you have ..."I have the same issue, but I just don't enjoy reading e-books as much as paper books.
Yolande wrote: "I decided to throw out my bookshelf because it is ugly and falling apart, not to mention I just don't have space for a bookshelf anymore. I looked at many diy ideas for storing books when you have ..."And hopefully, Yolande, nothing happens to that e-Reader! I´m with Jennifer, I prefer having tree books. I was over my ¨book addiction¨a few years ago, and able to ask myself, ¨Do I need to have my own copy, or can I just get it from the library?" Then I joined a book club that meets in my favorite bookstore, which specializes in foreign-language books, so I have to practice restraint again! I have one small bookcase for my cookbooks and texts for work, a tiny one in my bedroom, and a large, cabinet-like one in my living room. When books from that cabinet are read, they get taken to the office, if they're work-related. Since that one's full, I try to restrain myself. I honestly ask myself, "If I read 60 books a year, can I honestly get through all of these before I die!?"
Since the bookstore sponsors our club/gives us a space to meet (though we're overflowing, in the last year or so, we've had more people than chairs), I buy the book from them whenever possible, unless I ILL it. And I ILL it when it's something that I've read before, or when I had a copy in grad school years ago and then sold it. But yes, it's sitting here full, with two small stacks next to it. So, time to stop!
Mod
Talking of ebooks, about a week ago, while I was still shopping around for a nice cover for my brand-new Kobo, the Kobo fell out of my bag and I accidentally stepped on it. Now the screen is broken. I kid you not. :(((((
Traveller wrote: "Hi Guys!Talking of ebooks, about a week ago, while I was still shopping around for a nice cover for my brand-new Kobo, the Kobo fell out of my bag and I accidentally stepped on it. Now the screen ..."
Crap Traveller, that's bad! I am trying to be extremely careful with my Kindle paperwhite and that shit is expensive! But I know accidents happen. I am so paranoid about anything happening to it that I might just insure it.
Mod
Jennifer wrote: "Just checking in, is everyone doing ok? I am off to get flowers to plant. June 1st is planting time here. I am thinking of doing some vegetables as well."No, I'm not, thanks for asking! I modified my sorting in my gmail inbox on the weekend, and have only just realized I haven't seen a single email from Goodreads... I have a lot of catching up to do!
Derek wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "Just checking in, is everyone doing ok? I am off to get flowers to plant. June 1st is planting time here. I am thinking of doing some vegetables as well."No, I'm not, thanks for ..."
I hope it just the email issue you have to sort out! I was on vacation....I had little time to read or to spend on GR.
Traveller wrote: "Hi Guys!Talking of ebooks, about a week ago, while I was still shopping around for a nice cover for my brand-new Kobo, the Kobo fell out of my bag and I accidentally stepped on it. Now the screen ..."
Oh, that stinks, Trav! I am fortunate enough to still have the Kindle Fire (gifted to me), with the same cover I bought for it originally. I've taken it around the world with me, and it's been dropped a couple of times, but never stepped on (yikes). After one or two, I'd be frustrated and give up, I think.
Traveller wrote: "Hi Guys!Talking of ebooks, about a week ago, while I was still shopping around for a nice cover for my brand-new Kobo, the Kobo fell out of my bag and I accidentally stepped on it. Now the screen ..."
Does it have a warranty??
Jennifer wrote: "Yolande wrote: "I decided to throw out my bookshelf because it is ugly and falling apart, not to mention I just don't have space for a bookshelf anymore. I looked at many diy ideas for storing book..."I have gone paperless.
Linda wrote: "And hopefully, Yolande, nothing happens to that e-Reader!"
I keep all of my books on my PC; on my external hard drive (connected to my Raspberry Pi); AND on my e-reader. No worries!
Derek wrote: "I keep all of my books on my PC; on my external hard drive (connected to my Raspberry Pi); AND on my e-reader. No worries! "Yes, I also keep several backups of my ebooks. I don't take chances ;) If something were to happen to my Kindle it would just be the convenience of reading on an e-reader and all the features that come with it that would be lost.
Mod
It does have a warranty, but it doesn't cover physical damage caused by myself, so... I guess I'll just have to buy a new one.
The incident did cause me to discover, though, that the only thing that had really been wrong with my Kindle, was that somehow the index function showing "newest first" got corrupted, and that I can still get to my books though the "search" function. So I'm back to my Kindle for the time being. It does seem as if these (e-readers in general) have a limited useful life, though.
What's the longest any of you has had use of a single e-reader?
Derek: yeah, I also keep all of my books on my PC and a backup on an external, but I am still sad about the actual device, you know? I barely got it, and it was so nice and light... :P
I know how you feel, I had my Kobo for about six months before it just mysteriously died in the middle of Pale Fire, leaving the cover of Pale Fire staring accusingly at me (my wife had the device before me, so it was, of course, out of warranty). So then I started using a Sony that I must have been using at least two years by now. I still much prefer the Kobo, but I do wish I could have a rooted, Android, e-ink device (it was actually possible with earlier firmware than was on my Sony when I got it!) Kindles and Kobos (and Sony, which runs off the Kobo platform now) phone home too often.
Traveller wrote: "Hi everyone! So nice to see all of you again! :)It does have a warranty, but it doesn't cover physical damage caused by myself, so... I guess I'll just have to buy a new one.
The incident did c..."
I can't remember exactly when I was given this e-reader at Christmas/birthday...I know it was at least 3-3.5 years ago.
Traveller wrote: "Hi everyone! So nice to see all of you again! :)It does have a warranty, but it doesn't cover physical damage caused by myself, so... I guess I'll just have to buy a new one.
The incident did c..."
I don't know much about these things so this is just a thought, can corrupted functions not get fixed through updates or something? Or maybe it requires reloading the operating system, but that is probably not possible. I can't seem to find anything like that on the internet.
I had one of the NOOK ereaders. My husband then got me one of the NOOK tablets. I gave the original one to my mother. She still uses it to play games on... I honestly haven't read one of my e books for over a year now. I had told myself that this was the year I was going to read them....
Mod
I would be upset if I stepped on the ereader, Traveller. What a bummer. Glad you discovered the other one still lives. Definitely limited lives; even if they don't break, they can age out. But as long as the ebooks themselves continue unharmed, one's library lives on.
Kindles definitely phone home too often, Derek. Sometimes I put mine on airplane mode to keep it from contacting the Mother Ship. (I'm not tech savvy enough to root something even when it's possible.)
Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "I got my first Kindle in 2010, I think. Upgraded to a newer model in 2014 because they had a refurbished one on sale. I'm still in the process of sifting through the paper books. I initially though..."Yes, definitely, there are exceptions such as books that are not available in e-book or that are cheaper than the digital version. In fact, I just ordered a book whose price difference in e-book and paperback was so huge that I had to buy it in paperback. The downside is that the standard time to wait for books ordered online here is about two weeks and I hate waiting for new books :p
Mod
what do people think about the new GR homepage?
Magdelanye wrote: "what do people think about the new GR homepage?"The slap in the face is that what users in the beta thought didn't matter. The "survey" that they offer at the top of the page is done by SurveyMonkey, not a poll-so we'll never see the results. So, what we think won't matter either.
The reason you cannot get a book synopsis from hovering any longer is that the Marketing Dept. cannot record the hover as "interest" in that book. Nope. They force you to click away so that the click can be recorded as "interest". What you want from the site doesn't matter.
I've seen about 4 or 5 people in the threads (I joined the GR discussion on the "new" design) say that they liked some aspect of it. I have not seen anyone completely happy with it. Not one person.
If I make a book recommendation to you and send you a message with it, that message will now be made public, so heads up--everyone can read that message. Don't reveal anything in that message that you don't want the world to know.
I don't have a problem with trolls and stalkers, but others do. And now, since 80 million people can see everything you post (because it goes to friends, and friends' friends, and their friends, etc.), you cannot really block anyone from your content.
One person who implemented the ad blocker to make Oprah & Co. disappear found that it affects her ability to be moderator. So she has to put up with a picture of a book cover, which she copied for us into the thread-it was a pic of a male torso in his tightie whities which were, um, packed very, very full. And book covers are bigger now, so......No longer safe to log into GR when your 7-yr-old is around?
90% of the left column is useless. My short-term memory's fine-I KNOW what I'm currently reading (though the challenge is still good).
In the first 48, comments were plenty. Now I see fewer updates in the endless scroll in my thread, and more faces that I recognize from GR are popping up on BookLikes. I haven't finished migrating my things over, but am likely to leave GR for BookLikes, though I'll miss all of my friends. It looks like many people are already spending less time here. No one has time to scroll through an endless feed, reading stuff about people they don't know/have no connection with.
Some of us are waiting til folks return from summer vacays to walk out/sit out on both GR and Amazon on Labor Day weekend. The site records clicks and activities, so by doing nothing, we're going to be heard the only way they'll listen, which is $$ and inactivity. Thing is, some are already going away.
I've never purchased books through the site, but have also removed Amazon from my "go-to"s when looking for a book.
I am getting used to it. I don't hate it enough to move over to Booklikes.
Jennifer wrote: "I am getting used to it. I don't hate it enough to move over to Booklikes."It's not so much that as just hating the fact that I'm being used for marketing and making more money with no concern for what I want/need as a user. BookLikes, according to the info page, sends profits to users. Don't know how that pans out other than paying its workers' salaries, but it's better than "Dance, lab rat, dance!"
Mod
Mod
Moderator issue? Oh dear... looks like I'll have to come back and spend some time to find out what's going on these days. I've been missing you all very much. It's just been seeming a bit overwhelming to try and come back, so maybe I can gradually sneak back in again. :)
Mod
Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Yup, hate it. I finally installed an Adblock extension to my browser to block the garishness. I've never used an Adblock because I don't have a problem with a free site making $ off the traffic thr..."Well, the AdBlock should remove most of the intolerable stuff from the left and right columns, leaving it blank. As much as we complain about the sensory overload in the feed, doesn´t look like they´re going to change it. Serious privacy issues.
I remember getting some sort of user survey in my email, answering it, and getting hit with this two days later. And thinking, ¨WTF!? Is THIS my reward for answering the survey!? I take it back! I take it back!¨
Interesting to see that I didn´t get the survey after it rolled out
Traveller wrote: "I only saw it now, and all I can say is: OMG how horrible! :("Nice to hear that from someone with more experience in code/building/layout than the rest of us.
Mod
Oh, please don't leave! Much as I hate Amazon's shenanigans, I did try to leave before, but these sites have ALL become commercialized, so there's nowhere to flee to, it seems...
Traveller wrote: "Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: " I haven't finished migrating my things over, but am likely to leave GR for BookLikes, though I'll miss all of my friends. It looks like many people are alrea..."It just sucks up too much time to have to scroll through crap you don't want to see (plus I almost feel as though I'm invading someone's privacy), and miss out on things you DO want to see, all because they won't allow people to customize that feed.
I keep meaning to come and update my 'current reading' (I got sucked into the Game of Thrones rabbit hole -- found all four in a Swedish second hand bin, in English, for approx 60 cents a piece so though I had been avoiding it ...), but my usual trigger is answering one of yous guys comments, and it has been real quiet here. I miss you but life quickly fills in, ya know?Can't say I'm thrilled. I'm one of those who has to be dragged kicking and screaming to anything to be changed (furniture, closet, stuff on the spare bed) so.... Fortunately, if one clicks straight to answer a comment of one our threads, all that ad stuff is (mostly?) missing, so that's what I'll probably do from now on, i.e., you all in, my stuff out, and that's okay.
It's easy enough to stay on the discussions page.
Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "The reason you cannot get a book synopsis from hovering any longer is that the Marketing Dept. cannot record the hover as "interest" in that book. Nope. They force you to click away so that the click can be recorded as "interest". What you want from the site doesn't matter."Interesting—because if that really is the reason, it's based on pretty poor logic. It's pretty simple javascript to make a "hover" trigger whatever action is necessary to record interest. They were alread doing it, just to get the synopsis displayed!
Derek wrote: "Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "The reason you cannot get a book synopsis from hovering any longer is that the Marketing Dept. cannot record the hover as "interest" in that book. Nope. They ..."Right, so on all of these threads, Derek, where they're personally assisting people who cannot get that romance novel she's already read off her recommendations list, or their "currently reading" to a positive instead of a negative number, why aren't they addressing it?
The ugly, huge covers that make us scroll forever and click away to other pages are one of the biggest beefs on all of the threads I've been reading.
I haven't seen one liaison say "We're working on that/we're taking that away." They just ignore those comments, like they did in the beta. Since they're spending time doing very small, personalized things and not even recognizing the complaint on the one that has everyone screaming and tearing out their hair, then I assume it's never going away.
Jennifer wrote: "It's easy enough to stay on the discussions page."But if you like doing anything other than the discussions, you're screwed. Because we can't customize our feed any longer. You either get everything, or one thing.
Ruth wrote: "I keep meaning to come and update my 'current reading' (I got sucked into the Game of Thrones rabbit hole -- found all four in a Swedish second hand bin, in English, for approx 60 cents a piece so ..."Most of the ad stuff disappears with AdBlock; surprisingly, it did not require that I get administrator privileges to add it (they lock down our work computers like we're little kids). So I made Oprah go away. But the functionality still isn't where people want it to be.
The sad part is that you have users helping other users figure out ways around this. "Here's a link to Stylish, so you can make those covers smaller, I'm working on..." or "Use Adblock-go to Chrome and "Special Tools and "Extensions"..." It should be the liaisons helping with that sort of thing, but they're not. It's other users.
There's another example. My next discussion link took me to a page where a liaison had fixed an issue on one person's individual page, and ignored questions about how to make Oprah go away. So once again, users are explaining to other users where to go in their software to find and install Adblock, while the liaisons ignore the questions.
Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "Since they're spending time doing very small, personalized things and not even recognizing the complaint on the one that has everyone screaming and tearing out their hair, then I assume it's never going away."Well, they're different things. The customer service people can fix your shelf counts, but it takes a web developer to change the home page. But it's par for the course: I've never beta-tested commercial software or websites where the company was really terribly interested in feedback (and I have no idea why that is...). They do some research and decide to make a change for whatever reason, but once they've made that decision they tend never to revisit the basic premise. Beta testers can help fix bugs that break the company's intent, but they rarely get them to back down from the original plan.
Derek wrote: "Linda Abhors the New GR Design wrote: "Since they're spending time doing very small, personalized things and not even recognizing the complaint on the one that has everyone screaming and tearing ou..."Right, I think most of us don't know that, and assume that the beta group's feedback would have been worth something. So maybe that group is even more disgusted now than we are to find that they really don't matter.
Mod
But if you like doing anything other than the discussions, you're screwed. Because we can't customize our feed any longer. You e..."
Yeah, I don't understand why they would actually remove functionality: It worked, and now it's broken. And the ability to customize was (is) a biggie.
Goodreads had THE best use interface of any book site I have ever seen; why they would go and break that, is a mystery to me - yeah, I get that they probably want to set the site up in a way that would bring them more sales and statistics; but do they really have to go and destroy the thing that drew people to the site in the first place? I feel some rage at that, I must admit.
Mod
Mod
Traveller wrote: "...but putting on adblock is not going to help me customize my feed. In fact, as things were , I would actually have welcomed MORE customization options, not less... :("that's what most are saying. Along with "put discussions link back on the homepage" and "why do I have to see updates taking up huge amounts of space when they don't belong to my friends!?"
What I hate the most is seeing all of my bookshelf categories displayed on the left side. I am kind of OCD when it comes to putting my books into categories, there's one for just about every literary time period, writing style, medium, country, plus some extra funny or other descriptions, so my shelves tend to be a long list. I miss being able to minimise it. Now I have to stare at that long list every time I am on the home page gahh!
Mod
Absolutely agree about the customization, but that's been an issue for me for a long time. I've had my feed set to reviews only for forever because I hate the way GR dumps status updates in with just about everything else you can do to a book - I have a few friends who have their updates set to pretty much everything, and I could not cope with having my page flooded with people shelving books, so I switched it over. They really needed to sort that out; more customization would have absolutely been the way to go.
Yolande wrote: "Now I have to stare at that long list every time I am on the home page gahh!"
That's funny, Yolande: I the one thing about the update that I LOVE is my long list of bookshelves and I could actually see using certain shelves more from the homepage just because they're not hidden now.
Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Traveller wrote: "...but putting on adblock is not going to help me customize my feed. In fact, as things were , I would actually have welcomed MORE customization options, not less... :("Absolute..."
I didn't think of it that way, you might have a point about the shelves being used more. I will see if that happens with me.
On Paths Unknown
Books mentioned in this topic
Infinite Jest (other topics)Infinite Jest (other topics)
The Tell-Tale Heart (other topics)
First Person Singular: Stories (other topics)
Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Bruno Schulz (other topics)Fyodor Dostoevsky (other topics)
Umberto Eco (other topics)
Dan Simmons (other topics)
Anthony Doerr (other topics)
More...
I simply don't have time for reading atmo, but I have been reading tiny bits of White Noise every now and then, and loving the book.