Non-challenge news and chat

Feel free to post anything here that does not fit in the challenge threads. This could include news about or comments on activities related to BookCrossing, LibraryThing, reading or life in general!

I'll start! Just a question for everyone...and I'll answer it later. Did you do anything special related to BookCrossing for the holidays this year? If so, what did you do? Feel free to post pictures! :D

>2 SqueakyChu: I did not do anything special this year for Christmas. Not for BC, not LT and not IRL. We've had some serious family issues that really don't make me/us feel like celebrating the holidays. For the first time in my entire life we even won't be home during Christmas and when the year turns.
Maybe a change of environment will help a bit.

So, no stories, no pictures from me unfortunately. (Btw: how do I add pictures to posts in a thread like this? I've seen people do that, but I have no clue how.)

>3 BoekenTrol71: I'm sorry this season is turning out to be less than joyful for you, BoekenTrol71. I hope the new year brings better times for you. I'm feeling kind of down now, but it is more because of our political situation in the USA than anything else. I feel very discouraged. My family and friends have been great with me, but I feel this sense of doom regarding how to survive my senior years on a fixed income with the train wreck 45 is making of my country. That's it for my political statement. Now to move on with other things....

On this thread are instructions for posting pictures to your thread.

I belong to a local BookCrossing group called BCinDC which is located in the Maryland/DC/Virginia area. We do monthly meetups, but for the holidays we have an annual potluck, usually at the home of petrini1 (BookCrosser authorauthor). There we eat, drink, make merry, and play the First Line Game. In that game we bring to the party individually-wrapped books with the first line written on the outside of the wrapping. Usually BookCrosser melydia reads the first line and whoever likes the line can have the book. It is a fun game and brings us lots of laughs. Here are some pictures from this year's party during our First Line game.

I'm not on any pictures as I'm taking them. A few of the pictures uploaded sideways so I can't post them.



BookCrossing members Spatial and SqnutZips



BookCrossing members melydia and KateKintail



My husband and BookCrosser 6of8.

Maybe some of you know these folks!

>6 SqueakyChu: I've exchanged books with 6of8 before, so it's nice to see the face that matches the username!

>6 SqueakyChu: Well, that's fun to see some of these people I've seen on BookCrossing. Thanks.

I'm hoping we can use this thread to share more BookCrossing pictures.

>5 SqueakyChu: That sound like a fun game!
Atvthe convention I know the book swap, but that's without the first line. The current owner of the book tells something about it and then the book switches hands.
Maybe we could organise that game here during a local meeting as well, when the group of attendees is not so large.

>6 SqueakyChu: It's great to see pictures with the names :-) I've been in contact with melydia.

>4 SqueakyChu: Thanks for the link! I'll see if I can make it work... (Still nee to click it, btw.)
Despite I maintsin quite a large computer program for over 300 users (with some linked other programs), it doesn't require programming skills. I am.good at finding failures, make workflows do what I need, tweek and tune it, but that's it.

You'll see the results of my attempts in a while :-)

>4 SqueakyChu: I am not experiencing anything similar, but I can imagine you are very worried.
Even we are, watching what happens across the ocean and fearing things escalate...

>10 BoekenTrol71: The size of the attendees doesn't matter so much as the number of books. I'd say we did about 100 books at our party. We even had RubyLadybug send us a book box of wrapped "one-liners" all the way from Oklahoma. She used to be part of our group until she traveled and then moved back home.

>13 BoekenTrol71: Thanks for your concern. It makes me feel less alone in my fright.

When thinking of my challenges for next year I decided to try something completely new to me: read complete series from the first till the last book, one after the other.

And while writing it down in my own thread, I realised I was curious to find out what your opinion is on that. Have you ever read a complete series book by book without anything in between (not counting simultaneous books here)? Did you like it? Or not? And why?

>16 BoekenTrol71: That sounds like a fun idea. I've done that on occasion, but only for very short series (3 books). I don't know if I'd have the willpower to stick to a longer series exclusively, as I tend to read several books at the same time (usually at least one on audio, one on my ereader and one in print).

>16 BoekenTrol71: I would never read a whole series at once! I like to always switch form one kind of book to another that's completely different. Another reason is that I often find series books to much the same so I tire of reading them somewhere in the middle. AS you can see, I'm not really a fan or series books.

You remember Stephen King's The Green Mile which was published in installments? I waited until all of the installments were published and read through them all at once like a regular novel!

>17 mathgirl40: I tend to read several books at the same time (usually at least one on audio, one on my ereader and one in print).

I had been doing the same thing for the longest time. I'm trying to stop doing that, though, because I have a higher record of not completing what I start when I do that. Now I'm reading only one real book (none on ereader and none on audio).

I actually stopped using ereaders and audio-books. I stopped the ereaders because I simply like the experience of reading a real book so much better. I stopped using audio-books because I'm hard of hearing and I was having difficulty with some narrators. However, ereaders sure would beat listening to the news these days!

I'm now reading...



Did you know that Lisa Carey, its author, is the wife of Librarything's founder, Tim Spalding? She writes very well. This is the second book of hers that I'm now reading.

Everyone here is invited to join my TIOLI challenges! It looks more intimidating than it is. Don't fear the TIOLI. :D

>19 SqueakyChu: - That book looks good, Madeline! Have you ever read anything by Patrick Taylor? Most of his books in the Irish Country Doctor series have the same main characters but you don't necessarily have to read them in order. They are good stand-alone stories on their own. I was fortunate to listen to the first one as an audiobook from the library and the narrator is so good (John Keating) than I have only listened to the rest as audiobooks. However, that very first one was An Irish Country Girl (and the second, An Irish Country Christmas), and it also contained elements of Irish lore, ghosts, and it was the book that made me fall in love with this series and characters.

I will try to see if I can find the Lisa Carey book you mention, above

Fun!!

I have not yet....but my local BC group will get together in January. It includes Secretariat, Judygreeneyes, me (pokPok) and Mustbekel. Sadly, MissTree has left us a few years ago, but she is always a part of our group in spirit, and her husband sometimes joins us.

>19 SqueakyChu: Thanks for that interesting bit of information about Lisa Carey!

>16 BoekenTrol71: Interesting thought because I have decided to do something the same next year. There are a number of series and trilogies that I have read some of but haven't got around to the rest. A lot of them are on my TBR so by reading them I will clean up the pile a bit. I have never read one series exclusively but after I read the first Louise Penny book I read all the rest published before that year (which I think was 2014) and then waited with bated breath until the next one was published.

>21 PokPok: - I thought I recognized your bc name! I was friendly and in touch with Ann (MissTree) a fair bit before she passed away. It was just so sad and I miss her. Nice to see that your group is still cohesive. Welcome here!

>24 jessibud2: I definitely remember your name as well. I actually just received an email from Secretariat, where she said that she had a call from Eddie (Ann's husband) yesterday. Thank you for the warm welcome.

>20 jessibud2: I haven’t read anything by Patrick Taylor. I don’t usually read books with Ireland as a setting, but I did cave previously to read another book by Lisa Carey just because I knew she was Tim’s wife. :)

>21 PokPok:. So great to hear you also have a meetup group! Since I joined my Meetup group, we’ve sadly lost three members: ResQGeek’s younger daughter Becky, MaryZee, and more recently, Furball. We can’t afford to lose anyone else! We love to welcome new members. Spatial is our newest member who joined us just this year.

I remember your name from my bookray days on BC! Now I hang out more here on LT, but I’m still an active BokkCrosser in real life.

>22 mathgirl40:. Haha! You’re welcome!

>4 SqueakyChu: I've tried to add a picture to a test post, but I can't seem to get it working. I followed the instructions that were behind the link you posted. Can someone please help?

Is the picture you want to add in your photo gallery here on LibraryThing?

OT: I finally installed a fir tree. A couple of day left to prepare for the New Year celebrations ))

>31 Amaryllys: I don't think there is anything OT (off topic) here. :)

Do we get to see a picture of your fir tree?!

BCinDC, my local Bookcrossing group met today in Alexandria, Virginia, and walked to Becky's Tree where we left books in memory of Bookcrosser Becky Johns, daughter of fellow Bookcrosser ResQGeek. I'm taking the picture so you don't see me, but left to right are: 6of8, SqNutZips. KateKintail, RyeToast, melydia, Spatial, Ixion, and Mr. Ixion. Firegirl was there as well, but she left before I took this picture.

>29 BoekenTrol71:

First upload the picture to your gallery here at LT. Then get the URL from that picture and put it between the quotation marks in {SRC=""} Put that phrase within pointed brackets (those things on top of the comma and the period keys on your keyboard) instead of curved brackets.

I remember ResQGeek. Did her daughter pass away? I'm so sorry to hear that....

(And I'm good friends with Firegirl, I saw on her FB she was there and went separate.... )

>35 PokPok: ResQGeek is a married *guy*. Becky, the younger of the couple’s two daughters died in a bicycle accident when she was nine years old. She, too, was an active BookCrosser. All of us were heartbroken for ResQGeek’s family. I’ll post the link to Becky’s Hugs, her memorial page on Facebook.

We’re always happy to see Firegirl as she doesn’t make it to many of our meetups. Yeah. I didn’t get a chance to get her in our tree pictures. I just friended her on Facebook today.

Web page going to Becky’s Hugs:
http://www.beckyshugs.com/

We also have a Becky’s Hugs team on Kiva.

Firegirl and I used to be in touch many moons ago, when she still lived in Arizona. I hadn't realized she was in your area. Say hi to her for me next time you see her, please!

>38 jessibud2: Firegirl’s been coming rarely to our meetings because she’s a nurse and works nights. She now lives in Virginia. Did you ever meet her? I will say hi to her from you next time I see her.

Hey! Is anyone on this thread going to convention in Bordeaux?

I never met her but we were in touch for some time via email and book exchanges and of course, on the forums

>33 SqueakyChu: Great photo, and how wonderful that you continue to release books at Becky's Tree!

In addition to the book release at Becky's tree, there is a BookCrossing Book Release Challenge this whole month in Becky's memory. Anyone may join in.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/23/548052

>40 SqueakyChu: I am! But I think you already knew that :-)

>44 BoekenTrol71: When you get there, look for 6of8, Ixion, and Mr. Ixion. They're coming from the DC area. :D

So sorry to hear about ResQGeek's daughter.... and why did I assume RQG is a woman. Odd how your brain does that...

Hoping you're all having a good weekend and weathering the storm ok. I'm here in CA where parts of the state are getting pummelled as well. I'm far south so it's just a nice rain here (a perfect reading day).

We had tons of wind which knocked down branches which, in turned damaged other things such as my friend's fence. We had wind gusts of up to 70 miles an hour on a sunny day! I live in Maryland.

I hope all my LT friends to the south are doing OK with the stormy weather. We were prepared to get a lot of snow here in Southern Ontario a few days ago, but somehow the storms passed us by and we just got a sprinkling which has mostly melted by now.

>45 SqueakyChu: Thank you, I will!

BC JOURNAL ALERTS!

What is your experience with them?

I've been with Bookcrossing since 2003. I've always gotten journal alerts, but two days ago, I received one on of a book I really wanted. It was great! I went to a brand new Little Free Library in my city of Rockville, Maryland, USA. I got a book that was on my wishlist. In addition, I discovered a brand new Bookcrosser (with wings!) who started communicating with me, giving me hope that I can eventually entice him into joining our meetup group where we always love to welcome new members. I especially like new members that live in Maryland and not Virginia because I always get lost when I drive to Virginia. Haha!

BookCrossing journal:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/14976911/

>50 SqueakyChu: My experiences with Journal Alerts arten't great.
In my early years I got so many of them, that I set my settings to 'dauily digist'. Now that option is broken, so to learn about what is going on around me or with the books I released, I turned them back on to the original settings.

The number of releases that are journalled when caught from the wild is dramatically low. Books are being taken, but it looks like the people who find them don't want to journal (get involved), may be conspicuous of a website that wants you to register, even if it's free and not compulsory, or can't find their way on the BC-site, or have a phone on which using the site is not very nice, to say it politely. Or a million other reasons, but the result is the same: no to hardly any catches from true wild releases here.

>50 SqueakyChu: - What you received was a release alert. I never had that setting so I can't comment on whether or not it is working properly. But I can tell you that Journal Entries are definitely broken, even for people with wings.

If you go to the Community Bulletin Board forum on BC, you will find a long thread titled *My open letter to the site*. This, among other things, is discussed. It is a month old and filled with comments, yet there has been not a single word in response from the powers that be. Not a word. Which I find not only disturbing but puzzling.

Madeleine and I did a little experiment. She has wings and I don't. We both went into some books that both of us have registered and did new journal entries, but no JEs were received on either end. We did it with a couple of books.

Moem, who works behind the scenes and is a liaison between them and us, says she knows for a fact that they have received and seen the letter. She even reminded the. She says that to her knowledge, nothing dire is happening in their lives which, of course, was a man concern and would be understandable to explain the silence). So, despite what some are saying, I can't help but think that it sure sounds and feels like they have jumped ship. If not, then why would they not have responded, just said something, anything? That's why I think the system is broken. Until I hear otherwise, what else are we supposed to think?

>51 BoekenTrol71: I know that catch rates are extremely low. I'd say maybe mine might eventually reach 5%. That doesn't bother me.

ETA: I was getting confused between journal alerts and release alerts. I still get journal entries all the time. I wonder if I'm not getting all of them. However, I have them set to "individual* not to daily digest. Maybe that is the problem with both release alerts and journal entries. Switch to individual, if you can. See what happens.

>52 jessibud2:

Do you have any guesses as to why the admin at BookCrossing is not responding to forum questions? That is a poor way of handling a website.

Your experiment with Madeleine is puzzling. I get journal alerts all the time. Might I not be getting all of them?!

I so wish that BookCrossing would be purchased by another company who would make it a more engaging site. I am completely baffled by what is going on. For instance, why would they invest $$$ in new servers if they were not working on keeping interest up in the website?

The only thing I can compare it to is our own business website. I haven't worked on it for years because my husband is working less and is not actively seeking more work at this time. I don't shut down the website because our business still exists. Is what is happening at BookCrossing simply because the PTB are no longer *actively* interested in it?

BookCrossing as a business is now probably not worth that much because it produces negligible income. Little Free Library, for example, sells ...well...little free libraries...and charter memberships. LibraryThing sells information to libraries. I think Bookcrossing needs other owners with more interest in their concept who could better monetize the website without resorting to advertising. That would take some work, though. I wish it well and hope it never disappears! :O

>54 SqueakyChu: - Another thing that has been suggested is a yearly membership fee. I think that if it were minimal, there are enough diehards who would happily pay it, in order not to see the site die. I play scrabble online and initially, it was free but when it became so popular that the owner needed to purchase more bandwidth and couldn't afford it, he was very up-front about it and said if we wanted it to continue, he would have to charge a fee. It really is reasonable and I doubt he lost anyone to this change. Why couldn't BC do something like that?

No idea I check that thread daily, in the hope of seeing some response. So far, it's been a month and not a word. Disappointing, for sure

>55 jessibud2: I'd pay a yearly fee to Bookcrossing, too. However, people generally are leery of any website that charges anything. I saw that happen when people initially joined LibraryThing. They freaked at the $25 lifetime fee for cataloging over 25 books. Truthfully, that's the best value on the web EVER! In addition, Tim always said that people can pay what they can afford,

>52 jessibud2: I check the forum regularly as well and I'm very disappointed by the absence of any reaction to the open letter.

>54 SqueakyChu: I also get JE's, but my settings for both are 'individual alerts'. Changed that now to daily digests, it will be interesting to see what happens from now on.

>56 SqueakyChu: I regularly get wings and buy from the store. An annual fee would be no problem for me.
However: then the differences for winged-non-winged members would disappear, because there wouldn't be any members without wings...

The affiliates links have been hidden as well, I've read they're still there, but where? For a site that needs money, that would be one of the things to add to the submenu of the yellow store button, or am I saying something totally crazy?

I really hope I'm wrong, but BC (the site) feels like a sinking ship. Not because there aren't any active members, but, like you said, the owners have disappeared, without any obvious reason (personal or business) that we know of. And not knowing makes speculations and unease grow. Fast.
Sure hope there'll be word from them soon!

>57 BoekenTrol71: - My feelings exactly. And though I don't have wings, I am instinctively hesitant to invest in more supplies now because if the site is on its way out, what would be the point? In truth, I still have lots of labels and supplies and don't need any, and when I do, I usually combine my order with Madeleine's (Bookgirrl) so it makes sense for us to do that. But until there is some information, one way or another, it's hard NOT to speculate. Seriously

Reading this thread made me realize that I haven't been getting release alerts either. I guess I'll try resetting from daily digest to individual to see if that brings anything in.

I did get a journal alert for a book in the past week, the first one in a long time. But I think the journal alerts are working properly, there just aren't many books being journalled. We have an OBCZ in a downtown cafe in Winnipeg and the books always disappear from the shelf but hardly any are ever journalled. My personal catch rate has gone down from a high of about 21 % of books released to 18.7% now.

I too am worried about BC which is why I am spending more effort on LT these days.

>59 gypsysmom: - If the journal alerts are working, they are, at best, sporadic. Madeleine (Bookgirrl) and I did some experiments by journaling some books of each other's that we are both on. She has wings and I don't and neither of us got a single JE. We did about 3 or 4 different ones, older and newer, that she originally registered and that I originally registered. Nada.

Ardik finally did post a lengthy response, in that thread post and that was appreciated. I can completely sympathize that he is overwhelmed with the work involved. I only wish it hadn't taken 6 weeks to let us know.

Woot! We had a fabulous time at the Kensington International Day of the Book street festival in Kensington, Maryland, USA, on Sunday, April 22, 2018. The blue canopy is our BookCrossing booth. We brought over 1,500 BookCrossing books to give away. We took a few hundred back home with us, but we will release them next month at the Gaithersburg Book Festival in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. Under the canopy in the blue shirt and dark hat is petrini1 (BookCrosser authorauthor). To the right of her (near the pole) you can see our relatively new BookCrossing member, Spatial.

This is my favorite BookCrossing event of the year. I chair it...and it only gives me pleasure!

>61 SqueakyChu: Nice photo, and I'm very impressed by the number of books you gave away! It sounds like a fabulous festival.

>62 mathgirl40: It was really fun.