h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So any hootooizens use Goodreads? I must say I have become rather fond of it and I kinda think it is the sort of place I would have expected to un into Hootoo types. As it is the only other hootooer I know on there is Sho.

For the uninitiated oyu track your reading, and it acts like a sort of Last.FM for books. I have read some really top books I found out about through there recommendation system.

Anyhoo anyone over there wants to check out my reading profile I'm at:-

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/19004708-ralph-ferrett

FB

Hmm, another Peter F Hamilton fan eh?

I haven't read a book for ages - I blame t'internet for my rapidly diminishing attention span. In fact the book I'm reading now is actually the novelisation of posts by a hysterically funny guy who's on a football forum I frequent. A publisher saw his posts and signed him up! (The Tartan Special One by Barry Phillips by the way)

I blow hot and cold with reading. I go through patches where I basically do little else for a few weeks, barely sleeping in fact. Then I finish a book and don;t pick a new one up for a few weeks.

For me though no form of "entertainment" beats a really good book that grips me.

FB

It's the book that keeps me reading printed texts.
A truly hands-on experience that digital pixies cannot match.
Tactile and olfactory and even auditory cues from page turning...
Ah yes, reading... books...

~jwf~

I'd swear we did this before, but I am too lazy to look.

I also use Goodreads, and I've long had Sho as a friend on there. I don't write reviews (for lack of time) but do maintain status and ratings. But I have to say that if not for Sho's reviews, I would have missed out on quite a few stellar reads, including a recent series I fell into quite hard (after swearing to myself I wasn't starting any more series, because we already moved to a new home to accommodate more bookcases!) by Ben Aaronovich, which I think is known as the Rivers of London in the UK.

I am a fairly voracious reader, mainly because I take the train to and from work and so have a good hour or more a day to do so. I am always keen to find more recommendations. I'm known as Ophelia Payne on there and always happy to accept new friend requests provided someone tells me how they know me.

Various people have urged me to read "The Book Thief." I started it the other day, but haven't found it particularly gripping yet. The movie version just opened, and I plan to see it soon.

Nothing beats browsing in a library or bookstore, though the library option is cheaper . I can satisfy my appetite for mysteries, biographies, and various branches of science. I picked up a book about the Milky Way recently.

I'm enjoying Tim Parks' books about his experiences as a British expatriate in northern Italy.

I haven't checked out Goodreads yet. My daily newspaper often has book reviews.

Ah between goodreads and having a kindle and more than 2 hours of public transport a day I'm pretty much in reading heaven.

Thanks to FB this morning when I finished reading the Sharon Penman historical crime thriller that I started the other day, I could jump straight into Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.

FB recommended it to me on Goodreads ( i didn't know you could do that) and although I've only read about 10 pages i think I'm going to love it.

And always happy to know a review I've left is useful

Until they make a self-driving car (not that far away, surely?) I don't have as much time to read as I'd like.

I have used Goodreads... but not for finding books to read. If you google "Paragliding books", the very first hit is Goodreads. And there, 18th down the list (why 18th? No idea how the list is sorted.) is "Prepare to Fly". Available on Amazon or Lulu.com. Buy a copy for a friend...

Just joined

Mol

Do post a link to your page so can send palling up request like!

FB

Ah. Awkward. The link has my full name in and I try to keep that separate from h2g2. It's automatically friended me with Sho and my initials are DL.

Mol
(which is actually what people call me IRL even though it's not my real name ... life is complicated)

I wondered how it automatically friended us but then I realised that Goodreads logs you in automatically via facebook if you want it too. It freaks me out sometimes.

Terribly sorry Mol, I did'nae mean to be intrusive there.

FB

Crivens!

I'm on there somewhere.

No no no FB, that's fine, I don't mind people on H2G2 knowing my real name (or I wouldn't be friends with Sho on Facebook ), it's just that I don't want my real name on H2G2 itself, because it's a unique name (I believe I'm the only one on the planet) and this site is too open to casual observers.

So basically, if you can find me, friend away I like hootooers.

I've no idea how Goodreads works, btw. I mean I skipped all the 'rate these books' bit so I'm probably scuppered from the off.

Mol

No there is amother Zaphod B Mol your not alone

OK I'm going right off it. I mean, logging every book I've ever read is going to take DAYS. I'm bored already and I'm only three books in to the Chalet School series. Is there a quick way of adding, say, 50 books at a time?

Mol

just add them as you read them, then just look what your friends have read - and you can add them to "read" without having to rate them or whatever if you don't like

(I used my "what sho read" entries to backdate most of mine)

OK well I've just added the Chalets I've done so far on my re-read for the time being. And then I thought (as I was about to add Ballet Shoes - might as well start at the beginning of my reading career) that my single aim for 2014 could be to re-read the thousand or so books I have on my shelves (actual shelves, I mean, not wooden ones).

Cos although I have finally got into the habit of the home-made soup thing, I really haven't done very well with the 13 for 13.

I probably wouldn't manage the whole lot in a year. But, hey - it would be a *really cheap* hobby, because I already own the books

Mol