Discovery: WEbook.com

I've discovered another website that I'm really enjoying. WEbook.com is a social networking site for readers and writers. Writers submit projects they're working on for feedback and readers read the projects to give feedback and reviews. And a of couple times a year they do a voting cycle where the projects are open for voting and those that do well get a publishing deal. I've been a member for almost a week and since we're in the middle of a voting cycle I've been reading some of the projects up for publication. I will admit that I was a little disappointed at first by some of the projects. There were several that didn't look like they'd been polished or edited at all. There were tons of grammar and punctuation errors that totally detracted from the plot and characters. I couldn't focus on the story because of all the edits I wanted to make. But I eventually found several that I could actually focus on and enjoy.

So head over, sign up, and start reading and voting. My pen name is Chelzin if you want to be 'friends' or view some of my projects when I eventually put my work up. And let me know if you find any projects you really love.

Charles Dickens: Great Expectations

I didn't actually read the version pictured here, but I liked this cover best of all the ones I found online. I actually read Great Expectations online at Qwestia.com because I wanted to find out what that site was all about and this book had been on my list for a long time. I now wish that I had been more patient and read this Dickens classic in hard book form because it deserves the best reading experience possible. I wouldn't mind using an online site like Qwestia for re-reading books but for the first time around I think I'll stick with the library or bookstore.

I completely understand why this novel is considered a classic and I'm beginning to see why Dickens is listed among the great authors of his time. I have made a resolution to read more of his work this year. Great Expectations was delightful and interesting at the same time, a combination that I always enjoy. I love Pip with all his flaws and pride because he is so real and honest as a character. I must admit, though, he is far from my favorite of the lovely people who march through this book. Wemmick is my absolute favorite character - I love the idea of his double nature and philosophy of having two different lives that have nothing to do with each other. Herbert is a close second on my list of favorites. From the first time we meet him as a young boy who is anxious for adventure to the next time Pip meets him and finds a great friend, he is entertaining and endearing all the way through.

As I consider what I might point out as something I didn't like only one thing comes to mind. I don't really like how Pip becomes so proud and abandons all remnants of his former life. But as I think about this more, it is clear that this is kind of what the book is all about and, therefore, what makes it such a great commentary on human nature. It was the only way the story could have worked, so I really can't complain in the end.

I'm glad I finally got to read Great Expectations and I'm looking forward to experiencing more Dickens. I'm sure most have read this as well, so what are your thoughts? What do you remember most?

As a side note, I found another site that has the 'classics' available to read for free. ReadPrint.com has a much better layout and reader friendly format for long reading sessions. If you must, use ReadPrint instead of Qwestia.

2 New Discoveries

I have recently made two new discoveries that I have been having a lot of fun with: Twitter and iGoogle. As you can guess, I've been spending a lot of time online...

I've heard of Twitter before but wasn't sure exactly what it was. I've finally been catching up on all my blog reading since the holidays (not that it really needs catching up on) and Neil Gaiman (author) mentioned it numerous times. I absolutely adore his blog, by the way. So I decided to check it out and I think I'm being sucked in to the world that is online communication. It's basically a simplified version of facebook and focuses on the "what are you doing now" part combined with blogging. You have your homepage where you can post your entries and your friends can 'follow' you. You can also sign up to 'follow' other people. You can post from the web or from your phone via text messaging. My thread isn't that exciting, but I'm following Neil Gaiman and it's pretty entertaining. He's just won the Newberry Medal award for his recent publication The Graveyard Book and he's also involved in all the hype over the movie Coraline coming out next month (he wrote the original book the movie is based on). So he's been doing lots of interviews and phone calls, all of which are documented on his Twitter posts. Kinda fun and a little addictive.

My second discovery is iGoogle which is not so new but I've just finally got on board with my google account. You basically customize your own homepage with links and windows to your gmail, blogger and other google products as well as news feeds from various organizations, games, animations, pictures, etc. I like it because I can now easily access most of the websites I visit everyday all from one page and it gives me other important information like the weather forecast, top headlines in the news, quotes of the day, and even a gadget for Twitter. If you have a google account you should check it out and if you don't maybe it's time to think about joining everyone else on Google. They are going to take over the world, just accept it as inevitable.

Follow up on Questia

So last week I very excitedly recommended a site (Questia.com) as a place to find ebooks for free. I have been ready Dickens's Great Expectations for the last few days and I have some thoughts regarding Questia. It is not the best reading experience I've had and I'm wishing I had been more reserved in recommending it. I am very much enjoying Great Expectations but I think I would enjoy it more if I had a hardback copy in hand rather than the copy on screen. Questia is free, but I have found a lot of distracting mistakes and formatting errors while reading. There are misspellings and places where a space between words is missing not to mention the occasional punctuation error. I admit that I will probably come back to Questia in the future for a quick read, but probably only when I want to check something in a book that I've already read. I do not recommend using it for a first discovery of these classics.

Your thoughts?

New Site: Questia.com

I was updating my GoodReads account today and saw a little ad on the right side for a site called Questia.com. It advertised full-text books, journals, and articles online and I figured I'd check it out. I discovered that they do indeed have full-text books, journals, and articles, but they are subscription based site. So I was about to abandon my new discovery when I saw a little link at the bottom right corner of the web page: "Free books." Yes! Just what I was looking for.

They have some of the classics available for free and the best part is that they aren't even 'checked out' when people are viewing them like with the library's downloadable content. And you don't have to download and install any software because it's all online. So now I am reading Great Expectations by Dickens online. Take a look and let me know what you think. I'm sure there are some drawbacks, but it's free, after all.

The Writer Blog

I finally spent some time visiting the staff blog over at TheWriterMag.com. It was overall an enjoyable read, but it isn't very user-friendly. The staff does have some good posts up with interesting topics and discussion, though, and I like that most of the posts get right to the point. I particularly liked the following post by Sara C. Lange about emotional truth in our writing.

Recently I was paging through a favorite writing book of mine, In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop by Steve Kowit. I turned to the chapter on "awful poems" with its examples of what to avoid in composing poetry, and I found this:

"Sometimes poets are seduced by current fashion, conventional expectations, or their own language and inventiveness into asserting things which, although they may sound clever or provocative, they don't really believe. It is a danger to be guarded against."

He goes on to quote poet Robinson Jeffers who "decided … not to feign any emotion that I did not feel; not to pretend to believe in optimism or pessimism, or unreversible progress; not to say anything because it was popular, or generally accepted, or fashionable in intellectual circles, unless I myself believed it; and not to believe easily."

While I see the value in creating an authentic work and in questioning popular beliefs—which can change with the times—I'm not sure why these poets seem to advise against writing in character. After all, the speaker of the poem is not the poet.

But perhaps that is not what they are suggesting. Perhaps they are talking about the emotional truth in a piece of writing. In "Infuse characters with sincere emotion," from the March 2008 issue of The Writer, Faith Baldwin wrote, "Anything that is cooked up, that is phony, revolts me."

What do you think? Can you write something that you don't really believe? Is the challenge of writing with sincere emotion different if you write poetry or fiction?

Various Tidbits

For all those who love 'Science fiction. Fantasy. The Universe. And related subjects' Tor.com is live. I glanced at it quickly this evening and it seems worthy of my bookmarks list.

Also, I enjoyed this post on the AbeBooks Reading Copy blog about Bad Writing.

I can't even express how much I enjoy reading Neil Gaiman's Journal. This brought a smile to my face (this after he has been feeling overwhelmed with all he has to do):

I was convinced that all was doom and despair and hopeless and I would never write my way out of this and there weren't enough hours in the day or days in the week or anything when I finally got out of the house and went down to the bottom of the garden to write, and discovered, on the way, masses of late and forgotten raspberries on the raspberry canes. So I stopped and ate raspberries, and you can't be properly miserable or grumpy eating sun-warmed raspberries you're picking and eating yourself.

I'm just saying. You can't.

GoodReads.com

So I finally feel settled enough in my new apartment to spend a little leisure time online and I decided to really take a look at this website. A friend of mine invited me to sign up on GoodReads.com because she knows how much I like to read but I've been so busy moving and everything that I haven't really figured out what it's all about until now.

I have to say that I like this site a lot and can see myself wasting a lot of time browsing. After you create an account you can add books to your 'shelves' like ones that you've already read and some that you want to read in the future. I started going in and finding some of the books I've had on my 'to be read' list and I was pleased to find that they list member reviews/comments about the books as well as summaries of plot. This is really helpful for me because I have had to put down a couple of books in the last few months that I didn't want to finish. Now I have more opinions and reviews to look at before I even pick a book up so maybe I won't put so many down unfinished.

One that I'm really looking forward to is Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. It's been on my list for a while and everyone gave it good reviews. Mostly, I'm just happy that I will have time to read again now that I'm moved and nearly settled.

So go sign up with GoodReads.com and let me know what you think!

National Novel Writing Month

NanoWrimo is coming up in November and I can't wait. Juberry told me about NanoWrimo.org last year and we both tried it out. The whole idea is to write a novel (50,000 words) in a month. Thousands of people across the world have come together at NanoWrimo.org to work toward this common goal in the month of November. The program follows the plan outlined in No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty and encourages writers to put aside the inner editor and just write the story.

I didn't get anywhere near 50,000 words last year, but it was still an amazing experience for me. I was able to finally finish a project for the first time, which was my real goal. The website offers tracking tools and a community of support and encouragement. The forums are a great place to network with other writers and readers as well as vent frustration or celebrate success.

Check out this site, register for a free account, visit the forums, and start planning for NanoWrimo 2008!

BookandReader.com

We have a link to this site up, but I haven't said anything about what it is. My favorite part about this site is the forum.

The Book & Reader Forum is a grand place for those who love all things to do with books. Members discuss books, authors, genres, and characters in a friendly environment. I wanted to join a forum where I could learn about new books and talk about ones I've read and this is one of the best places to do that online. I have had a wonderful time reading all the comments and disccussions posted about some of my favorite books. I've also found some great new ones to read through member recommendations. They have a film and TV section, too, that is quite fun.

So sign up and join us on the Book & Reader Forum for recommendations, discussions and just general good stuff.