Assignment 10

1. Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
This book is currently in my books to read list on GoodReads. It received a rating of 3.66 out of 5 from 208 readers. I read the description and about 15 reviews. It seems like an interesting read. A lot of the plot involves travel which is one something I am very interested in and enjoy reading about. I honestly forget how it originally ended up in by books to read list but apparently it had sparked my interest in some way.

2. Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin
This is another book in my books to read list on GoodReads. It received a rating of 3.89 out of 5 from 461 readers. I added this book to my list because I had read the novel Burmese Days by George Orwell when I was an undergrad at OSU and it became my favorite of George Orwell’s works. I wanted to learn a little more about his time in Burma and that is exactly what this book explores. I have always been a critic of Imperialism and I enjoy reading historical accounts of what really went on when countries such as Burma were infiltrated by the Western world.

3. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin
I selected this book because one of my best friends, who first introduced me to GoodReads, had given it a 5 out of 5 rating. I trust her judgment in books and read her review. The average customer rating was 4.14, which is remarkably high for GoodReads, as far as I can tell. I do not read much Science Fiction but I am definitely willing to give it a chance, especially when it is so highly recommended by someone whose opinions I value and trust.

4. The Book of Other People by Zadie Smith
I figured I should try some of the other resources to find books as well. I logged into my WorldCat account, which I regret I have not used much since signing up for this class. There did not seem to be a good way to browse on this site so I began by entering the name of an author, Zadie Smith, whose novel I had recently read to see if she had written anything else that might be of interest to me. I came across this book of short stories which is actually a collection of several authors, many of whom I was already familiar with and fond of. I am a huge fan of short stories and am extremely excited to get my hands on this collection. The reviews were all over the place, but I figure it would be very hard to review a collection with so many different voices being represented. The fact that I am already a fan of many of the contributors was enough reason for me to add this one to my list.

5. My Brother Bill by John Faulkner
Next I used the WorldCat ‘most popular tags’ cloud to see if any of the tags would spark my interest. I chose the tag ‘biography’ because I rarely read biographies but it is a genre I always tell myself I want to explore more. I searched through 6 pages of biographies before settling on this novel about William Faulkner, written by his brother. I read quite a bit of Faulkner while at OSU and realized I did not know much about his life. I thought it would be interesting to hear about him from his brother’s perspective.

6. Vegan Yum Yum by Lauren Ulm I used Google Books to search for books about veganism. Google makes everything so ridiculously easy that I can not help but love all of their services. The search bar for Google Reads is identical to the normal Google Search bar. I simply typed the word ‘vegan’ and was given a huge list of potential reads. I decided on this cookbook because I was familiar with the website of the same title and have always been impressed with the Lauran Ulm’s recipes. The reviews were great and the book was recommended by both vegans and non-vegans.

7. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
Next I decided to try out LibraryThing. I clicked on the Zeitgeist link out of curiosity because I had no idea what it was. Basically, it contains a bunch of statistics and ‘top 25’ and ‘top 50’ lists. I browsed through the top books but found that it contained books I had either read already or had no interest in reading. I clicked on the recommendations tab but found that it just listed a bunch of random, recent recommendations. I did not really like the way this website was set up, but I was determined to use it to find a book. I clicked on the ‘more’ link under top books and was taken to a page that listed the top 1,000 books and top 1,000 authors, which was a bit overwhelming. Finally I came across a title that I liked. I am a huge Steinbeck fan but never got around to reading The Grapes of Wrath. It received a rating of 4.19 out of 5.

8. Small Ceremonies by Carol Shields
I went back to GoodReads to look up an author that I recently read and enjoyed to see what else she had written. I searched for her name, Carol Shields, and was given quite a few results. I frequently enjoy reading first novels of authors I like which is why I chose this selection. It received a 3.61 rating. The user reviews were mostly good as well.

9. Sarum: The Novel of England by Edward Rutherford
Next I went to the ‘find books’ tab on GoodReads to browse some of the popular lists. I browsed through the ‘best historical fiction’ list and found this epic novel about the history of England told through the lives of five families. I chose this novel because it did not seem like something I would normally pick out for myself but I wanted to find something different. It received a 3.91 rating

10. Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith
I certainly did not want to ignore the way I find out about at least 50% of the books I decide to read. That is word of mouth and conversations with my friends and family members. I definitely do not rely on the internet for everything. My best friend and I were both English majors and love to talk about books and give each other recommendations. He suggested this book to me, claiming it was a hilarious read. Although he and I don’t always agree, I decided to give this one a shot because I appreciate comedy in novels from time to time.

Critique of sources:

Goodreads: If you could not already tell, I am a fan of this service. For me, it was the easiest source to navigate. That might be because I am already familiar with it. It has a simple rating system and plenty of good user reviews. I liked that you can separate your books in to ‘read’, ‘currently-reading’, and ‘to-read’. I loved browsing through the lists and I found most of my choices though this site.

WorldCat: I like that this site actually connects you to local libraries. However, when it came to browsing, this site was not as intuitive for me. I also did not like the way it looks. The design was very bland and boring. However, I did think it provided a good service and the addition of local library information made it stand out among the other sources.

Google Books: Google Books was probably the easiest to figure out. Google makes all of their services easy and instinctual to navigate. I do not think I would use this site to actually read books because I do not like starring at the computer for hours and hours. However, it is a very easy way to find books and it seemed to offer the most reviews out of all of the sources.

LibraryThing: I know I am just being picky, but I really hate the name ‘LibraryThing’. I really think they could have come up with a better one! This service was sufficient. I was not very impressed with the layout and it was difficult to brose books. The Zeitgeist page was overwhelming to me. I think they should have narrowed down their choices or organized it in a better way. There was just way too much text to scan through and I was not clear on what the all of the numbers meant. I do not think I would use this source very often to find books.

Word of Mouth: Talking to people about books remains one of the most common ways I am introduced to new literature. I happen to be surrounded by a lot of book lovers in my life and suggestions are mentioned very frequently. It is not uncommon for me to clean out my purse and find a book title scribbled on a scrap piece of paper that was a suggestion from a friend six months ago. I love talking to people about books and I think some of my favorite books have been suggested to me by friends, family members, professors, and classmates.