Twilight Review Contest

In mere hours (at midnight on Friday night), the fourth book in the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn will be released. And I'm sure I won't be the only person up reading all weekend, and then waiting to talk about it as soon as I'm finished.

We figured it was a good time to have another review contest! We did this before when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, and it was great fun.

The prizes:

• Three reviewers will get a $50 gift certificate to Amazon, Abebooks, Booksense, or any independent bookseller of their choice, a LibraryThing t-shirt and a free membership (to keep or give away).
• Seven reviewers will will win a LibraryThing t-shirt and a free membership (to keep or give away).
• Forty reviewers will get a free membership

That's right, that's FIFTY winners.

How the winners will be chosen:

• The top three reviews--with the most thumbs-up--will get the big prize. The next seven will get the next prize.
• The remaining forty winners will be randomly picked from all members who both wrote a review and voted for others' reviews.

So, when you finish reading, get writing! When you're done writing, take some time to read other reviews, and give the thumbs-up to the ones you think deserve it.

The contest ends on Friday, August 15th.

And then? Well, there are a ton of Twilight groups where you can stop by and join a discussion on Breaking Dawn, Bella, Edward, Jacob, and more. Here are a few:

• Twilight Club
  
• Twilight, New Moon, Edward and Bella <3
• *twilight*
  
• Moonless Nights (a twilight fan club)
• Twilight Group
• Twilight Club
  
• Twilight Lovers
• Edward Cullens Lovers
• Warm and Toasty

LibraryThing for Libraries now found in FictionDB

LibraryThing for Libraries, our library catalog enhancer, can now be found bulking up knowledge at the website FictionDB.

FictionDB, which has been around since 1999 (which is about 49 Internet years), started out as a romance fiction database, and has grown to include the suspense, western, and speculative genres.

LibraryThing for Libraries is a set of enhancements that can be added to an existing database to show tag clouds and recommended titles. (FictionDB calls it "Read These Yet?", which I love.)

Check out how the whole thing mashes up with the novel Dead Until Dark, and read more about our partnership at the FictionDB blog.

Legacy Libraries: Call for Volunteers

As LT's Legacy Libraries project continues to expand in scope (21 libraries have now been completed, with 27 more underway) and visibility (see Tim's blog-post from Wednesday and this Talk thread), we're always looking for a few good volunteers to assist in the various cataloging efforts. One of the most impressive things about these projects is the way people have come together to bring these fascinating collections into LT, creating a vibrant bibliosphere by making connections between books and their readers across time and space in new and really exciting ways.

There are a wide variety of open projects that could use some assistance, which I've listed below with contact info for the applicable 'project managers.' If you'd like to help out with any project, drop them (or me) a profile-message and we'll provide you with all the necessary background and info. You can be as active as you like, there's no need for a major time commitment (unless you're so inclined, of course!).

Benjamin Franklin - See the LT group; contact Katya0133 or pdxwoman.
Carl Sandburg - Contact KCGordon.
Sir Walter Scott - Contact thorold.
B.H. Liddell-Hart - Contact jmnlman or donogh.
W.B. Yeats - See this Talk thread.
Theodore Dreiser - Contact brandonw.
John Dee - Contact jbd1.
Willa Cather - See the LT group.
William Congreve - See this Talk thread; contact prosfilaes.

Even beyond these, there are a small number of projects which are currently quiet; if you're interested in picking up where others left off, contact me and we'll get that set up.

Anyone should also feel free to add to the list of proposed libraries on the project wiki, and if you're interested in starting a project, just follow the steps outlined in the Cataloging Guide or contact me for additional info on getting underway.

Back in May, in preparation for writing an article about the Legacies projects, I asked the members of the ISDPB group "What's your motivation?" All of the responses were great, but my favorite came from jjlong, who said in part "I do feel like I'm contributing to something lasting.... sometime, somewhere, someone will want to know - out of scholarly, or personal, interest - what poets John Muir read, which Spanish Civil War books Hemingway owned, what Adams read in French. Used to be you'd have to trek to a library in Boston or Washington or London, or try to run down a copy of, say, Millicent Sowerby's book; we're making this information available to anyone, anywhere - and, more importantly, in an easily searchable and browsable form, filled with links, statistics, covers, author info (thanks to LT)."

Couldn't say it better myself. But don't take our word for it - jump in and see for yourself!

Book pile contest, redux

Chris and I managed to bury the lead, too quickly. Check it out, there is a Book Pile Contest going on.

Recently tagged gets sexier

Chris did some very elegant work, redoing the "recently tagged" section of tag pages.

The new version brings back the RSS feed, disabled for a time for performance reasons. But it also looks much better, and is more informative, using the code from the home page "Tag Watch."

Some examples: European history, Star Wars, chick lit, steampunk.

Discuss.

Who has a book?

I've added a small section to work pages. The "Members" section shows who of your friends, interesting libraries and other connections have the work.

It also surveys the Legacy Libraries, a member project to catalog the libraries of famous dead people. So you can find out if Hemingway and Marie Antoinette owned, say, the Lusiads (Yes, they did). I think it gives this project—now growing quite impressive—a deserved boost

Discuss here.

Book pile contest

It's been a while since we've had a bookpile contest, so we figure it's time to bring back that LibraryThing tradition. We're also nearing the 30 million books milestone as well as coming up on our third anniversary—time to start celebrating!

As you know, we've been doing a lot of work on the home page lately. As we announced last month, every member now has a personalized, customizable home page. Next up is redesigning the home page that everyone sees when they first visit LibraryThing (the signed out home page). We're considering a new book pile (see the current one to the right)—that's where you come in. We're not guaranteeing we'll use it, but we figured we'd see what LibraryThing members can come up with!

So, the contest! We want book piles. Remember, your pile should represent LibraryThing itself, however you choose to interpret it (is it all about the cataloging for you? The talking about books? Connecting with other members?). Given the international flavor of LibraryThing, extra points if you include non-English books in the pile as well.

The rules

• Post your photos to Flickr and tag them "LTbookpile" (also tag them "LibraryThing"). If you make a new account it can take a few days for your photos to be publicly accessible, so post a URL to them in the comments here.
• Or, post your photos on WikiThing here.
• Or, if all else fails, just email them to abby@librarything.com and I'll post them for you.

The deadline
Get your photos in by Friday, August 15th at noon EDT.

The prizes

• One grand prize winner will receive a LibraryThing tshirt, a CueCat barcode scanner, and a gift membership.
• One runner up will get a gift membership.

Bonus batch of Early Reviewer books

We've got three books in July's bonus batch of Early Reviewer books this month, and a total of 200 copies! Two books are from Random House (thanks as always), and one is being given away by Miramax Films (see the blog post).



So, visit the Early Reviewer page to request your copy—the deadline for requests is this Friday, July 25th at 6pm EST.

Remember, bonus batches are treated as entirely separate from the regular batch of Early Reviewer books. That means it's possible to win a book from both the regular batch *and* the bonus batch. Good luck!

Brideshead Revisted giveaway

Miramax Films is giving us 25 copies of Brideshead Revisted to give out as Early Reviewer books! The movie adaptation comes out in theaters July 25th, and I for one plan on going.*

Check out the Early Reviewers page to request a copy.

So, what's your stance - read the book before seeing them movie, or after? Ok, I realize the book was popular long before the movie ever was in the making, but for those who haven't read it yet, what's the plan? (Weigh in here, in "What's better: reading the book first before watching the movie, or vice versa?")

For more discussion on movies adapted from books, try the Made into a Movie group.

*The site for the movie has a link for advance screenings, which is always fun!

The Guardian on "I See Dead People's Books" / Wikimania

Graeme Allister of The Guardian's Books blog did a sweet piece on the Legacy Library project, pointing out some wonderful incongruities:

"[I]t's a fascinating glimpse into a writer when an incongruous book appears; as the poet responsible for some of the 20th century's most heart-rending poems, a celebration of the Marx Brothers was a treat to see on W. H. Auden's shelves."

Legacy Libraries is a typical LibraryThing side-project—interesting, slightly off-kilter and stitched together by a cadre of passionate obsessives. (Its leader and most passionate cataloger is Jeremy Dibbell.) Like LibraryThing itself, it was laughed-off initially but is growing into something more than anyone expected.

I think I know why. On the web more is different and connected is different. Most—but not all—the Legacy Libraries were available in some offline form. You could, for example, find Sowerby's printed catalog of Thomas Jefferson's books in most research libraries. But something new happens on when anyone, from a high school student to you, whoever you are, can browse and search Jefferson's books, in his classification and with his notes, at any time of the day, stack your own books up against Jefferson's, or compare both to scores of other famous statesmen, writers, queens, pornographers and rappers.

In other news, I'm currently on a train to New York, from which I fly to Athens, with a day-long layover, and then Alexandria, Egypt, where I am due to talk at Wikimania 2008, the annual Wikipedia/Wikimedia conference. I'm talking on "LibraryThing and Social Cataloging."

I plan to center my talk on how LibraryThing's social production, or "Social Cataloging," stacks up against the Wikipedia model and similar projects. I think there are some interesting similarities, and more interesting departures.

For more thoughts on Wikimania and Wikipedia see Thingology.

More Early Reviewers books and buzz

We have two last-minute additions to July's batch of Early Reviewer books, and some scandalous book news to report.

The new books
The new additions are American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, and Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg. So go run and request them!

The buzz
American Wife has been generating a lot of buzz lately (see Wonkette, Radar). It's a work of fiction, loosely based on Laura Bush's life. This morning, Maureen Dowd wrote about it in The New York Times, saying

"It's the sort of novel Laura Bush might curl up with in the White House solarium if it were not about Laura Bush. It would be interesting to hear how that lover of fiction feels about being the subject of fiction."

Another July Early Reviewer book, The Winds of Tara is also buzz-worthy. The Winds of Tara is the unauthorized sequel to Gone with the Wind—so unauthorized that (according to Wikipedia) copyright holders blocked US distribution of the book and bookstores had to pull it from the shelves. You'll note that it's being offered to Early Reviewers only to Australians, by an Australian publisher, Fontaine Press.

July Early Reviewers

July's huge batch of Early Reviewer books is up! We've got 68 books this month, and a grand total 1,629 copies to give out.

First, make sure to sign up for Early Reviewers. If you've already signed up, *please* check your mailing address and make sure it's correct.

Then request away! The list of available books is here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

The deadline to request a copy is Friday, July 18th at 6pm EDT.

Eligiblity:
Publishers do things country-by-country. This month we have publishers who can send books to the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and Israel! Make sure to check the flags by each book to see if it can be sent to your country.

Thanks to all the publishers, new and old!

Andrews McMeel Publishing	B&H Publishing Group	Ballantine Books
Bantam	Bethany House	Candlewick
Delacorte Press	Fontaine Press	Frog Books
Gefen Publishing House	Harper	HarperLuxe
Hyperion Books	Leisure	Lifetime Media
Loving Healing Press	Modern History Press	New York Review Books
North Atlantic Books	Other Press	Picador
Picnic Publishing	PublicAffairs	Simon & Schuster
Solaris	Spellbinder Press	St. Martin's Griffin
St. Martin's Minotaur	Steerforth	The Dial Press
Thomas Dunne Books	Toby Press	University of Chicago Press
Vertical	Vertigo	William Morrow
Wizards of the Coast