Stories & Shout Outs #9

It has been quite some time since I wrote a housekeeping post and I feel the need, the need to read...and to chat about it some.

During the week Melissa @Avid Reader Musings put me onto a new book app called Litsy.

I know, I know! We all need a new app like a hole in the head.

Apps already take away too much of my precious reading time.

But this one looks like it might be useful to me.

I have been using Goodreads more and more to keep track of what I actually read each year (there are always a few books I fail to write a review for, which means my blog stats are not 100% accurate for my reading year).

I like Goodreads' ability to keep track of pages read and how easy it is to add favourite quotes and passages as I read them. It is also a great way to keep track of reading challenges and for events like Dewey's Readathon (by the by another readathon is fast approaching if you haven't already signed up).

However I abandon a lot of books along the way.

I rarely blog about the abandoned books - I'm too busy enjoying the books I actually want to read!

Nevertheless my reading year is littered with the forgotten, the ho-hum and the couldn't-be-bothered's. Goodreads doesn't make it easy to track these books that have failed to get past second base. But Litsy does.

Litsy has a 'bailed' button. It also provides a 'review', 'blurb' and 'quote' button. If you'd like to follow me, you can find me under my usual tag of Brona's Books. You'll also find lots of familiar blogging faces on there already.

I wonder how this pervasive app-time will affect us all as time goes by?

I find it's a real struggle to maintain a semblance of control. I use social media apps for work and for play. They're everywhere. It's fun, but it's also mind-numbing. It sucks time and my ability to be present in the here and now. It's addictive. And despite all the talk about 'social media' and 'connections' and 'friends', apps are actually anti-social towards the people you're actually with right now.

I do wonder how the booklets and their friends (who have grown up knowing nothing else) are going to move forward into this brave new app world.

Perhaps it is simply the same scenario and the same concerns that surrounded the advent of television...and before that, radio...and before that, cars...and before that, steam engines...?

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Catherine @Victorian Geek created The Life According to Literature meme that she uses each year to highlight her reading year that was. I've just discovered it - better late than never I say.

THE RULES: Using only books you have read during the year (2015), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title.

Describe yourself: Yes, Please (Amy Poehler)
How do you feel: The Doldrums (Nicholas Gannon)
Describe where you currently live: The Great World  (David Malouf)
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Gone With the Wind  (Margaret Mitchell)
Your favourite form of transportation:  A Motor-Flight Through France (Edith Wharton)
Your best friend is: My Brilliant Friend (Elena Ferante)
You and your friends are: A Year of Marvellous Ways (Sarah Winman)
What's the weather like: You're Still Hot to Me (Jean Kitson)
You fear: Being Mortal (Atul Gawande)
What is the best advice you have to give: Tiny, Beautiful Things (Cheryl Strayed)
Thought for the day: Stand Up and Cheer (Loretta Re)
How would I like to die: Vile Bodies (Evelyn Waugh)
My soul's present condition: Heat and Light (Ellen Van Neerven)

Does your current reading matter fit into any of the above questions?
I've just started The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf which fits nicely into 'If you could go anywhere, where would you go'.

Thanks for listening and happy reading.