Archive for May, 2015

Thursday, May 21st, 2015

One LibraryThing, One Book: The Night Watch

This June, we’re finally bringing back One LibraryThing, One Book. June being LGBT Pride Month, we wanted to join in the festivities with our OLOB choice. I give you The Night Watch by Sarah Waters.

Shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, The Night Watch is set in 1940s London during and after World War II. The story follows the disparate lives of five main characters during this period, and the secrets they have in common, although their experiences are different.

Details

Since it’s been a while, here’s a quick refresher on how One LibraryThing, One Book works.

To participate, be sure to join the One LibraryThing, One Book group. That’s where all discussion will be taking place. Say “hi” on the “Introduce Yourself” thread, or tell us what you think as you read over on the “First Impressions” thread.

We’re going to do things a bit differently this time around. Official discussion for The Night Watch will kick off Monday, June 1st at 12pm Eastern. I know that’s nowhere near enough time for readers to have already finished the book—we’ll be breaking this one up into chunks. On June 1st, we’ll only be discussing the book and the events therein through Chapter 3—the 1947 section. LT Staff will be posting a few starter questions right before 12pm that day, after which point the floodgates open and other members are welcome to post their own questions and discussion topics.

From there, we’ll be reading about 150 pages every two weeks over the next six weeks. You can read ahead, of course, but we ask that members keep discussion topics spoiler-free for events beyond the set reading point. Here’s a full list of how we’ll be breaking it down:

  • June 1: 1947 section, all
  • June 15: 1944 section, chapters 1-3
  • June 29: 1944 section, chapters 4-5
  • July 13: 1941 section, all

More

If you’re disappointed we didn’t give members the option of voting on this OLOB pick, don’t worry. We’ll be bringing back voting for future OLOB reads. We just wanted to get this one off the ground quickly.

You can also find more information about what inspired OLOB in our original introductory blog post, and you can see past selections by hitting the One LibraryThing, One Book tag on the blog.

Labels: One LibraryThing One Book, reading

Thursday, May 14th, 2015

New Feature: Advanced Search

A few months ago we introduced a new search syntax, allowing you to execute complex searches like:

tag: history author: gibbon

We’ve now added a handy, “Advanced Search” feature, more like that offered by many traditional library catalogs.

You can find it in the search options in “Your Books”:

Screenshot 2015-05-14 10.48.42

It opens up a box like this:

Screenshot 2015-05-14 10.48.14

When you search it converts your advanced search options into the text syntax, so it’s also a way of showing how that works.

Let us know what you think on Talk.

Labels: new feature, new features, search, small libraries

Tuesday, May 5th, 2015

May Early Reviewers batch is live!

The May 2015 batch of Early Reviewer books is up! We’ve got 88 books this month, and a grand total of 2,340 copies to give out. Which books are you hoping to snag this month? Come tell us on Talk!

If you haven’t already, sign up for Early Reviewers. If you’ve already signed up, please check your mailing/email address and make sure they’re correct.

ยป Then request away!

The deadline to request a copy is Monday, May 25th at 6pm Eastern.

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

Thanks to all the publishers participating this month!

Chronicle Books Beacon Press Harper 360
Prufrock Press Humanist Press Henry Holt and Company
Prospect Park Books Bethany House Iron Twine Press
Bookkus Publishing William Morrow Akashic Books
Gotham Books Post Mortem Press CarTech Books
In the Garden Publishing Human Kinetics Firbolg Publishing
EsKape Press Eerdmans Books for Young Readers BookViewCafe
Crown Publishing HighBridge Audio Recorded Books
Bantam Dell Ballantine Books Chosen Books
Booktrope Orca Book Publishers Booktrope
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing

Labels: early reviewers, LTER