You may not know it, but LibraryThing is available in almost 50 languages, from Dutch and Catalan to Russian and Japanese–not to mention Pirate.
Member civitas points out that whatever language you’re on, the home page sports a pile of English books. As he put it, “The effect may be subtle, but why give a prospective new user something negative to think about, or to have a vague feeling about, before signing up …?”
We agree. So, a contest! Win a CueCat, or a LibraryThing t-shirt (plus everlasting fame and glory, of course).
What to do: Go to the list of language sites (there are 51 total) and choose which* to submit. We’ll also accept “Polyglot” submissions, to use as the default for any languages we don’t get entries for.
The photo:
- Should show a stack of books in that language (probably ~10 books or so is optimal).
- Light background
- We should be able to read the titles clearly
- Don’t include an e-reader (they look dated too fast)
Where to post it—do one of the following:
- Post to Flickr with the tag “LTInternationalBookpile” (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.
- Upload the pictures to your LT profile (be sure to let me know they’re there by adding a comment to this post with your LT username).
- If all else fails, email your submissions to me (jeremy@librarything.com).
- Regardless of how you upload the images, please make sure to tell us what language you’re submitting for! LibraryThing employees are a linguistically talented lot** but labels will help.
All submissions must be received by Monday, 31 January at 6pm EST. Talk about ideas/submissions here.
What we’ll do: Once the entries are in, we’ll pick a winner for each language, and they’ll have their choice of a CueCat or a LibraryThing t-shirt (plus the aforementioned fame and glory). We’ll also pick an overall winner, who’ll win both a CueCat and a t-shirt, plus a membership upgrade or gift membership).
While you’re at it … This contests also offers us the perfect chance to remind people that translations for the various non-English sites are ongoing, and new contributors are always welcome! Anybody out there know Maori? Tim made the Maori translation in a fit of optimism during a talk in New Zealand. But it has yet to receive a single edit!
* You can submit bookpiles for more than one language. You can even win for more than one language. Tim’s standard fine print (“Our decision is final, incontestable, irreversible and completely dictatorial”) applies. Any questions or clarifications, just ask.
** Tim’s done Hittite, Abby Russian and Chris Catalfo is fluent in Italian.
I see Basque on the list of site translations, but where is Hittite? Is there special a font for that?
My Bookpile is in my profile
The language is Dutch!
I this sufficient information?
Here is my suggestion for the Finnish book pile:
http://www.librarything.com/pic/225400
Does Pirate count? 😛
Chinese attempt here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/justjimwilldo/5369345922/
caffron – yes, Pirate counts! Let’s see ’em!
My German one’s in my profile photos! And I’ve put a rqeuest up in the New Zealand Thingamabrians group for someone who speaks Maori.
Do dual-language books count? (The spines show the titles in both languages.)
A Korean book pile is in my gallery.
Cushla – excellent, thanks!
Lilithcat – yup!
paulstalder – thank you!
My submission for the Hebrew pile is on my profile: ArmyAngel1986
Is there a limit on the number of entries? I don’t plan on trying the CalTech thing of submitting every possible combinations of books, but I was wondering if it was okay to toss a few ideas out there, or if I needed to work hard to pick one of the batch. In any case, right now (which may change depending on future events and the answer to the above question):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/prosfilaes/5372250354/ for the (non-existent) Esperanto bookstack
http://www.flickr.com/photos/prosfilaes/5371645203/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/prosfilaes/5371656169/ for the polyglot one; probably better without the Klingon-language comicbook on top?
Dutch books
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45298237@N02/5372024891/
Hello,
I’ve just uploaded a photo of a French books pile to my LT profile. Have a look !
Oups ! Don’t know if the link will be OK… Profile is “h-mb”
An Esperanto bookpile is now posted on my profile. Someday, perhaps, there will be an Esperanto LibraryThing! Amike, LevGalicia.
Another Polyglot pile: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timsharrock/5376436042/
unfortunately my only Catalan book’s spine is too faded, and I could not find the Dutch or Spanish Hobbits 🙁
On my profile, there’s a picture of Dutch books… and one of Italian books. I hope you like them!
I uploaded several book piles to Flickr as Beata Anna (polyglot and a few Polish) and also I uploaded one Polish book pile on my profile – Beata
On my profile, one pile proposal for Catalan books.
One more pile for Catalan books.
Here’s my Czech book pile:
http://www.librarything.com/pic/226015
Hi!
Here’s my entry for Spanish books
Cheers
I’ve uploaded a pile of Swedish books.
What a nice idea…too bad I’m so far away from my books, and only have 2 with me that can count as foreigner *cries* Must go buy more books.
(I’ll speak with my mom and some friends to take a picture of a Portuguese bookpile)
Here’s my Czech book pile: http://www.librarything.com/pic/226015
And here it is: http://www.librarything.com/pic/226034
Bookpile in Portuguese (Portugal)
Here’s the contribution for Swedish:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7775809@N02/5381812194/
Russian books:
http://www.librarything.com/pic/226053
And my mother decided to get a bit more artistic: http://www.librarything.com/pic/226059
(Also in Portuguese)
Finnish book piles
http://www.librarything.com/pic/226063
http://www.librarything.com/pic/226071
My Polyglot and Polish book piles are posted on Flickr under Beata Anna and one Polish book pile on my LT profile under Beata.
My swedish bookpile contribution:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/corall/5386245926/
Entries for the ‘pirate’ stack. Hopefully they’ll appear in your Flickr in a day or so, but if not —
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30859063@N04/sets/72157625778392943/
-Larry
I have added a Hebrew bookpile at http://www.librarything.com/pic/226320
My mostly Welsh “to read” pile and associated stuff.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannyheijl/5388399886/
(also in my profile gallery on LT)
hebrew books.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coops_e/5388814534/
my kids made their attempt here.
French : http://www.flickr.com/photos/36286842@N00/5389180074/
Polyglot Junior: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36286842@N00/5388571643/
(the third photo of the artists and avid readers).
My Japanese Pile
http://www.librarything.com/pic/226382
I uploaded a pile of German books under my profile!
And another Catalan pile!!!
My three Swedish book piles here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anna/tags/ltinternationalbookpile/
– one with only Swedish authors, one with foreign only and one mixed. (All of them in Swedish though!)
I’d love to partake, but all my books are in English. The only non-English though is interesting in that it is a Chinook – English Dictionary. Chinook is not a language as such, it is a jargon.
Added a pile of books in SPANISH on my profile, plus same photo & several others on Flickr.
I’d like to have one for the original or at least older forms of English (not American)–British, olde English, Canadian, Aussie and other Commonwealth countries. I’d have to find spine titles with Worcestershire, colour (oh–Colour of Blood by Brian Moore!), honour, and so on. It’s not so bad, but I just would like to see the diversity of English when software of the world is red-pencilling (we double our final consonants too) correct alternate spellings, such as Microsoft and all the social media sites (all my Brit-spelled words in this text are underlined).
More piles on my profile:
Two Spanish: number 1 and number 2
One more Catalan
My Italian book pile submission is in my LT Profile (in fact, I’m using it as my profile picture).
LT direct link here: http://www.librarything.com/pic/226860
Ciao!
I have posted two Dutch language book piles. The piles are mainly selected for the colour and much less for the content, although most of them are very fine
I have posted two Dutch language book piles. The piles are mainly selected for the colour and much less for the content, although most of them are very fine
http://www.librarything.com/pic/226873
http://www.librarything.com/pic/226872
Posted my Scottish Gaelic submission on Flickr, titled LTpile3red and with the required tag, all lower case (hope that’s OK). I know, you don’t “do” Scottish Gaelic. But you might, you might!
Hebrew books at my profile: Reysbro
http://www.librarything.com/gallery/member/Reysbro
I uploaded a German bookpile and two Hungarian bookpile photos to my profile:
http://www.librarything.com/gallery/member/verenka/tag/bookpile
My Dutch book pile pic is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hjvanderklis/5400891630/
Don’t know why this wasn’t allowed to be posted earlier …
My submission for an Italian book pile from my profile picture:
http://www.librarything.com/pic/226860
A second entry for the Welsh bookpile, this time it looks more like what was expected I guess:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannyheijl/5400650389/
I’ll also add it to my profile gallery.
here is my Georgian bookpile:
http://www.librarything.com/pic/227025
and Russian:
http://www.librarything.com/pic/227027
I uploaded some photos for TAGALOG and CHINESE:
The Tagalog photos are the same books, with a slight variations in angles.
The Chinese photos have minor stacking differences.
http://www.librarything.com/gallery/member/editfish
(I would included links to each photo, but the system claims my comment appears ‘spammy’)
I also emailed them to Jeremy, as the site was down for a while this afternoon and I wanted to make certain that they were submitted.
Thanks for considering these submissions!
Jeremy-
You landlubber! Thar’s a Pirate Stack on me profile,
venture there at yer own risk…
Username
JMenges
German bookstacks: http://www.flickr.com/photos/auntiec/sets/72157625817409391/
I have a Japanese pile here with me.
I didn’t how you wanted it to be piled so took three different ways of arranging it.
Part 1:http://www.librarything.com/pic/227054
Part 2:http://www.librarything.com/pic/227055
Part 3:http://www.librarything.com/pic/227056
I’ll add a description of which books are piled up later.
My Georgian book pile
http://www.librarything.com/pic/227105
and the Russian one
http://www.librarything.com/pic/227107
P.S. the pirate bookpile is great 😀
Books in catalan:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gazophylacium/5401168717/
More catalan bookpiles: catalan grammars, catalan dictionaries and catalan poetry.
And an Occitan bookpile.
Finnish bookpiles in my profile:
Finnish bookpiles:
http://fi.librarything.com/pic/227145
http://fi.librarything.com/pic/227144
http://fi.librarything.com/pic/227146
I have uploaded a German bookpile to my profile:
http://www.librarything.com/profile/Minthe
In Flickr 3 only very slightly different German bookpiles can be found here (at least I hope so):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7169824@N03/sets/72157625814130123/
Here is my bookpile in Finnish:
http://fi.librarything.com/pic/227154
My Czech column is here:
http://balustrada.cz/p1220736upr.jpg
Romanian bookpile: http://www.librarything.com/pic/227181
Or others romanian bookpiles: http://www.librarything.com/gallery/member/dstefanescu/tag/bookpile
I’m not French, but I have a pile of French books. I put the photo on my gallery, and I am crowem. I have a higher res version if you want it.
http://www.librarything.com/gallery/member/crowem
Two pictures, French and Japanese.
http://www.librarything.com/gallery/member/sumpter-girls
Norwegian bookpile:
http://www.librarything.com/pic/227193
http://www.librarything.com/pic/227192
http://www.librarything.com/pic/227194
My submission (LT user name liao) is here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59037903@N08/5405331434/
I uploaded 3 pics of Japanese books to my profile gallery: http://www.librarything.com/gallery/member/aya.herron
My first Polish book pile
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ranmarumori/5404943315/
Running against the clock…
I’ve just uploaded two book piles, one with Greek books and one with French ones. Their descriptions give some additional info.
http://www.librarything.com/gallery/member/zvr
Less than three hours until contest is closed! 🙂
Two Swedish bookpiles and one polyglot pile:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jophan/tags/ltinternationalbookpile/
I posted mine on my gallery and emailed it just in case!
(My post was for the French books)
I know I’m probably posting this too late, but here are my entries for the Swedish bookpile anyway:
http://www.librarything.com/pic/227318
http://www.librarything.com/pic/227317
And my member name is anglemark, by the way…
You wanted an Italian submission so I’ve posted mine to my profile – http://www.librarything.com/pic/231462
I haven’t cataloged the books in Library Thing yet, but can do that this weekend if necessary.
A Latin bookpile posted on my profile:
http://www.librarything.com/pic/233566
and on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32423935@N00/5513516084/
my member name Vincenzo_Kisses