Archive for August, 2014

Thursday, August 28th, 2014

September ReadaThing kicks off today!

It’s not too late to join in our extended weekend ReadaThing. All are welcome, and you don’t have to read for the full weekend: the goal is to have a few people from around the world reading at any given time during the ReadaThing.

This edition of ReadaThing will be kicking off at 12am (midnight) UTC on Friday, August 29th (that’s 8pm Eastern, Thursday August 28th), and will end at the same time on Tuesday—12am UTC, September 2nd (8pm Eastern, Monday, September 1st). You can see the full timeline here. This August/September ReadaThing also happens to coincide with the US’s Labor Day weekend, so, to our US readers, if you’re looking for an excuse to get some more reading in this weekend, here’s your chance!

Sign up

Head directly to the August-September 2014 ReadaThing Wiki to sign up, or check out the announcement thread for more general information. You don’t have to pick a time slot in advance in order to participate! There’s a special place for readers who don’t want to commit to a specific schedule to sign up.

What are you reading?

Whether you’d like to check out what your fellow ReadaThing-ers are reading, or to share your own ReadaThing picks, head over to the What will you be reading? thread to see what books are slated. Remember: anything goes! You can read whatever you want, wherever you want.

Get ready to read

Once the ReadaThing is underway, keep an eye out for the “August-September 2014 ReadaThing: Log Book” thread, where you can document your ReadaThing experiences. Take a peek at the Log Book thread from our last ReadaThing in April, for examples.

ETA: You can find the August-September ReadaThing Lobg Book here!

If you’ve never done ReadaThing before, you’re in good company—this is my first one. Give it a try, and stay tuned to the ReadaThing group for updates. Thanks to LT member LucindaLibri for organizing this ReadaThing!

Labels: readathon, reading, Uncategorized

Wednesday, August 20th, 2014

Q&A with Andy Weir

Some excerpts from our interview with author Andy Weir, which initially appeared in August’s State of the Thing.

Andy Weir has spent the bulk of his career up to this point as a software engineer. The success of his debut novel, The Martian has been the result of a remarkable journey, and is very much deserved. It’s little wonder that the author identifies as a “lifelong space nerd.”

Tim caught up with Andy this month to talk science, space, writing, and more science!

Tell us what your novel is all about.

It’s about an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars (the rest of his crew thought he was dead). Now he has to survive with the equipment he has on-hand.

The Martian has both a great narrative and an engrossing focus on scientific and practical specificities. What drove what?

Definitely the science drove the plot. The problems he faced were real issues someone in that situation would face, and his solutions had to solve them. So those problems, and their solutions, are what moved the plot along.

The science is real, right?

As best as I could make it, yes. I put a lot of effort into scientific accuracy. I did a ton of research and math to work everything out. I’m sure I made some mistakes, but for the most part, the science is solid.

I gather you even wrote an orbital mechanics program to figure out certain details in the novel. I have to ask, are you insane?

Haha, maybe. But I wanted everything to fit right. So I wanted to know how long it would take to get there with a constantly accelerating ship and what path they’d take.

As I said, before, it’s a page turner. Did you have any models for the narrative?

I didn’t really have any model, per se. The story is very linear. Each problem needs a solution, and usually the solution causes the next problem. All I had to do was have Mark narrate the situation with a smart-ass tone of voice.

The Martian had an unusual path to publication—free, then self-published and finally picked up by a major publisher. What does that tell us about your book, or about publishing in general?

It’s pretty cool. It means any schmoe can break into the writing world on their own. Self-publishing an electronic edition of your book costs you nothing, and if people like it, you’ll do well.

»For more from Andy, check out our full interview here.

Labels: author interview

Tuesday, August 12th, 2014

Job: Junior Social Media Specialist in Portland, ME

This could be you! (photo by bluesky1963)

LibraryThing is hiring a full-time Junior Social Media Specialist. We’re looking for someone who is bookish, local (Portland, ME area), and social media-savvy. You’d be working closely with Loranne, our Member Support and Social Media Librarian, here at LTHQ in Portland.

You must:

  • Live in or near Portland, ME
  • Love books
  • Love people, at least sometimes
  • Be familiar with social media, and bookish social media
  • Write and edit well and quickly
  • Work both independently and under direction
  • Be hard-working, organized, and detail-oriented enough to remember to title your job application email “[Name]: Job Application”
  • Be aware of What Makes LibraryThing LibraryThing

We’ll pick smarts, affability and drive over any skill. But our ideal candidate would have:

  • Book-world experience
  • Professional social media experience
  • Technical skills (HTML, CSS, SQL)
  • LibraryThing membership/familiarity

Your duties include:

  • Help members with problems via email, Talk and social media
  • Help write our monthly newsletters, blog posts, tweets, and Facebook posts
  • Help developers to develop and test new features and projects
  • Be an active presence on the site
  • Manage incoming/outgoing mail, and some general office management tasks

Compensation:

Experience-appropriate salary with gold-plated health and dental insurance. We require hard work, but we are flexible about hours, and–so long as you are in the area–where you work from.

How to apply:

Send your resume (in PDF format, please) to loranne@librarything.com. Your email should be your cover letter.

Fine Print:

Per our Privacy Policy, LibraryThing is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of religion, race, color, national origin, ethnic origin, age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy status, parental status, marital status, veteran status or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Labels: employment, hiring, jobs

Tuesday, August 5th, 2014

August Early Reviewers batch is live!

The August 2014 batch of Early Reviewer books is up! We’ve got 122 titles this month, with a grand total of 3,186 copies to give out, including the latest from Cloud Atlas author David Mitchel—The Bone Clocks, a number of cookbooks, and Mallory Ortberg’s (of The Toast) Texts from Jane Eyre.

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.

» Then request away!

The deadline to request a copy is Monday, August 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, Germany, 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!

Taylor Trade Publishing Lion Fiction Candlewick Press
Henry Holt and Company Gotham Books William Morrow
Chronicle Books In Fact Books Ballantine Books
Open Books Akashic Books Dragonfairy Press
Sakura Publishing Prufrock Press Bethany House
Beaufort Books Apex Publications MSI Press
Random House Crown Publishing Del Rey
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing Five Rivers Publishing Cool Gus Publishing
Jupiter Gardens Press Tundra Books Bellevue Literary Press
Glagoslav Publications Ltd. Shasta Press Rockridge Press
Mendocino Press BookViewCafe Algonquin Books
Booktrope Greenleaf Book Group Quirk Books
Recorded Books Bantam Dell Thunder Lake Press
Gray & Company, Publishers PublicAffairs Stick Raven Press
Plume Vinspire Publishing, LLC JournalStone
Palgrave Macmillan

Labels: early reviewers, LTER