Another Secret Hideout -- Goodreads

Goodreads is another secret hideout. Well I don’t think it’s a secret because they have thousands of people on there of all ages running the halls!

Goodreads is basically a site for book readers and everything books. It’s where you read a book, post that you’ve read it, and share with others their thoughts on the book. You also list the amount of books you’ve read in the past and rate them; catalogue your library of books, post book reviews, and connect virtually with book lovers, quizzes and games.

You can also create lists of your genre. Lists of your favorites

You can join a book challenge, where you list the amount of books you’re going to read in say a years time. It sets you on your goal of reading that amount of books and it holds you to it too!

Steven likes it for the widgets he can place on his audiobook blog, like ‘What I’m Currently Reading’. He’s really into The Neverending Book Quiz, you guessed it, a quiz about books that never ends. He tells me you can put in your own questions to ask, and actually look at who is getting the questions you’ve asked right. He also claims it is “Rollicking good fun.” His words, not mine! I imagine him skipping through the site tossing daisies as he ‘rollicks’. (Doesn’t take much to amuse him when it comes to books and sci-fi, eh?)  In my words it’s a pretty cool site, but I’ve not used it as much as he has because honestly, he listens to more books!

There is also the chance to become a librarian!!! He likes that, too. Yes, of course he IS one on there! He has the power to fix things, where he might see a typo of some sort, or like an author was listed wrong on the reviewers post. Power I tell you, and if you’re a man or woman who likes power, then the Librarian is the job for you. (no pay, just good honest joy in the written word.)

I have 26 friends and listed that I’ve read 130 books. The leader of my friends is Julia with 802 books read, Steven, who only lists books he reviews, is at 387, and Benning is in third with 217 books. It’s really fun to watch your friends chart their reading habits.

It’s a nice place where you connect with friends, so far for me it is 26 WVU friends. And like Linked In they have groups that branch off into discussion forums, where you discuss books! Now remember this is about books or audiobooks, which I myself feel like that is cheating because you can listen to three or four books a week where you can maybe only read one page-turning real hard copy of a book in a week.  But still, a listen or a read, a book is a book. It’s all-good, books are books and no matter how you get them read, you’re a reader!

You might ask why I, as a writer, would be found on a book social scene. Well because the last time I checked, writer’s WRITE books, and we’re all about books, so why not be a part of the reading community that may one day read my book, review it and discuss it? Sounds like a win/win situation to me.

Go on…find out for yourself how addictive these sites, LinkedIn and Goodreads, are. It has been a pleasure sharing!

Audiobook Mania

Today I had the honor of writing a review on an awesome audiobook blog, Audiobook Heaven. Call me the guest author for the day.

Audiobooks is a craze that isn’t going away any time soon. It’s not a passing fad, instead it seems to be the end of curling up on the sofa and reading page by flipping page, by holding an actual book in your hand.

We have Ebooks, Ereaders, Audiobooks and the same with publishers. It scares me as a writer, to want to get my book ‘published’, because what does that mean exactly? Will it be on pages, read by people or will it be in an audible format or Ereader where no one will fill their hands with my actual words in a paper bound book?

Audiobooks are to the writing industry, what cell phones are to landlines, what email is to snail-mail, what the massive exodus of internet and social sites are to speaking face-to-face, they are a quick means to an end.

While I love the audiobook industry, ripe with bloggers-a-plenty. The Twittersphere is crawling with audiophiles; Facebook is streaming with pages of audio lovers, and I can also find a couple of the narrators there too. The internet is all abuzz with sounds; with the likes of YouTube, you never have to leave your desk chair. The audiobook community is a world of its own there.

Audiobooks are a sheer delight in that, you DON’T need to be sitting in a chair to read your book. You can be exercising on a treadmill, running the morning’s park-path, driving in the car, everything except shower (until they come up with a water resistant mp3 player)!

Audiobooks are here to stay just as the internet is here to stay and deliver you the information you just couldn’t get from a face-to-face conversation or leafing through a book. Sometimes an audible rendition is good for the soul, too.

We listened to the book I did a review for while driving to Omaha. It’s a six hour trip in the car so having an audiobook was a welcome distraction to the long drive ahead of us. This book touched my heart in many ways. This is a non-fiction book, and while I’m close to the author/publisher/editor of Audiobook Heaven, non-fiction is not his niche of audiobook reviews, as you will see when you visit his site, Audiobook Heaven.

Talk-o Tuesday

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. ~James Bryce
***

Well it is official, my beaus blog audiobook-heaven has become popular enough to plagiarize. He found his reviews while surfing audio book blogs and lo and behold, there sat his reviews, under a trumped up name audio heaven. The blog thief, I will not justify with a name so you don’t click to see for yourself the insensitive treatment of what plagiarism looks like first hand or the atrocity of stolen work, or to give this guy hits!!!

The reviews are being RSS fed, to this persons blog, and this person is using many bloggers in the audio book industry’s work. He is changing a few words here and there to make it not show up on the scale of search engines but his mistake is that his blog on audiobooks, is one of few blogs that report on the audio book industry. It showed up on the search engine, as my beau’s search engine spot disappeared. Two of the same posts put one in front of the other apparently.

I’m not up on search engine placement, or stats and hits. I’m just here writing. If I get one visit a day, I’ve done my job in giving a message. But beau, being blind, has something to sink his teeth into while awaiting the cornea transplant that will give him his sight back. He has his two blogs that occupy his day and in some way fulfills the wait.

My beau works his tail off on writing the reviews. He is contacted by publishers to do reviews, he contacts publishers and asks if they’d like reviews, and all in all, his work is on a Sci- fi site and other audio book bloggers, BUT with his permission. They love his writing skills and his honesty in his reviews. Although he didn’t give one book a great review, and the publisher never sent him any more books to review. Which was fine by him, because that one book may have spoken volumes (pardon the pun) about what the other books were going to be like.

Two years ago he went blind. I told him to maybe try blogging as I knew he had good writing skills and I knew by getting things off his chest through ‘journaling’ might help ease the anxiety of his sight being taken away. That is when The Drums in the Deep was born. A blog about his journey and other stuff.

Then he had been listening to so many audio books, that he began writing reviews, then had the idea, an audio book review site. It filled his day(s)! He became a techno geek on the writing, placement, stats, followings of everything audio book related.

He also helps give audio book sites assistance in easier maneuverability with a screen reader. They ask, he offers. It’s a win win situation. But to see someone steal your work, that hits hard! I’ve created a monster in the blogging world with my beau, but it is a kind furry, loving monster, so don’t be afraid to CLICK his site and visit, audiobook-heaven. You won’t be disappointed and it will support him in all his efforts. :)

Talk-o Tuesday

"Writing is an adventure." Winston Churchill
***

I haven’t had a good Talk-o Tuesday in a bit. This is where I talk about the audiobook industry and a pretty cool blog that does reviews on audiobooks, audiobook-heaven.
The audiobook community is alive and well and moving forward in the 21st century. I’ve read that audiobooks are pretty much equal to good old fashioned print books, on the take-out lists at the library.

I overheard one woman at the library say that she does a lot of driving and she loves listening to audiobooks for those many hours on the road, while the librarian herself said she uses them when taking her stroll after work to drown out the sounds of traffic and such, while yet another woman piped in that she checks out audiobooks for her blind beau, oh, that was me that piped in. :)

There are audiobook review sites all over the web, and some are good, and some not so good. I don’t like a review to tell me the whole story, but I want just enough to bite on so that it makes me want to read the book. That’s what I get at audiobook heaven. And I’m not just saying that because I know the writer personally, it really is a good blog. Check it out sometime.

On the home-front, beau went to the doctors yesterday and is now on the cornea transplant list. He was on it back when he was visiting the doc in Omaha, but when he skipped his last appointment with him, it removed him from the list and so, we wait for a cornea. This doctor is close to us and beau liked him, that means a lot when you have to trust him to operate on the most delicate part of one of your organs.

He gave us the the possibilities, as much as he could without seeing the case history from the other doc, whose office was SUPPOSED to send the info, but didn’t. So maybe the other doc wasn’t such a ‘good thing’ if he takes you off the transplant list because of a missed appointment, and his office can’t be trusted to send pertinent information over to another doctor.

The dr. in Dallas warned us of such behavior between doctor’s,  and I was kind of prepared, but beau, he has this naïveté about him. This doctor has another doctor in the Grand Island area that HE works with on patients (he himself is out of the Omaha area) and when beau does get his operation, we’ll have a follow-up the next day, and one a week later in Omaha, but then the rest of the follow ups, which goes on for about a year, will be done here locally in the Kearney/Grand Island offices. Which will make it a lot easier since an eight hour round trip to Omaha every two weeks would be costly.

What will sight do to Audiobook heaven? I don’t know if it will have any effect. I don’t know if he’ll have much sight in his one eye and may still remain ‘legally’ blind, but not completely. Audiobooks will be a part of his life, the rest of his life.

Talk-o Tuesday

Rom. 2:19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
***

Wow, I haven’t had a talk-o Tuesday in quite some time. Talk-o Tuesday is where I go on and on about audio books and their ascent to being the top listened to way of hearing a good book in a car, on a treadmill or even just sitting with your legs crossed by a roaring fire, in the dark. Audio books is the route to take.

Why do I want to tell you about audiobooks? Because my beau has an awesome site where he does reviews. Now many of you already know, my beau is blind, but this does not hinder his time on this thing we call a computer. Nope, instead he has a screen reader and he plows away at the books like they were sand in his shoes, shakes out a couple of audiobooks in a week and gives an in depth review at Audiobook Heaven, not revealing too much, but you can get a pretty good idea if you’d like to read the book.

And there have been plenty of reviews and publishers requesting reviews! So his day is pretty consumed with listening and writing reviews. And what is also exciting? The man can write! Two years ago when he initially started going blind, to sway him from the pits of depression, I suggested he start a blog. “Just write all those mixed feelings out,” I said, “Free your mind and free your soul, write!” I have a tendency to tell a lot of folks to do the same thing, “Write to heal!”

In the beginning there was Drums in the Deep,(still going strong by the way) the diary of a blind mans quest for life. Then as his days of listening to books grew, he decided to start a blog on Audiobook Reviews. The site went through a bit of constructing and reconstructing in the beginning, but finally he hit a stride, and now taps out 3 reviews a week, in the least!

The pits of depression were all put on hold because a man,  who fought to know the love of God and decided along with God, that writing was the emotional healer that would get him through some of his darkest days, and nights too, if truth be told.

Why not check Audiobook Heaven out and show some support, you won’t be sorry. :)

Talk-o Tuesday

There’s a new blog in town. Audio Book Heaven which is the same one as Critical Mass Media, and Reviews from the Deep. Why the old switcheroo?

Well let me tell you. My beau, who has gone blind, sits around and tries to find things to do. Blogging seemed like an interesting thing to do since he sees the joy it brings to me. I would let him mow the lawn, but my son and I love that too much. I would let him take the car for a spin, but for obvious reasons, I can’t let him do that.

Then there is blogging. He started with a journal of sorts of what it is to go blind and how he’s adjusted, but that turned into a journal of the past and present. It allowed people into his world, where normally being a very private man, friends and family were all in the know of what his personal life was going through.

Then he decided on audio book reviews, since he listens to them in the millions, (exaggeration here) so now he reviews them. Good reviews of your audio book arsenal if I do say so myself. Not just a one liner of, good book, either. He gives a really good in depth review and what I find interesting, if I haven’t read the book, it gives me a glimpse into the book and if I’d like to read it or not.

It can be very frustrating this blogging world. I mean being blind, having to listen to your screen reader tell you all the widgets and stuff that are available, then trying to do the entire layout. Beau didn’t like the name Critical Mass Media, so he switched it to Audio Book Heaven.

I think this name will stick, no matter which blog he chooses to pick from, whether wordpress or blogger. I hear wordpress has better graphics and widgets and they even have a help desk that really helps you! How cool is that?

So all in all the blogging world has a kind of new blog in town and Audio Book Heaven sounds just heavenly to me, but one never knows when the wind will sweep in again, so you just need to check my blog frequently, right? Write!

Or is that Write Right? *wink*

Talk-o Tuesday

Psalm 89:15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.
***

Intel has debuted a text reading device in the UK. A friend found this interesting enough to share with me, since he’s from them parts. Thanks Q.

This text reading device, to my knowledge is not as smart as the Victor stream but still, the way I see it, is that technology is finally catching on that there are people who can’t see or have the ability to read.

We sighted people take advantage of our ability to see. Only recently have I come to understand the nighties dilemma when it comes to not being able to see.(I lovingly call my blind beau a nightie so take no offense, please.) There are also people with low-vision who can’t see the screen even with visual enhancement tools. I’m glad to read that some, in the tech world, are showing signs of developing things for the blind, visually impaired, or the dyslexic folks of society.

I’m thinking, they are not doing this for money, they are doing this for human beings and that in of itself is remarkable because how many big-wigs out there care for something other than their pockets?

Speaking of pockets, this little device is the size of a paperback book? In the picture on their website, it shows the device looking smaller than a paperback, but I’ll take their word for it since the creators know what size they made it.

I wonder also about the publishing world. When we get our work published into a book, do we have any say whether we want this made available to the blind? I see all kinds of books available for download but what warrants ‘available for the blind’ or MP3 usage of our stories?

I’m thinking we should make it a clause in our contracts with the publishers. Sure we want our work in Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etcetera, but maybe we can also say, “I want this to be made available to the blind!”

Are the techno geeks the only ones going to step up to the plate and offer devices to the blind? When can we as writer’s make a difference also?

Now there is food for thought!

Talk-o Tuesday

Because you are in control of your life. Don't ever forget that.
You are what you are because of the conscious and subconscious choices
you have made. ~Barbara Hall

Talk talk talk...that’s all I do is talk. So today’s post will be about Freedom of Speech.

I’m all for Freedom of Speech, but when people abuse this right I begin to wonder if the whole freedom of speech is worth it. Take for example my blog. I am allowed to say and post whatever I want. I choose information for people to learn and grow in the writing world.

I leave the comment option open for a reason. So that the screen readers (the blind and visually impaired) have easy access to making a comment because the word verification doesn’t allow the blind to see. I want them to have access to leaving a comment whether with a name or anonymously.

It seems there are vultures everywhere we turn this day and age and recently I’ve been hit by them swooping down on my informative blog to leave their ads of drugs and porn. Don’t get me started on what I think of these things because my rant will last for pages.

Luckily the stupid people don’t realize I, and I alone, have creative control as to what is posted on my blog and as soon as one of these perverted messages pop on my site, I immediately remove it so no one who is here to learn will have access to such crap!

I just wanted my followers to know that I don’t mind you leaving a comment anonymously but a name helps me to see that you are here to learn, like what you see, and enjoy my blog. You are my friends even though you are not seen, your voice is heard, or at least your words are read.

I look at it this way, maybe my blog is so popular that this scum of the earth sees it as a place to leave their junk because they’ll get hits? Ha ha ha! We laugh at them, right people? Right!

I would report this abuse but the higher ups will just tell me to limit my comments to a certain crowd. God forbid! I want all of you to have access, not a select few. This is what freedom of speech is all about, the freedom to tell me what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong!

Recently I’ve learned that there really is no way to contact the people of Blogger because millions inundate them with emails. We’re on our own people. I just wanted to let you know that I’m always keeping tabs on my blog and the content and most importantly the comments.

I appreciate you visiting and I hope you find something from this blog besides a place to place an ad. I HATE ads! I have an ad muncher installed just so I don’t see the disgusting things that people have to offer. There is enough strife in the world, do we need ads too?

Okay, I’m done talking. *smile* Thanks for visiting!

Here are two links to more audio books that I found:

simply audiobooks

LibriVox

Talk-o Tuesday

Luke 17:15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,

Learn Out Loud...

Audiobooks are not just for the blind and visually impaired folks of society. Audiobooks are the new workout groove. People walk the treadmill, all the while delving deep into a book on tape and they get so lost in the book that they’ve forgotten that they have trudged a mile on the darned thing.Long hours in the doctors office are not so long with an audiobook. Or how about plane rides? Whew this little gadget will take the angst out of the flight for sure.

What I didn’t know about audiobooks and have learned since my beau went blind, (read his story on The Drums in the Deep) is that there is a difference in narrators. He tends to like the professionals in the business. Did you know there were professional narrators? Well you do now.

The free books that he gets from the Nebraska Commission for Blind are narrated by unprofessional’s and he notices the difference. Sometimes a pro narrator really makes a story come alive where a non-pro gives a bland telling of a story. I’m sure they do their best and hey, they are volunteers so we can’t knock their storytelling skills. Read reviews of some audiobooks on Reviews in the Deep, another of my beau’s blogs. What can I say, he’s a busy blind man.

There are also different venues to listening to the stories. MP3 players, podcasts, and you can even listen to them on your computer! Technology is relentless isn’t it? I’m not a fan of audiobooks but I imagine when the love of visually reading words is taken away from you, you’re happy that there is a venue that allows you to still hear the written word.

I’ve found some really cool sites that offer free audiobooks for download so if you’re interested in running a mile with a Stephen King novel blasting in your ear, or the classics of Robert Frost and his friends, click a few links, maybe you’ll find something. *Note- audiobooks are not just for the blind. I don’t know if these pages are blind friendly, so surf at your own risk. Screenreaders, get back to me and let me know if they are easy to access/follow.



learn out loud

open culture

audiobooksforfree

freeclassic audiobooks - Fair warning here, these are digitally narrated.

audiobookscorner

Talk-o Tuesday

Isaiah 42:16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.
***

Maybe this will be my audio day where I talk about all of the audio technology out there available for the nighties of the world. Nighties is a term I use endearingly to my fiancé since the sighted people of the world are called sighties.

Yesterday we met VICTOR. It was apiece of equipment from Human Ware for the low-vision or the blind. It is a way of handing the blind technology that is easy for them to use, carry around, and feel like they have a part of the future in their hands.

Since going blind, our lives have been uncertain. We’re told that with an operation my beau could be back in the sighted world, but without any medical assistance, he remains blind. This is where the uncertainty comes in. Do you give in and accept being blind, knowing full well this is reversible, or do you hold out hope and faith that a miracle will take place?

In today’s society we’re never encouraged to hold out for hope or to have faith. We’re encouraged to face reality, tossing away any hope we might have. Because to many people, there is no such thing as hope. It is just wishful thinking, and who doesn’t wish for a million bucks? Me. And who doesn’t wish for a fancy car? Me. No, I live in reality and hope for the best day that the good Lord gives me. Guess what? Hope wins because everyday I make it through another one.

Back in Texas, the Commission for the blind wanted to do Psych tests to see how stable my beau is and how much he knows cognitively. They sent a man out that was supposed to teach him a few of the skills that he would need as a blind man. Wow, the man gave him a cane and we never saw him again. We were left to learn on our own and I had to use what I could muster to put dots on the microwave, move furniture,quit rearranging.

“You’re on your own.”

Now we’re here in Nebraska and the Commission wants to put him in school for 3-9 months! What? Where is the person that comes out to the house and teaches you? The school isn’t an outpatient thing, it is an inpatient, goodbye see ya later joni thing. I like learning about the blind and the skills that they need,but if he went away,came back out with independence skills, I’d have no idea what he learned while he was away.

So the lady comes out yesterday to show him a VICTOR stream player. Wow, they are so cool! He wants one and hopefully this will be available to him but the way I see it, the Commission is short on funds, and hope is not their friend. The disabled lose out in society.

This technology puts freedom in the blind, low-vision’s hand with streaming audio books, music, notepad, it has a bookmark feature, a recorder and many jazzy features that would make the bulky player obsolete. It’s only $300 and some odd dollars! A 4x2 mega tool. I call it a palm-reader. *wink*

Let’s hope, that hope wins. I will keep my faith, thank you.

Talk-o Tuesday

I went into a McDonald's yesterday and said, 'I'd like some fries.' The girl at the counter said, 'Would you like some fries with that?' ~ Jay Leno

* * *

I’m always being teased by,you know who, about my names for my ‘special days’, like Quotation Saturday, Poetry Sunday, and I used to have a Funny Friday.

Well, you know who says I should have a Taco Tuesday. He remembers the olden days when Taco John’s had Taco Tuesday, so now he thinks I should have a taco Tuesday. So for him I am declaring today, Talko Tuesday!

You heard/read me right, Talk-o, for him and his audiobooks. You see, my fiance went blind only months ago although he struggled with his sight for a few months before that and years before that with infections, a cornea transplant and what-not, but in any case, audiobooks became a big part of this avid readers life. He loves to read. I never seen a man so hooked on the written word. Maybe there are a few guys out there that will admit to liking reading, but besides his computer, books are his thing.

Since becoming blind, books have been swept away from him like dust on the floor; taken away and placed in the wastebasket. Then the audiobooks came along and kept the man reading. Now he has a talking screenreader and by daggone it, he can now use the computer AND hear his books on his mp3 or the audio system that the NFB set him up with. He’s almost in heaven!

What does a bored man do? Only what he knows best, he writes reviews of the books he listens too! He has two blogs and maintains them all on his own without my help. One thing I’ve learned is to back away and let the man do things for himself. He does beautifully for someone who was thrown into blindness and learning on his own. We’re learning together actually, but he is, more than me because I’m a sightie. I like to think of myself as his guide dog. ha ha. Always by his side, I’m soft to the touch, and I roll over and play dead!

Do you wanna know whether to read the next book or listen to it on a ten hour trek in the car? Maybe you listen to books while on the treadmill and just don’t know whether a book is good enough or not. I’m pushing his blog because I’ve found that the man can write too! What a guy! He’s honest in his reviews, gives the duration of the book, lets us in on who is the voice, and you know what else? He doesn’t give the whole story away. He let’s you decide if the book sounds good to you, then you can decide for yourself whether it’s worth listening to.

Why not give him a click, you’ll be glad you did. Reviews of the Deep, my mans blog!