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Keeping track of your library

Friday, July 24th, 2009

We’ve all done it. Loaned out a book to a friend or colleague only to have them fail to return it to us. What’s worse is we don’t always remember to whom we loaned a particular book. Or you have too many books (can you really have too many books?) and too few bookcases. So like me you can’t get the car in the garage you have so many book-filled cardboard boxes.

Enter bookTome. Unlike many of the reading utilities profiled in this blog bookTome is a free downloadable database for cataloging and organizing your books. So you don’t need to be connected to the Internet to use it. Uh Oh! Did he say database? Now just calm down a minute. It is a simple program with little or no learning curve.

I use the easy method of listing a book: I click the “Add Book” icon, enter the title and author, and choose to download the cover image and details from Amazon.com. You choose which details you want in the “Tools” panel (again easy to do). The first time I used bookTome I was able to add over 60 books in an hour.

The program also allows you to create categories, series, whether you’ve read the book or are still reading it. Once I have entered any number of books I can search by these similar parameters: author, series, categories, and so on. I’m headed into the garage to label each of my cardboard boxes with a magic maker. When I have the bucks to build floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on every wall I will know where to find any book in a matter of seconds.

And yes, you can note the name of the guy who borrowed a book. Best to pay him a visit right away. He’s probably got your lawnmower, too.

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Posted in Free Software, Reference, Utilities

Где мой словарь?

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

So. You don’t speak Russian, do you? Neither do I. The phrase you see in the subject line of this post is just a literary come-on. It’s my way of introducing a fine new online utility, Wordnik. It looks Russian, doesn’t it? You know, like Sputnik? Alright, alright!

Technically it is an online dictionary; yet so much more versatile than what you might expect. Yes, you can look up words; but Wordnik has one or two bells and whistles you might not find with other dictionaries. First, Wordnik polls a number of dictionaries when searching for a particular word. Once it has found that word it lists related words, and not just its synonyms.

You can choose to hear a recorded pronunciation of a word, and you can see how often the word is used. There’s even a feature for those of you who Twitter. But my favorite feature is the ability to view a word’s etymology, which is its history and evolution. But then I’m an exciting kind of guy!

Oh yeah, the subject line translates as “Where is my dictionary?” It’s at Wordnik.

до свидания

Animated Banner- Used + New Books - Beige - 120 x 60

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Posted in Reference, Utilities

Eyercize . . . easy on the eyes!

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

As I near the final year of my MFA I’m glad to know the large volume of reading is behind me. Yes, reading is one of my top three favorite things to do. But like everything, too much of a good thing . . .

I only wish I had come across Eyercize in my first year. It would have saved me a great deal of time and work. Eyercize is the kind of site the Internet was made for. It provides above average value, measurable results, it’s easy to use, and free.

I’ve used it for only a short time, and already my reading skills have remarkably improved. Below, the graphic shows that I am reading almost 300 words a minute; 30 seconds faster than an average reader.

Readers use speed-reading systems for a number of reasons: they want to ease their workload, reduce eyestrain, get better grades, and retain more of the information read. That last is what I find most important. As we age, reading comprehension can suffer, just as other things do. And I am aging!

To make your speed-reading practice more accessible, and easy to incorporate into your routine, there’s a bookmarklet you can drag to your bookmark toolbar. So with one click you’re off to the races. Literally!