PC Reading List

When I started blogging, it was at the Drupal-based site, Writing Up. I loved the community that grew up there. Drupal sites are made for community, chatting, enjoying other like-minded people. I loved it.

Then it collapsed.

I tried making all of my other blogs into something like Writing Up. All of them combined didn't make it quite the same. I never imagined that Writing Up would be so hard to replace.

Thankfully, another fellow-blogger at WU felt the same. And she did something about it. She replaced it.

You'll find my main blog at communati, at least for now. If it turns out to be as good as it looks it is going to be, "for now" could turn out to be a very long time.

I am transferring some old posts over from my old blog, due to the instability of that site these days. This is one of those posts.

 

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Some time back, in a comment in this blog, I got a nice pointer from dct66. He introduced me there to BookCrossing.com.

The idea of this website is to release books into the wild, and then track their travels from this website. It is easy to register the book, write a short note in the front of it, and then leave it someplace for another reader to find and enjoy. The note you leave in the front of the book gives the URL, asking the next reader to log in and leave a journal entry so that you can track the book's progress as it travels.

I signed up at BookCrossing when dct66 first introduced me to it, but I have just begun "releasing" books over the past couple of weeks. I left the first in Shanghai about a week ago, but no entries have yet been made indicating that someone has found it. In the past week, I have released several other books here in Singapore, the most recent at my school yesterday.

It will be a lot of fun to watch the progress of these books, and to see if they make it to places I have never been (and never will go, probably). It will be interesting to see how my life might connect with another's through that book -- at the very least, both of our fingerprints being left on its pages.

If you are a reader who once in a while likes to give away a book you've read, but perhaps don't have anyone to give it to, this seems like a fun activity to join. I'm listed as believin there too, if you'd like to check my bookshelf and see what has been released.

I've met a new blogging friend I'd like to introduce. Her name is Lilyruth, and she writes about this and that. I think you will enjoy reading her site. As a fellow pet-lover, I found lots of fun stuff there.

 

Enjoy!

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Alright, that's it for housekeeping... back to business now.

I've written on my other blog here about the magazine 32 Poems as a publishing opportunity. I've now also recently come across the 32 Poems blog (while browsing through this poetry blogroll, and have been browsing through it.

I like the site, just like I've liked the magazine when I read it. There are links to all sorts of great poems there. Stop in and give it a read when you get the chance.

I have been seeing a lot of tag-type games going on in different blogging communities, such as this exercise or this one. I decided I would start up a game like that too and use it on various blogs that I keep. It should be a fun way to keep the blogs interesting, and to keep conversations rolling between different sites.

What I am doing is taking questions from Gregory Stock’s The Book of Questions (1985) and posting my answers to those question. I’ll then tag a few other bloggers to post their answers, with a link back to my original post. They will then tag a few other bloggers to asnwer the question, include links back, and so on.

You can see my first such post here, and some of the responses to it in the blogs linked there. ValkrieANGEL has gotten the ball rolling with his answer over there.

I’ll continue the game now with this new question:

Do you believe in ghosts or evil spirits? Would you be willing to spend a night alone in a remote house that is supposedly haunted?

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My answer:

I do believe in ghosts and evil spirits, but I don’t believe they have power to do me any harm unless I allow/invite them to. I am not, therefore, afraid of any harm that would come to me by ghosts or evil spirits of any sort. I am, however, a little afraid of what people can do to me -- and the harm we often see coming at the hands of unscrupulous or violent people.

As for staying in a supposedly haunted house, that wouldn’t be a problem for me. It might create an eerie/spooky feeling in me, despite my belief that ghosts and all can’t do me any harm. But I suppose it is only natural that scary movies and all that sort of thing will come to mind if I were to stay in a place that is supposed to be haunted. But, it is all a matter of how it is built up in the mind, and I think I would not have a hard time staying in such a house. Who knows -- the chance to relax and get away from it all might do me some good. :-)

I would be more afraid of staying alone in a part of town that is known for high crime rates, particularly violent crimes. That’s what I am more afraid of than any sort of ghosts or goblins. I feel for those who have no choice in life but to stay in such places, and it certainly is understandable to me why some turn to violence -- it might begin to feel like the only defense one has in certain situations.

 

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I will tag my two Shanghainese friends here and here, and also spinayarn to continue, and let them each tag three more bloggers.

If you're an avid reader, and if you love discussing what you've read, then you might enjoy the regular book discussions that got started at another site, but have now moved here, at least while we get started.

We're discussing The Mists of Avalon now. I haven't gotten to add my comments yet, but I have read the post there, and the earliest comments. It has gotten off to a very good start. Stop by and join us, if you feel inclined.