Thursday Thirteen

Some links and thoughts about writing, books, libraries, etc.

1. Some of the publishing websites are making a big to-do over a fellow who used his own material a couple of times in separate articles. You can read about it here and here, plus many other places if you want to search it. The author is being criticized for "self-plagiarism," which I didn't even know you could do. How do you steal from yourself? I have read many books on freelancing and writing nonfiction articles that encourage you to rework your material for different articles, and here this writer is being railroaded out of town for doing just that. Does this mean that every time you want to do a new article out of an interview, you're supposed to do the interview again? Maybe the brouhaha is because he sold the same material to different sites, which violates some sort of copyright, but I am not clear on this.

2. Barnes and Noble has a big loss. I am really sorry to see that Amazon is creaming all book sellers and causing so much angst in the book and publishing industry. It's a good example of monopoly. If B&N has lost $57.7 million in the last quarter, one has to wonder how much longer the company will be able to hang on. Since we have few other options for book browsing in my area, I will be very sad to see the brick and mortar buildings close up shop.

4. Oprah's online book club is, at the very least, a good resource for those involved in book clubs. It also gives one a good reading list.

5. NPR has a page devoted to books, too. It's another resource for finding good reads.

6. You can find an interesting Character Building Workshop at this link. It offers some tests for creating characters, character archetypes, personality types, and personality disorders that are often associated with various jobs or other life roles.

7. This blog entry/article talks about self-publishing and selling through Amazon and using social media.

8. You can also learn about self-publishing at this website.

9. I recently discovered The Great Courses, which offers lecture series on various topics, including writing. They're rather expensive but the friend who suggested I check out the site says they are all worth the money.

10. Here's a website about blogging, how to do it better and smarter, and all of that stuff.

11. This article says that a library science degree is the worst degree to obtain. Of course, I've read other articles that say any M.A. in the humanities is a bad deal, but that is only true if you're interest is only in money and not expanding your mind.

12.  This video available at the Oxford American, shows a tiny little town. It doesn't really have anything to do with books, but the Oxford American website is a good one to bookmark.

13. And lastly, this video is a story about how a library system fought back against those who would see the place close before they paid one little cent more in taxes. Watch it to the end. I consider it must-see.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 247th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.