Copying  lots of other people who seem to be doing this on Twitter including WoodsieGirl, iOverlord, Infobunny and Joeyanne.

Do you snack while you read? If so, favourite reading snack?

If I’m not reading while eating a meal, then sometimes. Probably toast or crisps.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

I don’t tend to write in books, but it doesn’t really bother me if others do.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?

Usually a postcard, bookmark or whatever is around. I have been known to leave books lying around face down, and to turn the pages down, but only if they are my books. I would never do it to a library book or any book I have borrowed. My paperbacks usually have pages falling out by the time I have finished them. I blame cheap binding.

Fiction, non-fiction, or both?

Mostly fiction, Sometimes non-fiction usually related to work in some way or biographies.

Hard copy or audiobooks?

Always hard copy. I get distracted very easily.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?

If there’s a chance I can make it to the end of a chapter then I’ll try and get there before I have to stop, but it doesn’t bother me if I can’t.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?

Not usually, but the Dictionary.com App for the iPhone came in very handy when I was reading Infinite Jest recently.

What are you currently reading?

The death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave and My mistress’s sparrow is dead, a collection of short stories chosen by Jeffrey Eugenides.

What is the last book you bought?

My mistress’s sparrow is dead.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?

Usually only one, but I’ll often have a book of short stories to carry with me if what I’m reading is a hardback and I can’t be bothered to carry it around.

Do you have a favourite time of day and/or place to read?

I’ve just got back from Spain and my current favourite place to read would be a lilo on a private pool with the sun beating down and a beer at my side. But seeing as I’m back now it would be bed, or the sofa curled up under a blanket or a long train journey.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?

Stand alone. I can’t remember the last time I read a series.

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?

I’ve recommended Richard Yates to a lot of people.

How do you organize your books? (by genre, title, author’s last name etc?)

I don’t. They’re a mess.

Just downloaded the iPhone WordPress App, now checking to see if it works. Off to CILIP Umbrella conference tomorrow.

I had a whole post planned about how I was starting to get Twitter,  I was just being a bit lazy about actually writing it. Then I get to work this morning and see this post on Joeyanne Libraryanne, which basically says everything I was going to say, so you should just read that.

I am playing with Twitter really, just trying it out and seeing what happens. I seem to be much better at saying what I want in 14o characters or less, plus it’s great for a quick rant when work annoys me. I’ve also been linking to some of our online stuff, I’m not really expecting much, but a local events guide started following me today, so it will be interesting to see if any thing comes from that. This is me by the way.

It’s been quite a week for new (to me anyway) online toys. I’ve also been playing with Wetpaint (for a wiki I’ve been building – more of which later) and Screentoaster, a free online screen recorder. (Found via Phil Bradley) I am liking both of these a lot.

Too much going on, but here’s an interesting article in the Guardian about OCLC and WorldCat.

Why you can’t find a library book in your search engine

In Edinburgh Librarians are apparently now going to be called Audience Development Officers.

I was just idly trying out  Twitter Search and put in the name of the library not really expecting to find anything, but up came a not so good review which led me to Qype. It’s a site that anyone can add to, there are quite few reviews for libraries on there, some good, some not so.

It got me thinking about how important it is to keep an eye on sites such as these, they can be invaluable in giving feedback that we may not otherwise get. I’ve already set up a feed so I can monitor Twitter for any mentions we may get.

So, haven’t missed much in  library land since I’ve been away.

The first day back was ok, slight problem in that my work PC decided to die sometime over Christmas, so most of the day was spent wandering around jumping onto other people’s  when I could, not helped by the fact that my colleague’s PC did exactly the same thing.

I was very impressed with the IT department though (not something I ever thought I’d say) they came to look at the PC within an hour of me reporting it and I’m getting a new one tomorrow. I will be spending the next few days trying to remember passwords for all my favourite sites. I also asked for Firefox to be installed on the new one, it was on the old one, so shouldn’t be a problem, but I may have used Enquire as the reason I need a decent browser, I just can’t cope with IE6 anymore.

I’d forgotten that I’m starting an ILM management course this week. It’s seven days taught and apparently 14 hours study time on my own. Should be good and hopefully useful should I ever decide to try my hand at managing people. I was a little put of my the course manual which was written  in Comic Sans. Surely that shouldn’t be allowed? I may mention it on any evaluation.

The way Christmas was this year, along with a complete library shutdown and a couple of days of leave has meant that I haven’t been at work for two weeks. I’m really not looking forward to going back tomorrow.

I have totally switched off which is a bit unlike me. I currently have over 1000 unread items in Bloglines and a tentative plan to start work on my portfolio came to nothing.

I’m really not looking forward to going back tomorrow.

Nintendo are releasing books to read on the DS. It’s all classic stuff, 100 books for about £20. I already have  a DS, so will probably give this a go. It’s a cheap way of trying out e-books.

Still not sure how you can improve on the original though.

Well I say working, what I really mean is playing with Wordle. I have to come up with some fliers for an event on Wednesday to promote one of the websites that we have. I tried to do them at work, but it wouldn’t work on my work PC and it was too cold in the reference library to use a PC there. (plus I was enjoying having an entire office to myself just a little too much.)

I have been away this week, staying with people who bizarrely have no interest in libraries at all, as a result I’m finding it hard to concentrate at work, especially as it’s very nearly time for Christmas and a two week break. I have a vague idea of working on my portfolio for some of that time.

I did manage to have a flick through the latest Update and it seems everyone is thinking learning 2.0 at the moment, Lewisham seem to have done quite a lot in this area. I did just try to read the fancy new version online as my copy is at work, but it wouldn’t let me read it as it kept saying I wasn’t logged in, even though when I tried to log in, it said I was. I gave up after five tries I will just have to read it at work tomorrow.