Almost Book Tournament Time!!!

Guess what's great about tomorrow???! It's the first day of the Tournament of Books!!! That's right, folks, March 7th to March 30th is the readerly main event. I've made it a personal challenge to read my way through the 2012 Tournament contenders this year. I was making GREAT headway before I got a new job, and things have pretty much ground to a halt since then. But, I have read some great books thanks to this year's Tournament. These are the ones I have under my belt so far:

• The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah
• The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Given, I've missed out on some of the heaviest hitters: The Marriage Plot, The Art of Fielding, and Salvage the Bones remain unread, though I expect any of these books to have a great showing in the Tournament. The Marriage Plot and The Art of Fielding will probably end up pitted against one another in the second round, but either of them could re-emerge in the Zombie Round. Same thing with Salvage the Bones and The Sense of an Ending.

Who's going to take the cake??? Such a hard decision. I think there's a good chance State of Wonder or The Marriage Plot could take it all. We'll just have to see how it unfolds.

Who are you pulling for in the 2012 Tournament of Books? Do you have your author jersey and a platter of potato skins ready?!

Almost Book Tournament Time!!!

Guess what's great about tomorrow???! It's the first day of the Tournament of Books!!! That's right, folks, March 7th to March 30th is the readerly main event. I've made it a personal challenge to read my way through the 2012 Tournament contenders this year. I was making GREAT headway before I got a new job, and things have pretty much ground to a halt since then. But, I have read some great books thanks to this year's Tournament. These are the ones I have under my belt so far:

• The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah
• The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Given, I've missed out on some of the heaviest hitters: The Marriage Plot, The Art of Fielding, and Salvage the Bones remain unread, though I expect any of these books to have a great showing in the Tournament. The Marriage Plot and The Art of Fielding will probably end up pitted against one another in the second round, but either of them could re-emerge in the Zombie Round. Same thing with Salvage the Bones and The Sense of an Ending.

Who's going to take the cake??? Such a hard decision. I think there's a good chance State of Wonder or The Marriage Plot could take it all. We'll just have to see how it unfolds.

Who are you pulling for in the 2012 Tournament of Books? Do you have your author jersey and a platter of potato skins ready?!

The Sunday Salon - On Information Hoarding

Everyone has some specific ways they respond to stress, and for many of the readers and librarians I know, it involves information hoarding. 

I am an information hoarder. This is a little of what that looks like.

1. When I feel unseated I tend to read EVERYTHING I can get my hands on about a topic.

2. I tend to start writing copious notes I'll have to go back through later and decipher for myself and anyone else who cares.

3. I tend to observe others who are doing the same thing I'm hoarding about or a community at large that can help me feel more grounded.

Check, check, check! 

I am REALLY not trying to drive you all crazy with new-job-talk, but it is sending out such drastic, resonating shockwaves through my life, it's really hard to avoid! And I need to vent. So there! It's really a trifecta of crazy. Let's analyze...

1. Old Job Crazy - This past week I've been finishing up my duties at the college and getting the t's crossed and the i's dotted to pass my materials along to our Dean since she'll be absorbing a lot of my current duties. My last day at the college is Friday, March 9th, which coincides with the last day of the academic term, so I've also been grading papers and getting those grades ready to post. Busy, stupid, crazy.

2. Online Job Crazy - Five online classes are kicking my tail. Given, I inherited three new classes several weeks into the semester. I am so so so glad to have the extra  income, but the grading is a nightmare. I've been trying to catch up this weekend with mild success. It just always takes SO MUCH LONGER to grade papers online. 

3. New Job Crazy - I am just astounded by the amount of work there is to be done. Like so many companies, social media has been something of an afterthought with a bunch of other irons on the fire. The process of cleaning up, doing lots of "listening" and research, and ultimately building the social media strategy into something doable for a bunch of different brands is going to be a huge challenge. Right now I'm getting a handle on what each brand needs, what's being said (or not said) on the web about those brands, and laying down an infrastructure for the department. I'll be diving into this gig head on with travel plans to Phoenix next Sunday and Monday.

See why all the info hoarding??? 

One of the better hoarding decisions I've made this past week was to download a copy of Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (& Other Social Networks) by Dave Kerpen. This came as a recommendation from a good buddy at work and was confirmed by some good buddies online. 

Kerpen owns a successful social media consulting firm and has a lot of great advice. Is it all brand new advice? No. If you've been in social media in some capacity--blogger, Twitter, Facebook user, marketer--you'll already know a lot of the tactics in this book. However, it does provide some pretty interesting and heartening statistics about building a following on Facebook and Twitter to increase sales, brand recognition, and overall presence in the market. It also synthesizes some of the more innovative and successful efforts undertaken by other brands that have given me some ideas. Take what works and do it better!!! That's my goal. 

The number one goal of this book? BE LIKEABLE and helpful. More companies should live by that rule.

This book has really confirmed what I want to do in my new job and given me a few new ideas to throw into my bag of tricks. That's probably the most valuable thing I could have right now -- a sense of calm and knowing. Confirmation that I do know what to do with the challenge even though my head is spinning. 

Another side effect of gaining a job in social media?!...

A desire to keep this blog TOTALLY SEPARATE from my work. Obviously I'm not doing a very good job of it at the moment, but I think when some of the twirliness passes, I'll be able to settle back into my happy place here. You won't see me doing a lot of things differently here. I don't want to use this blog as a petri dish for my work. Just good reading, a lot of honest reality, and snark.

So that's my Sunday! Posts will still be slow here in the next couple of weeks until I get settled but I am thinking of my bloggy peeps, wishing for more reading time, more posting time, and more commenting around the blogosphere. Twitter has been an especially helpful connection to my bloggy peeps the last couple of weeks since it doesn't require more than 140 characters of thought at a time. And Pinterest! Lots of pinning going on.

The Sunday Salon - On Information Hoarding

Everyone has some specific ways they respond to stress, and for many of the readers and librarians I know, it involves information hoarding. 

I am an information hoarder. This is a little of what that looks like.

1. When I feel unseated I tend to read EVERYTHING I can get my hands on about a topic.

2. I tend to start writing copious notes I'll have to go back through later and decipher for myself and anyone else who cares.

3. I tend to observe others who are doing the same thing I'm hoarding about or a community at large that can help me feel more grounded.

Check, check, check! 

I am REALLY not trying to drive you all crazy with new-job-talk, but it is sending out such drastic, resonating shockwaves through my life, it's really hard to avoid! And I need to vent. So there! It's really a trifecta of crazy. Let's analyze...

1. Old Job Crazy - This past week I've been finishing up my duties at the college and getting the t's crossed and the i's dotted to pass my materials along to our Dean since she'll be absorbing a lot of my current duties. My last day at the college is Friday, March 9th, which coincides with the last day of the academic term, so I've also been grading papers and getting those grades ready to post. Busy, stupid, crazy.

2. Online Job Crazy - Five online classes are kicking my tail. Given, I inherited three new classes several weeks into the semester. I am so so so glad to have the extra  income, but the grading is a nightmare. I've been trying to catch up this weekend with mild success. It just always takes SO MUCH LONGER to grade papers online. 

3. New Job Crazy - I am just astounded by the amount of work there is to be done. Like so many companies, social media has been something of an afterthought with a bunch of other irons on the fire. The process of cleaning up, doing lots of "listening" and research, and ultimately building the social media strategy into something doable for a bunch of different brands is going to be a huge challenge. Right now I'm getting a handle on what each brand needs, what's being said (or not said) on the web about those brands, and laying down an infrastructure for the department. I'll be diving into this gig head on with travel plans to Phoenix next Sunday and Monday.

See why all the info hoarding??? 

One of the better hoarding decisions I've made this past week was to download a copy of Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (& Other Social Networks) by Dave Kerpen. This came as a recommendation from a good buddy at work and was confirmed by some good buddies online. 

Kerpen owns a successful social media consulting firm and has a lot of great advice. Is it all brand new advice? No. If you've been in social media in some capacity--blogger, Twitter, Facebook user, marketer--you'll already know a lot of the tactics in this book. However, it does provide some pretty interesting and heartening statistics about building a following on Facebook and Twitter to increase sales, brand recognition, and overall presence in the market. It also synthesizes some of the more innovative and successful efforts undertaken by other brands that have given me some ideas. Take what works and do it better!!! That's my goal. 

The number one goal of this book? BE LIKEABLE and helpful. More companies should live by that rule.

This book has really confirmed what I want to do in my new job and given me a few new ideas to throw into my bag of tricks. That's probably the most valuable thing I could have right now -- a sense of calm and knowing. Confirmation that I do know what to do with the challenge even though my head is spinning. 

Another side effect of gaining a job in social media?!...

A desire to keep this blog TOTALLY SEPARATE from my work. Obviously I'm not doing a very good job of it at the moment, but I think when some of the twirliness passes, I'll be able to settle back into my happy place here. You won't see me doing a lot of things differently here. I don't want to use this blog as a petri dish for my work. Just good reading, a lot of honest reality, and snark.

So that's my Sunday! Posts will still be slow here in the next couple of weeks until I get settled but I am thinking of my bloggy peeps, wishing for more reading time, more posting time, and more commenting around the blogosphere. Twitter has been an especially helpful connection to my bloggy peeps the last couple of weeks since it doesn't require more than 140 characters of thought at a time. And Pinterest! Lots of pinning going on.