Monday, July 27, 2009
So here's the thing . .
I'm very excited to have moved up the scale to 2838, but when I "got to know my neighbors," I discovered that 2837 is a big fat cheater! His last four reviews are actually the same review posted four times for four different editions of the same book ("the giver" by Lois Lowry, if you're interested). He's posted his review to the original version of the book, a revised edition of the book, an audio book and (here's the clincher) a TRANSLATION of the book into Spanish. Somebody ought to do something about this cheater. I guess that explains why he's taken credit for reviewing over 1,000 books. Somehow I bet it's closer to 250. I'm sorry, but that feels like gaming the system. What do you all think?
Sunday, July 26, 2009
2891! Whoo-hoo!
Feeling guilty because I have neither read nor reviewed nor posted lately. On the other hand, I did drive 1000 miles this week! Drove up to upstate NY on Thursday to pick up my son from music camp, attend two concerts and turn around on Friday afternoon and drive 11 hours home, arriving at 3 AM. Actually, I thought about getting a book on tape -- it seemed like the correct, dutiful thing to do, but lately I'm finding that it all seems like work. I've still got two articles to write, one manuscript to review, one book to review, and a conference paper to get done in the next month or so, as well as two classes to teach, etc. etc. etc. Not much time for extracurriculars.
And i've just been SO darned compelled by the last book I did read. It's called "a world made by hand" and it's the latest in an emerging genre called 'post-apocalyptic fiction'. It basically describes one summer in upstate NY after the nuclear explosion, death of everyone important in government, cut off of all utilities in the US, end of the internet, end of all supplies of natural gas and oil and thus all transportation outside your village, and the successive plagues that have swept through the area taking about forty percent of the population with them. So far me, my husband and my son have succumbed to the spell of this particular book where nothing particularly scary happens -- it's not like Steven King where we all turn into zombies or something. It's more about how your life would change if all of a sudden everything you were was gone (executive, business trips, vacation homes, etc.) and you were still living in your old house where you no longer had cable or electricity and you were reduced to the level of a subsistance farmer living in Rwanda. How would your marraige change? your relations with your neighbors? Your sense of self? Your community? How would you think about the future and your own past? I confess. I read the book twice and will probably read it again. Between that and the latest by Jennifer Weiner, I am finding it unable to take on any new reading -- these books are just so compelling.
My new neighbors on the chart up are intriguing: One is a messianic jew who's into bellydancing, and the other is a guy obssessed with cults. what do you think of that?
And i've just been SO darned compelled by the last book I did read. It's called "a world made by hand" and it's the latest in an emerging genre called 'post-apocalyptic fiction'. It basically describes one summer in upstate NY after the nuclear explosion, death of everyone important in government, cut off of all utilities in the US, end of the internet, end of all supplies of natural gas and oil and thus all transportation outside your village, and the successive plagues that have swept through the area taking about forty percent of the population with them. So far me, my husband and my son have succumbed to the spell of this particular book where nothing particularly scary happens -- it's not like Steven King where we all turn into zombies or something. It's more about how your life would change if all of a sudden everything you were was gone (executive, business trips, vacation homes, etc.) and you were still living in your old house where you no longer had cable or electricity and you were reduced to the level of a subsistance farmer living in Rwanda. How would your marraige change? your relations with your neighbors? Your sense of self? Your community? How would you think about the future and your own past? I confess. I read the book twice and will probably read it again. Between that and the latest by Jennifer Weiner, I am finding it unable to take on any new reading -- these books are just so compelling.
My new neighbors on the chart up are intriguing: One is a messianic jew who's into bellydancing, and the other is a guy obssessed with cults. what do you think of that?
Thursday, July 16, 2009
In case you're wondering . .
I now have thirty dollars in library fines. And I'm buying more books than usual too. I'm starting to think that climbing this particular mountain may wind up being expensive -- despite the lack of preparation entailed or the need for special protective gear (unlike, for example, climbing the real Everest). Luckily, I have some great sherpas in the form of all the people on amazon's top reviewers discussion list.
Also, I recently made up a series of assignments for a stats class I'm teaching which require them to:
1. randomly sample a selection of Amazon top 1000 reviewers
2. come up with hypotheses about the variables entailed in moving up the chart
3. figure out how they are going to operationalize and measure the variables (i.e. willingness to like any book)
4. perform frequency distributions
5. make cross-tabs
6. make up two samples(one for top reviewers under the old system and one under the new) and then compare the median, mode and mean for various qualities (i.e. average number of stars given, average grade level on which the review is written) -- and then perform statistical tests to describe the differences between the two groups
7. run bivariate correlations
8. make a regression model
and so forth. Hopefully by December 2009, I will have more data than any of you would ever want on what it REALLY takes to get to the top of this list. I look at this as a win-win situation -- my grad students learn stats, and I get some potentially useful advice. Ah, harnessing the power of the student. One of the real joys of being a professor.
Also, I recently made up a series of assignments for a stats class I'm teaching which require them to:
1. randomly sample a selection of Amazon top 1000 reviewers
2. come up with hypotheses about the variables entailed in moving up the chart
3. figure out how they are going to operationalize and measure the variables (i.e. willingness to like any book)
4. perform frequency distributions
5. make cross-tabs
6. make up two samples(one for top reviewers under the old system and one under the new) and then compare the median, mode and mean for various qualities (i.e. average number of stars given, average grade level on which the review is written) -- and then perform statistical tests to describe the differences between the two groups
7. run bivariate correlations
8. make a regression model
and so forth. Hopefully by December 2009, I will have more data than any of you would ever want on what it REALLY takes to get to the top of this list. I look at this as a win-win situation -- my grad students learn stats, and I get some potentially useful advice. Ah, harnessing the power of the student. One of the real joys of being a professor.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Word Overlord, er, Overload
Did you ever read the book "Still Alice"? It's a novel about a woman who is a linguistics professor at Harvard University who sadly, ironically, tragically, develops Alzheimer's disease and gradually loses her powers of, yes, language. The interesting thing is that it's told from HER perspective so that as you read the book, her language and writing gradually unravels and you can FEEL the ground being pulled away beneath her. It's an amazing book and one of the most amazing things about it is that it has enjoyed great commercial success (including being one of Oprah's picks) despite the fact that it was rejected dozens of times by all of the major publishers, the author ended up self-publishing the thing, and then afterwards it was picked up by a major house.
But the OTHER reason I'm mentioning "still alice" is because it ignites all your personal fears if, like me, someday developing alzheimer's is on your list of things that go bump in the night. I was drawn in by the first scene where alice -- in quick succession -- forgets a word or two, loses her keys, wanders into the kitchen and can't remember what she's doing there. of course, but of course, she googles her symptoms and decides it's not alzheimer's but perimenopause -- which is exacctly what I had done a few months previously when after working a series of twelve hour days involving a 130 mile commute and leaving my house at 6 AM (don't ask), I found myself at a kid's swim practice at 8 PM talking to close friend and realizing that for the life of me, I couldn't remember her name.
The reason I'm mentioning this is my husband thinks it's stress, but I seem to be reaching a new boiling point of sorts. last evening, I looked at the computer keyboard and COULD NOT, COULD NOT, COULD NOT remember where to put my fingers, nor could I remember where the letters were on the keyboard (and for those of you who know, I'm an awesome typist, 90 words a minute). I frustratingly hunted and pecked for about ten minutes before the situation resolved itself, but it was as though I had fried the synapse between my fingers and my brain. I'm thinking maybe it's just too much reading. My brain is so full, that what I'm losing is the little things I should know. But clearly, my short term memory is fine, as I have now learned to fill my head with public policy information which I can then regurgitate on command in nice little 3.5 minute soundbites on the nightly news. I'm trying not to think of it as obama barf.
But the OTHER reason I'm mentioning "still alice" is because it ignites all your personal fears if, like me, someday developing alzheimer's is on your list of things that go bump in the night. I was drawn in by the first scene where alice -- in quick succession -- forgets a word or two, loses her keys, wanders into the kitchen and can't remember what she's doing there. of course, but of course, she googles her symptoms and decides it's not alzheimer's but perimenopause -- which is exacctly what I had done a few months previously when after working a series of twelve hour days involving a 130 mile commute and leaving my house at 6 AM (don't ask), I found myself at a kid's swim practice at 8 PM talking to close friend and realizing that for the life of me, I couldn't remember her name.
The reason I'm mentioning this is my husband thinks it's stress, but I seem to be reaching a new boiling point of sorts. last evening, I looked at the computer keyboard and COULD NOT, COULD NOT, COULD NOT remember where to put my fingers, nor could I remember where the letters were on the keyboard (and for those of you who know, I'm an awesome typist, 90 words a minute). I frustratingly hunted and pecked for about ten minutes before the situation resolved itself, but it was as though I had fried the synapse between my fingers and my brain. I'm thinking maybe it's just too much reading. My brain is so full, that what I'm losing is the little things I should know. But clearly, my short term memory is fine, as I have now learned to fill my head with public policy information which I can then regurgitate on command in nice little 3.5 minute soundbites on the nightly news. I'm trying not to think of it as obama barf.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
the Wrap-up
it's been nearly one month since I started this project. July 14 will make it officialy one month. My goal was 3 books a day for a total of 90 per month, but this month I will only have reviewed around 79. Still not bad, though, considering this is my 'extracurricular' reading, in addition to what I have to do for a class. or two tht I'm teaching.
Also, this has been an unusual month with travel, 3 TV appearances this week, my husband's retirement ceremony, construction on the house and so forth. So it's not too shabby that in this month, I moved up 2000 places on the amazon list. However, I have noticed that my progress seems to have slowed, and I'm concerned that it will be a much harder climb from here on out.
I'm somewhat excited, however, that by implementing simply ONE discipline into my life, (writing amazon reviews for every book I read) it seems to be spilling over into other areas, namely my eating habits and hopefully my work habits. Also, I'm watching less TV which is always a good thing.
Not sure about how public I should be about this particular quest. Although we've lived in our present location for four years now, I still don't have many close friends or people with whom I feel comfortable sharing lots of details about my life. I also don't have a lot of contemporaries, in terms of knowing other people the same age, at a similar stage in life, with similar goals and aspirations. when I talk to the other moms in the development about working, being on TV and contemplating running for political office, I get the impression they don't know what to make of it. Actually, I've been told that I'm intimidating. However, I think if I told them about my HK quest, they'd just think I'm weird.
Also, this has been an unusual month with travel, 3 TV appearances this week, my husband's retirement ceremony, construction on the house and so forth. So it's not too shabby that in this month, I moved up 2000 places on the amazon list. However, I have noticed that my progress seems to have slowed, and I'm concerned that it will be a much harder climb from here on out.
I'm somewhat excited, however, that by implementing simply ONE discipline into my life, (writing amazon reviews for every book I read) it seems to be spilling over into other areas, namely my eating habits and hopefully my work habits. Also, I'm watching less TV which is always a good thing.
Not sure about how public I should be about this particular quest. Although we've lived in our present location for four years now, I still don't have many close friends or people with whom I feel comfortable sharing lots of details about my life. I also don't have a lot of contemporaries, in terms of knowing other people the same age, at a similar stage in life, with similar goals and aspirations. when I talk to the other moms in the development about working, being on TV and contemplating running for political office, I get the impression they don't know what to make of it. Actually, I've been told that I'm intimidating. However, I think if I told them about my HK quest, they'd just think I'm weird.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Number 3016!
Getting tantalizingly close to the 2000's, folks. I've decided to add all my "neighbors" on my way up to my list of interesting people. Tonight's neighbors are a young black lady who reviews mostly black, Christian women's fiction -- and a fellow who mostly reviews tech stuff. I'm trying to decide what I think about the whole phenomenon of "niche publishing" and "niche authors". My initial sense is that I'm against it.
What I mean is, just because you're a Hispanic, lesbian woman does that mean that the only fiction that would ever be interesting to you is romances about Hispanic lesbians? I've noticed that there are actually fiction writers who specialize in niches as obscure as "Asian women's christian fiction". Are there actually that many dedicated readers of something that specific? Obviously there must be or no one could ever get published writing for this particular niche. But I kind of thought that to some degree we read to broaden our minds, and I'm not sure how broad your horizons would get if you only read about people exacctly like you.
Now here I'm not slamming the christian women's fiction trend, or even the christian teen women's fiction trend -- because personally I can see where you might want to read a nice romance (or you might want your daughter to) which doesn't involve people inventing new sexual positions or techniques and skills. But sometimes I think it's also good to read about eskimos, or global warming or something that might be directly outside your own personal experience.
What I mean is, just because you're a Hispanic, lesbian woman does that mean that the only fiction that would ever be interesting to you is romances about Hispanic lesbians? I've noticed that there are actually fiction writers who specialize in niches as obscure as "Asian women's christian fiction". Are there actually that many dedicated readers of something that specific? Obviously there must be or no one could ever get published writing for this particular niche. But I kind of thought that to some degree we read to broaden our minds, and I'm not sure how broad your horizons would get if you only read about people exacctly like you.
Now here I'm not slamming the christian women's fiction trend, or even the christian teen women's fiction trend -- because personally I can see where you might want to read a nice romance (or you might want your daughter to) which doesn't involve people inventing new sexual positions or techniques and skills. But sometimes I think it's also good to read about eskimos, or global warming or something that might be directly outside your own personal experience.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Out of Touch
I've been without internet access for two days! We put in hardwood floors and it necessitated moving lots of things around the house -- it was actually kind of like moving, but without having to go anywhere. I always get sort of melancholy when we do major repair work -- or we move, because when you start piling your shit up, you quickly notice that if your life were about possessions then it wouldn't amount to much. I'm especially not a pack rat (child of bigtime hoarders and clutterers and married to one as well), so I kind of realize that if I were to kick the bucket, probably all my major possessions would fit in a big old trash bucket (the kind with wheels) and then the garbage man would take it away and that would be the end of "me". I don't even want to clutter up the earth with my body. I'd like to be cremated and sprinkled off the fishing pier on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (luckily I'm no longer catholic, so that whole cremation thing is no longer a stumbling point).
On other fronts, I crossed another item off my "bucket list". I've now been on TV -- and apparently did so well that I've been invited back for Tuesday. Unfortunately, I missed an opportunity to be interviewed about cyberwarfare for the WASHINGTON POST -- because I was unreachable due to our internet situation and my avowed dislike of cell phones. Unfortunatley, if I keep branching out as a TV diva, I'll probalby have to get a blackberry or an Iphone or something.
Also, I got my first "fan mail" regarding my reviews on amazon -- actually I got two comments on my reviews from people who think my project is awesome, and they're two different people. Unfortunately, I ran out of fullbars and went to TEN STORES and couldn't find anymore (I lost FOUR POUNDS last week with those things), so I'm going to have to order more online.
Also, I learned that your ranking on amazon can FALL if you don't post diligently and frequently. (I fell to 3420, but posted 3 more reviews tonight and should have two more up by Sunday night. Hoping that's enough to keep me moving up in the rankings).
On other fronts, I crossed another item off my "bucket list". I've now been on TV -- and apparently did so well that I've been invited back for Tuesday. Unfortunately, I missed an opportunity to be interviewed about cyberwarfare for the WASHINGTON POST -- because I was unreachable due to our internet situation and my avowed dislike of cell phones. Unfortunatley, if I keep branching out as a TV diva, I'll probalby have to get a blackberry or an Iphone or something.
Also, I got my first "fan mail" regarding my reviews on amazon -- actually I got two comments on my reviews from people who think my project is awesome, and they're two different people. Unfortunately, I ran out of fullbars and went to TEN STORES and couldn't find anymore (I lost FOUR POUNDS last week with those things), so I'm going to have to order more online.
Also, I learned that your ranking on amazon can FALL if you don't post diligently and frequently. (I fell to 3420, but posted 3 more reviews tonight and should have two more up by Sunday night. Hoping that's enough to keep me moving up in the rankings).
Monday, July 6, 2009
3431!
Oh so productive this morning. Since June 14, I've read seventy books which is a scary thought in and of itself. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many more 'helpful' votes I had collected, and to see that I am climbing the rankings.
However, lately I've been pondering the connection between pulp fiction and junk food. To some degree, putting away three or four trashy novels a day feels a bit too much like eating a bag of potato chips. Not bad at the time, but you know it can't be good for you and after a couple of days of eating like that, you actually find yourself craving a salad or two. I'm not quite sure how old Harriet can subsist purely on a diet of pulp fiction. and I wonder what the intellectual equivalent of having a fat ass is, too, come to think of it. Personally, I found myself craving a little Strobe Talbott and foreign policy analysis over the weekend -- as my most recent reviews will show. I'm not sure I have what it takes to sustain my climb to the top of the Amazon heap in the long run. I'll check into the literary "diets" of those in the top spots and let you know. If it means only reading junk fiction for the next year or so, I'm not sure I"ll be able to do it.
Also, all these books with all that action in them is actually starting to make me feel a bit jumpy. I can't seem to turn my mind off anymore, which is never a good thing.
On other fronts, I wrote another op-ed which I'm somewhat optimistic will get published somewhere. (It's about Russia). And I may have a chance to be on TV this week as well. Let's hope those "fullbars" keep doing their job since right now I look like a small village on TV.
However, lately I've been pondering the connection between pulp fiction and junk food. To some degree, putting away three or four trashy novels a day feels a bit too much like eating a bag of potato chips. Not bad at the time, but you know it can't be good for you and after a couple of days of eating like that, you actually find yourself craving a salad or two. I'm not quite sure how old Harriet can subsist purely on a diet of pulp fiction. and I wonder what the intellectual equivalent of having a fat ass is, too, come to think of it. Personally, I found myself craving a little Strobe Talbott and foreign policy analysis over the weekend -- as my most recent reviews will show. I'm not sure I have what it takes to sustain my climb to the top of the Amazon heap in the long run. I'll check into the literary "diets" of those in the top spots and let you know. If it means only reading junk fiction for the next year or so, I'm not sure I"ll be able to do it.
Also, all these books with all that action in them is actually starting to make me feel a bit jumpy. I can't seem to turn my mind off anymore, which is never a good thing.
On other fronts, I wrote another op-ed which I'm somewhat optimistic will get published somewhere. (It's about Russia). And I may have a chance to be on TV this week as well. Let's hope those "fullbars" keep doing their job since right now I look like a small village on TV.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Moving on up . .
Number 3516! I am actually doing this! I just hope I figure out a way to get rich from doing so. Who knew it costs 400 dollars to have a cat's teeth cleaned? Are they serious? Probably this might feel different if I actually LIKED Panda, our big black and white cat -- but, alas, I do not.
On other fronts, I'm having another one of those moments where someone you knew from graduate school ends up incredibly successful and wealthy, and you, well, don't. Among my grad school acquaintances from Oxford, I can boast: a Pulitzer Prize winner, an ambassador and now a senior White House advisor. I, on the other hand, am significantly less successful. I wonder if the difference between me and them is that they were all in fact actually much more intelligent than me, if they were all simply more driven while I am innately lazy and disorganized, or if the gods somehow smiled on them and granted them favor in which they did not upon me. I find myself scanning back on those years wondering if the clues were there then that each of them would achieve stunning success, wealth, fame and fortune. Were they more driven than me back in graduate school? Not that I can recall . .
On other fronts, I'm having another one of those moments where someone you knew from graduate school ends up incredibly successful and wealthy, and you, well, don't. Among my grad school acquaintances from Oxford, I can boast: a Pulitzer Prize winner, an ambassador and now a senior White House advisor. I, on the other hand, am significantly less successful. I wonder if the difference between me and them is that they were all in fact actually much more intelligent than me, if they were all simply more driven while I am innately lazy and disorganized, or if the gods somehow smiled on them and granted them favor in which they did not upon me. I find myself scanning back on those years wondering if the clues were there then that each of them would achieve stunning success, wealth, fame and fortune. Were they more driven than me back in graduate school? Not that I can recall . .
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Whoo, hoo! Number 3695.
I am SO tired of swim team. This is our eighth year doing swim team and although I managed to finish a book during the meet, I'm just lately finding it all so meaningless, you know? Honestly, who CARES whose child comes in first? And outside of the little ones, even the big kids don't seem to care so much. I actually had to bring our middle child home early because she had too much sun and was threatening to vomit, but I'm starting to think maybe we've outgrown swim team. The girls are actually pretty good swimmers, but we're switching them to a Christian school next year which HAS a swim team, so it's not like we need to swim during the summer. Mostly, I just had that weird sense which I remember having when we lived in Northern Virginia -- that somehow we're almost caricatures of ourselves, the earnest parents cheering on their overprivileged, soft, helicoptered kids. I just felt so . . ORDINARY, so like everyone else, with my new pedicure and my flashy new Walmart clothes, drinking my diet Coke and sitting in the sun. We even all look alike down here in Southern land -- and so do our kids. I noticed that last year's crop of little blonde boys had grown up and had immediately been replaced by another crop of little blonde boys -- and we now have 133 kids on the swim team, so I guess we really ARE all interchangeable. I just briefly had this sense of the world being so vast, and time being so long, and all of us growing up and being replaced by others who ARE EXACTLY THE SAME as us. Hard to put into words. It sort of frightened me, my little glimpse of eternity.
On happier fronts, I'm starting to actually think of being the 2000's, rather than the 3000's for reviewing. I'm just going to keep climbing that mountain of books. (And my 'neighbors' on the chart no longer include that creepy romance novel dude, although 3696 frightens me a bit as well, what with his vampire fetish and all . . just saying)
On happier fronts, I'm starting to actually think of being the 2000's, rather than the 3000's for reviewing. I'm just going to keep climbing that mountain of books. (And my 'neighbors' on the chart no longer include that creepy romance novel dude, although 3696 frightens me a bit as well, what with his vampire fetish and all . . just saying)
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