Yeah I know what you mean, Iāve reached a point where I can just about stomach going there if a Google-search finds relevant information on something Iām researching, but I draw the line at active participation or even logging in.
Iāve done a quick search and found a list of Discord boards that are tagged with #grammar.
This one looks promising, and the list says there are currently 20 people online (take with grain of salt, though): The Grammar People
If you could share your specific question, maybe thereās more research that can be done (or maybe someone here knows the answer) š¤
You might try the Evidence Explained forums answered regularly by Elizabeth Shown Mills. She is a specialist in genealogical citation but she is based in Chicago Manual of Style. www.evidenceexplained.com/forums/citation-issues
Or you could just take your best stab at a citation and wait for some eagle-eyed all knowing person to correct you š
Well, unfortunately, StackExchange was just how I remembered it: lots of snarky assholes waiting to pounce on newbies. Account created, question asked, bitchy response received, then account deleted. Thanks for your suggestion in any case.
I agree with this message: in fact I am not against doing it by hand. It could be a nice life project. I will look into all the advice that you have given me, thanks everyone!
I used to use Delicious Library but the developer went to work for Apple and he canāt develop the app any longer. I switched to Book Tracker but itās trying to be more than I want so Iām not set on it.
As for experiences: Used Inventaire a few years back, metadata was a nightmare, it was trying to pull data from Wikidata (nice in theory) but did not check if e.g. the author already existed, so there were five of them with varying degrees of data. No fun.
Bookwyrm is pretty cool, made the mistake to go to a small instance that was plagued by technical server problems, tried to export the books I had already put in and import it to a bigger instance, didnāt work (and was somehow not supposed to, I was later told š¤·āāļø Though thatās a feature that is apparently worked on). Other then that itās petty nice, pulls data from Openlibrary, which works very well and you can also add metadata to OL if itās not there. And the whole social thing with following people and writing reviews, good stuff.
Both are (or can be) basically relational databases, so you have a table for authors, one for genres maybe, one for physical location, and one for books. You create a new book, and that āformā then gives you fields for Title, Description, Rating, whatever you need, and then pulls data from the other tables for Author, Genre, etc.
If youāre not used to relational databases, the Golden Rule is basically:
If a data type is unique (e.g. Title, Description), it stays with the āproductā (book, in your case).
If the data type can be used for more than one item (e.g. Author, Genre), it should (probably) have its own table.
You can take it a step further and make tables for all Descriptions, Titles, etc., and then those get related to the book by a unique key, but this is probably unnecessary for your use case.
All of this is incredibly simplified, and if anyone who works with databases sees it, Iām sure Iāll get corrected š
Anyway, you might not need to think too much about any of the above, as both platforms have user contributed templates!
finishing up The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk. very long, and I struggled for the first half of it with keeping track of the dizzying array of characters, but overall pretty good. I enjoyed Primeval and Other Tales by her much more, however.
next up will be Soldiers and Kings by Jason DeLeon (Land of Open Graves, his previous book, was a goddamn gut punch, and expecting the same from this one - both deal with migration at the southern US border). also looking forward to James by Percival Everett.
Definitely read The Anatomy of Story if youāre a writer/interested in writing as a craft. It is by far the best guide on plot structure I have ever read and even though it focuses mainly on Hollywood plots it can be adapted to any story form. I use it as a starting point for everything I write, highly recommend it!
I know I should, Iāve gotten a couple of chapters in, but I just started the First Law trilogy and itās so good. Definitely after that though, definitelyā¦
There is a lot I should probably read one day but didnāt feel like it yet:
S. Kingās stuff (havenāt read anything by him yet), Wheel of Time, Brandonās Stormlight Archive, some of the Paoliniās newer books (after Inheritance cycle), more of Laundry Files by Stross, more of Pratchettās Disc World (so much more I havenāt read yet).
Though presently, something by Asimov might be my next pick
I absolutely love Bandcamp. When I want an album and itās on Bandcamp, I buy it there. Iāve discovered amazing artists there as well. Unfortunately, I donāt know to what extent Bandcamp has a future. Itās been bought by Epic, then bought again by Songtradr, then half the employees were fired. Bandcamp is fighting a war against the streaming model, about culture as a commodity. Itās an uphill battle. I think this sort of model needs to be supported by some sort of coop or non profit or something. The goal needs to be to bring change, help out and break even, not to profit the stockholders.
Paragraph #4: Too long with a lot of flip-flop between the authorās stance on digital format and the need for physical. Be confident here and focus on the important part by eliminating the caveats and the āneed to cover all the basesā. Once thatās done, this will be a powerful, concise message.
I like where youāre going with this and heartily agree!
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