Better Than Starbucks discussion

Please let us know a bit about yourself. How you found us, What you love about books, you take on Shelfari vs Goodreads, how terrible your parents where, or whatever:)

I've been dipping my toes into Goodreads but as I was already on Shelfari have never spent to much time here. This group is the only one I spend much time in on Shelfari and joined it here just to see if it worked as well. My fear is that multiple sites just means more online 'responsibilities'.
I already have a blog where the focus is on books and music and that takes up enough time. (http://theknockingshop.blogspot.com/)
I'm heading into my late forties, a book obsessive (Or so I'm told!) I buy books quite compulsively and have accumulated well over a thousand UNREAD titles and a couple of thousand that are read. My intermittent attempts to put some order on them fail in all sorts of interesting ways.
I live in the Irish midlands and work (a bit) from home where three kids take up most available daylight. The chickens, cats and dogs take up the rest but somehow I find time to get online. (Is that the sign of an addict?) I have an older daughter at college.
My favourite writers are myriad but I'll let a few represent the rest - James Joyce; William Gaddis; Iris Murdoch; John Cowper Powys; James Ellroy; Muriel Spark; Beryl Bainbridge; Flannery O'Connor; John McGahern; Patrick Kavanagh &on &on

Welcome back to where you already were:)

I must have liked being there if I'm still here.

Thats why i am here!

I already know quite a few of you, but proper introductions never hurt! I'm a lifelong reader--I consider books food for my mind and spirit. I primarily read fiction, but enjoy poetry, history, nonfiction (especially related to hobbies/interests, of which I have too many). Some of my favorite writers: Borges, Calvino, Cynthia Ozick, Barbara Kingsolver, Cervantes, Faulkner, Robert Coover, Lynne Tillman, Sandra Cisneros, Joseph Heller, Roberto Bolano, Boccacio, Haruki Murakami, Chris Ware, Nabokov, Dostoyevsky...

I started out on the writing/editing side of publishing and moved to the design side of things. I've been doing information/data graphics for the past decade. I'm interested in writing and visual art (I'll share some work via the promotional thread). Other interests: family (I live with my wife, our 10 yr. old son, 1 dog, 2 cats, and a snake), skateboarding, knitting, harmonica (note: interest does not equal talent/skill)

I'm also new to Goodreads, but have been on Shelfari for the past 5 years or so.

Looking forward to sharing our reading adventures!

Welcome!

In the name of full disclosure Jessica is one of my favorite 2nd cousins, which, of course means she is beautiful, brilliant, and generally fabulous!!!

Hello, I'm Lee. I'm pretty new to goodreads (joined earlier this month) and have never been a member of a similar site.
I live in South West England with my Husband and cat and am nearly 40. Like Seamus I am a compulsive book purchaser and have many, many unread titles (not quite as many as a 1000 though, but maybe approaching that thinking of all the stuff I've got on my Kindle - the trouble is you forget they're there)
Oooooh favourite authors......... Dickens, Charlotte Bronte (but definitely not Emily) Marilynne Robinson, Hilary Mantel,A L Kennedy, Ali Smith, Conan Doyle, Kate Atkinson, Graham Greene...
I own a ukelele but never pay it and when I'm not reading, I'm usually looking for new books to try.
Hoping to get lots of new reading ideas from this group

Welcome Lee! Sounds like you belong here!

hoping so :-)

Hi, I'm Ruth. Thanks for the invite, Anthony. As I said, I don't know how active I can be here. I'm spreading myself too thin.

I'm a poet, altho my MFA is in Painting. Showed in LA galleries. Now mostly writing. Two books coming out next year.

Live at the beach in Southern California.

Hey, folks. Good to see an interesting little group forming here. Thanks for the invite, Antony.

Introductions are generally pretty corny. I won't bombard you guys with authors or book titles either.

In short, I believe the only true way to drink coffee is black; to write good poems you have to read good poems; standing in a cool rain shower isn't all that bad, and if there is a God, he has a damn wry sense of humor.

Welcome, sounds like you will be a good fit!

Hey, Naomi!

Hey, Ruth! Great to see you here.

Thanks for the invite, Anthony.

It's good to see a few friends here. As for me, I'm no one special - just a guy who likes to think, read, and write.

Stan, that pretty much qualifies as special, maybe not so much on Goodreads and Shaelfari, but it does in the general population:)

Hi, I'm Marty. I just found this group - the word 'coffee' drew me. :-)

A bit about me: My favorite brew is Ethiopian - Yirgacheffe, Harar, Sidamo, doesn't matter, it's all good.
I'm a full time academic reference librarian in Kansas City, Missouri and I teach art history part-time.
My all-time favorite genre is historical fiction, but I read books from all genres. I've also had a couple of short stories and a poem published in a local literary magazine.
I'm on semester break right now so I have plenty of time to read, knit, mess around on Facebook, play with my cats, etc.
I have three adopted cats, Meadow, Carmen and Sweetie.

Looking forward to meeting you all.

Hi, Marty. I used to teach Art History part time, too.

Wow! Welcome, you sound like "our kind of people"

Marc wrote: "I already know quite a few of you, but proper introductions never hurt! I'm a lifelong reader--I consider books food for my mind and spirit. ..."

I have to agree with Marc. My name is Angela and while I was born and raised in Kansas, I now live in Upstate New York. I am an industrial engineer working for the USPS. I know everyone likes online bill pay, but please! think about using a stamp every once in a while... it's a great American tradition!!

I grew up reading books with a flashlight under my pillow. I was expert in hiding books in my homework and behind my piano books. I could play the piano with one hand while I read a book in the other hand. Every once in a while, I'd have to switch hands so Dad would actually think I was practicing.

Dad belonged to the book of the month club and every summer I would read a year's worth of books. Now, they are my constant companions. I take one nearly every where I go since you never know when you might have some free time on your hands.

Anthony found me in a discussion about Ayn Rand of all things! Thanks for the invite, Anthony! I'm honored to be a member of this fine establishment.

And I agree with Naomi on all points! Coffee: black, Poetry: a good poem can move the soul, rain: cleansing, God: I think he's sitting back and laughing at us as we nit-pick his creations.

"like"

Hello all, I was browsing through groups and felt a sudden need to join this one. Obviously I must trust my instincts :)

My name's Hayley, I live in S. East England with a tripod cat and a bookcase that's in a constant state of reorganisation.

I grew up encouarged to read. We used to be allowed to read for 30 minutes in bed as children and one time my mum forgot to let us know whe it was time to go to sleep... so I carried on reading until 3am then woke up my parents asking if the 30 minutes was up yet! Obviously my concept of time at that point was a bit non-existent but I've been like that with books ever since!

I was trying to cut down on the amount of books I read at one time but that's just been thrown out the window with another group's theme reads - so I'm currently at 3 :S

Welcome! Hope you find a comfy spot to read here, and of course, be prepared to be interrupted by chit chat now and then:)

I'm Tracy; I live in Florida, but since it is now summer, I don't much like it except when there is a cross-fire hurricane. For the last 20 years I've been teaching British Lit at a military boarding school full of international students, currently heavy on Korean, Chinese and Russian kids, with some American locals thrown in to the mix.

I have recently changed teaching positions to Drama, which I have done off and on in various capacities,(Arts of all kinds are my true calling(s), and being the drama teacher lets me play at all of them and get paid! I also will be teaching English As A Second Language for the first time this coming year.

I am obsessed with music, always have been, always will be, from the time I was 4 and my parents brought home "Meet the Beatles" and I jumped up and down on the couch for 3 straight hours as I listened. Since then, went through phases of British Invasion, Psychedelic, heavy metal, punk, new wave,hardcore, post punk, grunge, stoner, Russian punk, etc, etc. I think I'm going to get cut off for being boring;)

I play guitar(acoustic and electric) host "guitar club" at my school for all the outsider inbreds, sing jazz and rock, am in a small time band with my hub and friends, occasionally write music, write--- period, and blog.
I am semi fluent in Italian and am trying to learn Russian--the coolest language in the world.

Oh, yeah: I often read.

Welcome Tracy

Hello.

I'm Dylan. I mostly read histories or biographies, but not tons of either.

My lawn needs mowed. I should be doing that now. In fact, I might here soon. Then I'm gonna drink a few beers.

can you fix my sprinklers?

Dylan CC wrote: "Hello.

I'm Dylan. I mostly read histories or biographies, but not tons of either.

My lawn needs mowed. I should be doing that now. In fact, I might here soon. Then I'm gonna drink a few beers."
Oh, Dylan. I like your vibe. I gave up on my lawn years ago. I now refer to it, semi-affectionately, as "The Jungle'. The affection is for the heritage roses that haven't died in spite of my negligence.

Sprinklers probably either need new heads or the pattern adjusted. Both easy fixes. New heads should be less than $10.

Cut the roses back this fall. They should come back looking like a million bucks. Cut just past a leaf. Roses are tough to kill once they're well established.

It's the only thing I do do regularly, in my garden. Cut the roses.

I swore when i was kid, push mowering (who knew, mowering isnt a word?)a five acre homestead,that when i grew up, i would pave my yard and paint it green. i never have, but whenever i could, i have paid others to tend to my lawn. this weekend, as it is 4 days, my wife has decided we should reclaim the back yard. i am dreading it. maybe thats why i woke up early?

as to Dylan and the sprinkler, I was making an inside joke based on a poem of his he was kind enough to share with me. a very good poem, i might add. Except for those you are worried about compromising their publishing status, i hope to see some of your work on our poetry thread here.

by the way, this invitation extends to all BTS members please feel free to contribute!

Hi!
I'm Kaylee and I'm new to good reads so I'm still trying to figure it out a little bit. This looked like a good group to join to start my adventure into even more literature!

Anyway, some of my favorite authors include Dan Brown, Khaled Hosseini, JK Rowling, John Steinbeck, and I could literally go on for days so I'll just stop there! I love poetry, fantasy, and classics but I'll read anything If it seems like a good book.

I'm fifteen right now and going in to my softmore year of high school so I still have a lot of dreaming ahead of me as to what I want to do career-wise. At the current moment I'm thinking I want to be a journalist, but that changes a lot.

I'm very artsy (my favorite mediums include acrylics, photography, charcoal, and pencil) and passionate about literature (even though my school forces awful books upon us). I also work in the culinary arts a bit. I'm from the US!

Welcome Kaylee! look forward to you sharing more here and elsewhere on Goodreads.

Hey, sorry all. Joined this group a while back, and didn't post here.

All is going well. The new book is getting more response than I could wish for.

Times are tough and family is struggling a bit.

Think I am at a change in my life for better things. I keep you in my thoughts always.

The next book (currently working on) is going to be light-years better than my previous work. All my love to those who supported. Without you, well, with you makes my world complete.

All Us Always Living Love.

Love always.

ςђคгlєร wrote: "Hey, sorry all. Joined this group a while back, and didn't post here.
Glad to hear from you! best of luck on progress in all things!

I am a struggling poet. Looks like a great group, but not much action recently. What gives?

welcome!

Here is 'myself'(yourself), but someone other than 'I' hath written such.

AUM TAT SAT ROTA. IO!!! IO!!! IO!!!

Hello everyone! I'm Lara but you might know me as llevinso from Shelfari. I ran the Who Doesn't Love a Classic? group over there. Though we are up and running here, just still figuring some stuff out.

I joined Goodreads about a year and a half ago, when I figured it was inevitable that Shelfari would be disappearing. But honestly, I've never done much on here aside from keep track of my books, so I'm still getting used to the site. DEFINITELY liked Shelfari better, but oh well.

I don't only read classics. I'll read pretty much anything. I'm always open to a good recommendation.

Glad to see so many Shelfari refuges here!

Welcome! Nice to find another friendly face here. Isn't funny having to learn all the new names?

Agreed mef! Glad to hear you are moving your camp, too. i hate to think of the folks who dont build a new site to replace what we are losing.
If you want to post a link in Shameless to promote your site we would be pleased! That goes for any other Shelfari group that migrates.

Hello! I'm "Izzie" here, but was "Janet S" on Shelfari. Like Lara, I joined Goodreads a while ago when I was concerned about Shelfari. Now that the inevitable has happened, I'm learning my way around Goodreads.
I was a lurker on Shelfari's "Better than Starbucks", but I do post to the Facebook page now and then.

I'm so glad to see more familiar people here!

Anthony wrote: "Agreed mef! Glad to hear you are moving your camp, too. i hate to think of the folks who dont build a new site to replace what we are losing.
If you want to post a link in Shameless to promote you..."

Well, colo(u)r me confused. What new site? What did I say that I shouldn't have said? I have no knew site...

Izzie wrote: "Hello! I'm "Izzie" here, but was "Janet S" on Shelfari. Like Lara, I joined Goodreads a while ago when I was concerned about Shelfari. Now that the inevitable has happened, I'm learning my way arou..."

Good for you for de-lurking!

slowly we will rebuild after the earthquake that is the merger

Izzie wrote: "Hello! I'm "Izzie" here, but was "Janet S" on Shelfari. Like Lara, I joined Goodreads a while ago when I was concerned about Shelfari. Now that the inevitable has happened, I'm learning my way arou..."
Hello! Glad to see you here Izzie. I was mita in Shelfari but now i am Jayati which is my real name.

Hello all! My name is Margaret, and I am a long-time user of Goodreads. I'm from Canada, and I work as a librarian. My husband and I have an avid one-year-old reader, and I hope this love continues for her as she grows up. Quite often we'll wonder where she's gotten to, and go looking for her. It always makes my heart sing when I find her in her room, sitting on the floor looking at a book in her lap. :)