tsundoku, not just sudoku

Wow, the Japanese have a word for "the act of buying books and not reading them, leaving them to pile up": tsundoku 

Wondering if it applies to dvd and games as well?

Or if they have separate terms for the assorted forms of lacking consumption despite the desire.

The backlog is pretty stuck, at least not buying any new stuff. Mostly. Physically.

Got close to half a shelf full of fun stuff from Amazon, mainly photo and drawing or animation related. The stuff that isn't just about reading, but needs some doing as well. Aspirational, more than pratical plans.

Regular books are only Terry Pratchett. And with his health I've been holding off a bit on reading the latest books. Just in case. And despite some splurge shopping the Kindle reading list is in pretty good shape.

Then there are the iBooks shelves - running up a technical backlog, mainly things that are somewhat tangential to "business as usual", since 50% deals at O'reilly are to frequent and to much fun. Daily deals and then some.

Then there was that batch of games during the GOG drm free weekend sale. ONly 15-20 titles depending on how you count expansions. Does that count? Actually considered buying some games on dvd rather than there, since summer sales are in effect other places as well.

...and then there is that 2 month free trial of Comoyo video I've been meaning to get started with. Free. No strings attached.

...and also really should get on Netflix soon, rewatch House of Cards, and some series - but they don't have Sopranos or Wire, so getting a binge on for those will need another solution, like testing out HBO.

How many #backlogs do you have taking up space or mental effort?

Is it a problem, or a pure luxury?



wondering a bit about Google - midway through writing I was "logged out somewhere else", and asked if I wanted to log in again... no, no, just in the middle of typing a sentence, no need to do anything else. 

Kindle Reads? Good Fire?

The post on Open City, and thinking a bit more about openness, insights and sharing lead to this little wish list. Namely, how I'd love for Amazon and Goodreads to play together - for my reading, sharing, exploring and remembering pleasure.

Idea 1: wish shelf

Having the option of syncing each wishlist with a shelf, so one for non fic want to read, one for general genre fic, and one for darker tales.

Ideally books bought would move to another shelf, or into the "to read" mode.

Idea 2: my good

kindle.amazon works like a charm for looking up highlights, and for quickly updating the status of purchased books. It should be opened up or merged into Goodreads. Perhaps in an IFTTT kind of way, opening up the API for other stores as well.

Idea 3: wish buy

Not really related to Goodreads directly, but I find it really hard to understand why Amazon at all times neglects my purchasing behavior and signaling intent by using wish lists. 9 of the last 10 books bought have spent time on my wish list prior to the sale.

Then it would make sense to use that list as a basis for recommendations  It works that way for the regular cart.

But Kindle books don't play nice with the cart. Which is in a way another minor gripe, as I often buy 2-3 at once; why separate check out and receipt mail, not to mention separate debits of my card?

Idea 4: good app

Reading with the Kobo app can be a lot of fun, because it binds together the social, the metrics and the reading. It is no big deal, but having charts like Runkeeper for books and pages read, quotes shared and discussed would be nice. And pushing it into Goodreads with an open API would make even more sense, since readers are a small niche to begin with, the more the merrier.

What would you like to see? #kindleGood ?

- ...and the sun was away as this got underway, a small evening shower on Monday (still doing that schedule thang, and loving it) - but still warm enough by far to sit outside on the balcony letting the thoughts flow ...

The truth in fiction

You can get a lot of truth from a made-up story.

Another great card / image from Indexed, a book tells a story openly, but perhaps the best insight we get from it is the story that plays out inside our head.

Spinning on the ideas the book delves into, or simply how it relates to our own stories.

Finished Open City by Tehu Cole on the balcony over the weekend, and one of the highlights is right in line with that same sentiment.

on to a bit of longer a side note, 

Open City was one of those books that made it's way onto my radar, then picked up kindle ed and read almost instantly - in less than a month in total. Which is high "praise" in this day of digital access and overview. 

At any given time my two main wish lists for kindle books hover at or around titles 20 each (non fic and genre respectively , with another 6-10 ongoing or waiting in line in the app, and a total of 40-50 in a more long term limbo of assorted niche list.

back to the story

Our narrator reflects on a meeting with his neighbour [SPOILER - ALBEIT SMALL], and learning that the wife has passed away.

I didn’t switch on the light. A woman had died in the room next to mine, she had died on the other side of the wall I was leaning against, and I had known nothing of it. I had known nothing in the weeks when her husband mourned, nothing when I had nodded to him in greeting with headphones in my ears, or when I had folded clothes in the laundry room while he used the washer. [location 291]

A feeling of both being so close, yet closed out at the same time. The city is open, But are we, the people living in it? How can we live within a few feet of each other, and yet hardly interact? How many of your ten or hundred closest do you know at all? A friendly nod? A name? Some story or context?



-...and the sun is making art outside as this is written, painting the clouds in shades of yellow, gold, orange, pink... it is summer at last, and fully

Online, now, last month or next year

"Banksy - kongen av gatekunst" aka Exit Through the Giftshop was shown on Norwegian public broadcast last fall. And that also meant that their (excellent) NRK TV site had it - but it was only online until November 3rd 2012.

It is all about the licensing.

...via image search - is a screenshot fair use when it is also art?

Sure, it might just be out there in some form or other - but for  using the subtitles and doing it right, NRK had to take it back down, or pay a lot more (speculation / assumption - they licenced it for one or two runs at off peak times on a small niche channel, and got x days of online as well)

Does that mean it will sell a lot of dvd copies here now, since the streaming is gone? Or will it remain more or less ignored in favor of Idol and Eurovison?

Since NRK doesn't do commercials, it makes sense to have it limited - and then hopefully get some cents on the dollar from YouTube ads or Netflix streaming. (They even had an ad for free trial - adwords for the win?)

But this isn't about a docu/mocu-mentary like Banksy, but about the global vs local distribution and licensing issues. Because when Facebook launches or test a new feature it is instantly worldwide, same for (most) apps in the assorted Appstores. Youtube same thing, no waiting for a localized Gangam Style, watch it right now now now. And once more. House of Cards blasted onto the scene as a worldwide event, for the tribes it targeted at least.

But still movies and regular shows have a lead and lag type cycle, selling and repackaging based on the initial viewership (mainly US).

Will this be what really kills TV? 

A lack of flow or structures for moving the smaller things globally, in the same manner that the Olympics manage? Imagine having to wait a day or three to see the 100m sprint from London 2012 - and yes, I know that some US channels actually time-shifted a few events and tried to do spoiler free news...

Another verb in the stairs

@osol: "Increasing the knowledge and vocabulary of a child before age 6 is the single highest correlate with later success."

https://twitter.com/osol/status/255925136400719873

Guessing still no twitter cards in blogger?

Oh well, is is a quotes from NYT - in a piece on the challenges of teaching, and it links onwards to a review by E. D. Hirsch of the book "How Children Succeed" (kindle) which is still creeping up towards the top of my 'soon to read' wishlist in Amazon. 

But the point is well made, building both vocabulary, reading skills - and interests at an early age is seen as a boost up, starting the "race" already at speed rather than from a standstill.

Looking at the "most sold" lists in the iPad Appstore I wonder how this will play out over the next years. 

The top ten paid apps are more and more often keyed towards kids edutainment and learning. Estimates put the number of tablets sold in Norway last year at around 500k - that is one for every four households. And expected growth of 50% in 2013, so an additional 750k.

Does that mean that "everybody" is getting a tablet, or that some households have two or more? Most likely the latter. And add in willingness to pay for apps, and the time to use them with the kids, and we are talking about a possible gap of basic skills going into the first year at school. This is the digital divide. Or?

Sidenote;

Considering how much effort Amazon is apparently putting into "big data" and predictions, i'm amazed at how little weight the wish list feature is given. I buy probably around 70% of my reading from there, with direct purchases, mainly from social media recommendations or posts, making up ~25% and "samples as reminders" the last 5%. But when I browse around it is mostly my recent history or similar purchases that get pushed. And the oh so cute "get yourself a little something". But where is the "hey, looking at this book and planning to read that book? Then you should really check out..."?