The Kindle is still yet to make it to the UK and Im not really sure I know anyone that would actually purchase one. However, in the USA the Kindle seems to be quite popular, so popular that companies are already making stupid accessories based around the Kindle. The Kindle Kradle is probably the worst product I have seen in years. Im not exactly sure if it could be more pointless!
National Novel Writing Month is due to begin on November the first. Basically, it’s a 30 day event which poses a challenge for writers to write a 50,000 page novel in just thirty days – no easy task. That roughly translates into over 1,600 words per day for thirty days on the trot – all of a high quality.
The online community that is hosting the event is NaNoWriMo.org. Basically, it’s a kind of social networking site for all of the participants of the challenge. There is a counter on the homepage which counts how many words have been written so far. You also have your own personal counter on your own page which you’re supposed to update every time you make an addition to your work. The thinking behind all of this is to keep you motivated by graphical illustrations of your progress and comparison of your progress against other writers. 
Other features on the site include a community forum, widgets and free downloads such as inspirational wallpapers along with plenty of help and advice from seasoned writers.
Yours truly will be partaking in the challenge also. But I’ll have the added handicap of having to blog about my experiences before, during and after the 30 day which I’m starting today on a new blog I created especially for the occasion right here.
If you’ve always wanted to write that novel of yours, November 1st to the 30th is the time to do it with the help of wwwNaNoWriMo.org
Never before have we as a global community ever felt so connected as we have in the past ten years. We have grown from gatherings, town hall meetings, forums and message boards, internet chat rooms, to social networks. I host a podcast over at Tech in Twenty, and we’ve discussed the growth in popularity for social networks and how niche interests have played a huge part of that growth.
We have all heard of the popular social networks like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Ning, etc. But there are a lot of networks out there that cater to a more specific market, no matter if you’re into music, television, knitting, dating, marbles, or candles, there is a group for you. BookSprouts is the newly developed social site for book clubs. The site is a amongst a few competitors that claim to be a space for readers, but BookSprout is different in that the actual design is easy to navigate at the layout is welcoming to new users with little confusion. Every step for you is laid out so that users can get started immediately without getting lost in the site.
I had time to explore the site and came across the same problem the write of the TechCrunch article did. Only two of the books I listed had actual groups connected to them. This was rather limiting since those books were not considered favorites of mine, so it left me little desire to join that discussion. While I won’t blame this entirely on BookSprout, this is a user generated community, unless someone starts a group for the book, I have little time to manage one on my own.
I like how the site is free of ads. Though one might question the ability of the site to sustain itself, other social sites like Ning are free of advertisements and function perfectly well without all the advertising. The ability to purchase what other users are reading straight from the site is nice with an easily accessible Amazon link, but might be too limiting considering that there might be other places offering the book cheaper. For that you might want to check out my post on Booksprice.
Here is a video that details what Booksprice offers and what they’ve done for their users. Pick a couple of books, sign-up, and enjoy!
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