quaxelrod: the greatest duck in the history of twitter

i don’t know what you were doing on tuesday night, but there is approximately a negative 97% chance that it was awesomer than what i was doing.  and i went to a nearly three hour reading event at a well-worn shack in a dirty industrial corridor—this hovel literally being painted by it’s owner as we walked in, and situated right in front of the city of chicago’s fleet management department.  that dive bar was where the main attraction was: 200+ pages of printed tweets.  what, you think watching sons of anarchy was better?  watch as i make you eat those words, disbeliever.

the best thing you could have done last tuesday, in any possible universe, was attend “the @mayoremanuel’s book event!” organized by dan sinker.  this is because another way to describe the evening would go like this: i got an autographed copy of a hilarious book by the fake mayor of chicago while the actual mayor of chicago called the author a fucker in front of my face, after which jeff tweedy played some black-eyed peas songs, but not before a group of obscenely talented young poets made my heart simultaneously swell with pride and tough love for my city, and the writer we were all there to see urged his fellow chicagoans to once again (in the tradition of daniel burnham) be “a town of fucking nut kickers.”

allow me to elaborate…

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I signed up for a writers workshop through the local evening college, and in the first class yesterday, I mentioned a Twitter chat for writers of children’s literature. I don’t follow the chat myself, but many of my followers participate in it, so I’ve seen enough to see how useful many people have found it. Except, my suggestion went over the heads of the other class participants because it turned out that I was the only one using Twitter.

The idea still persists that Twitter is a waste of time, a pointless social media site designed for people who actually think the world cares what they do all day. Go to Twitter and click on any trending topic. These people use Twitter, yes, but these are not the people that Twitter was designed for.

I tweet mainly about topics related to reading and writing, though I also discuss topics related to politics, feminism, design, technology, and MSU sports. And yes, very occasionally I will sink to the level of what I did that day. But mostly I stay within my niche, knowing full well that my followers expect a certain thing from me. I post links to articles, blog posts (mine and others’), and news stories. I retweet (repost) other people’s tweets that I feel are important or insightful. And I of course produce original content with insights of my own. Read more »

Just got back from a weekend away, the last hurrah before school starts. I’m still dealing with unpacking, laundry, and lesson planning, so I’ll keep it short today. (I know, a few of you are saying “About time.”)

I’m using my share of social networking tools these days, but Twitter is one I’m still in the discovery stage with. That may change now that I have found this:

A Directory of Book Trade People on Twitter

Highspot Inc. posted this on their blog back in 2008, but keep it current. The Twitter names are sorted in to these categories:

Book Publishers – Company Accounts | Book Publishers – Individual Accounts | Literary Agents | Bookstores & Booksellers – United States | Bookstores & Booksellers – Canada | Bookstores & Booksellers – Europe & Australia | Bookstores & Booksellers – Online | Libraries | Book Industry Publications | Book Industry Groups & Associations | Book Festivals & Conferences | Book Prizes | Publishing Education Programs | Book Industry Suppliers & Tools | Author & Publisher Services | Book Publicity & Marketing Services | Book Printers & Paper Suppliers | Subsidy Publishers | Book Reviewers | Bloggers on Books & Publishing | Book Discussion 2.0

Sweet tweeting!

Despite the outcry earlier this year about the uselessness of Twitter after the Library of Congress announced it would be archiving every tweet, Twitter is still around and kicking, and users are finding new uses for it almost every day. Want to use it to find a job? Forbes will tell you how. Want to join a book club? Picador has one for you. Want to find new books to hopefully replace those your child is obsessed with so that you can read a new bedtime story for once? Well, you’ll have to talk to Susan Orlean for that one.

Last week New Yorker author Susan Orlean turned to Twitter in search of books to replace her son’s cherished “Magic Treehouse” books, asking her 65,000+ followers to suggest books for her five-and-a-half-year old using the hashtag #booksthatchangekidsworlds. She then posted a few hundred of these suggestions in an article on the New Yorker website. Not all the books on there are age appropriate, or readily inspire the image of a mother-son pair curled up in bed enjoying a quick story (I don’t know about you but the dictionary was never on my bedtime reading list). Still, looking through the titles brought me back a bit to my own childhood. Frog and Toad, anyone? Or perhaps The Boxcar Children. There’s a copy of The Little Prince on my bookshelf right now.

This might have disappeared by the time anyone sees this post, but I was thrilled to log in to Twitter this evening and find the hashtag* #lesserbooks trending**.

Some of my favorites so far: Celsius 232; Fear and Loathing in Palmdale; The Visible Man

What are yours?

*used to group a variety of posts by different users into one topic, in this case, a list of funny, not-so-great, books
**one of the top topics currently being discussed on Twitter; trending topics are usually dumb, offensive, or both