I'll be off reading...

Due to several ongoing chunksters*, a migraine**, and all the content-thieving, I've not got any books to review. Shocking, isn't it! I'm a bit shocked myself. Anyway, I'll be spending some days reading. And I'll be back to reviewing as soon as I get a few read. I've got plenty of reviews up of picture books on my other site, Young Readers.

*Blame Don Quixote, if you must!
**A series of small migraines over a period of days. Still a bother. But I've not been dreadfully sick or anything. It could be a lot worse.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
If you're reading this post on another site, or another feed, the content has been stolen.

Explanation for feed readers

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
If you're reading this post on another site, or another feed, the content has been stolen.

I apologize for my loyal readers who happen to read my blog by rss feed. Due to my posts being stolen, I have decided--at least temporarily--to make my feed be 'brief' instead of full. I realize this is inconvenient for you in some ways. Though I don't usually read blogs by feed readers myself, I do sympathize and understand that many people do. But it is also making it inconvenient for content thieves. So please understand my decision. If the site is shut down, if proper action is taken, then I'll be happy to reconsider this at a later date.

Thank you, and please do keep reading!

Random Question

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
If you're reading this post on another site, or another feed, the content has been stolen.

I don't know why I've suddenly gotten curious, but I am. So I'll ask....

What time of day do you read blogs? I read blogs all day. I obsess. But that's who I am. But it made me curious. Do you look for 'new' posts in the morning, the afternoon, or the evening? Or do you play catch up and read several days worth of posts all at once. Is there a 'better' time of day for you? Or does it matter. I know technically it doesn't matter--a new post is a new post is a new post no matter what time the blogger hits publish. But I tend to think...oh I've got to rush to get this out before ten or eleven in the morning or people will be disappointed. I don't know why my mind thinks that way.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
If you're reading this post on another site, the content has been stolen.

Travel the World: England: Mothstorm

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Reeve, Philip. 2008. Mothstorm: The Horror from Beyond Uranus Georgium Sidus. Or A Tale of Two Shapers. A Rattling Yarn of Danger, Dastardy and Derring-Do upon the Far Frontiers of British Space. With illustrations by David Wyatt. Bloomsbury.

First paragraph:
'Dunderhead!'
'Clodpole!'
'Ninnyhammer!'
'Booby!'
'Nitwit!'
Yes, 'twas the season of Peace and Goodwill at Larklight, and my sister Myrtle and I, snug in our fleece-lined, winter-weight spacesuits, were out upon the front porch, decorating our Christmas Tree. Christmas Trees are a German notion and quite the latest thing, but I doubt whether Prince Albert, who is responsible for introducing this charming festive fad, has ever tried to erect such a tree outside a house like Larklight, which floats about in an eccentric orbit far beyond the Moon.

I admit the above might come off as rather strange unless you're familiar with the world of Larklight. Mothstorm is the third in the series. The first is Larklight: Or the Revenge of the White Spiders!: Or To Saturn’s Rings and Back!: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Furthest Reaches of Space. The second is Starcross: A Stirring Adventure of Spies, Time Travel, and Curious Hats.

Philip Reeve has created a fantastical world set during Queen Victoria's reign, but most of the action takes place in space. (Yes, space) In fact a good many of our heroes are space pirates. Art Mumby is our young narrator. Myrtle Mumby, his sister, also takes a few turns narrating the action. Where will this third adventure take the Mumby family? Are they destined for Uranus? I mean, Georgium Sidus? Off to rescue a British missionary and his daughter that have gone missing? Will Myrtle get her man, the leader of the space pirates, Jack Havock? Will Jack forget his dislike for the British government long enough to save the world from its biggest danger yet?

I love these books because they're so outrageously over-the-top fantastical. Quirky through and through. Funny. You never know quite what to expect. And that's a good thing. Because my imagination can never match Philip Reeve's that's for sure!!! I love how zany these books are. Just read the first chapter about when their Pudding goes rogue!

The adventures are fun. No doubt. But what keeps me a fan is Philip Reeve. I just love his sense of humor. I love his style. He has a way with words. He's just a great storyteller.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Discuss Amongst Yourselves...

As I mentioned in my previous post, a certain website (you'll never find me linking to it!) has been taking liberties and stealing my posts. Natasha was kind enough to send me this link, How To Defend Your Blogs Copyright. I thank her. I wanted to share it with you in a post just in case you're ever in a position where you need it! Because apparently--and everyone may already know this--it's not all that unusual. I think there are people who really and truly just sit around and steal. Steal from other blogs. Sometimes one or two blogs. Sometimes a wide range of blogs are targeted. In almost all these cases, the people in question are blogs that are using ads--programs like Googe's Adsense or Adwords (and the like)--as a way to try to make money. The more posts one has, the better the potential for making money I suppose. (I'll try to make this post 95% general; 5% personal. I don't want to give the impression I'm whining. I'm not. But if I can help even one person prevent this from happening or... discourage even one person from doing this...then it will be worthwhile.)

Which leads me to a discussion topic. What are the rights and wrongs of copying? Are there certain things it's okay to take, to copy? Are there certain things that are off limits? How can you tell the difference? Suppose you're a new blogger and you're clueless. What are the rules here?

That's what I'm asking YOU.

I'll also be sharing my thoughts. I think as bloggers, most people follow certain rules.

Memes. Anyone and everyone can copy memes. I mean the whole idea of a meme is to spread it around. True, you should be providing your own answers, playing along with whatever the meme is--whether it is answering questions, creating lists, creaking lists of links, posting pictures, etc. There is a LARGE community of meme events--Weekly Geeks, Booking Through Thursday, Waiting on Wednesday, Mailbox Monday, Bad Bloggers, Library Loot, Tuesday Thingers, etc. These events have everyone doing the same thing, but they showcase differences. Everyone may be copying the question or activity--it may appear on hundreds or thousands of blogs--but each answer will be different.

Challenges. When a challenge hosts writes a post, it's not really a big surprise to see large portions of it (or it in its entirety) being posted at challenge participant sites. I think this is understandable--it is always more convenient to have a list of the rules on your own site than just a link that is easily misplaced. Again, it's also a way of spreading the word about the challenge. As long as a link to the challenge host/challenge blog/challenge sign up post is provided, I think this is fine.

Opinion Posts/Articles. If I read an article somewhere online--a blog, a newspaper, a magazine--I usually provide a link. But I may quote two or three sentences for reference. To orient readers with what I'm responding to. Is this okay? Is this a good thing? Bad thing? Are we starting to cross a line? Does it depend on if I'm just mentioning it or if I'm contemplating it? Really pulling in my own thoughts and opinions?

Links. I'm going to assume--presume--that linking to an article/post/blog will always be an okay thing. If I say, Read this post about the Cybils winners that can only be a good thing, right? No complaints that I'm spreading the word, right? If I'm reviewing a book and feel inclined to link to other reviews of the book...or to link to the author's website...it can only be a good thing, right? You're spreading the love. Saying go forth to these other sites. They're good. They're great. You might want to read them, follow them.

Press Releases. I don't always do many press release type posts but occasionally I get emails from people--publishers, authors, bookstores, publicists, media people--that are press releases. That are asking me to spread the word about this, that, and the other. I'm assuming--presuming again--that since it's for release everywhere, (and sometimes they say for immediate release) and since the primary purpose is to spread the word, and since I'm being encouraged to post about it...that it would be okay then to copy whatever it is.

Quotes. When is it okay to quote something? If you're reviewing a book, should you quote? how much can you quote? how much should you quote? Is the author/publisher going to get angry with you for quoting from the book? It's just my humble guess that it's good to quote in book reviews. You're showing your readers why they would want to read the book. You're giving examples and supporting your review. That being said, I think you could go overboard. I don't think it would be right to quote an entire chapter or entire picture book unless you had the permission of the author/publisher. But a paragraph here and there from a novel? I don't see that they'd be anything wrong with that. I do try to always mention if I'm reviewing from the ARC. It doesn't stop me from quoting a few sentences if they're good. But I always say that it's from the ARC so it may not match what is in the 'real' book. I've never had anyone complain about anything I've done. I'm assuming if an author or publisher was unhappy they'd let me know.

What if your entire blog consisted of links to other posts? Is there such a thing as too much linking? How much of a post needs to your own? Your own content? Your own thoughts?

Entire Posts. Here is where there is really no excuse. It is never okay to just cut and paste an entire blog post into your own blog. It's not good web etiquette to go to someone's site, copy an entire post, and cut and paste it into your own blog, publish, and call it done. That's not blogging. That's stealing. And it's wrong. I have come across--and I can't remember whose blog it was--maybe if they read my blog they can jog my memory, but it is someone whose blog I follow and have been following for months now--a situation where someone's post was copied to another site--I think it was about Twilight or Stephenie Meyer--and when the original author posted about how she didn't like her post being copied and posted on another site--that she didn't have permission to do so. The person was like, "you should be flattered. I gave you credit. There's your name. There's your blog name. I did nothing wrong." Even taking and copying an entire post and then linking to the original is unethical in my book. There is only one legitimate excuse, one situation where that is okay. If you have the permission of the author--the blogger--and you obtain permission beforehand.

Is it flattering to be linked to? Yes. Is it flattering to be quoted--in brief at least? Yes. I wouldn't have a problem with someone saying, "Becky reviewed this book. And here is what she had to say, 'One or two sentences quote.' Read the rest of the review here." But that's a whole other story. It's not flattering to have your posts stolen. Repeatedly. It's offensive.

And I also want to thank everyone in the Kidlitosphere yahoo group for being so wonderful, so supportive, and so smart! They've given me a handful of suggestions. And I'll be acting on some of those in the next day or so. I have contacted the person who has registered the domain name, and I hope that he/she will see about stopping this. I do think it's ironic that even the post on their theft was stolen. I don't know if you can see that in the screen shot or not.




© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews