How Long Should an eBook Be?

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
  ~Thomas Jefferson

With my class contemplating writing an eBook there has been a few questions that have come up such as, what should our eBook be about? How do we publish it (and here)? Where could we publish ours? So we decided to divide and conquer to find the answer to our questions and write a good eBook. I decided to look at what a good length is for an eBook.

There is a certain pride when you read bring home a thick print book from Barnes & Noble or Borders, take it home, finish it, then put it on the shelf like a trophy for all to see that you can read thick books. That same draw isn't there with an eBook. There is no display shelf for the size of your eBooks. They may have different file sizes but that can be due more to multimedia content than to actual text.


So I began my search at amazon.com and ebooks.com trying to find out how long their eBooks generally are. Then I started to look at different publishing forums and blogs to see what was being said about eBook length. There were some recommending 10 pages, others who were recommending 35-50 but the general consensus was that they should be relatively short, and that the actual page number sare mostly irrelevant.  With an eBook content is king. I don't think that we should have a page goal for our eBook, but rather with all of our topics guidelines on what we should address and write concisely about them. Our value is going to come from content not from length.

Creating our eBook

As a class my English 295 we are contemplating writing an eBook for our final project. I think that this is such a great idea for a final project for a couple different reasons. I think that writing an eBook is a project that could be divided up pretty equally and easily. We all already studying a literary work and writing criticism for them. We could easily all write up our findings in an interesting light and produce worthwhile content. We also could all contribute to other aspects of the eBook. Splitting into smaller groups we could have a committee that is in charge of design, one in charge of editing, and other specific projects that we would need to complete to publish this eBook. Why I like this set up is that it is a project that we all get to work on together, yet, by being split into smaller groups with specific tasks we would be accountable for our specific responsibilities.

As for a topic I am most enamored by Alymarie's idea that she proposed in class about doing something focused on our LDS faith. We could look at our literature through an LDS or religious lens and write accordingly. We go to a very special university and that presents us with an opportunity to work with a group of talented individuals who have very similar beliefs. I think that is something that we knowledge in and would be valuable to a tangible audience. My ideas is still in a formative process but I really like this direction.

Finding Teaching Aids for Huckleberry Finn

My goal in this research was to find ideas, teaching aids, or lesson plans to help teach students about Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I was interested in this because it is an area of focus for one of my classmates Bri Zabriske. To do so I went to the MLA bibliography online database. This database is a detailed bibliography of articles, books, book chapters and dissertations. The electronic version dates back to the 1920s and is home to 1.8 million indexed works.

I started like I do most research queries by just typing in the title of the book and see what comes up to start. First off I found that I have a very difficult time spelling the word "Huckleberry" (and consequently just as difficult of a time typing it, the post has involved a lot of backspace already.) But once I got that minor issue taken care of I went from 0 results to hundreds. Trying to narrow down my search a little bit and find a little more easily information on teaching Huck Finn I went to the advanced search. I tried putting "Huckleberry Finn AND teaching aids" but I didn't get any results. So I reduced my search to "Huckleberry Finn AND Teaching." This is where I found a really interesting article on teaching Huck Finn.  Howard, Douglas L. "Silencing Huck Finn." Chronicle of Higher Education 50.48 (2004): C1-4. Print. (reference put together by the site RefWorks. Such a great tool for those who are in school or put together scholarly works.)

This article isn't exactly the angle or medium that I was looking for from the start, but I think it presents an interesting way to teach Huckleberry Finn. Douglas shows how by showing that a book was once censored from public schools drives kids to want to read it to see why. I think that this article has validity because it points out that a natural curiosity (even if its morbid) will always supersede and artificial sort.

Finding How a Southerner Might Look at To Kill a Mockingbird

My goal in starting this research was to find an article using Project Muse that shows some of the opposition they may have arisen when Harper Lee was trying to get To Kill a Mockingbird published. Project Muse is an online database that indexes full text of over 200 scholarly journals in Humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.

This is an angle that one of my classmates Alymarie Rutter is taking as she studies To Kill a Mockingbird. In class we have a chance to update one another how our research is going and this is an area that she said she was working on. I chose Project Muse because it offers the full text online so I could read into the articles and see if that it is what I am looking for. I first searched "To Kill a Mocking Bird and found a lot of different things that weren't related at all to the topic. So I put my search in quotations and added racism to the searching using an AND Boolean. This produced the article that I was looking for. Murray, Jennifer. "More than One Way to (Mis)Read a Mockingbird." Southern Literary Journal 43.1 (2010): 75-91. Print.

The article is tells a history of what took place to get Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird published and a about the different themes. What I really found about this article interesting is refers to quotes and actual events as they took place when the book was being put together. There is a lot of material on this classic in more contemporary settings but not as much period information. I hope this can help Alymarie in her endeavors.

The Screwtape Letters and Reader Response Criticism

My goal was to use the search database Literature Online to find is to ways in which the Screwtape letters can be looked at as a viable option for Reader Response Criticism. Literature Online otherwise known as LION is an online database that indexes full text literature on topics such as, English poetry and drama, 18th century literature, Shakespeare, among others.

I actually started my research looking in JSTOR another literary database under the title, The Screwtape Letters. I found useful background information but nothing that stuck out as reader response criticism. There were many reviews on the topic that could be helpful in other areas of study so I used Diigo, a social bookmarking site, to save that search so that I could come back to it later. I then entered the Literature Online database to see if there was other results that I could produce. I searched "The Screwtape Letters" and had a couple pages of results. I tried to narrow my search by using key words like "Reader Response" and "Criticism", but they produced no search results. So I went back to the generic search and came a book that was along the line of what I was looking for. Walsh, Chad. C. S. Lewis Apostle to the Skeptic. [Folcroft Pa.]: Folcroft Library Editions, 1970. Print. 

The premise of the book is that C.S. Lewis' literature lead people to become Christians. This is a perfect example of anyalsying reader response. In more informal ways I have been able to gauge the effect of the Screwtape Letters by contacting those who have written reviews to share their opinion, but it is good to have scholarly research on how Lewis' work has influenced people on a broad scale.

Amphibious Beings

"Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal. (The Enemy's determination to produce such a revolting hybrid was one of the things that determined Our Eather [Satan] to withdraw his support for Him). As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time."
     -Screwtape (The Screwtape Letters, 44)

This is one of the ideas that helped C.S. Lewis decide that he was a Christian. The idea that humans are have a dual nature is not a new concept. It has been taught among Christians for centuries. But the term amphibian is attributed to a man named Thomas Browne. The intellectual and atheist Lewis read Brown's work and it made him pause. He said that he was "deeply and lastingly satisfied by Thomas Browne" (Sir Thomas Browne, Screwtape, and the "Amphibians" of Narnia, Benita Huffman) Muth because of his ideas.

This amphibious nature is presented by Screwtape in Lewis' work both as a strength and a weakness. Lewis states that because we as humans inhabit time yet have eternal souls we are bound to be inconsistent, for that's what we are made of, inconsistent pieces of a whole. We go through times of great excitement punctuated by dull melancholy. We are either enticed to fill our drab time with unsavory activities, or to have our passions overcome us during a point of excitement. Lewis shows this poinently when speaking about war. He councils his nephew to either temp the man to become angry and pationate or docile and uncaring (22).

The Next Hurdle

This project that I have started is really starting to get exciting for me! It been really fun reading the literature looking for the section that I want to use for my video. But as I've been putting together some story boards for my Screwtape project I am realizing there are some challenges that I hadn't anticipated.

First, The Screwtape Letters is a pretty dense book. C.S. Lewis presents a lot of dense material in every paragraph of text. Really it is one of the reason that I love this book so much. There is just so much to think about it in every paragraph. But, when you are listening it can be easy to space out the bigger words and not pay attention as well to the ideas. So my task right now it to find a passage that is simple enough that it will be easy to watch but profound enough to showcase Lewis' depth. Wish me luck!

Screwtape Is Getting a Face!

I have an idea that is starting to formulate a plan. I really like the idea of exploring C.S. Lewis' world in an audio video format. I love the way that hearing a book gives you different impressions and inspires different thoughts. So what I want to do is use one of Screwtapes' letters and produce some sort of multimedia project to help emphasize an emotion or idea from that specific letter.

What I was worried about though is that this book is still under copyright and I wouldn't be able to follow through with my plans. I spent a good 20 minutes wandering through a myriad of different contact us links at the Harper Collins website trying to find out who I could ask for permission to use this text. My search was not very fruitful. Dr. Burton recommended that I contact Carl Johnson on the BYU staff who is an expert on copyright laws and ask him if it was a possibility. So I sent Mr. Johnson an email and he was very prompt in his reply. He said that if I were using just certain letters from the book that I am with in the fair use of that copyright (the link is the website that he forwarded me to for further questions and it is very good).

So I'm in the planning stages of how I am going to make Screwtape come alive and teach us all a little about being a demon.

Feeling a Lot Sheepish

A few days ago my literature professor, Dr. Burton, wrote a post calling our class to repentence, and I felt the full weight of it. He brought up the point that he was disapointed that we didn't really analyse the literature but just looked at it from an entertainment point of view and posted how we disliked it.

One of the reasons that I feel so sheepish is that I really did enjoy the book. Yet, the review that I posted on this blog was shallow and kind of negative. My problem is that I fell into the temptation to follow the course of least resistance. It is easy to say negative things about a book superficially, but it is much more difficult (and subsequently more meaningful) to look at the ideas and characters of the book and write about those findings.

I have an admission. I like science fiction. I actually just reviewed a book called Unwind written by Neal Shushterman. You can find my review on goodreads. So I plan to do better and redeem my self and write I got from analysing the text soon, so stay tuned.

Good teachers always praise students, where great ones make them sweat from time to time. Thanks for the wake up call Dr. Burton.

How Do I Connect With You Screwtape?

I am really enjoying going through C.S Lewis' The Screwtape Letters again. But my task is to look at it through a different lense or try to percieve it differntly this time. Here are a few of my ideas tell me what you think.

1. I want to study the different groups of people that read and write about this book. Especially interesting to me is all the different religious backrounds that are brought to the table with everyone that reads this book. I think it would be neat to ask how it meshes with their religion, maybe asking questions about section that I feel are in line with LDS theology but see how different people react.

2. Another option is to look at C.S. Lewis' life and what factors influenced his writing of the book. Is it a journey of discovery or presentation of collected prepared thoughts.

3. With my passion for audio and other formats I think it would be interesting to see how this book can elicit different results with different formats. The ones that I'm really interested in are the new dramatized version, regular audio, and the theater production.

Medicine for a Clouded Mind

I have always been a strong supporter of reading daily. It is amazing to see the ways that effects a life. I feel that a large amount of my success so far in life can be attributed to this habit. Reading daily changes the way that you think and perceive life. I have never had to chose between killing or being killed, and I haven't ever needed to diffuse a tense courtroom during a landmark trial. But through reading these ideas have been played out in my mind. When you read you can experience some if these emotions that probably won't have in the normal course in your life, but you know how you think about them.

But what value could come from writing daily? When I read it feels like my mind fills up with a swirling mass of thoughts and emotion. Those swirling motions start to condense and I begin to formulate ideas and generate opinions. Then they sit in my mind clogging my brain like the basket of laundry that is sitting on my stairs at home, leading me to think to myself every time I walk past them "I should really take care of these." Writing gets these thoughts off my back. When I finally put these ideas on paper (or the web) I can finally rest. It is the medicine for my clouded mind. That is why I keep a journal and now strive to post daily. Writing is what translates reading into success.

Blurring the Lines of Reality

I love audio format books! I have had an account at Audible, an online audio book site, since August 2006 and I have loved every moment of it. There is a lot of argument about whether or not audio is an effective format for literature, so I would like to present my case for the audible format.

First, who has time to read? Everyone has hectic schedules, and responsibilities that keep them from immersing themselves in a good book. Even being an English major I rarely have time to sit down and read something that I want to, but with a book in an audio format you can still get into a book while getting done what you need to.

Secondly, listening to books helps you imagine a story in a much different way. For me I listen to my book as I drive to work and walk to campus. It feels like my life becomes part of the story. The lines between real life and the authors reality start to blur. I become the characters, I am walking down the streets of far off cities, and I see buildings and landmarks that are associated with the story. Words and an imagination while staring at a page can do marvelous things. Yet words, imagination, and real tangible surroundings take you on spectacular adventures.

There is a lot to be said about actually reading words on a page, but by no means should audio be considered a lesser format.

I posted a pretty neat article about listening to literature in my diigo bookmarks. It's speaking about a younger crowd but it makes some good points.

Is Identy Theft a Geriatric Disease?

So today I was at work talking to a lady from Ohio who was 60ish and our conversation went something like this, "Alright Jill (not her real name ) I just need to verify the last four digits of your social security number to process this order." "I'd rather not" she answered point blank. I was flabbergasted. "Um... ok... well....why." She commenced in telling me a long sad story about how all of her personal information was stolen and had to get new credit cards, bank accounts, and reset all of her passwords. Needless to say she would NOT give me any personal information.

Musing on the situating I thought, "Really, who gets their identity stolen?" I can't think of one of my friends who had there info stolen. In fact every single person that I know personally that had their identity stolen is over 50! How is this so? Sure I have a lot less identity to steal being so young but still I feel like I (and my peers) put our information much more at risk by signing up for so many online services.

I'm not sure that I have an answer to this question. Maybe I'm completely wrong in assuming this. If you have an opinion be sure to comment to help me decide if Identity Theft truly is a Geriatric Disease.

Moms who Crowdsource

MLM Structure

As I have been reading Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe I have been intrigued by this idea of large masses of ordinary people solving complex problems. As I read I have been trying to think of what kind of crowdsourcing is close to home, what I see on a regular basis, but I couldn't think of anything that I participate in. Then in a flash I realized I spend 5-6 hours in a crowdsourcing atmosphere everyday.   I work for corporate at a multi-level marketing (MLM) company called doTERRA. What I realized is that doTERRA is a great model for what crowdsourcing is all about. For those who are unsure what an MLM business model is it kind of looks like an upside down tree. The sales force are regular people who go out and share product with their friends and sign them up to be consultants who then go share with all of their friends. They then make commisions on all product that people under them purchase. What I am amazed at is that a large part of our company is made up of stay at home moms, not business elites, and we are exploding with growth. New business models and heightened connections made possible through social networking have made relative amateurs big players in a big game.

The End of The Rainbow....s End

Dear Vernor,

Well Mr. Vinge I have finished your book. I have a few different thoughts that seem to be the concencous of others who have read your book.

First of all I liked it. It listened to it as an audio book and overall it was a positive experience. As I walked from school and work and everywhere in between I became part of the world you created and it was interesting.

Second, I didn't like is that it felt kind of choppy. There was an exciting action story and a thought provoking story but the two were far from masterfully intertwined. I love how Ben Wagner described your book on his blog. He said, " Essentially it felt like I read two different books." And I completely agree.

Third, though choppy I did really enjoy both story lines. It really made me think and I drew a lot of connections to my own life. Please though just finish the book. Instead of having a few loose ends I feel like you only had a few that were tied off.

Finaly, if I hear one more description about a wearable I might explode. The first couple hours of being introduced to this new little gadget was very interesting, and made me dream of little computers in my eyes and all of the possiblities. But over the next couple of hours those dreams turned into reoccurring nightmares as you provide description after description of these nifty gadgets.


In conclusion Mr. Vinge I would probably read another one of your books out of curiosity more than anything else. You made me think a lot which I am grateful for, but it might not be enough for me to finish the whole thing.

Sincerely,
Taylor Gilbert

Today I Hit the Wall

I have never been very good about getting into solid daily routines. The closest thing to a routine in my life lately seems to be posting past 11 pm. Yesterday in class Dr. Burton my English 295 professor told us about how he has gone through different periods of his life where he wrote a sonnet everyday. And these were not short periods these were years of writing poems everyday. The last time around he even kept a blog about it, sharing his poetry with the world. I was so impressed! As he talked about all of the benefits that he received from doing this activity I was inspired. I wanted to do something like that. I am far from a poet though so I decided that I was going to blog daily and document the way it changes my life. Well apparently that excitement lasted all of about two days because I did not want to write tonight.

It feels like my days of playing Lacrosse for my high school (see bottom for Lacrosse video that helped me procrastinate). After about the fourth day of practice I was tired and sore and couldn't remember why I wanted to play the stupid game in the first place. That time of despair is affectionately referred to by athletes as the wall. The point in which you just don't want to continue. But then you push through that wall and a few days later you loved life and your sport again. I feel like I am hitting that wall all over again just in a different way. I thought ill just go bookmark some stuff on Diigo rate a couple things on goodreads.com and call it good. But that isn't what I resolved to do. Do you ever have those battles with yourself? So tonight I did it! And it will only get easier :)

What is Reading?

I feel mildly overwhelmed with life right nows. I don't mind reading a lot, but at a certain point you can not read every word of every line. I have loved Rainbows End and am just beginning to have a relationship with Jeff Howe's, Crowdsourcing (the link is to his blog and it is really well done), but I am swamped! We live in a time when we have access to and are expected to consume outrageous amounts of information on a daily basis. There is no way that we can process all of the information all of the time so I need to find a way to evaluate and respond to information.

So what does it mean to read? Does reading mean to interpret little squiggles on a white page? Or does it go a little deeper? He is what I think. Reading is a way to transfer ideas, and to help persuade others to action. If that is the ultimate goal then, is reading every letter necessary? Or is it sufficient to skim and paraphrase so until understand the ideas and try to get a feel for the authors style? I think that the second is more true. I will never be able to read all of this text before the weekend, but I am learning that that is probably not what is expected. My goal in reading is to consume enough to create worthwhile content and to be able to connect with like minds.

Life Without Revision (Well Kind Of)

Things I love to do, Reading information, forming opinions, and writing those opinions in a convincing way. Things I don't like, Revising and editing. So here is my problem, revision and editing are an English majors life. I spend so much time hashing out what I have thought about that by the time i'm ready to turn something in I almost don't like my ideas anymore. What would life be like without those nuisances in my life? Writing a blog! Once you post something you have to be very careful about changing the content. Others may have posted a comment or bookmarked a post that may not make sense if you change what was written. You know what I have found? It is really difficult to reject that impulse to revise and edit. Dr. Burton, my professor, left a comment on my first post that gave me some ideas on what I could do better. Naturally I took advantage and fixed it. Only after talking to him did I realize the danger of changing your posts. So now everyone gets to see my progress step by step, and post by post.

I Was Blind, Yet Now I See.

The first 13 chapters or so of Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End has been an interesting experience. It starts with the main character Robert Gu just having being saved from Alzheimer's and a slew of other medical issues by modern medicine. Though one of the first things that Gu receives is his sight back, he soon find that though his eyes work perfectly there is still much he is blind to. He has awoken to an age of digital dominance that has seeped into every part of modern culture. Though his initial sight has been restored there is much more that he must learn to see. He is forced to learn to operated wearable computers and try to understand the vastly different world around him. Fortunately he has the aid of a digital native named Juan Orozco to teach him how to use his "wearable." 


In the beginning of the book I have identified most with Juan. I have always felt that I was on the technological side of the "Great Divide" between those who are comfortable around computers and those who glare intrepidly their screen. I often recall memories of helping grandparents and neighbors setting up their devices and teaching them how to use it. But more and more I am beginning to step into the shoes of Robert Gu.


I have never used social media on a regular basis. I have never had a blog or actively tried to connect the content that I create with of my peers. I feel like Gu when I see my classmates blogs like Bri Zabriskie's, and online presence that she has built for herself. They seem so comfortable in a world that I find so mirky and daunting. Like Robert Gu finding there is more then just pen and paper, I am finding that there is more than email and word processing. I feel like i'm taking this journey along with my friend Mr. Gu realizing that popular digital media may be something that can enrich my life, and maybe, help me see where once I was blind.