Diary of a Word Nerd

Improving vocabulary/Recommended kid lit

The Perfect Word for Artemis Fowl: Sardonic

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Julia Tomiak / 3 Comments

Hello Word Nerd! Time to learn some great vocabulary through Bermuda Onion’s meme Wondrous Words Wednesday.

My word today comes from the fantastic mid grade book Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. More than once in the story, Artemis displays a sardonic grin. Although I had a good idea of its meaning, I wanted to look sardonic up. Just to get it perfect. Because that’s what Artemis would do.

sardonic \sär-‘dän-ik\ adj from the French sardonique, from Greek sardonios; disdainfully or skeptically humorous; derisively mocking

Ah yes, Artemis, a precocious, devious twelve year old, often exudes a sardonic air as he carries out his dastardly plots. And yet, somehow, I like him anyway. I’ll review Artemis Fowl in my next post. But for now…

Word Nerd Workout

Think of another character, from literature or film, you would describe as sardonic. My example: Professor Severus Snape.

Who can you add to this list? Leave your suggestions in the comments, and thanks for stopping by!

Julia

Improving vocabulary

Vocab from social television: a nascent phenomenon

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Julia Tomiak / 16 Comments

Welcome to Wondrous Words Wednesday, a meme hosted by Kathy of bermudaonion.

I chose my word this week from a story I heard on NPR about “Social Television.”

(Yes, I listen to a lot of NPR- on the dreadmill, or even in the car. With radio news, I don’t have to worry about disturbing images for my children…)

In 2012, broadcasters worked hard to get their shows viewed not just on TVs, but also on “second screens:” laptops, tablets, and smartphones. An industry guru described this phenomenon as “nascent.”

I paused in my morning preparations to consider this word nerdy word. A little voice suggested nascent must have something to do with birth. I looked it up in Websters:

nascent \’nas-^ənt\ adj from the Latin nascent, nascens, to be born; coming or having recently come into existence

A ha! I love it when the little nerdy voice is right!

Word Nerd Workout

Think of another nascent phenomenon and write a sentence about it. In our tech focused society, this shouldn’t be too hard. My example:

Last night Eli read a book to the family; we were all impressed with his nascent skills at deciphering the words.

Leave your workout in the comments, and thanks for joining in the discussion!

How to encourage reading/News from book business/Words and Technology

How to Use Goodreads: A Guide for Word Nerds

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Julia Tomiak / 34 Comments

I know: you have enough trouble limiting the minutes you spend on Pinterest. You don’t need another social media site to suck away your precious time.

But trust me, Goodreads is a must for anyone who loves books. Don’t believe me? I’ve got seven great reasons why you should start up a Goodreads account.

Keep track of your books

Most readers I know like to keep a record of all the books they’ve read. Kinda like a word nerd trophy case. It also helps us remember what titles we’ve read and whether or not we liked them.

On Goodreads, you can enter the books you’ve read, rate them, and post reviews. This will initially consume some time, but after you have your library in, occasionally adding new book will only take seconds. You can sort the books onto different shelves such as “read,” “to read,” and “favorites.”

You can quickly add books by scanning them in with your smart phone. I explain the Goodreads app scanning process here.

Admittedly, this feature appeals most to word nerds of the “type A persuasion” who like to keep everything organized. Like me. 😉

Find books to read

For any book out there, Goodreads provides a synopsis, reader reviews, and an average rating. Goodreads also makes recommendations for you, based on the books on your shelves as well as what’s popular on the site.

When you see a title that looks interesting, simply click the “want to read” button, and Goodreads will add it to your “to read” shelf. Never again will you scratch your scalp and say, “Now, what was the name of that book…?”

Every year, Goodreads hosts a massive poll for favorite books of the year. Over one million readers voted in 2012. For great reading ideas, see the winners of the 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards. Winning titles from twenty categories include The Fault in Our Stars, Gone Girl, and Insurgent.

Discuss Books

What’s better than reading a book? Talking about it! Hundreds of book clubs have organized themselves on Goodreads. Do you like young adult? There are over 750 groups you could join. How about historical fiction? Plenty of that too. Join an existing group, help choose books, and participate in a discussion about what you’ve read.

Better yet, start your own club and invite friends to join. Last year some of my writing buddies started a group, and we used it to discuss books on the writing craft. We live scattered around the world- in Pennsylvania, England, even Hawaii, but we could “meet” and learn from each other via Goodreads.

Learn about the book world

With author Q & A meetings, interviews, and up to date information on new releases, Goodreads gives you insight into the book world. You can get email notifications of upcoming events based on the books you’ve added to your on-line library.

A few months ago, I got to submit a question for an interview with John Green! I can’t wait until Goodreads publishes the conversation.

Help authors

For better or worse, the publishing world is changing, and authors now bear more burden for promoting books. By taking the time to rate a book a write a quick (we’re talking three sentence) review, you can help bring attention to a title. And therefore help a writer. Trust me, they will appreciate it!

Friends

I don’t pay much attention to this feature of Goodreads. It’s fun to connect with people you know or who are in your “book clubs.” But you’ll also get friend requests from random people on Goodreads. Your friends’ activity shows up on your home page, so this can sometimes help you find books to read.

Quotes

A fun bonus- you can save your favorite quotes from literature and sign up to receive quotes via email each day. One of my favorites:

It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. J.K. Rowling

How do you use Goodreads? Are there any features I skipped?

Thanks for stopping by!

How to encourage reading/News from book business

Three Reasons Why Amazon Prime is Worth It

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Julia Tomiak / 16 Comments

About a year ago, my husband and I debated: should we pay the $79 fee to use Amazon amazon prime Prime? After all, we have two Kindles in the house, and I love buying books. Besides that, since I have to drive forty-five minutes to get to a decent mall, I shop frequently at Amazon.

We decided to go for it. And what have the past 12 months taught me?

The Amazon Prime fee pays for itself. Here’s why.

Free Two Day Shipping

As a Prime member, you get free two day shipping on any product sold by Amazon. This doesn’t apply to merchandise sold on the site by third parties. Since regular shipping can cost $5-$13 per order, if you made twelve orders over the course of a year, you would probably spend over $90 on shipping.

With Amazon Prime, your order shows up quickly. For free!

Last Christmas, I spent $20 mailing gifts to our friends in San Diego. This Christmas, I spent nada to ship Legos out there. Made me very happy.

Kindle Lending Library

Amazon boasts that it has thousands of titles available to lend to Kindle owners, and that hundreds are NY Times Bestsellers. You can borrow one book at a time, as often as once a month.

Over the summer, my husband borrowed all three books from The Hunger Games trilogy. In fact, I think one might still be sitting on his Kindle.

So again, do the math. If the average Kindle book costs about $10, one per month would end up costing $120 over the course of a year. The $80 deal keeps looking better.

Free Streaming Movies and TV Shows

Let me emphasize that many of the free movies available to Prime members are often old, or low budget, or ones you never heard of. But, we did find and view the Footloose remake recently. Other tempting titles we’ve seen listed on the Prime page: Captain America, Ocean’s Eleven, and the original Mission: Impossible. Not bad for free.

All of the video rental stores in our small town have folded. And the Redbox machine posted inside our Walmart offers limited selection. When our internet actually works, and we can find a decent movie, Amazon Prime saves us time and money.

Go for it

Believe it or not, Amazon didn’t pay me to write this post. (But I should get some commission, don’t you think?) And, I have worries about the giant on-line store taking over the book industry. See my post on Amazon’s fight with Barns and Noble for more discussion on that topic.

But, since I love the perks of the Amazon Prime membership, I’ll renew at the end of this month. To keep balance, I also maintain a Barnes and Noble membership and shop there frequently.

Little things count, right?

Do you have an Amazon Prime account? If yes, do you think it’s worth it? If you don’t, would you consider getting one?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Julia

Improving vocabulary

What Were the Top Ten Words of 2012?

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Julia Tomiak / 12 Comments

Happy New Year and welcome to the Wondrous Words Wednesday meme. Today I’ve gotten my words from Merriam-Webster.com – the site recently released its list of Top Ten Words for 2012. Wanna know something funny? Meme made the list!

Merriam-Webster annually generates a list of words most often looked up at its site. This year, unsurprisingly, over half the words were inspired by the presidential election. Apparently, many people needed to clarify concepts like socialism, capitalism, and democracy.

On one hand, I’m disturbed; shouldn’t people know these words already? But, I guess I’m glad those who were unclear made the effort to learn…

The Merriam-Webster Words of the Year

socialism and capitalism
touche
bigot
marriage
democracy
professionalism
globalization
malarkey
schadenfreude
meme

A few notes of interest:

malarkey gained attention after Joe Biden used it in a debate with Paul Ryan; it means foolish talk
schadenfreude is a noun, from the German schaden damage + freude joy; it means joy obtained from the troubles of others (how awful!)
meme (rhymes with beam) was first used in 1975 and it refers to an idea, behavior, style or usage that spreads from person to person through a culture
John M. Morse, President and Publisher at Merriam-Webster.com suggested that touche has grown in popularity because more Americans participate in “verbal jousting”, especially via social media.

I cheer at the thought of people using vocabulary to duel- as long as it’s not too mean. Go word nerds!

For another article on words of the year, see this NPR article on the American Dialect Society as it prepares to choose a word of the year.

Word Nerd Workout

Use one of M-W’s words from 2012 in a sentence. My example:

While we punished our youngest son, my daughter watched gleefully, the schadenfreude clear on her face.

I’m sure that never happens in your family.

Happy New Year!

Book reviews/How to encourage reading

Why You Must Read The Time Traveler’s Wife

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Julia Tomiak / 12 Comments

The approach of New Year’s Eve, and the passing of another significant chunk of time, has me thinking about one of my favorite books, The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. I highly recommend this science fiction romance, but don’t expect aliens or space ships.

The Interesting Premise

The Time Traveler’s Wife tells the compelling story of Clare and Henry DeTamble and the love they share despite extremely difficult circumstances. Henry suffers from “Chrono Displacement.” Translation: he spontaneously gets sucked through time, without warning, and wherever time drops him, he’s naked and vulnerable.

Needless to say, Henry is somewhat jaded. But Clare, with her faithful and constant love, grounds him. She makes his life, horrific as it can sometimes be, worth living.

Why It Works So Well

The Time Traveler’s Wife enthralled me not only with its unique premise, but also because its characters experience very real, identifiable emotions within extraordinary situations.

For example, one chapter from Clare’s point of view starts with the statement: “Sometimes I like it when Henry is gone.” She goes on to explain why; when he’s absent, he can’t complain about the music she plays or leave a mess in the bathroom. But the last line of the chapter expresses an emotion that I think many spouses can relate to: “Sometimes I like it when Henry is gone, but I’m always glad when he comes back.”

Henry’s often gone because he unpredictably disappears into some other year; my husband is often gone for his job. But the missing part, that’s the same.

Niffenegger describes pain and joy with incredible honesty;I folded down several page corners that hit a special place in my heart. Also, Henry and Clare exchange witty dialogue, and I can’t resist intelligent characters.

Finally, I related very well to Clare, a red headed artist. Perhaps too well. (See below) In one scene, Clare describes how she uses pastels to paint a picture of someone special to her. I could see the colors she chose, named in artfully appropriate terms like “burnt umber” or “sienna.”

Words of Warning

I could gush for hours about The Time Traveler’s Wife, but let me temper my praise with a few cautions.

First, the narrative bounces through time, like Henry, and switches between the point of view of Henry and Clare. Some may find this confusing, but Niffenegger lists the POV character and the date at the beginning of each chapter. Attentive word nerds should manage fine.

Second, if you have a soul, you will cry. Or, maybe I just got too far inside Clare’s head, as I tend to do with characters.

Third, Henry and Clare share a passionate relationship, and Niffenegger doesn’t shy away from specifics. Tender eyes beware.

My emphatic recommendation

The Time Traveler’s Wife tells the fantastic story of loving someone across time, despite obstacles. Don’t miss out on the experience.

Have you read The Time Traveler’s Wife? What did you think? Or, can you recommend another book that addresses the theme of time? Share your suggestions below.

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy New Year!