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Pretty simple this one.
That's it.
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Press the Profile icon and scroll to the bottom of the page, where you will find the three social media icons. One each for Instagram, Goodreads, and a blog you might have.
Pressing any of these icons takes you to the edit social media accounts screen. We only need to know the part that's different for each person, so for Instagram you just enter your name, the part in the URL that comes after "https://www.instagram.com/" when you are looking at your profile.
For Goodreads navigate to your profile page and enter the text that comes after "https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/", it's usually some numbers and a dash followed by your nickname.
If you have a blog enter the full URL including the “https://” part.
You don't have to complete them all, you can just enter one of them if you want.
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If you aren't sure it's correct, use the “Test” button inside the text box. It will launch that site using the details you entered in a new browser window.
Once you're happy, press "Update my socials" and you're done.
The icons you entered details for will now be pink instead of grey. If someone clicks on them, or you click on the icons on another member's profile you'll be magically transported to their Instagram, Goodreads or blog. Note that on your profile page the icons always open the link editor, for everyone else they act as buttons taking them to your social media accounts.
We will be updating this functionality in future to link fully with the accounts, so your latest post could be displayed, or your to-be-read list of books imported.
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We aim to please, a few of you asked if you could use a photograph as your avatar image. So yes, you can.
We're launching a new social based feature soon, and a nice profile pic will sit very well in it.
Stay tuned. Don't turn the page. What ever the correct metaphor is.
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We consider ourselves fashionably behind the times, after all bookpo.st is about reading books someone else has read first. So it is fitting that this post is about a novel that celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2018, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.
Or rather it is not about Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, but other people's. I came across a blog post on the feminist implications of the original Frankenstein — "'A female, equal companion': Frankenstein and Shelley’s Feminist Advocacy" by The Literary Pen — which coincided with two of the books on the current reading list.
Jeanette Winterson's "Frankissstein" and "Sex Robots & Vegan Meat" by Jenny Kleeman. The first is a novel simultaneously updating the Frankenstein trope to the AI age, whilst reexamining Mary Shelly's place as a woman writer in a competitive male circle (I'm not going to call Shelley and Byron macho). The second is non fiction looking at the emerging robotic, and soon artificial intelligence, sex dolls (there's vegan meat too but for our purposes it's the sex dolls we're interested in).
They are a perfect companion read. In fact at least once I had to remind myself that a subject wasn't a character from the other book so intwined are the fiction and fact. It occurs to me that the revival of Frankenstein is a perfect metaphor for our fear of AI, as Godzilla was for the nuclear cold war, zombies for global consumerism, and vampires for arrival of AIDs. We chose a monster for our times. Or, before anyone objects, in the case of Frankenstein, we chose a creature for our times.
In my to-be-read pile is "Frankenstein in Baghdad" by Ahmed Saadawi, a dark comedy using the assembled body as a metaphor for the madness of war. There has been recent spate of books examining AI replicants, or gynoids — the slightly creepy term adopted by female sex doll enthusiasts — including Ian McEwan's "Machines like us" which use consciousness-aware robots as a device for examining what it is to be human. What particularly interests me about "Frankissstein" is Winterson's marrying of the clinical threat from AI systems to the flesh bound paradigm of the man-made creature. Unlike vampires it appears mankind is actually trying to bring about the creation of one of it's monster myths.
Like the recent feminist reversals of Maleficent, I wonder how long it is until we see a story of the female sex doll as protagonist, not a means of destruction.
What this little mediation doesn't imply is "Frankissstein" is very funny. It is.
A tip of the hat to Louisa Hall for "Speak: A Novel" which also riffs on feminism and AI dolls, but does consider the robot as an equal character.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynoid
https://frankenreads.org/
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The World of Harry Potter. Not the theme park, but the way characters from the books have entered into the real world, applying to a non Harry Potter phenomena. So rather than calling someone a muggle, and then having to explain the word and where it came from, someone might use the name without having read the books and its origin.
I'm referring to Voldemorting, which Macmillan Dictionary has listed on it's open dictionary in a submission by Kerry Maxwell (United Kingdom 02/09/2019) as:
deliberately avoiding the use of a particular name or key word on social media
Voldemorting is anti SEO, because it is based on deforming keywords with metaphors and comparisons, so that search engines do not find that content.
The word was first described by by Emily van der Nagel, a social media academic and whose PhD covered pseudoanonymity, and a lecturer at Monash University in Australia. She credits coinage of the term itself to a 2013 discussion forum comment by user Eugene.
The character Voldemort in the books is so feared that his name can not be said and he is referred to as ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’. The term can be used as a noun, for example 'Cheeto' for a certain orange politician and reality tv star is a Voldemort. An example that perfectly shows why someone might want to rant about a personality without raising their hashtag or internet trending popularity.
Emily van der Nagel is interviewed by Mediaverse about the tactic at https://mediaverse.com.au/voldemorting-social-media-trend/
All good things come in threes, the adage states. I'm currently reading "Because Internet: understanding how language is changing" by Gretchen McCulloch. It's fascinating and recommended for anyone who loves words. So far the book hasn't mentioned Voldemorting but she has covered it in a column for Wired https://www.wired.com/story/voldemorting-ultimate-seo-diss-resident-linguist/.
That tenuous link makes two. Which leaves the third.
Catalonians celebrate Christmas much like other Christian countries — presents, a special meal, nativity scenes. Except... well... except that, along with a manger, three kings, the baby Jesus, Joseph and Mary, perhaps the odd donkey, Catalonians add an extra figure.
This figure is usually hidden in a corner of the barn. He is known as “El Caganer” and is not in the Bible as far as I know. Google translate won't help you with this one, but a good translation would be... um, the defecator. I am tempted to say I sh** you not.
Yes, for this little chap in his traditional red hat has his breeches at half mast, and is crouching over an oversized pile of his own poo. Really.
What has this got to do with Harry Potter you say? Well the tradition of the figure dates back 300 years, a more recent addition to it has been the creation of "guest" caganers. Being featured is apparently a sign of honour if you're Catalonian. Much like being on The Simpsons or Extras (incidentally Thomas Pynchon has been on the Simpsons twice, which coincidentally is the number of known photos of him as an adult, so a visual Voldemort? https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2013/06/thomas-pynchon-back-new-york/313257/).
This year, as you've probably guessed, Harry Potter makes an appearance. Well, not exactly how you would expect. Not the star himself, not a range of characters, and no, not Voldemort either. The family firm of Caganer.com (https://www.caganer.com/en/info/who-we-are-4) have created a Hermione Granger. Just Hermione. Shitting herself.
See for yourself https://www.caganer.com/en/hermione-harry-potter-1102/295, and more on scatological Catalonian Christmas traditions https://www.dailynews.com/2014/12/16/in-spain-pooping-ceramic-figures-of-famous-people-are-a-thing-really/
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Image courtesy of our very own beta tester Poppy who we felt deserved an early Christmas present. Voldy courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/2783375829/sizes/l/
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So we launched without seeing completed swaps, well, because they weren't any. But now we're up and running we thought it was about time to add it. So we did.
See those you have swapped books with previously, including the ones you or they declined. Handy if you didn't follow someone and you want to message them, or see their current selection of books.
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It's an introduction to yourself.
It has a useful purpose as well. Bookpo.st uses this as part of its matching pattern, as well as the books you post to swap.
If you haven't filled it in, give it a go, it can connect you to even more readers with similar taste, offering better recommendations.
Just in case you didn’t realise, the books that come up when you view ‘Shared tastes’ on the home page are recommendations generated from this list and the books you offer up for exchange.
