Steve McKinney

I'd been meaning to read this for years, and really expected to like it better.  I'm down with dark fantasy; I don't expect (or want) nothing but sweetness, light, and happy little elves dancing a merry jig.  So I didn't have a problem with the rather grim miasma that pervaded this book.  But somehow it managed to rub me the wrong way, or perhaps failed to rub me the right way.  The story was inventive and well told, and yet somehow left me feeling... well, very little.  Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood; I'm going to keep an open mind and move on to the next in the series after a break to catch up on my current library backlog.

What fun!  I stayed up well past my bedtime last night reading because I just could *not* put this down.  Highly recommended -- so far, anyway -- for those that like suspenseful, realistic hard science fiction.

And actually there were two more as well, 'Mavis Belfrage' and 'McGrotty and Ludmilla', both by Alasdair Gray, but booklikes would only let me add ten.

My favorite: 'Stardust'.  I've always been a sucker for a good fairy tale, and Neil Gaiman's a dab hand.

My least: 'Every Short Story'.  I'm a big fan of Alasdair Gray, but I was somewhat disappointed to discover that I'd already read most of the best stories in previous collections, and the edition I read was rife with typos, missing and transposed lines, and other errors.  Neither of these were any fault of the author's, but both curtailed my enjoyment.

Is anybody else on leafmarks having a hard time getting changes to their profile settings to stick, or is it just me?

More dithering, agonizing and metaconflict, but finally an ending, and a not wholly unsatisfying one at that.  Rating rounded up out of sheer satisfaction at having finally finished this series begun in my early teens, more than thirty years ago.

...this is at least twelve different kinds of wonderful.  If I had it in me to stay up all night reading it, I most definitely would.

Having read (large portions of) the infamous goodreads feedback thread, I feel qualified to say that I have read this book.  I laughed.  I cried.  I opened an account on BookLikes.

As of today, when I log into BookLikes, my dashboard has been essentially empty -- only the very most recent item appears, with nothing else below it.  Very frustrating.  I've contacted BookLikes for help, but in the meantime I'm wondering, is anybody else having this problem?

I find it unfortunate that visitors to my shelf see a blank green cover with no title or author information for books with no cover picture, so I've been experimenting with a customization to remedy this.  It's still in an early stage, but if anyone else feels like giving it a try, here's what to do:

1. Edit the template HTML for your Shelf page.

2. Find the following:

<a onclick="{{ row.popup }}">
<img src="{{ row.picture|picture(100, 155, 'book') }}" title="{{ row.title }} - {{ row.author }}" alt="{{ row.title }} - {{ row.author }}" />
</a>

3. Edit it to read:

<a onclick="{{ row.popup }}">
<img src="{{ row.picture|picture(100, 155, 'book') }}" title="{{ row.title }} - {{ row.author }}" alt="{{ row.title }} - {{ row.author }}" />
{% if row.picture == '' and row.title != '' %}
<div style="position:relative;width:80px;height:0px;top:-130px;margin:auto;">
<span style=font-size:9px;font-weight:bold;>{{ row.title }}</span>
{% if row.author %}
<span style=font-size:8px;font-style:italic;><br />by<br />{{ row.author }}</span>
{% endif %}
</div>
{% endif %}
</a>

4. Save your changes.

Visitors to your shelf will now see title and author displayed on the previously blank green cover.

I am likely to continue tinkering with this and will post an update if I make improvements.

By default, visitors to your Shelf page will initially see your books sorted by the date they were added, with the most recently added books first.  Want to change the initial sort order for your shelf page, for instance to show your most recently read books first?  Here's how:

1. Navigate to your template customization page (Settings -> Blog -> Customize).

2. Edit the template html for your Blog page, and add the following to the end of the <head> element, right above the </head> tag:

<meta name="select:defaultShelfSortBy:Shelf Sort By" content="Date Read:dater|Date Added:date|Author:author|Title:title|Rating:rating" />

<meta name="select:defaultShelfSortOrder:Shelf Sort Order" content="Descending:desc|Ascending:asc" />

3. Save your changes.

4. Return to the template customization page, and scroll to the bottom of the settings pane.  You should see two new settings, 'Shelf Sort By' and 'Shelf Sort Order'.  Choose the sort order options your prefer, for instance 'Date Read' and 'Descending' and save the settings.

5. Edit the template html for your Blog page, locate the following:

{% if blog.isSiteShelf %}
<h3 class="menu-entry">
<a class="set-bradius3" href="{{ navigation.shelf }}">{{ "Shelf"|l }}</a>
</h3>
{% endif %}



and edit it to read:

{% if blog.isSiteShelf %}
<h3 class="menu-entry">
<a class="set-bradius3" href="{{ navigation.shelf }}?by={{ customize.defaultShelfSortBy }}&order={{ customize.defaultShelfSortOrder }}">{{ "Shelf"|l }}</a>
</h3>
{% endif %}



6. Save your changes.

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for your Timeline, Followings/Followers and Page pages.

8. Edit the template html for your Shelf page, locate the following:

{% if blog.isSiteShelf %}
<h3 class="menu-entry">
<a class="set-bradius3 menu-active" href="{{ navigation.shelf }}">{{ "Shelf"|l }}</a>
</h3>
{% endif %}



and edit it to read:

{% if blog.isSiteShelf %}
<h3 class="menu-entry">
<a class="set-bradius3 menu-active" href="{{ navigation.shelf }}?by={{ customize.defaultShelfSortBy }}&order={{ customize.defaultShelfSortOrder }}">{{ "Shelf"|l }}</a>
</h3>
{% endif %}



9. Save your changes.

And you're done!  Visitors to your shelf page will see your books initially sorted in the order you've chosen.  If you want to change the order, you can now do so via the 'Shelf Sort By' and 'Shelf Sort Order' settings on your template customization page.

Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds