Reading in the Galley

I will never forget the first time I saw a stack of galley proofs. It was my first day as a bookseller, and part of the morning's training included a rundown about the proliferation and overall wonderfulness of advance readers and uncorrected proofs.  Sure the discount for buying books was pretty generous, but these were free and unreleased to the public at large. It all made sense, but I had to just stare at those perfectly bound paperbacks for a while, letting it all soak in. I was pretty broke at the time, so it actually soaked in rather quickly

There was no order to the little library that rested before me, unless you counted the dust accumulation on certain titles that served to provide a chronological order of release dates. On that day, I realized that most of my coworkers were not overly excited about self help manifestos, cutesy chapbooks on team building, or first-time releases by Californian authors. Feeling a sense of camaraderie, it was time to plunge beneath those very niches and see what bounty was to be had in the dregs of the free pile.

On the way home that evening, an ARC of Jonathan Carroll's "The Wooden Sea" sat on the passenger seat. I had heard of the author before, but the main selling point was undoubtedly the hallucinatory coolness printed on the outer wrap. That, and it didn't have a dedication to God, Jack Welsh, or motivational body builders. 

Jonathan Carroll went on to become one of my favorite authors. That one promotional copy generated a feverish spending spree as I accumulated his entire backlist in the form of trade paperbacks, hardcover first editions (UK editions particularly), and the occasional signed edition. Every frontlist title Carroll has since released is typically in my hands within days of hitting the bookstore. Visual merchandising of his works through the use of shelf talkers and good ol' fashioned handselling have contributed to spreading a little Carrollian magic into the libraries of many, many others. 

All of this was initiated through a free galley proof provided by a hopeful publisher. It worked.

With this story in mind, I am thrilled to have joined NetGalley. The folks at NetGalley have constructed a way for many publishers to securely share the digital versions of their galleys. It's a cozy experience finding the titles that interest you, and then you simply request a galley. Within hours, I had several of my requests approved, and the requested texts were simply a download away. They have a 60-day digital lifespan, similar to the DRM-structure found in Overdrive texts from your local library.

Thus far, here are the titles that I am currently digging into for digital review:

Received	Pub Date	View All Titles by:	Imprint	Title	Author	Status
11/22/2010	11/08/2010	Island Press		Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World	Dominick A. DellaSala	Accepted
11/22/2010	04/21/2011	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt	Peterson Field Guides	Peterson Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes, Second Edition	Lawrence M. Page	Accepted
11/22/2010	11/15/2010	Island Press		Repeat Photography	Robert H. Webb, Diane E. Boyer, and Raymond M. Turner	Accepted
11/22/2010	12/01/2010	Island Press		Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change	Peter Calthorpe	Accepted
11/22/2010	02/02/2011	Hachette Book Group	Orbit Books	LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF SAUSAGES	Tom Holt	Accepted

I am really grateful to the folks behind this endeavor, as the concept of digital galleys was always one fraught with fears of piracy and technophobia. The roster of publishers that are present on the site shows that such preconceived notions are changing. Furthermore, I no longer have to contend with the bookstore darlings who always managed to have first grabs at the most choice incoming galleys.

In the meantime, I have some texts to read and reviews to cook up.

Minor Defense of Fantasy Football

I love Fantasy Football more than a Julius Peppers mid-week fine from the NFL. Many years have passed where I put nearly as much work into the annual draft as I did into entire collegiate courses. The boy has curbed much of the compulsive behavior that once drove such habits, and unlike my olden days, I realize that there just isn't the time to scrutinize NFL statistics using SQL queries.

It may also have to do with the fact that I usually lost entire seasons and some pocket change based on strings of horrendous luck that digest forecasting models for breakfast. In any case, each weekend I am down to about 30-minutes of research and anywhere from 2-8 hours of quality broadcast turf time.

It's a dangerous relationship. Normally I could care less about a Chief-Bills game, but when I'm down 5.2 points and have a horse in that race, you bet I'm staying awake and aware until the camera flash goes off and the blanket finish is no more.

Every year I try to partake in two leagues, usually commissioning one. More than that requires too much commitment, particularly during my reality of familial obligations, work, and scholarly pursuits. It's all about doing more with less. Even if I didn't have the time at all, playing this damn game is something I will do 'til I die.

I'm a fan of experimentation in fantasy football, many times to the chagrin of those playing in my leagues. One year it was possible to get 300 points in a week. This year I attempted rolling drafts with rosters of players that fell to the inactivity wayside. In a later season, I'd love to do a hybrid Fantasy/Suicide Pool scenario. If I haven't thanked the poor bastards who sign up in my leagues for their endurances, I hope they read it here.

I can't wait to have the wee one join a league with me, watching games and having him learn basic mathematics in the process. On the other hand, he might hate football and we'll play the other version of fantasy football known as D&D. Either way it's a win for his old man.

Until he's a little older, I had to take a half hour tonight after he crashed out and put together a matrix with an alternative scoring system based loosely on points-per-week. It pits me in first place, which is far more desirable than the actual position I occupy in my hosted league. This just illustrates that fantasy football schedules can dump on you regardless of how well you prepare, at which point it's time to move on to the next week. More than mathematics or diagramming the Cover 2, I hope my boy appreciates this eventual lesson.

Until then, I need to go make sure my fantasy basketball roster is prepped for the upcoming weekend.

Points Scored Each Week
	HD	BS	BBB	PA	GK	R	TX	PJX	BL	DH
Week 1	106	75	80	87	85	87	56	48	68	83
Week 2	102	89	102	75	73	86	81	81	102	110
Week 3	116	88	93	81	130	63	130	82	72	89
Week 4	76	81	103	67	65	72	65	109	55	135
Week 5	62	42	116	89	92	116	100	116	108	91
Week 6	111	75	90	89	83	84	95	84	124	94
Week 7	74	44	91	86	61	91	130	132	104	86
Week 8	117	91	77	58	109	105	76	78	63	90
Week 9	139	47	53	113	98	52	95	73	97	101
Points Awarded Based on How Many Teams You Would Have Beaten That Week
	HD	BS	BBB	PA	GK	R	TX	PJX	BL	DH
Week 1	9	3	4	8	6	7	1	0	2	5
Week 2	8	5	6	1	0	4	2	3	7	9
Week 3	7	4	6	2	8	0	9	3	1	5
Week 4	5	6	7	3	2	4	1	8	0	9
Week 5	1	0	7	2	4	8	5	9	6	3
Week 6	8	0	5	4	1	3	7	2	9	6
Week 7	2	0	6	4	1	5	8	9	7	3
Week 8	9	6	3	0	8	7	2	4	1	5
Week 9	9	0	2	8	6	1	4	3	5	7
Total Points	58	24	46	32	36	39	39	41	38	52
Rank	1	10	3	9	8	5	5	4	7	2

Custom Book Search

A preliminary search tool, dubbed LibriExplorator. I'm trying to work up a functional 400+ feed search engine that can help booksellers looking for answers in a pinch, ideally without the noise that Google oftentimes generates with common search tactics. If I never have to read another white paper about OPML standards or XML parsing errors...

Loading LibriExplorator

Cancion Para Mi Hijo

I had absolute responsibility of the wee one this evening as his beloved mama was away making crafty, beautiful things. To temporarily fill the huge gap in his little world, we gardened, ate, and sang for a couple of hours. After a nice bath to wash away the crushed bugs and lord knows what other detritus he had accumulated, we settled down for a little rest and relaxation.

"Mama, mama, mama, mama."

"Mama."

"Mama."

I wasn't going to win this one. I won't even bother writing down what my responses were, because he didn't care one bit what I had to say about the matter of his missing mother.

After he grew tired of failing at matriarchal psychic teleportation through his "Mama" mantra, he resigned himself to reciting numbers and letters for me. This beautiful new trick came about yesterday on a long car ride home, during which time his mother and I were momentarily slack-jawed. He had been reciting numbers and letters along with us, but we had no clue he had stealthily been memorizing their orders. He repeated his performance tonight, and I was sneaky enough to record it.

Getting Stuff Done

In an attempt to keep the things on my plate from becoming floor toppings, I've been looking into the jargonized writings of time management figurehead David Allen. His "Getting Things Done" system is interesting, and after picking up some tips from it, I found that it's actually working.

Chris Hardwick says it perfectly in Diary of a Self-Help Dropout: "I can now shrink overwhelming projects into bite-size finger sandwiches, thereby unsticking my work flow. Also, I found out that I have a work flow."

My definition of work flow is that I don't think about random to-do shit at times when it doesn't matter. The last thing I want nowadays is to be thinking about a bill or a conversation from work when my little guy is around.