Reading the Comments PDF Download

Author: Joseph M. Reagle, Jr.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262328887
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
What we can learn about human nature from the informative, manipulative, confusing, and amusing messages at the bottom of the web. Online comment can be informative or misleading, entertaining or maddening. Haters and manipulators often seem to monopolize the conversation. Some comments are off-topic, or even topic-less. In this book, Joseph Reagle urges us to read the comments. Conversations “on the bottom half of the Internet,” he argues, can tell us much about human nature and social behavior. Reagle visits communities of Amazon reviewers, fan fiction authors, online learners, scammers, freethinkers, and mean kids. He shows how comment can inform us (through reviews), improve us (through feedback), manipulate us (through fakery), alienate us (through hate), shape us (through social comparison), and perplex us. He finds pre-Internet historical antecedents of online comment in Michelin stars, professional criticism, and the wisdom of crowds. He discusses the techniques of online fakery (distinguishing makers, fakers, and takers), describes the emotional work of receiving and giving feedback, and examines the culture of trolls and haters, bullying, and misogyny. He considers the way comment—a nonstop stream of social quantification and ranking—affects our self-esteem and well-being. And he examines how comment is puzzling—short and asynchronous, these messages can be slap-dash, confusing, amusing, revealing, and weird, shedding context in their passage through the Internet, prompting readers to comment in turn, “WTF?!?”

Author: Vikas Kakwani
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 1684665264
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
“I KNOW YOU HAVE STRESS.” How do I know? Simple. Because, you are alive. Also, you have picked up this book. Wars, famine and plague were the prime causes of human misery in the centuries gone by. Over the last couple of decades, we have been able to ward off diseases, income levels and life expectancy have increased, and the world has seen its most peaceful time ever. But, instead of being happy and joyful we are stressed – a lot. Why did that happen? The change over the last few years had been rapid, and none of us were ready for it. We embraced everything that the changing world threw at us without realizing the deep impact it had caused. It is time to pause, reflect and take action before stress becomes the plague of this century. Why is stress becoming the cause of misery and ailments in this era? What is stress exactly, and what are its major causes? How does social networking in the virtual world create stress? How can one manage stress to mitigate its effect? All these questions and many more get answered in this book that helps you identify your causes of distress and help you de-stress.

Author: Max Greenfield
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593616596
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Book Description
Another hilarious picture book from actor Max Greenfield, author of I Don't Want To Read This Book and This Book Is Not a Present, dedicated to introverts of all ages, about the horrors of reading aloud. Nobody in the world actually enjoys reading aloud, do they? Impossible! After all, any number of terrible things could happen: you might come across a word you don't know how to pronounce. Or get distracted by a volcano eruption and lose your place. Even worse, you might accidentally hear the sound of your own voice! Actor Max Greenfield (New Girl, The Neighborhood) and New York Times bestselling illustrator Mike Lowery, the duo behind I Don't Want To Read This Book and This Book Is Not a Present, are back with another side-splitting picture book that's sure to have kids shouting for repeat read-alouds.

Author: Pierre Bayard
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1596917148
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
In this delightfully witty, provocative book, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that not having read a book need not be an impediment to having an interesting conversation about it. (In fact, he says, in certain situations reading the book is the worst thing you could do.) Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, he describes the varieties of "non-reading"-from books that you've never heard of to books that you've read and forgotten-and offers advice on how to turn a sticky social situation into an occasion for creative brilliance. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read-which became a favorite of readers everywhere in the hardcover edition-is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them.

Author: Eric Jerome Dickey
Publisher: Dutton
ISBN: 0451466101
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
Her name is Reaper. She kills. And so does her sister. Wherever the Barbarians send her she goes, then gets out quickly. Within hours she's wearing a new disguise, a new accent, a new wig and is on the way to a new continent, a new assignment. But when a job goes bad in Trinidad and she kills two of the island's ruthless gangsters, the Laventille Killers, the Barbarians aren't pleased. Filled with pulse-pounding suspense, steamy romance and complex characters, A Wanted Woman will have legions of fans panting for more.

Author: Bill Cotter
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1402287488
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
There's only one rule in Larry's book: don't push the button. (Seriously, don't even think about it!) Even if it does look kind of nice, you must never push the button. Who knows what would happen? Okay, quick. No one is looking... push the button. Uh, oh.

Author: Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 153872474X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
Whose truth is the lie? Stay up all night reading the sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Too Late and It Ends With Us. #1 New York Times Bestseller · USA Today Bestseller · Globe and Mail Bestseller · Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.

Author: Nicholas A. Basbanes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780979949159
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 635

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Book Description
A Gentle Madness continues to astound and delight readers about the passion and expense a collector is willing to make in pursuit of the book. The book captures that last moment in time when collectors pursued their passions in dusty bookshops and street stalls, high stakes auctions, and the subterfuge worthy of a true bibliomaniac. An adventure among the afflicted, A Gentle Madness is vividly anecdotal and thoroughly researched. Nicholas Basbanes brings an investigative reporter's heart to illuminate collectors past and present in their pursuit of bibliomania. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Author: Dan Chernenko
Publisher: ROC Hardcover
ISBN: 9780451459671
Category : Illegitimate children of royalty
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
Since the loss of the Scepter of Mercy, the kingdom of Avornis has been threatened by its magic-wielding neighbors, until King Lanius and King Grus risk everything to bring the missing scepter home.

Author: The Freedom Writers
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0767928334
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The twentieth anniversary edition of the classic story of an incredible group of students and the teacher who inspired them, featuring updates on the students’ lives, new journal entries, and an introduction by Erin Gruwell Now a public television documentary, Freedom Writers: Stories from the Heart In 1994, an idealistic first-year teacher in Long Beach, California, named Erin Gruwell confronted a room of “unteachable, at-risk” students. She had intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust. She was met by uncomprehending looks—none of her students had heard of one of the defining moments of the twentieth century. So she rebooted her entire curriculum, using treasured books such as Anne Frank’s diary as her guide to combat intolerance and misunderstanding. Her students began recording their thoughts and feelings in their own diaries, eventually dubbing themselves the “Freedom Writers.” Consisting of powerful entries from the students’ diaries and narrative text by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary is an unforgettable story of how hard work, courage, and determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students. In the two decades since its original publication, the book has sold more than one million copies and inspired a major motion picture Freedom Writers. And now, with this twentieth-anniversary edition, readers are brought up to date on the lives of the Freedom Writers, as they blend indispensable takes on social issues with uplifting stories of attending college—and watch their own children follow in their footsteps. The Freedom Writers Diary remains a vital read for anyone who believes in second chances.