Announcing the SUMMER 2012 ReadaThing (July 26-August 2)!!

Here's the much anticipated Official Announcement of the Summer 2012 ReadaThing!!

We'll be reading from Thursday July 26th through Thursday August 2nd, depending on your location. Remember, this is a ReadaThing, not a readathon, so no one needs to try to read for seven full days . . . though kudos to anyone who does! An hour or so, one or more times during the week, is fine.

The Summer ReadaThing begins at Noon Thursday July 26th, UTC/GMT, which is 8 am Thursday July 26 in the Eastern US (LT time :), 5 am in the Western US, 2 am in Hawaii, 2 pm in Western Europe, 4 pm in Moscow, 10 pm in Sydney, Australia, and Midnight (Th/Fr) in New Zealand! (see Time Zone Chart below)

The signup & wiki page is up!!
http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/ReadathingSummer2012

TIME CHART:
I've reduced the Time Zone Chart to 2 days below. The full 7-day chart can be found
here and at the Wiki.



The ending times for this ReadaThing



If you want to join in the read, but aren't sure WHEN you can read, or can't plan, there is the "No Timeline" readers signup on the wikipage after the timeline.

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What is ReadaThing?

ReadaThing is NOT a read-a-thon!! You do not have to read for the entire week unless you want to! ReadaThing is a time when we gather to read & share what we read. The best analogy is that RaT is like a relay race where a runner hands a baton off to the next runner. Some of the readers sign up for specific reading times & some don't, but there is always someone in the group reading somewhere in the world.

There are several major threads for the ReadaThing: this announcement/information thread, the "what I will/may be reading" thread, the Log Book & reviews/reports thread, and the Quotations thread.

There is a wikipage for the signups (see above). There will not be a wikipage for the books, please use Touchstones in the "What I will/may be reading" and the "Log Book" threads to provide a record of all the books read during the RaT.

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"No Timeline" Readers

After the timeline on the wiki-signup page, there is an area where you can signup for the "No Timeline" readers.

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If you find any errors, please let me know.

If you have any questions, post them here or PM me on my profile page. And there are lots of people willing to help if you need help with the wikipage or just have questions! Questions are good!

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Many thanks to skittles for the template of this announcement (which I stole from a previous RaT announcement) and for steering this ship so well during past ReadaThings . . . and to jjmcgaffey and majkia for all their help getting this one together . . . it takes a village :)

So, does this mean if you live in the Southern Hemisphere and experiencing winter, that you can't participate?
It certainly discourages me!

Hi LucindaLibri
Hi jjmcgaffey and majkia

Thanks a lot for your organising and keeping the ReadaThing alive. I'm looking forward to this week and will start it on my flight back home from Manchester to Zürich. I already filled in the 'No Timeline' as well as the specific time on Thursday the 26th. I'll fill out the timeline later on, because I'll have my summer holiday I'll be able to fill a lot of gaps in the timeline.

I've signed up to the No Timeline Readers. I'll probably put my name in some hour slots a bit closer to the actual Readathon - when I know what times I can read:)

See you all there.

I signed up under the No Timeline readers... I'll know closer to the time if I can put down for a specific time/date.

>2 Lman: Lman . . . sorry about that. We had been calling it the July 2012 ReadaThing, but then it spread into August, so that got confusing. How about Mid-2012 ReadaThing? or JulAug 2012 RaT? Other ideas?

Also apologies for the Northern-Hemisphere-centric listing of time zones.

Please join us regardless of the name! :)

And perhaps we should gather some info about where we all are reading, to get a better picture of the event and to avoid future geocentric blunders.

Here in the central U.S. we've been under such a heat wave that it is difficult to remember that Winter ever existed anywhere! (and I live in Minnesota, so I'm familiar with Winter)

Lman: So sorry! We were so focused on getting the timeline and the timing straight we blundered. Well, the Theme thread at least does take y'all Southerners into account!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/139197 One saving grace???

Note to European users - and others inclined to use GMT for reference. The table uses UTC/GMT (aka Zulu Time) - so: compensate current daylight saving time back out of it.

Like calm I've now signed up to the No Timeline readers but will probably change that when we get closer to the event.

I'm kind of excited that I can participate in this, since I'm out of school and actually have time to read. I've signed up for the No Timeline right now, but once I have my work schedule, I'll probably switch to some actual time slots.

> 8 Sorry about that, we had two versions of the chart, I hadn't noticed that this version uses GMT but omits the time zone indicators for the other locations. I believe they are already listed as the Daylight Savings Times where those are appropriate (GMT isn't really in use in many places in the summer, but can still be a reference; it doesn't really go away :).

Our intent was the following for start times:
Honolulu, Hawaii (HAST): 2 am
Western USA/Canada (PDT): 5 am
Eastern USA/Canada (EDT): 8 am
UTC/GMT : Noon
London, UK (BST/British Summer Time/DST): 1 pm
Central Europe (Paris/Berlin) (CEST/Central European Summer Time/DST): 2 pm
Moscow (MSK): 4 pm
Sydney, Australia (EST): 10 pm
Auckland NZ (NZST): Midnight

Is that consistent with you BarkingMatt?

We've based everything on the info at:
http://www.timeanddate.com/time/

May I also just say that I find Daylight Savings Time to be an utterly useless and confusing invention!

No problem - we all know you're doing your best. Merely pointing something out in an effort to avoid confusion. GMT is slightly ambiguous - it can mean UTC/Zulu time, which doesn't take daylight saving into account, or British time, which does. My time zone is GMT+1 (in computer settings, for example), but during summer time it's UTC/Zulu +2.

As to the matter: sounds good, no problem as far as I can see.

May I also just say that I find Daylight Savings Time to be an utterly useless and confusing invention!

Amen to that.

>12 Nicole_VanK: Ditto!

Spring Daylight Savings Time Change = Curse Ben Franklin Week (since he came up with the idea of DST, even though he didn't implement it.)

I never really understood the concept behind this daylight saving thingy. Simply agree to get up one hour earlier if you must - that's all it really means. No reason to mess up time zones.

There is a note in the column header for GMT that (for this RaT) "UK is +1" - it was supposed to point out the daylight savings time difference. I guess it's not big enough, or something (and yes, Lucinda had a chart with the British time in a separate column...oh well). Is it confusing enough to be worth redoing the image? Can be done - not hard, just a lot of steps. (serious question. This is our first attempt at setting up a RaT, tell us what you need, what works and doesn't.)

And I definitely agree about daylight savings time. It's a pain if you work night shift, too - either an extended shift or a shortened one - which is annoying if you're paid hourly. (I don't work nights now, but I used to.)

Is it confusing enough to be worth redoing the image?

I don't think so. Just provided a "caveat".

>16 jjmcgaffey: I think we've got everything clarified now, so let's leave it be. This is our rookie season :) we can "perfect" things next time.

>10 LucindaLibri:

Move to a country or territory that does not observe Daylight Savings :) The only problem is that everyone else does though... but still.

I used to live in Indiana. Most of the state didn't observe DST, but the "border towns" did, so that was confusing. (Now even Indiana has DST.) And even though my time never changed, my family was in places that did, so I was always asking "Are we on the same time right now, or are you ahead/behind me?"

I didn't mind when I thought that it actually saved energy (what the PR used to say) . . . Recently I learned that the main motivation is that people go out and spend more money when it stays light out later . . . So now I'm just annoyed that it is really just another excuse to encourage consumerism.

After this recent DST confusion, I'm considering adopting UTC as my personal time zone and forcing everyone around me to adjust! :)

Zulu (utc) time is great - it's the only one (as far as I know) that's totally unambiguous. That's why the military / navy / etc. are using it.

My dad was a radioman in the Navy in WWII & a ham radio operator. Had me and my friends learning Morse code and semaphore as kids. I'm surprised he didn't have us on Zulu Time :)

LOL Lucinda.

*bump*

I worked 7 years in a State Department crisis center (the Operations Center, though it's nothing like Tom Clancy's). I think in military time, and am generally aware of my offset from GMT - but daylight savings still bothers me. Especially trying to figure out when it starts and ends.

I signed up for the no timeline group, but I did something wrong and my name ended up outside of the table. I most certainly am Wiki-challenged, sorry! But I am looking forward to this-- too hot here to do anything outside, so it's good weather for cranking up the AC and curling up with a book and some iced coffee :-)

Fixed:)

#24 I worked for the Joint Chiefs of Staff when stationed at the Pentagon. All too familiar with Ops Centers.

We all have books galore, and perhaps this might be a good time to reread an old favorite that we have not taken off the shelf for a longlong time. I will dedicate my readathing time to this.

I will try to join in but I don't want to sign up for no time or on the time line cause I can't guarantee that I will be reading at all that week.

Ten minutes of reading counts - stick yourself on the no timeline readers, and if you read the back of a cereal box it counts!

I don't know if I will be around that week so I don't want to sign up right now. I may be busy that I don't get anytime to read. If I am able to read I will then sign up.

Once upon a time, Daylight Savings made sense. It simply adjusted the workday to fit in with daylight hours thereby saving energy. You didn't have lights on when it was light so getting up "Later" saved energy and also made things a bit safer. Without it school kids would be waiting for a bus in the dark. Changing the clocks made sense because you didn't have to change the time. You just adjusted the clock and didn't have to think about anything else. Fast easy and simple. With modern technology, it no longer makes sense.

I signed up for the no timeline. I read all the time anyway.

Good to see that we've filled approximately 1/3 of the time slots, plus have quite a few "No Timeline" readers signed up. Please keep filling in the signup as your plans become more clear.

I've added a "What/Where will you read thread".

Thanks for all your work in organizing this summer's readathing Lucinda. I'm joining simply because I deserve it and I need it to retain my sanity :0) Off to the wiki.

Can someone please help me with understanding this? I am completely new here and I would like to sign up but I don't know how this works. I read the directions and everything but I still don't understand :(

Sure - I'll post a comment on your profile asking for the info I need to add you to the wiki.

I have no good excuse, like being new here, but I too would love to read a comment explaining how to do this. Could you, jjmcgaffey, copy and post the comment on my profile, too?

I'm looking forward to this ReadaThing! Thank you to everyone who helped organize it.

Karen, it is just like TIOLI. Go to the wiki, select your time and add your profile link. Or select the no timeline, and add yourself there.

Here's the wiki:
http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/ReadathingSummer2012

The comment I left mostly asked for what times mariaalexandriac4769 wanted to read, and what her time zone is, so I could put her in the right slot. majkia actually put her on.

The instructions on the Wiki page say, for the timeline signup:

Instructions

Before you start editing, look at the timeline (below) to find which time slot you'd like to fill in. Note the GMT time or the US/EDT(EST) time, as this will help you find the right line to edit.
Open up the page by clicking EDIT which is to the far right of the word "TIMELINE".
Each hour is a row in the table. The | (bar) marks define the columns.
Fill in the box with the text in bold below, making sure to then exchange the two spots it says USERNAME for your actual username:
[http://www.librarything.com/profile/USERNAME USERNAME]
Click SHOW PREVIEW to see what you've changed. This has not saved your work, but it does let you see if you need to fix something.
When you're done editing, click SAVE PAGE.

Example

If I want to read at 8am Eastern time, this is what I'll look for:

| 8:00 AM || NOON || MIDNIGHT ||
|-

Now, I'll add my name, and create a link to my profile. This is not done with HTML. Instead, you use brackets to associate a URL with the text you want to see. Put an opening bracket ([), then the link, then a space, then what text you'd like to actually show, then a closing bracket (]).

| 8:00 AM || NOON || MIDNIGHT || [http://www.librarything.com/profile/LT_name LT_name]
|-

If there's already a name in the space, put a comma and space, then your info:

| 8:00 AM || NOON || MIDNIGHT || [http://www.librarything.com/profile/LT_name LT_name], [http://www.librarything.com/profile/Other_LT_name Other_LT_name]
|-

For the No Timeline signup, it's like the last bit; put a comma, a space, and your link and username in brackets after the last name.

Or ask here or give me a PM and I'll put you on - no problem!

It's so cool to think that LTers are reading all around the world at the same time! I'm jumping in but in the No Timeline section. I'm too fickle to commit to a specific time. ;-)

Oh dear, I am new to Library Thing and was so excited to be reading and reviewing with a group of like minded readers. I am a teacher of adult literacy and although I adore my students and LOVE teaching, I so long to dig in and talk books. But now I am totally confused about how to sign up and all and thoroughly discouraged.

I'm sure there will be somebody soon to help you out. But I could manage signing up after reading the 'how to' several times. And English is not my first language, So I am not really the right person to help you. But please don't leave us!

I'll sign you up - but the fun part is the reading, not the signing up! Please join in with the fun part.

So, please feel welcome . Even if signing up somehow wouldn't work, we would still love to hear what you are reading, what you think about it, etc, etc.

>43 jpark77: jpark77 Looks like you're now in the "No Timeline" list . . . so you're "official" and should feel free to read as much as possible whenever you want :) But seriously, if you want to get filled into a specific time, just let me or jjmcgaffey know the time (and your timezone).
BTW, I participated in several ReadaThings before I figured out how to sign up . . . so no worries, just read! And then join us over on the LOGBOOK thread to share info about what you read.

Enjoy!