Keeping up and Austen everywhere

In an effort to prove to our funders that we are thoroughly Web 2.0 savvy, I've had a Twitter account at work since earlier in the year, but I can't say that I was doing anything with it beyond alerting people to grant deadlines - very dull. Younger son is rarely seen without his Android phone, and frequently regales me with what Stephen Fry and other luminaries are doing today, but I hadn't realised that book bloggers had embraced social networking quite so enthusiastically until Cornflower bravely took the plunge - creeping in on her coat tails, so to speak, I found lots of other friends already there. Younger son set me up with Tweetdeck, so that I can keep track of both accounts, and now it's possible to take a couple of minutes out now and then to have a quick look at maps from the British Library, to read Oxford World Classics' Fact of the Day or to see that overnight they hit 200 followers, to learn that author Jon Courtenay Grimwood is suffering from cold hands just like me or, occasionally, to re-tweet interesting trivia from the Canadian press (that's the work bit that justifies having it there all day).

There's an interesting short video here, which popped up while I was writing this, Colm Tóibín talking about his most recent book, Brooklyn, and how he drew on Pride and Prejudice in writing it. JA is definitely the flavour of the moment!

Comments

  1. I am not the hugest fan of Twitter in all the land, but I do like to see what the museums and publishers and theatres I love are getting up to. Because I am that much of a dork.

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  2. Hmmmm you give me motivation and courage. I set up a twitter account ages ago and have not done anything wityh it even though I do quite like the idea. i may have a go now, thank you indeed for your post!

    Hannah

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  3. Jenny, it's funny how things work for one person and not necessarily for another. For instance, I just can't get on with Facebook, though I know quite a few people who love it.

    Hannah, give it a go! and if you do, let me know and you can assured of a follower straight away. (Oh, I like that - you know how in Edwardian books young women going into service are always told by the dragon of a housekeeper "And I don't allow no followers!" accompanied by a sniff.)

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  4. As a Canadian Anglophile, I'm interested (and slightly baffled) by your interest in Canadian literature and news. Where does your interest come from, if you don't mind me asking? Did you study Canadian literature? You seem quite knowledgeable about it! Canada just seems like such an arbitrary country to be interested in! :P

    I enjoy your blog, btw!

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  5. Liz, there are actually quite a few people here interested in Canada - after all, lots of us have relatives and friends there.You are interesting both culturally and politically and quite a number of UK universities have courses on Canada. And it's not just us, Canadian Studies is popular in Eastern Europe, and Australia and New Zealand and India share aspects of a colonial history with Canada...literature is the strongest area as postcolonial literature applies just about everywhere, but there's quite a lot of interest in things like reasonable accommodation and treaty negotiations.

    You may have gathered from all of this that I work in Canadian Studies. Funnily enough, when I tell people that, the only ones who are surprised are Canadians. This reminds me of the joke Atwood tells about getting Canadians out of a swimming pool :)

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  6. I remain a twitter-free zone but I can see the advantages; I'm an avid follower of reelmolesworth, but on the web.
    Cold hands? Mittens! I'm wearing them right now, May or not. My mouse hand gets particularly cold.

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  7. I like reelmolesworth too, and have been following so it makes me laugh from time to time. And yes, I've wearing mittens since I complained, though I hate typring in them. I want to make wrist warmers for next winter that pull down over my hands but leave my fingers completely free for typing, but I don't find knitting very easy because of RSI. I've been amusing myself learning fimgerloop braiding instead, but it doesn't keep the hands warm!

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  8. I've just thought, I could make single wrist warmers = half as much knitting, because yes, it's only the mouse hand that suffers badly.

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  9. I've been on Twitter for a while too but don't 'tweet' much other than links to my posts!

    I'm now following you!

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  10. I am interested to read that you now use Twitter. I have spent some time reading the postings of people, such as Cornflower, whose web-based social networking I admire greatly. I must say that I have not found any of it either useful or interesting. Now I am aware that for some purposes, such as rapidly disseminating information, it has a place. We use it at my University to warn people (students mainly) of, for example, unexpected early closing of the library.

    Do let us know if you are an avid fan in a couple of months and what aspect of it works well for you.

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