Overwhelmed and Excited

I've been having a bit of an overwhelming experience all of a sudden. My class is working on an Ebook together about literature in the digital age. Specifically, using the Amazon, Goodreads, and Kindle platforms. I felt all was going well, and then today I found out that my chapters pretty much need to be done (or at least in rough draft form) in the next couple of weeks. Uhhh what? At that news my brain shut down, and all my ideas for my chapters scattered at the thought of actually being used.

I guess in my mind writing my chapters has been a far off experience. Something I could do later.
Yet here it is.
Now.

So today I took a nap, drank some hot chocolate, and decided to pull myself together and figure this thing out. And to figure it out, I delved more into the academic side of what I'm working on. The personal aspect of it is always the easiest, so why not start with the hardest part first?

So I'm working on two chapters, and I've actually chosen to use a different book for each. And doing research for them is quite a contrasting experience!

My first chapter I'm working on is about how to write a good review for each different platform, as well as the impact that these reviews have and how they work differently. And for this, I'm using the book "The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale. I'm comparing the way there's different "languages" in the book (animal speaking, people speaking, element speaking) to the way different people use reviews, as well as the different "reviews" of her life that the main character receives when she's a princess as well as when she's under cover so to say. Now this was a bit more difficult research for me as this isn't a super well known book, or fairy tale that it's based upon. I was able to find a lot of information on the author herself (who's an amazing woman who you should definitely check out), but not much on the book itself or why it matters. Which to me, makes this sort of a fun project because I actually get to create something myself!

And then my other chapter I'm working on is finding a way to make our online presence of worth, as well as finding our place and becoming more comfortable in this strange world we're referring to as the digiliteracy world. And guess what? Surprise! I'm actually using a whole series to help me along in this topic, one that many people already feel at home in. And that's the "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling. And doing research for this one was VASTLY different because Harry Potter is so well known that there's pretty much something out there comparing this series to almost anything. While this means it's very relevant for the point I'm trying to make, it also created a new level of anxiety because there's so much information I just don't even know where to start, or what is actually relevant to my cause, as well as the overall cause of our Ebook..

Both "The Goose Girl" and "Harry Potter" are pretty personal books for me that I grew up with, and thus at the age of 21 this also means that these books grew up while the internet has also been growing up. There's been a lot of growing up in the digital age, and the literary age, and I'm sure there's a lot more growing up to be. Which is why I'm actually getting pretty excited (although intimidated) about doing my portion for these things because I've grown up with all these changes, and I'm excited to see the way that what I know and the knowledge I've gained will affect the digiliterature world in the future.

It may be bold to say that my ideas will change the world, but hey, you never know.

Working Working Table of Contents

Phew! It has been so enlightening to go through everyone's posts again and get a better feel for the direction we want to go with our ebook about digiliterism... digitiliteraritism? Anyway! After combing through lots and lots of ideas that our class has come up with, I returned to our original idea, which was an ebook that outlines "how Kindle, Amazon, and Goodreads are influencing literacy and literary study today" (Dr. Burton, instructional blogpost). We have TONS of good ideas, but I think there are a lot of things we can shift and combine and cut in order to drive more toward a united purpose. So the broad idea is: how do modern methods of readership influence literacy and literary study? Specifically, we want to comment on the following platforms: Kindle, Amazon, and Goodreads. So for the purpose of helping myself to see how many of our chapters will relate to each platform, I divided up our chapters into the following four sections: How We Read: Kindle; How We Interact: Goodreads; How We Buy: Amazon; and Other (for those subjects that don't necessarily fit under just one platform). I think the division is uneven, but I don't know that we need to be concerned about that. What do you think?

Meshing of Ideas

So after brainstorming up our own ideas (click here for mine) for our e-book “Digiliteracy” based on novels and this digital era of consuming literature online we all are putting our ideas together. So in order to collaborate eight peoples’ ideas all together here is a rough draft of the table of contents that I came up with:

Reading in the Digital Age: What it Changes

Saren: “Welcome to the age of Digiliteracy” The Digital age is changing how we read, and we must find our home in this new world.

Shelby: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” There is a sense of nonacceptance to change into the more digital sense of reading on a platform such as the Kindle. 

(I think that this could also go along with Shelby's third idea, click here)

Lauren: “The Double Edged Sword of Digital Reading” We can both gain and lose experiences by only participating in the Digital world of literature.

Nathan: “Reading outside of the book” We are commonly reading books out-of-order, or maybe even skipping to the end. 

Reader Response

Jenna: “Digital Footprints” Goodreads and Amazon use the reviews or "footprints" to tailor our digital experiences.

Nathan: “Digitally Accounatable” Our opinion can be readily shared due to social medias such as Goodreads and Amazon.

Meghan: “The Social Norm” While writing and rating on Goodreads we can be influenced by what is socially accepted instead of voicing our opinions.

Emily:“Goodbye Innocence” We can encounter many spoilers or even fail to read a book because of poor reviews published on Goodreads and Amazon.

Saren: “Watch how you review” The way we review books is different on Goodreads and Amazon.

The Authors  

Jenna: “Who wrote it?” Self-publishing has become increasingly popular, but will this distract us from the rawness of the original work?

Shelby: “Piracy” With the sense of entitlement readers can search to illegally download an author’s work.

Emily: “Readers becoming the Author” Authors are able to communicate with readers, and readers with authors through blog discussions and other mediums. Could the readers voice take away the Authors’ creativity?

Literature Availability 

Meghan: “Book Ownership” There are diverse ways in which we can read books. There is now the option of renting books.

Leah: “Re-consumption” Novels are more accessible on Amazon’s Kindle and therefore allowing us to reread many of the classics.

Meghan: “Piracy Epidemic” Instantaneous gratification is more prevalent and the consumer is becoming entitled and may even believe that they should receive books immediately and free of any cost. 

So there is A LOT of really great ideas in there and even more if you continue reading on the blog! 

Another chapter could be based on reading on the Kindle specifically; like a feature review. For example, there is a vocabulary builder based on words that you looked up in the dictionary. There is also a way to highlight and take notes. So it would be helpful to have one chapter about that. 

Time to Buckle Down

I have been having a blast starting to really dig into the project that this blog is coordinating. This ebook that we are working to  pull together on digital reading or “Digiliteracy” as we have been calling it, is quite the undertaking but I really think we have some great ideas starting to form! I have put together a rough Table of Contents with a few ideas about how we could possibly organize everyone’s wonderful ideas. I also tried to put together some creative ways to tie in the works of literature we will be using as our filter for our different subjects.