[bksvol-discuss] Re: Awesome - 151,663 Titles on Bookshare

  • From: Cindy <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:44:33 -0700 (PDT)

Thanks, Chela. I'm happy my descriptions added to your pleasure in the book.
Cindy




>________________________________
> From: Chela Robles <cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxx>
>To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
>Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 11:27 PM
>Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Awesome - 151,663 Titles on Bookshare
> 
>
>Hello all it is a well known metaphor while I totally agree that pictures are 
>worth tons of thousands of words, I was merely quoting the metaphor which I 
>learned from English, though the instructors never expanded on that so I 
>argued constantly with them regarding this saying, telling them that pictures 
>if described so exquisitely, that it is more than a thousand words depending 
>on the picture itself. You did a great job with describing the ones in Kind Of 
>Blue, might I add with a Louis Armstrong grin!
>Off to bed now. Happy reading all and congratulations bookshare
      for the many books both now and future.
>
>--
"Passion is a great motivator. Music is a life-long learning experience."
--
Chela Robles
Facebook/Linked-In/E-mail/AIM/GoogleTalk: cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxx Windows Live 
Messenger: cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxxxx E-Buddy ID: cdrobles693
Skype: jazzytrumpet
Learning Ally Blog A Lady And Her Trumpet feel free to post comments by filling 
out the form on the page at: http://tinyurl.com/84tucwv I volunteer for 
Bookshare, to find out more and to volunteer with us,visit: 
http://www.bookshare.org/ Join us in celebrating our 10th Anniversary! 
http://tinyurl.com/752cyrs Need more space, come join dropbox and start with 
two gigs of free space as is this is my referral link to you: 
http://db.tt/XpUTe0E --
On 6/22/2012 11:11 PM, Cindy wrote:
>
>I must take issue with your comment that "no" words can cover all the detail 
>in a picture that an eye can take in a single glance. It does,however, take a 
>great many words. If you look at some of the early children's books for which 
>I described pictures, you'll see they are very detailed--including the 
>pictures on the walls, the furniture  in rooms, the clothes the people wore, 
>what the people looked like, what food was fallng from the sky, and more; I 
>was so used to being very detailed in my picture descriptions that I kept on 
>when I described the various photos and pictures in Medals of Honor; 
>especially when it was pointed out that many blind people had no idea what the 
>medal of Honor was or what some of the statues and locations that I identified 
>looked
>>
>>It occurred to me, later that it was not necessary in adult books that I 
>>later proofed that I had to describe the illustrations; I could just identify 
>>them. When I began describing images for the Poet Project, I continued being 
>>detailed in my descriptions; check the descriptions in the the early pages  
>>of Glencoe Health book. Then I was told that the image descriptions should be 
>>*short* complete sentences; so I stopped describing what the person looked 
>>like and what he/she was wearing and the surroundings. I wish I could 
>>remember which history book the textile mill photo is in. That description 
>>took a great many words (and time) to describe.
>>Cindy
>>
>>
>>
>>From: Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
>>>To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
>>>Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 5:20 PM
>>>Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Awesome - 151,663 Titles on Bookshare
>>>
>>>Actually, I think a picture is worth so many times
                      a thousand words that the count is unimaginable.
                      That is, no description can possibly cover all the
                      detail in a picture that a single glance can take
                      in.
>>>On 6/22/2012 6:05 PM, Chela Robles wrote:
>>>> And, you do know a picture is worth a
                      thousand words, right?
>>>> 
>>>> -- "Passion is a great motivator. Music is a
                      life-long learning experience."
>>>> -- Chela Robles
>>>> Facebook/Linked-In/E-mail/AIM/GoogleTalk: cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxx
>>>> Windows Live Messenger: cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> E-Buddy ID: cdrobles693
>>>> Skype: jazzytrumpet
>>>> Learning Ally Blog A Lady And Her Trumpet
                      feel free to post comments by filling out the form
                      on the page at: http://tinyurl.com/84tucwv
>>>> I volunteer for Bookshare, to find out more
                      and to volunteer with us,visit: http://www.bookshare.org/
>>>> Join us in celebrating our 10th Anniversary!
>>>> http://tinyurl.com/752cyrs
>>>> Need more space, come join dropbox and start
                      with two gigs of free space as is this is my
                      referral link to you: http://db.tt/XpUTe0E
>>>> -- 
>>>> On 6/22/2012 3:00 PM, Ali Al-hajamy wrote:
>>>>> It may sound odd, but even as a blind
                      participant who has never had sight of any sort,
                      illustrations are important to me because I read
                      many fictions which use illustrations in an effort
                      to produce a certain desired effect with pictures,
                      and even just knowing what is on the page is
                      enough to get me involved enough in the book to
                      feel the effect they're trying to accomplish. Two
                      examples are The Raw Shark Texts, by Steven Hall,
                      and The Tunnel, by William H. Gass. In the former
                      case, at one point, the main character falls out
                      of a ship and into water, and a giant shark made
                      entirely of words and information (it's
                      complicated) begins to swim through the water
                      twoards him. For maybe forty pages, the picture of
                      the shark is printed on the page, and it keeps
                      getting larger and larger. Because each page had a
                      description of the shark swimming twoards the
                      character, growing with each page, my experience
                      of the book was more enhanced than if I didn't
                      have those descriptions. My reaction to the rest
                      of the book was mixed, but that was one trick
                      which I thought worked very well. It was hilarious
                      and terrifying at the same time.
>>>>> The Tunnel is a more complicated case.
>>>>> (SPOILERS AHEAD! It doesn't matter since
                      I can't think of anyone here [or anywhere, really]
                      who would be interested in reading that book, but
                      just in case...)
>>>>> It is about a college professor, called
                      William Frederick Kohler, who is working on his
                      hypothesis concerning the Germans, called Guilt
                      and Innocence in Hitler's Germany. he has almost
                      completed it, save for the introduction, but
                      cannot manage to write those final pages:
>>>>> "It was my intention, when I began, to
                      write an introduction to my work on the Germans.
                      Though its thick folders lie beside me now, I know
                      I cannot. Endings, instead, possess me. all ways
                      out.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Embarrassed, I'm compelled to smile. I
                      was going to extend my sympathy to my opponents.
                      Here, in my introduction, raised above me like an
                      arch of triumph, I meant to place a wreath upon
                      myself. But each time I turned my pen to the task,
                      it turned aside to strike me.
>>>>> 
>>>>> As I look at the pages of my manuscript,
                      or stare at the books which wall my study, I
                      realize I must again attempt to put this prison of
                      my life in language."
>>>>> 
>>>>> He begins to write an extended meditation
                      about his own life instead of the introduction to
                      the book he thought he had to have. Around two
                      hundred pages in, he also begins to dig a tunnel
                      out of his basement, creating his own physical
                      metaphor and giving the books title duel meanings.
                      We, the readers, are tunnelling into his thoughts,
                      he is tunnelling out of the life he hates, with
                      the new book he is writing about himself he is
                      tunnelling away from the hypothesis he can't
                      finish. And all the tunnels lead to a dead end.
                      (There's a point to this, I swear). Gass uses
                      numerous graphical tricks to immerse you in the
                      experience. Drawings, cartoons, at one point, a
                      page that is made to look like a crinkled grocery
                      sack, ETC. I haven't read the entire book yet, but
                      one that stands out at me is the very last page.
                      Kohler has created his own imaginary political
                      group, called the party of the Disappointed
                      People, yet he knows that this, like everything
                      else, would be a failure because it's the type of
                      party few would want to admit they've joined. At
                      the end of the book, he is in ruins. His wife is
                      leaving him, he has nearly been buried alive by
                      his tunnel, he doesn't know what the point to both
                      his books was:
>>>>> "Write no more propaganda for the PdP.
                      Achieve dignity Sport a swatch of Shawwhite beard
                      bleached to remove cig stains, and trimmed square
                      to greet the face of its maker. In short, to
                      abide. In the last hamlet of feeling. I'm inclined
                      to say why not? Sure. Or dump every dirty drawer
                      onto my desk--wasn't that really Martha's
                      suggestion?--till the desk's hid, as well as
                      Tabor's turning chair and the floor which firmed
                      our feet, covering the pages of my History as my
                      History sheeted me; there to let my words wait,
                      like the disappointed people bide, before they try
                      life again. Meanwhile carry on without
                      complaining. No arm with armband raised on high.
                      No more booming bands, no searchlit skies. Or
                      shall I, like the rivers, rise? Ah. Well. Is
                      rising wise? Revolver like the Führer near an ear.
                      Or lay my mind down by sorrow's side."
>>>>> 
>>>>> The final page simply contains the symbol
                      for the PDP. I've likely mangled everything in my
                      description, because I haven't read the entire
                      book, I've never had to put my admiration for it
                      into words like this, and there's so, so much more
                      to it than what I've just described here, so the
                      effect is always diminished if you haven't read
                      the entire thing first, but to have gone through
                      everything we have with Kohler for 651 pages, to
                      have tunnelled with him, so to speak, and then to
                      read his final declaration, followed by that
                      reminder of his final failure...It's quite
                      devistating. And I don't think I would have
                      experienced the book in that manner if the images
                      were not described. I don't even need an
                      especially detailed description, though it helps,
                      just something to signify what is on the page. And
                      Bookshare staff and volunteers do both
                      wonderfully.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Tl;dr (too long; didn't read) version
                      (since I think there might be one person who has
                      read this entire message):
>>>>> I REALLY LIKE THE DESCRIPTIONS THEY'RE
                      VERY HELPFUL AND MAKE THE BOOK-READING EXPERIENCE
                      BETTER!
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 22-Jun-12 15:40, Judy s. wrote:
>>>>>> I just looked at the new version of
                      Bookshare's entry page on the website 
(http://www.bookshare.org). I love the new feature on the right hand side of 
the page that's a counter of how many books are in the collection.  As of 
today, there are 151,663 titles.  That is totally awesome.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> As a sighted but disabled member, I'm
                      also grateful for and thrilled by the number of
                      publisher quality books that have entered the
                      collection in the last 18 months with the original
                      illustrations intact.  I haven't read a book where
                      I can look at the illustrations for over 20
                      years.  Way to go, Bookshare!  I'm psyched about
                      the POET project to get illustrations described.
                      It gives me hope that eventually everyone can have
                      access to both illustrations and good descriptions
                      of the illustrations in the future.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Judy s.
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>>>>> 
>>>> 
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