The first is Good Search, a search engine powered by Yahoo! search. The nifty thing about Good Search is that for every internet search you conduct, $0.01 goes to the charity of your choice.
You can also save your preferred charity so that every search you conduct automatically donates a penny to your cause. When I use goodsearch, I choose LeaderTreks, a nearby missionary organization for which one of my best friends works.
Here's the only catch I've discovered. Unless more than $20 are raised in one calendar year, Good Search does not issue a check to that organization. This won't be a problem for organizations like Save Darfur (having currently raised nearly $3,000) and the ASPCA ($4,400) and other large organizations. Instead the smaller groups, like LeaderTreks, will miss out.
So I'm asking you to start using Good Search. And if you don't already have a cause to support, let me recommend LeaderTreks, which has currently raised only $2.70. And I'm fairly certain, sadly, that almost all of those have been my searches.
All of you search the web; everyone does. You might as well donate money as you do it. Right?
Here's the link:
http://www.goodsearch.com/
"If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist
hammering on our skull, why then do we read it?...A book must be
like an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us." --Franz Kafka
The second site I'm recommending is called goodreads.
Once you create your own account, you have the chance to stock your bookshelves with books you "have read," are "currently reading," and those you plan "to read." Of course you can also add friends and see what they've read, or plan to read. And it can be one more online communication tool.
But that's not what I like about goodreads (which could be why I have 0 friends on their site). I like that it allows users to rank the books they've read. Using a 1-5 star scoring range, users have the opportunity to encourage others to read books they love and discourage people from reading those books they detest.I could say more about this site. But instead, I'll just encourage you to check it out. It's worth it.
http://www.goodreads.com/
And if you choose to check it out...feel free to add me as a friend. My goodreads name is Tyler Charles. Lacking in originality, maybe, but easy enough to find.
And don't forget to start using goodsearch. It's worth it.
--Thanks for Reading
4 comments:
Tyler, why didn't you mention the goodsearch thing before? Silly man, do you know how many web searches I make during an average day? Well, neither do I, but it's typically quite a few. LeaderTreks now has at least one search that can't go under your name.
I'll check out the goodreads thing, but it sounds similar to another site I've tried out (LibraryThing). I'll let you know how they compare.
Chad,
You're just too quick for me.
As I was posting this, I thought, "I should tell Chad to read this post. He does a lot of web browsing, and he likes to read. So both these things might interest him."
So I was right on both counts. Just too slow to notify you.
But I'm glad to know that you found it on your own, glad to know you're reading my blog.
I hope you're doing well, buddy.
p.s. Did you finish The Fountainhead yet? Like it?
Tyler, I know you're only making me come back here so you can get a little more traffic and notoriety, but I'll play along this once. (Next time, I'll make you check your email to get a response.)
goodsearch is nice--I added quite a few of the 22 cents donated today, I think, though today was an unusually web-search-full day. I can see what you mean about it being limited, though, but it's been good enough, I guess.
goodreads is also nice, from what little I checked it out last night. It's free, which is a definite leg up on LibraryThing, which only allows 200 or 250 books before you have to pay. Of course, the subscriptions are pretty cheap ($10 a year or $25 for life, I think), so that's not too bad. (Considering I added almost that many books the night I signed up, I got to thinking I should get a subscription, but I never did.) I haven't added anything to my shelf yet (I'm holding off on that excitement for a while), but I'll let you know more when I have time.
As for The Fountainhead, I finished it several weeks ago. It's great, like Atlas Shrugged was, and it's probably a good book for anyone and everyone to read, though you still have to take everything with a grain of salt (or maybe two). You can definitely tell she's a Russian from the 1920's and '30's, though that shows up a lot more in Atlas than here. I'll probably add it to my collection when I get some extra money and a yearning to own another classic of modern literature.
Not to intrude upon this discussion (if that is even a moral dilemma on the internet), but one other important and interesting facet to the topic of Rand's literature is that, from my perception, her philosophy and literature in many ways is reactionary to Communist Russia. In many ways, Rand's philosophy was a shiney beacon in the horizon in its advocation of rational self-interest and the pursuit of ones own happiness. Rand's philosophy is applicable in a multitude of situations in life, but the incredible weight of her absolutes seem to be historically exclusive... just to sprinkle some salt on the buttered toast.
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