{"id":845,"date":"2013-09-01T07:50:37","date_gmt":"2013-09-01T11:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=845"},"modified":"2013-09-01T07:50:37","modified_gmt":"2013-09-01T11:50:37","slug":"rich-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=845","title":{"rendered":"Rich Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Book-Lovers\u2019 Warning<\/em>: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdrum.com\/\">Book Drum<\/a> is a website where you may end up spending a lot of time. U.K.-based Book Drum\u2019s slogan is \u201cBeyond the Page\u201d and that\u2019s exactly where it takes you for the 176 books it includes far. Each volunteer-produced book profile includes multiple sources of enriching content:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bookmarks: <\/strong>page-by-page commentary and illustration of the text<\/li>\n<li><strong>Summary: <\/strong>objective synopsis of the book<\/li>\n<li><strong>Setting: <\/strong>description and illustration of the main places or themes of the book<\/li>\n<li><strong>Glossary: <\/strong>foreign, invented and tricky words deciphered<\/li>\n<li><strong>Author: <\/strong>biographical information, interview videos, links and photos<\/li>\n<li><strong>Review: <\/strong>subjective analysis and evaluation of the book<\/li>\n<li><strong>Map:<\/strong> a world map pinned with descriptions of places significant in the book<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The wide variety of books they&#8217;ve profiled\u2014which feel like they\u2019ve been taken apart and put together again\u2014include many favorites, past and present. Classics from Dickens and Hardy and Austen up to and including Cormac McCarthy\u2019s <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdrum.com\/books\/the-road\/9780330447546\/index.html\">The Road<\/a> <\/i>and David Foster Wallace\u2019s <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdrum.com\/books\/infinite-jest\/9780349121086\/index.html\">Infinite Jest<\/a><\/i>. With Book Drum\u2019s help, I may finally get past page 50 of <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdrum.com\/books\/gravitys-rainbow\/9780099533214\/index.html\">Gravity\u2019s Rainbow<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cc.pbsstatic.com\/l\/95\/6795\/9780375756795.jpg?resize=181%2C280\" width=\"181\" height=\"280\" \/>I took Book Drum for a test spin using one of my favorite books, <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdrum.com\/books\/tess-of-the-durbervilles\/9780141439594\/index.html\">Tess of the D\u2019Urbervilles<\/a><\/i>. I reviewed maps of Thomas Hardy\u2019s Wessex. I read descriptions of the &#8220;life and times . . .&#8221; The bookmarks were fascinating\u2014like the notes in a cleverly annotated classic, but with pictures! I know this book well, but I\u2019d missed so much. I want to read it again, with Book Drum humming in the background. The volunteer contributor of content for <i>Tess<\/i> is novelist herself and freelance writer, as are many of the Book Drum contributors, while some are academics, recent graduate school spawn, and the like.<\/p>\n<p>Book Drum sums up the diversity of its content in this way: \u201cWhether it\u2019s video of the Rockettes in <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdrum.com\/books\/the-catcher-in-the-rye\/9780140237504\/index.html\"><i>The Catcher in the Rye<\/i><\/a><\/em>, the Italian opera tracks that accompany <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdrum.com\/books\/captain-corellis-mandolin\/9780099288022\/index.html\"><i>Captain Corelli\u2019s Mandolin<\/i><\/a><\/em>, the historical context and maps of <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdrum.com\/books\/the-odyssey\/9780140449112\/index.html\"><i>The Odyssey<\/i><\/a><\/em>, stunning South American photography for <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdrum.com\/books\/in-patagonia\/9780099769514\/index.html\"><i>In Patagonia<\/i><\/a><\/em>, or video of Kabul kite fighting for Khaled Hosseini\u2019s <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdrum.com\/books\/the-kite-runner\/9780747566533\/index.html\">The Kite Runner<\/a>,<\/i> we take readers beyond the page to enjoy interactive content alongside their favourite books.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Book Drum also has begun publishing for e-readers, with two titles so far, <i>Heart of Darkness<\/i> and <i>The Turn of the Screw<\/i>. <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/product\/B00ARLDQTY\/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=boodru-21&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738&amp;creativeASIN=B00ARLDQTY\">This link<\/a><\/i> takes you to the Amazon page for the latter, where you can See Inside. It\u2019s the same principle as the website, but feels pushy. I might get used to it, but my initial reaction is I\u2019d rather seek out the enriched content than be distracted by its intrusive presence. Similarly, I usually read the notes of a traditionally annotated book a chapter at a time, rather than constantly break the tenuous thread of my thought.<\/p>\n<p>The site uses the Wiki approach, so anyone can contribute. Last spring, the Book Drum editors sent out a call for content for a profile of <i>A Tale of Two Cities<\/i>.\u00a0Now I find this out! I wrote something very similar a few years ago when I was trying to convince Audible.com to offer companion .pdfs to some of its books, like those with lots of characters or foreign-named ones (think Russians!). It&#8217;s hard to keep track of the players without a program. I proposed one-line chapter summaries for people whose listening gets interrupted for a few days or weeks&#8211; \u201cWhere was I?,\u201d a glossary to cover old-fashioned terms, foreign phrases, and special uses&#8211;also harder to follow when you just hear, rather than see, them. I even included a link to the raucous song the <em>citoyens<\/em> danced to in the blood-soaked Paris streets. So Book Drum has found a happy reader with me!<\/p>\n<p><i>Thanks to writing buddy David Ludlum for sharing this resource.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Book-Lovers\u2019 Warning: Book Drum is a website where you may end up spending a lot of time. U.K.-based Book Drum\u2019s slogan is \u201cBeyond the Page\u201d and that\u2019s exactly where it takes you for the 176 books it includes far. Each &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=845\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,40,68,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-fiction","category-publishing","category-readers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-dD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions\/846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}