An idea for Reading Recommendations

[Calenorn]

As a way to recommend books, I'm thinking of a starting a thread in which we would copy and post a passage (or an entire chapter?) of a book we enjoyed that is available here at mobileread.

Would posting excerpts in that way be allowed by the site's policies?

Is there a maximum size (number of lines? characters?) for messages that are posted here?

Would anyone be interested in contributing to a thread like that?

[TonyGamble]

Would anyone be interested in contributing to a thread like that?

If my reaction is of any value it is a thread I'd totally ignore.

I've been spending a bit of time looking at Recommendations on GoodReads and Amazon. It seems clear that the algorithms on both sites are skewed to promote the new titles. So you get books recommended by less than ten people and proven titles recommended by hundreds of people way down on the lists.

For example type in Biographies and Autobiographies on Kindle and see what a bizarre list it produces.


Tony

[Calenorn]

I was thinking about only using books available for download here, so mostly older public domain titles. I thought that by posting an excerpt we could help others get the feel for the book. I wasn't thinking of any poll or other sort of vote or count. It would of course be more personal and much smaller in scale than anything done at Goodreads or Amazon. Strictly anecdotal.

[Dr. Drib]

Moved to the Feedback forum.

Don
(Moderator)

[Dr. Drib]

1) Posting a small excerpt for Fair Use [from a book or ebook] is allowed for use to provide commentary from our members for critical discussions and 'argumentative' analyses.

2) Posting an entire chapter would bring into question the Fair Use copyright issue. There are no hard-and-fast rules on the 'transformative' and 'limited' purpose of Fair Use, [two of the argued issues used to control Fair Use copyright, so that copyright is NOT violated.]

Mobileread chooses, therefore, not to have an excerpted chapter reproduced on its site.





Don
(Moderator)

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

1) Posting a small excerpt for Fair Use [from a book or ebook] is allowed for use to provide commentary from our members for critical discussions and 'argumentative' analyses.

2) Posting an entire chapter would bring into question the Fair Use copyright issue. There are no hard-and-fast rules on the 'transformative' and 'limited' purpose of Fair Use, [two of the argued issues used to control Fair Use copyright, so that copyright is NOT violated.]

Mobileread chooses, therefore, not to have an excerpted chapter reproduced on its site.





Don
(Moderator)

Okay, so a paragraph or two would be acceptable.

I'm disappointed that the thread was moved. Seems to me that the best place to discuss how people might like to use the "Reading Recommendations" forum would be in that forum itself.

But maybe I'm wrong. We'll see if anyone else replies now that it's here.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

1) Posting a small excerpt for Fair Use [from a book or ebook] is allowed for use to provide commentary from our members for critical discussions and 'argumentative' analyses.

2) Posting an entire chapter would bring into question the Fair Use copyright issue. There are no hard-and-fast rules on the 'transformative' and 'limited' purpose of Fair Use, [two of the argued issues used to control Fair Use copyright, so that copyright is NOT violated.]

Mobileread chooses, therefore, not to have an excerpted chapter reproduced on its site.

How does fair use come into it when the suggestion referred specifically to public domain books?

I can see that excessive length is a legitimate issue, but copyright certainly isn't.

[Mike L]

Leaving aside the copyright issue (if any), I personally wouldn't want to see whole chapters - or even just a few paragraphs - posted in the way suggested here. I think it's up to the person making the recommendation to get across the details of the books, its merits, and the reasons for reading it. If that motivates me to go further, I would then download the whole book from the library, or at least download a sample in the case of a commercial title.

But that's just my opinion. If the majority wanted entire chapters posted in a thread, that's fine.

Mike

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Catlady

How does fair use come into it when the suggestion referred specifically to public domain books?

I can see that excessive length is a legitimate issue, but copyright certainly isn't.

1a) You are absolutely correct that Fair Use Copyright does NOT come into play on public domain titles. (It should be stated that public domain in one country may not equate to public domain in another country.)

1b) Too, if the book contains other added material that is copyrighted - introductory materials, essays, other added material - then copyright is, naturally, invoked, where copyright has been declared.

2) Yes, you are absolutely correct about excessive length.


Don
(Moderator)