TagShadow Forum » Forum: How We Tag

TagShadow Forum » Forum: How We Tag - Recent Posts http://tagshadow.com/forum/forum/how-we-tag a quantitative visual SFF book recommendation ... thingy en-US Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:28:25 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://tagshadow.com/forum/search.php MentatJack on "The lesser used tenses" http://tagshadow.com/forum/topic/the-lesser-used-tenses#post-18 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:05:13 +0000 MentatJack 18@http://tagshadow.com/forum/ Entering in all the stuff reviewed on <a href="http://mentatjack.com">MentatJack.com</a> into the current iteration of TagShadow I came across a few more examples of novels written in the present tense. <ul> <li><a href="http://tagshadow.com/pca.php?tagName=present%20tense#19">Quarantine</a> by Greg Egan</li> <li><a href="http://tagshadow.com/pca.php?tagName=present%20tense#108">The Atrocity Archives</a> by Charles Stross</li> </ul> MentatJack on "The creative team" http://tagshadow.com/forum/topic/the-creative-team#post-4 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:37:14 +0000 MentatJack 4@http://tagshadow.com/forum/ When I think about the tags I might use to describe a book, the first that comes to mind is author. There are plenty of books, such as anthologies, that feature many writers and prominently mention the editor. Even with books by a single author there are plenty of other creative people associated with the publication. Here are a few that come immediately to mind. <ul> <li>agent</li> <li>editor</li> <li>cover artist</li> </ul> All of these provide meaningful groupings that are not necessarily just groupings of authors. MentatJack on "The lesser used tenses" http://tagshadow.com/forum/topic/the-lesser-used-tenses#post-3 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:56:29 +0000 MentatJack 3@http://tagshadow.com/forum/ I find it most important to record the things that distinguish a small subset of books from the larger collection. A great example is tense. The overwhelming majority of fiction is told in past tense. This makes sense as the reader is inevitably reading a book that was published in the past, written in the past and conceived in the past. The beginning writer that doesn't know this convention can often be identified as such even if their tense usage is consistent and their prose otherwise adequate. However, there are some great examples of the present tense used well, and I make it a habit to tag these books as such whenever the opportunity presents itself. This is my list, and I'd love to find more examples. <ul> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553380958?ie=UTF8&tag=tagshadow-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0553380958">Snow Crash</a> by Neal Stephenson</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553591568?ie=UTF8&tag=tagshadow-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0553591568">The Mirrored Heavens</a> by David J. Williams</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553385429?ie=UTF8&tag=tagshadow-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0553385429">The Burning Skies</a> by David J. Williams</li> <li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307454355?ie=UTF8&tag=tagshadow-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307454355">Jack Wakes Up</a> by Seth Harwood</li> </ul> As the title implies, I'm sure someone out there has gotten a book published in something other than present or past. I'd suspect that a work translated into English might be the place to look for such a beast. Surprise me!