My husband and I have at least 691 books. How do I know this? Because he spent yesterday using his new bar code scanner
(thank you, Santa) and do an easy search by author or title to see what I have as well as see a complete list of works by that author. How handy!
So, what exactly is LibraryThing? Here is some text from their site that explains it perfectly:
LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere—even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth.
LibraryThing is a full-powered cataloging application, searching the Library of Congress, all five national Amazon sites, and more than 80 world libraries. You can edit your information, search and sort it, “tag” books with your own subjects, or use the Library of Congress and Dewey systems to organize your collection.
A free account allows you to catalog up to 200 books. A paid account allows you to catalog any number of books. Paid personal accounts cost $10 for a year or $25 for a lifetime.
I can’t wait to start using the social aspect of this program. Often, I finish a series or a particular author and really want to find another that is similar in style. This will enable me to see what other readers think I would like based on what I just finished reading!
I really love light mysteries like the Mrs. Polifax
3 comments so far:
Librarything sells USB Cuecat scanners directly from their site at $15 each.
http://www.librarything.com/cuecat
I plan to buy one soon, since I usually get bored and wander off after entering only about 10-15 ISBNs by hand.
(Don’t look too closely at my site. It is undergoing renovation.
Anyway, since you said that you were a reader and looking forward to community and recommendations,etc, I wanted to tell you about the online bookclub I belong to–bookcrossing.com.
It’s a little different in that we register our books, give each a unique BCID number, stick labels all over, and then leave it in a public place for someone to find. If we are lucky, the finder makes a journal entry, and releases the book somewhere else.
There is a strong community, and we also trade books, send books that someone wants to read as RABCK (random acts of Bookcrossing Kindness), and have book rings.
Originally, we thought it would help to clean out the clutter of some of the books we knew we would never read again. As it turned out, there are so many recommendations and trades that Mt TBR (to-be-read) just keeps growing!
The forum community is wonderful, and over time, some of them have become my very best friends. Some places have meetings each month, and there are conventions held around the world during the year. Two years ago, we hosted a member from Australia one weekend, and last year, I had lunch with 2 friends from New Zealand.
Back to wild releasing–one time, I left a book in San Marcos, Texas. It went to LA, then to South America, Cuba, and the last I heard, it was in Canada. One of my books vanished for 5 years before checking in halfway across the country. Lots of fun!!
I’m TexasWren over there, so say Hi if you like the idea and join our fun!
Wren, I checked out the bookcrossing.com site and it looks like a lot of fun! What a neat way to share books and to connect with those that have similar reading interests. I will come “visit” you on the site after I sign up!