Author: Andi

Ok. So after I played with Library Thing a little more, I realized you can only add a certain number of books for free. So I decided to do a little more sleuthing to see to what else was out there.

I came across Good Reads.

This is a very large community out there of book lovers. What I haven't been able to figure out is if recommendations are given on the books you have read like Library Thing did. I am not sure it will be a deal breaker if it doesn't, since it is free and you can add as many books as you want.

It's quite easy to use and I was able to import my list I started from Library Thing into it. That way I didn't have to enter them all again. I did re-rate them since that didn't transfer over with the importing.

That being said. It has a lot of pros, but I wasn't completely satisfied. So I did a little more looking.

I came across another site I am really in love with. It's called Shelfari.

Chuck has taught me a lot about user interfaces and how appealing and easy things can be when they are done well.

I love that this site places all your books on a book shelf. You can even modify the wood your shelf is made of. Now, yes, Good Reads also displays your books in this layout, but they aren't sitting on a book shelf!

Another thing I like about it is the way you add your books. I have chosen to allow it to ask me a number of questions when I add a book. Why? Because you can choose if you are reading it, plan to read it reading it currently, can rank it there, then you can add if you own it or if it's on your wish list, then gives you similar books by that author or books like it at the end you might like to read before adding it.

You can skip a lot of those steps, but I like being able to categorize them. You can then look at the books on your shelf based on this.

When adding a book, you also have a chance to give a review or description of the book for others to see. You can also make note if you have loaned this book to someone and who has it and what condition it was in when you gave it to them. Of course, that cannot be viewed by anyone other than yourself. But what a neat idea.

Both sites allow you to add “tags” to the books you added so you can categorize them. I have not utilized this feature yet.

Shelfari is a newer product, so they are adding new features to it and appear to be receptive to user's ideas and suggestions. I also found it took me slightly longer to find things and navigate on their website than Good Reads. But once I found it, I had a bit of a “DUH” moment.

As I said, Good Reads has a larger community than Shelfari, so there are more book opinions. They both have a lot of groups to join and this might be the replacement for the recommendations that Library Thing has. But not having the recommendations will not be a deal breaker for me. Because Good Reads and Shelfari are free and that wins out. But I am still trying them out and deciding what I like best.

So has anyone out there used either of these? Do you have opinions or thoughts on them that might be useful?

And since I have not completely decided which one I am using, I have been importing new books I add to each of them. But before too long, I hope I'll pick one that I like better and stick to just one. 🙂

Edited to add: I am going to be modifying this post a bit. (Or probably doing another one with what I have learned.) So if you are interested in starting an account, hold off until you hear what I have to say about other sites. I may have been too hasty in my choice!

My sister-in-law had told me about this site a while back and I just recently remembered to check it out.

It's called Library Thing.

You add books you have read, rate them, and then it shows you tons of people that have read them, what they rated them and gives you new book recommendations. There's a lot more you can do with it, but those are the basics.

I can't remember most of the books I have read, so I am going to add more when I have time to add books from my book shelf. Then I'll have a better collection. My collection is pretty pathetic right now. 🙂

Since school is starting in just a few weeks, I want to make a resolution to try to read a little bit before I go to bed. Just to keep reading books that aren't school related and because I do love reading, I just don't make myself do it enough. So hopefully this site can give me some good suggestions on books to read.

Are there any books you have read this summer that I should look into reading?

*Please note*…I have not read the Harry Potter or Twilight series and don't have big plans to read them in the near future. I know everyone has read them and loved them. But I don't need it suggested to me here…since I already know. 🙂

Happy reading!