Week 6, Thing 12: It's a Library Thing

Like many people I know, I have a large queue of books that I want to read, buy, and/or borrow (working at a library doesn't help...). And also like many people, I have about a dozen places where I've written down the names of titles or authors of said books and I keep losing them!

I started using the virtual bookshelf application on Facebook because I could keep track of all the books I've read and want to read. It also suggests other books I might be interested in based on the books in my collection. I have also tried Library Thing, a similar site for organizing and cataloging your book collection. I don't think Library Thing is as intuitive as the Facebook application - once I added a book from a series (Harry Potter) to my collection, I had to go back to the search page and search again rather than it automatically generating other books in the series or by the author, for example.

Like the Facebook app, Library Thing produces a list of other books you might be interested in based on your collection. It also shows a list of other users who have similar libraries to you. That's how I found the glorious blog that is AustenBlog (which I have added to my Bloglines account)! I probably won't use Library Thing in the future but I am thankful for the fact that I now know where to go for all my Jane Austen related news!