Lots of readers in this community, right? How about book hoarders? I'd ask you to raise your hand, but then you might lose your place. :-)
Let me introduce you to one of my favorite websites: Library Thing!
I've looked at a lot of book-cataloguing software (and I do mean a lot, because I am Obsesso-Compulsive Girl), and this is by far my favorite. The real advantage is that it's stored on SOMEONE ELSE'S system, thus saving my gigabytes for important stuff like Titan Quest: Immortal Throne. And um, syllabi and stuff. Yeah. This makes sense to me, because in a (knock-on-wood, god forbid) fire situation, I want my book list off-site. And itemized, so the insurance will have to replace all of it, as opposed to handing me a measly lump sum.
That all sounds so sensible, doesn't it? But really, it's the thrill of listing!
This last year, since we moved into the new office space, my fabulous readers catalogued ALL my office books--no mean feat. I started the house collection about 1 1/2 years ago; since then, my Better Half has manually catalogued all our DVDs. And I...am way behind on the books.
Officially, then, my next Five Things task is to get the rest of my personal library into Library Thing. Five Thing? Library Thing? See how that works?
Other confirmed bibliophiles wanting to poke through my library, or wanting a more detailed explanation of the virtues of Library Thing, may beg nicely.
4 comments:
I keep meaning to sign up for LibraryThing, but I'm nervous that it will instantly consume great blocks of my time...perhaps this will be a Thing to tackle once I check my first one off the list.
True, true--it can, but it doesn't have to. I went nuts with it for hours at first, then settled down into a pattern: making sure that anything new gets catalogued before it goes onto a shelf, then just doing a few at a time. (There are little bookmarks sticking out from my shelves downstairs, indicating my place!)
LibraryThing looks pretty cool! (I've been a Shelfari user for a while, and can't quite bring myself to switch...)
There's a word for people like us by the way: bibliotaph.
I'll give you the pleasure of finding the meaning out for yourself...
Dude. I have a "bibliotaph" poster that I got at a book fair. ;-)
(We're amateurs compared to my Better Half's grandfather, though...after he died, they counted over 9000 books in his house!)
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