Rebecca Reads

Thanks for voting in my survey! With 13 voters, 7 use LibraryThing, 5 use Shelfari, 2 use Goodreads, and 1 use no online library catalog tool. (Voters could choose more than one answer.)

I really appreciated the comments and explanations. I think I’ll do what some other respondents suggest and use LibraryThing for books I own and Shelfari for books I’m reading, to read, and finished reading. (But I’ll never let Shelfari get my friend’s emails again!!!)

After about an hour of tinkering with LibraryThing, I am sufficiently impressed. I found that on LibraryThing, I can sort my books by Library of Congress number or by Dewey Decimal System. That this makes me excited shows what a “geek” I am. When I was a young girl, I would reorganize the books on my bookshelf every few months, changing my system every time (by author, by genre, etc.). At one point, I even made a 3×5 card catalog of my personal, three-shelf library. Now I can sort and resort my library, without having to even move my books off the shelves!

I wish I had cataloged my books via LibraryThing before I left them all in storage. (As my husband’s company moved me across the globe [temporarily] on their budget, I had to leave my precious books behind, for the most part.) I’m sitting here wondering which books I own and pining after them. Needless to say, my LibraryThing “shelf” is pretty sparse right now. At some point in the coming months, I’m moving back and will rescue my books from the storage unit. I look forward to cataloging them and enjoying them again!

I also like the interface for discussions. For discussion, it is much easier to navigate than Shelfari’s! But, like I said, I like “widget” and the shelves factors of Shelfari, so I won’t be leaving that either.

Here are my presences on the web, for anyone who may be interested (also in the side bar):

My Blogs

• Rebecca’s Writing Practices: My sometimes-defunct attempt to get “writing” and a want-to-be motivation to write
• Focus with Photographs: My photoblog, which I also sometimes forget about

Other Stuff

• Rebecca Reid on Shelfari: My catalog of my TBR, Reading, and Read books (I don’t forget about it.)
• Rebecca Reid on LibraryThing: My catalog of my personal library (I’ve just discovered it, so not much there yet.)
• Rebecca Reid’s Lists of Bests: Reading lists I’m working on (I’ve just discovered this, and I am still exploring.)
• Rebecca Reid on Twitter: My life updates in 140 characters (I forget about it; do you see a pattern here?)

What other great online tools have I yet to discover?