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?

• LibraryThing versus Shelfari versus ?
• LibraryThing and Shelfari Revisited
• Doomsday for My Book Sources
• Sick Day and Author Weekly Geeks
• BBAW Meme + Thanks for the Nominations

In January, my friend sent me an invite to Shelfari. I hadn’t heard of any book cataloging sites before then. I liked the idea, so I signed up. I love tracking my “To be read,” “I’m reading,” and “What I read” books, and I love being able to have a widget on my blog to show readers what I’m working on. There are some annoying things about the Shelfari interface, but even since I started using it in January, they’ve made some significant improvements. (One thing I’ve learned, though, is that if Shelfari grabs on to email addresses, even once, it takes over and keeps emailing, like spam. I am really annoyed, because it was under my name and I don’t want to spam people.)

I’m not very concerned with the social networking side of Shelfari. I might like to be a part of discussions, but (1) I’m not finding groups of people interested in discussing what I’m interested in and (2) I really don’t have that much time to sit and chat with strangers online. I’m busy enough blogging

Since I started book blogging a few months ago, I came across a number of other book cataloging sites. It seems most people use LibraryThing. Here’s my question for LibraryThing users: why does it cost money ($10 a year or $25 a lifetime)? I certainly want to catalog more than 200 books (which is the limit before it costs money), and that seems an oddly low limit. Why limit it? What are the benefits to that service over the others, since the others are free?

Which online book catalog service do you use? Why? What do you mainly use it for?

All that said, despite some annoyance with Shelfari, I like the attractive look of the Shelfari widget. I’m also a pretty cheap person; I prefer to read books from the library and online at Project Gutenberg over buying one. Besides, I just set up a free account in LibraryThing and I can’t figure out how to separate my books into shelves (to be read, reading, finished reading). Can I? If not, maybe I’ll just use it for books I own. I do like the view options. We’ll see.

If you want, spread the word about the poll above. I’m really curious about book bloggers’ online book cataloging habits.

• Survey Says…
• LibraryThing and Shelfari Revisited
• Doomsday for My Book Sources
• Why ARCs?
• A Holiday Challenge Poll + Giveaway at Sophisticated Dorkines
• Booking Through Thursday: Manual Labor
• “Used” Books Giveaways Poll
• Sick Day and Author Weekly Geeks
• The Touchstone by Edith Wharton