LibraryThing
In addition to blogging, I like to read and when I finish a good book I like to share it. LibraryThing makes it easier for me to let others know the books I have read and enjoyed, as well as, find similar books.

I was made aware of the site from a colleague at the Wellesley College Alumnae Association, Anne Springsteen '01 who I met at a conference last summer. I don't know if she is related to Bruce, like she has not heard that before. I bookmarked the site, but did not get a chance to do anything with it until I developed the blog version of our Alumnae Quarterly magazine. Which, by the way, was the most popular "link of the week"  on the last week of February on the Bob Johnson Consulting web site which specializes in best practices for college and university web sites. I used LibraryThing to highlight books written by alums and that were featured in the Off the Shelf column of the magazine. The covers of the books are displayed and are linked to Amazon where readers can purchase them.

I included a LibraryThing sidebar on this blog, listing books I have read and enjoyed. No, they are not all computer books. Actually I now seldom buy "computer" books because the information changes so rapidly and the books are out dated before you know it. The Web is my primary source for technology related information. I think I have a fairly eclectic taste in books.

Some of the benefits of the site include:

  • It is the world's largest book club. Find people with eerily similar tastes.
  • Catalog with Amazon, the Library of Congress or 669 other world libraries. Import from anywhere.
  • Get recommendations. Tag your books and explore others' tags.
  • Put your books on your blog.
  • Enter 200 books for free, as many as you like for $10 (year) or $25 (life) [that's a bargain]
  • Users have cataloged over 25 million books.

You can display your books as a list or on a shelf. You can write and read reviews and then easily find other users that have read the same books you have read. Take the tour of the site. If you like to read or want to read more then this is the site for you.

In addition to the Quarterly blog maybe we will incorporate LibraryThing in a book club blog or wiki since discussing books is a popular activity at many Mount Holyoke College Clubs.