Thursday, March 01, 2007

Hey, It Shouldn't Take More Than A Month...

Some while ago, I remember talking to Fred Coppersmith about LibraryThing, which is an online book-cataloging tool that lets you organize your library, compare it with other people's, get recommendations based on it, and all sorts of other stuff. And I remember saying that I thought it was a nifty idea, but that there was no way I'd use it myself, simply because it'd be far too much of a chore to input everything in my book collection. But yesterday I got bored and started checking it out a little more, and man, it really was way nifty. And I thought, well, maybe I could just use it to keep track of, say, the books I read this year. So I signed up for an account and played with it a bit more, and, man, there were even more nifty things to be found after that.

So, um... Well, so far I've added everything on the bookcase nearest my computer desk (hardback fiction A-Da). It turns out that it holds 132 books, which I suppose is an interesting fact. Only ~2,050 more to go! Assuming that I don't also feed in the Infamous To-Read Pile as well, that is. Um... Eep.

Truth is, though, this book-cataloging thing turns out to be fun. It's actually very easy to add stuff, and taking books down of the shelves to interrogate them about their vital statistics gives me an excuse to handle them. Hey, some of those volumes have been neglected for a long time, and deserve at least a little attention. And pulling some of those books off the shelves is a little like visiting old friends. Very dusty old friends.

Anyway, the stuff I've entered so far can be found here. I apologize, by the way, for inflicting yet another copy of The Da Vinci Code onto a site already grossly overburdened with them. I have no excuse, really. And to the other 16 people out of the ~155,000 on LibraryThing who, like me, own a copy of Paul Darrow's Avon: A Terrible Aspect, my heart goes out to each and every one of you.

6 comments:

  1. Glad you're enjoying LibraryThing. Another way to make it easier still to add books is to get a cuecat. It's a cheap but effective bar code scanner. Plug it into your USB port, scan a book, and LibraryThing does the rest automatically.

    Best,
    John

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  2. I was kind of thinking about getting one of those, although putting the ISBNs in by hand turns out to be not nearly as annoying as I'd expected. :)

    Anyway, thank you, for providing such a cool site. Even if it is threatening to be yet another time sink for me. :)

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  3. Ooh, yeah, owning "Avon" does require a bit of sympathy, doesn't it? :P Terrific cover art on the dustjacket, though.

    --Quill

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  4. Alas, the deceptively restrained and well-composed cover cannot conceal the lurking horrors within. :)

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  5. OMDG I'm dying of allergies. Are they bad down there?

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  6. Horrible. Absolutely want-to-die, haven't-had-a-full-night's-sleep-in-a-week horrible. Even Vir the cat seems stuffy and wheezy... The vet thought he had a touch of either athsma or allergies, and I now have a strong suspicion which it is. :/

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