LibraryThing

[magid]

I've always had a hankering to have my books organized. When I was a kid, I had various eclectic shelving systems (size, topic, publisher (I really liked seeing the colophons all lined up), etc), within the constraints of my slope-ceilinged room. As I got older I thought it would be cool to have my own card catalog equivalent. And now, thanks to LibraryThing (also Bitty and Bubblebabble), I do.

I just finished, or at least, I think I've gotten all the books entered (barring the ones in the give-away pile). 1768 books are nontrivial to enter, especially considering that many are ISBN-free, and a noticeable number required transliteration decisions in entering them. I'm sure it's not perfect (tags are never perfect, but at least a decent approximation...), but good enough for now.

It was a trip down memory lane, going through all the books. Some of them I associate with particular times (Nishmat, my bat mitzvah) or places (colonial Williamsburg, New York) or people (my parents, especially). Others had things tucked inside, a ticket or an old photo, cards, notes, etc. I found one note card from Mrs. Russell, a favorite teacher/artist, in her extremely lovely handwriting. One book had a fading squarish photo with rounded corners, very much from the 70s, of the Washington Monument tucked inside, while another had doodles from... high school? (I'm very much a packrat.)

Now that I'm up to speed, I don't think it will take too much effort to keep it accurate. Some people use LibraryThing to track the books they've read, but I've decided that way lies madness (for me, anyway: I'm too much of a completist, and how can I remember every book I've ever read?). So, just the books I've crammed into my small space. I wonder how much more space I'd have if I had no books? Though of course, there's really no way to imagine a home without books!

Comments

how fun!

[bitty.livejournal.com]

I'm still at work rather than at home, so I'm logged in using lynx and so not a registered user of librarything at the moment. Which means that stuff I normally don't notice off to the side is actually dominant when I view your page.
Such as the "users who share books with this user." Last time I checked mine (ages ago) I didn't recognize anyone. But skimming your list (and not even finishing it)? I recognized so many user names I was like cool! Now I can't wait to get home and play with it again myself. And add people :)

Re: how fun!

[magid.livejournal.com]

You recognize those people? I recognize one person from friendsfriends, and that's it. It was interesting to find that they have a page that would check my LJ friends to see whether any of them have LibraryThings... you don't come up on that (I assume you haven't linked to it; dunno whether that's choosing not to or not getting around to).

I've been entranced with the stats page, the bar graph of publication dates, and the people who have the other copy of $book, especially. It's fascinating to see which books are just rare enough to have one other person have it.

Re: how fun!

[bitty.livejournal.com]

That LJ link thing is recent enough I hadn't known about it. However, while I've now added myself, the "explore" option only shows me my rss feeds, not my friends. Which defeats the purpose.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

I use Library Thing to track the books I've read, but I only go back as far as when I started setting annual goals for myself, 3+ years ago. Thus, the list is modest and manageable.

Besides, most of my books are in storage in Medford, a few are tucked away at my parents' in San Diego, and I give away, out of necessity, books I read in London — attempting to catalog the books I own, given those circumstances, would truly be madness.

If you're interested, btw, my LJ and LT names are the same.

Re: how fun!

[magid.livejournal.com]

That is odd.

[magid.livejournal.com]

My parents moved out of my childhood home over a decade ago, and I had to take my books at that point, so all of mine are here, in this apartment (ok, a few are lent out...). I do keep a running list of the new (to me) books I read each year, but not rereads, and not on LibraryThing. I can see the point of using it to track books read, but I've always wanted a mirror of my owned library (years before any site like this existed!), so for me it's all about book ownership.