If you’re the type of person who pays attention to sidebars, you probably already know that I’m a member of LibraryThing. (Hint: it’s a section called My Bookshelf, and it’s only on the sidebars I thought most appropriate.) Over the summer, LibraryThing started a new aspect to their site called “Groups”, which I didn’t discover until tonight. They have over 500 groups at this point, but as best as I could determine, they didn’t have one to discuss gardening books–until I created it. Won’t you join?
You first have to join LibraryThing, if you’re not already a member, which is basically a website to catalog your books. One commenter called LibraryThing “the myspace of book collecting, but far better of course,” and I guess that’s what it is, for me–but I’m the kind of person who likes to keep records anyway. Adding books is easy, though tedious if you have a lot. I have only catalogued my gardening books, and discovered I have over a hundred! (Bet my family wasn’t surprised.) If you are the type of person who always wants to look over your host’s library when you are a guest, you will enjoy joining a LibraryThing group. You can see at a glance which books are shared by various members, and what other books members are adding.
I actually haven’t really plumbed the possibilities yet. A lot depends on you. Interested?
Update: LibraryThing now can take input from CueCats, one of the least expensive barcode readers in existence. More details here. If the tedium of entering your books was the only thing stopping you from joining LibraryThing, it’s no longer very much of an impediment.
Stumble it!
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9 responses so far ↓
1 Carol // Oct 20, 2006 at 4:08 pm
I’m going right over there to check it out. I’m in. I love gardening books.
2 Sally // Oct 20, 2006 at 4:10 pm
Kathy,
Thank you so much for telling us about LibraryThing. I have found most of my favorite gardening books from your “Book Shelf”
Now I need to decide if I’m going to plant bulbs or enter books in LibraryThing this weekend
Sally
3 Kathy Purdy // Oct 20, 2006 at 6:55 pm
Sally, if it were me I’d let the weather make up my mind.
Carol, I see you did indeed join. Some other LibraryThing members have found the group as well. Anyone else?
4 Sally // Oct 20, 2006 at 9:15 pm
I’ve joined LibraryThing. Kathy, I’ve been lurking for some time, and I so enjoy your photos, writing and garden expertise!
5 Kathy Purdy // Oct 21, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Sally, now that you’re in LibraryThing, join the Gardening group. There’s a tab towards the upper left that says “Groups.” Click on that and find the Gardening group.
6 Craig Levy // Oct 24, 2006 at 4:13 pm
Well I’m in also! This is too tempting, combining two of my favorite loves, gardening and books.
7 Kathy Purdy // Oct 24, 2006 at 5:23 pm
I see both Craig and OldRoses in the group, but still don’t see Sally.
8 bill // Oct 25, 2006 at 11:07 am
Damn. I just threw out my cuecats, assuming they were worthless. It just goes to show, as soon as you throw away something you will need it. Save everything!
9 Kathy Purdy // Oct 25, 2006 at 11:11 am
No, Bill: always check on eBay before you throw anything out. You don’t need to save it if you can sell it.
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