Thursday, June 15, 2006

AD/HD: WARNING! Here's a New Way to Distract Yourself

Enter what you're reading or your whole library—it's an easy, library-quality catalog. Because everyone else is doing it too, LibraryThing connects you with people who read the same things, and gives you great recommendations.
I came across this the other day. Unbelievably, I didn't leap in and begin to lose myself in it (I just wet my feet). LibraryThing is a free service that allows you to list all your books online and share that list with other readers. You can tag each book with descriptions in that social bookmarking Web 2.0 way that is all the rage right now. And why wouldn't it be? Within a few clicks you can find other people who enjoyed Jonathan Livingston Seagull - even start a dialog of sorts with them by commenting on their user profile - while also finding other books like it you might be interested in that they recommend. Well, that is if you are into reincarnating seagulls. Might not be your cup of tea. You can also rate your collection and get a quick shot at a glance of your entire library, complete with book covers. Of course, you could just walk over to your bookshelf and look at the book covers, but let's not split hairs. This is cool stuff.


So why didn't I leap in and start cataloging my books? Well, I haven't finished labeling my entire MP3 collection, complete with cover art and special photos from within the actual sound studios each song was recorded at. Yeah, I know. It's going to take a long time, but I'm making progress. Actually, I was already inclined to organize my book, CD, and video collection using this supremely nifty app, Delicious Library. You just point your book at a webcam and the software goes and finds all the info on it for you. Easy peasy. Trouble was I didn't have a webcam. But now that somebody went and made a filter to import Delicious Library collections into LibraryThing, I might just go out and buy one - right after meticulously tagging each MP3 I own for its proper mood.