Librarything is genius. When I first started an account with them I tried to tell everyone I knew about it and had to revisit the fact that not everyone is that into books, or, even if they love to read, they may well be very content to have them on shelves, or stacks, in no order what so ever.
Confession: I have been a compulsive book sorter since I had a enough picture books to cover half a shelf. I have sorted my shelves by primary cover color, main characters first name, setting, and title as well as by basic subject and/or author. When I was little I could spend a whole Saturday fiddling with the order of things on my shelves. Mostly I've gotten over it. "Mostly" because it is this very ability instantly change the layout of your catalog instantly that enamoured me so with
Librarything after enter my first twenty books last winter. Since then it has become a sort of obsession, but a very useful one.
As in my childish
sortings the goal is always to have the book or information about it on hand as quickly and easily as possible. Besides the ease of sorting and resorting in
Librarything, I can enter any book I read even if I don't own it which is a major help when I'm trying to give a friend the name of
that urban legends book that I know isn't on my shelf but can remember if I had gotten it out from a library or borrowed it from a friend (ah, the
joy of tags).
My catalog is in need of
maintenance but if you keep at it ca you come across things to hand the use of it is easy enough to not get out of hand, unless it does... as mine has but the there are always more books to read.
