From this Sunday’s News-Press:
Hot Young Thing: No, fans, I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about LibraryThing! If you like the Web and have a huge library of books, this may be the socializing software for you. Designed by Tim Spaulding, LibraryThing allows you to replicate your home library online. Once up, you can see people who share your tastes, post reviews, browse your collection and those of others, chat with people, and all sorts of things.
Before, I was about to catalog my collection with database software that would have resided on my computer only. But with LibraryThing I get the same functionality and the interconnectivity of the Web.
What I really like about the service is the ease with which I was able to build my library database. The easiest way to find your exact book is by typing in the ISBN number, but the site can also search by author and title, presenting an array of different editions. I pushed its search abilities a lot with my first 150 books. To my surprise, I only had to manually enter five. LibraryThing was able to find all my Japanese books and British books. I was impressed. Plus, if it finds it on Amazon, it will add cover graphics.
There is a little fee: After the first 200 books, it costs a lifetime membership of . . . drum roll . . . $10. I say this is worth it, just to thank Mr. Spaulding for creating this bibliophile’s dream. Check it out at www.librarything.com and check out my own shelf at: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/tedmills.
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I managed to sneak in one last day at the Planned Parenthood book sale, now, a dim memory from that very warm September we had. In the company of my good friend Mr. C, we took one last trawl through the sale tables that still did not show any sign of depletion. With eight hours to go, what would happen to all these books?
Now, visiting the sale in the company of such a learned friend is a bit like visiting a museum with an art historian. Mr. C has years on me, and those years were spent compulsively devouring books. “This is excellent . . . you should read this . . . Just get this one, trust me. . . .”
In 45 minutes, I had a box filled with an eclectic winter reading list, books mostly wrapped in gloriously arty and artistic 1950s cover designs.
Comic observation of the day: There were a lot of copies of Bill Bennett’s “Book of Virtues” kicking around. I didn’t look to see if they had that new chapter on genocide, but nobody was buying anyway.
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Finally. Thanks, whoever you are, for returning “The Ticket That Exploded.”
Cheers!