Comments on: The User is not only not Broken…

By: Robert Teeter

Robert Teeter — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 05:26:51 +0000

Have you tried All Consuming? There you can track what books you have read (including when you started and when you finished). You can write reviews and add tags. You can also get an RSS feed for your Web page or blog. It links to Amazon (I believe there is a corporate connection via 43 Things), so all the metadata comes from there. The down side is that you don't get the links to library catalogs and library metadata that you do on Library Thing. BTW, have you posted anything about your new POW and what you'll be doing? I've seen a few hints, but if there was more than that, I missed it. Inquiring minds and all that.

By: kgs

kgs — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 22:55:41 +0000

Righty-ho on the easy button: that’s the natural progression from the varied workarounds (or creative misuse) noted above. The status of an item is distinct from its acquisition date (or should be!)…

By: Jenny Levine

Jenny Levine — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 17:58:34 +0000

Even better would be an easy button to add to your catalog for “add to my readinglist in LT.”

And I love manifestos! Perhaps we’ll need a “Manifesto Thing….”

By: Rikhei

Rikhei — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 17:34:45 +0000

I agree; consumption is far more interesting than ownership!

I use Library Thing exclusively as a way to keep track of my book consumption. Things I’ve read this year are marked with the tag “read in 06″; things I want to read are tagged “to read” and usually accompanied by the tag “via:whoever-recommended-this.” (I also tag my Blinklist bookmarks this way.)

By: megan

megan — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 17:26:27 +0000

If you go into the “edit” part of a book, you can put in dates for acquired, started, and ended. Not as easy as a dinglebob (nice word, btw), but more accurate.

Myself? I use tags – borrowed for books I don’t own but have in my possession for some reason, wishlist for books I don’t own but want to, and read for books I’ve actually finished.

By: Gillian Barr

Gillian Barr — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 09:41:35 +0000

I have 2 different LT accounts–one for books I own; one for books I’ve read but do not own. I’m keeping them separate out of curiosity, to see how the various statistics vary between the two sets. Most of my owned stuff is in theology and spirituality and ministry; I read a lot of other stuff but rarely actually buy it.

By: joshua m. neff

joshua m. neff — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 03:49:40 +0000

Yes! Not an “I want to buy this” per se, but an “I want to read this.” A social software reading list.

By: kgs

kgs — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 01:49:53 +0000

Dorothea, so right! In Amazon I use the cart, and in Netflix the queue. LT doesn’t have that acquisition function, so a simple tag (that rolled over when you rated a book) would be good.

MediaManager allows for statuses–unread, reading, read–that are kind of interesting to think about as well.

By: Dorothea Salo

Dorothea Salo — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 01:08:51 +0000

I would add, if LT doesn’t have it already, an “I want to read this book” button. I have the hardest time remembering books that I see mentioned on blogs or whatever and want to check out!

By: Catie Roche

Catie Roche — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 19:34:52 +0000

I agree that if you have read a book it becomes part of your experience. Library Thing is a great place to catalog these reading experiences especially for forgetful minds, like mine.