Random Recommendation: LibraryThing

As you may know from my fairly incessant stream of book reviews, I love reading, and I love books. As my 'library' (this is a fancy name for books I put on shelves and have some semblance of order) expanded, I realised it both represented a serious investment, and also ran the risk of accidentally buying/acquiring things I already own! A friend of mine - another reading theology fan - recommended a service called 'LibraryThing'. I tried it out, used the free service for a few months, and then paid for a lifetime license.

I love it!

Its not the slickest cloud service on the internet, and the shade of light brown that somewhat dominates the site isn't the greatest thing ever. But it works. And in the age of a million and one UI's and snazzy interfaces, its simplicity and complexity is somewhat refreshing. LibraryThing offers powerful cataloguing and statistics tools - with entertaining bits and bobs that tell you how far the pages of your books would stretch to the moon - which set it apart from other things like Goodreads, or a variety of lesser plugins for Facebook. LibraryThing has some basic social elements - forums, book reviews, library recommendations, and son on - that give it a community feel, but its great strength is in its cataloging.

Head on over to LibraryThing and try it out! Its free for the first 200 books, and after that I'd recommend paying a Lifetime license rather than a monthly one. It works out cheaper in the long-run, and it offers peace of mind. If you have a large collection of lendable or real books, I'd really recommend checking out LibraryThing.

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