Catalog your books online?

Do my fellow books addicts out there feel the need to catalog their book collections? Do they use software to do so? I find this idea intriguing but wonder about the work involved. The idea of my library being cataloged is very attractive, but the work involved in doing so is not. Perhaps, I could just plug away at it cataloging a few books each day until I am caught up.

I have come across two online tools that would allow you to accomplish this lofty goal.

Library Thing was put together by Tim Spalding – a web developer, web publisher and search-engine optimizer based in Portland, Maine. It is in Beta right now and you can catalog up to 200 books for free or get a lifetime membership for $10.

Reader2 was created by Dmitry Kuchin and seems to emphasize the sharing of book lists more than cataloging all of your books.

Anyone know of other useful tools (online or off) for book cataloging? Thoughts, opinions, and ideas about book cataloging welcome.

Kevin Holtsberry
I work in communications and public affairs. I try to squeeze in as much reading as I can while still spending time with my wife and two kids (and cheering on the Pittsburgh Steelers and Michigan Wolverines during football season).

2 Comments

  1. I wouldn’t use it, primarily because I loan out so many books. You’d think that would be the perfect impetus to use it, right?

    No. I probably won’t get some of those books back, and as long as I have a database that shows me what I’m missing, my obsessive completist collector underbrain will itch at me until the missing books are replaced, hindering me from purchasing new, unread books.

    Same goes for DVDs.

    I’ll remain haphazard and disorganized.

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