LibraryThing is a venerable reader’s social network that lets members share information about, and reviews of, the books they own or have read. Free accounts provide libraries of up to 200 books, which the site uses to make connections to other readers with similar tastes and make reading recommendations.

While LibraryThing isn’t the most elegant of the readers’ social networks, it makes up for its rough edges with a comprehensiveness that includes the ability to search more than 690 libraries, Amazon.com and the Library of Congress, along with extensive discussions and recommendations based on similar reading habits. It is almost too much information, because a single page is filled with links, to books, to people, to lists, blog postings, and much more. But behind all the links are an incredibly well-read, thoughtful people, and it is fascinating.

Take a look at LibraryThing groups about 1001 books to read before you die, mystery novels, historical fiction, science fiction and children’s fiction to get a sample of the kind of conversations at the site. LibraryThing has attracted publishers, who provide member early review copies for free. In November 2008, the site will give away more than 1,500 books to active members. A Zeitgeist page gives up-to-date statistics on user activity, prolific reviewers, top books, top authors and so forth.

There are plenty of reviews to keep you busy thinking about new books to read. Recommendations made by the system are interesting, though the top suggestions the site made after I added 61 books tended to be other books by the authors whose books I’ve read; beyond the first 20 recommendations, the rest of the 233 suggestions were interesting and, sometimes, surprising. LibraryThing identified more than 150 members who owned books I do, which created hours’ worth of browsing.

Importing books from a site, such as your own blog, is simple. You simply type your blog or another URL and LibraryThing scours the page for book titles. Adding books to your library, though, is troublesome, because you must re-search and scroll or click to pages deeper in the search results after adding each book. It is not as convenient as GoodReads or Shelfari.

On the other hand, LibraryThing makes extensive use of widgets for inclusion on personal and blog or social network pages, an Amazon bookmarklet (a clickable bookmark that automatically saves the book title displayed on an Amazon.com page), Firefox browser extensions and mobile access to the site. The texty interface hides a lot of powerful features.

Home Page: LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a deep community that will reward dedicated readers. Free accounts, as noted are limited to 200 books. Members can upgrade to a $10 annual account or a $25 lifetime account that come with unlimited book storage.

Tags: books, friend lists, groups, reading, recommendations, social network, tagging

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Social Site Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.