Sunday, November 2, 2008

A Social Network of Books and Author Community: LibraryThing


Sharing your own library of books has never been easier with the introduction of LibraryThing. This very useful site that is quite similar to Facebook in that it features a homepage, not cluttered, but packed with gadgets/tools. These little things are perfect for people of any age as long as they have interest in books and don't like being loners.
Now, the basis of LibraryThing is for you to write recommendations and reviews and tell others about your own book collection. Thus, as with most other social networks, you can join groups with specific topics and add friends, often helping with your next book choice. Of course, you can send messages to others in the form of comments on their profiles as well. Speaking of profiles just like everything from Myspace to Orkut, you can update your mini-bio with "About Me", "About My Library", "Homepage" and "Location" sections (and more).
In addition, there is a forum for you to share ideas on, both general and group-related; a guide to local events pertaining to the world of words; a popular publication list; and a list of the hottest reviews.
And to cap it all off, get this: LibraryThing is willing to give away free pre-release books as long as you do the petty task of reviewing them with the Early Reviewers program. But you'll have to request quickly because of how much everybody loves this program.
With all this, maybe you'll stop listening to garbage Mariah Carey and start reading.

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