Sunday, February 03, 2008

time wasters

So I got addicted to LibraryThing some months ago – addicted enough to be maybe halfway thru cataloging my entire book collection. It's a lovely website, & seemed to answer all my desires for an application that would help me sort out & assess all those shelves of (mostly unread) books. I was only mildly interested in its social applications – the fact that you can be "friends" with other LibraryThingers & exchange comments & queries & so forth.

But then that delightful madman Bill Keckler sucked me into GoodReads, which is something else altogether: Facebook or MySpace for book-heads. Here the emphasis is very heartily & heavily on the social aspects of bookreading & collecting. It's all fascinating, & great fun. I'm collecting "friends" like a south Florida yenta at the Swap Shop! Now maybe I should make a stab at actually reading some books...

3 comments:

Norman Finkelstein said...

Mark,

You're evil. I learned about GoodReads from your post yesterday, and as you can tell (friend-o), I've already wasted hours there which I should have spent (re)reading Melville for my classes.

On a somewhat different note, we're going to hear Richard Thompson and his "1000 Years of Popular Music" tonight. Can't wait.

See you in L'ville.

N.

Unknown said...

I'm on Shelfari, not that I spend any real time there. It's another online social network that I don't have time for. And I think I'm signed up for Goodreads, but I haven't done much with it either.

William Keckler said...

lol...

evil spreads outwardsly resounding from the time the first poet fell...taking all those legions and orders of archangels with him...I think it was Silliman...and God thought him his most beautiful creature an hour before he began goodreading....

"yenta ne'er galina"...whenever i hear yenta i hear that gail sher poem in my head...

the one that has kapok roses i think...

o.blek #6....a very good vintage...the bernadette mayer translations are also amazing and clark's roba odes....

ish. ish.

ka bibble.

i need blood. i'm off to lunch.