Shelfari

Here's an interesting service that somehow stayed below my radar up till now...  Thanks to Gina Trapani for flagging it on her Lifehacker blog.

I've been using LibraryThing to display books I've read along the left panel of my blog.  It's a nice way to rotate through my library and give you a feel for the type of books I tend to read.  Now that I've seen Shelfari though, I think I'm about to switch.  Nothing against LibraryThing, but Shelfari has more interesting features that I'd like to take advantage of.  Poke around a bit on their site and check out a sample shelf to see if you don't agree.

I wonder if there's any way to export all the ISBNs from my LibraryThing list so that I don't have to re-enter them in Shelfari...

Comments

[Michael A. Banks]

Shelfari looks to have potential. I can't get into the discussions because I received my E-mail confirmation yet, but I'll comment anyway.

The users seem enthusiastic. Lots of books. The discussions section could become the backbone of a strong social networking center. I like the options displayed on the sample shelf, and look forward to getting my membership activated. I'll be interested in what others have to say about Shelfari.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

[C. Eric Banister]

I haven't tried it yet because I am at work, but it looks like Shelfari allows you to import from Librarything.

Thanks for the heads up on this one, looks great!

[C. Eric Banister]

One more thought: I think it would be useful if one of these sites partnered with Google Books to allow you to search your library. I know when I am writing it would be helpful to be able to search my library for a particular keyword or phrase.

Although it is quite possible such a partnering could lead to Google swallowing them, and that could be good or bad.

[Joe Wikert]

OK, now that one of my two gripes isn't really a problem at all, I've decided to give Shelfari a test drive. I've added it back to the right panel and will see what sort of value it adds. I'm still keeping LibraryThing on the left side, only because I still prefer it over Shelfari...for now.

[les]

I recently did a review of these social cataloguing sites plus gurulib that might be of interest.

http://librarytwopointzero.blogspot.com/2006/10/librarything-shelfari-and-gurulib.html