Track a Reading List and Favourite Books Online
Reader Websites With Book Ratings, Reviews and Personal Book Lists
Mar 8, 2009
Book clubs and reading groups give readers a chance to socialise with others who enjoy reading and are interested in discussing authors, characters, themes and books in general.
Busy modern lifestyles can make it difficult to find time to meet with friends or start a book group, however there are a large number of online book forums where readers can discuss their favourite books and authors. These sites often have facilities for recommending books to others and contributing reader reviews.
Library Thing
Promoted on site as “the world’s largest book club”, Library Thing is a community of more than 620,000 book lovers. The site is marketed as both a community of readers and an online book cataloging service. Membership is free but this limit book entries to 200 titles. $10/year allows unlimited book entries and $25 entitles users to lifetime membership.
The site accesses data from Amazon and 690 international libraries including the Library of Congress. Once entered into a personal catalog, books can be sorted and users can easily edit information or attach tags. Library Thing members can compare their book collection with other users and can choose how much or how little personal information is linked to their profile.
There are links to bookstores, local libraries and book events and the Library Thing Early Reviewers program offers books to members who are willing to review them for the site. Authors can also register for a profile.
Book Army
Book Army is a free online book community. The site admin states that all books with an ISBN can be found in the website book database, although not all titles have cover images available. Books are listed as entered.
Book Army seems to be focused on establishing a community feel to their website, with friendship links and discussion groups and forums targeting new members and encouraging networking. Members can recommend titles to users they have linked as friends.
There are incentives, giveaways and competition prizes offered for regular contributions, although the members must be UK citizens to quality. Book Army also has facilities for authors to register for individual listings. A ‘Buy this Book’ tab takes readers to the Amazon site.
Good Reads
Good Reads offers free membership. Members can choose to search in either the Good Reads or Amazon database when adding book details. In addition to submitting reviews, members can also share their own writing and easily search a variety of recommendation lists.
With the convenience of a Facebook link, Good Reads offers additional features such as a link to the Facebook Never-ending Movie Trivia game. Members can also easily invite Facebook friends to join Good Reads to share reading recommendations and favourite books. Book updates can be linked to Facebook profile feeds.
An authors program offers author discussion groups and opportunities for authors to promote themselves and connect with readers.
Online Book Club Features
Each of the mentioned sites offers a five star rating system, reader reviews and a facility for attaching tags to each title, listed as shelves on Good Reads. There are both forums and groups that members can join to connect with other site members. Members can create forums for book-related topics of their choice.
Cataloging Books Online
Websites such as Good Reads, Book Army and Library Thing offer a range of facilities and cataloging services that enthusiastic readers may find beneficial.
Keeping an accurate catalog of a personal book collection can be useful for contents insurance claims and general organisation and those with an extensive personal library may find that keeping an accurate record of books may save money by reducing duplicate purchases.
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