Shelfari

I was hanging out on someone’s blog when i saw this kool widget called Shelfari. It’s one of those social networking things under the guise of you getting to tell the world what kinda books you’ve read. But I like books and am apparently willing to give up some of my privacy to get to show off my bookcase. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against social networking. I just have the feeling that some evil people out there are using the information that we are so freely supplying, to do something not so good. But I digress.

Below is what the Shelfari people have to say about themselves:

Based in Seattle, Shelfari introduces readers to our global community of book lovers and encourages them to share their literary inclinations and passions with peers, friends, and total strangers (for now). Shelfari is a gathering place for authors, aspiring authors, publishers, and readers, and has many tools and features to help these groups connect with each other in a fun and engaging way. Our mission is to enhance the experience of reading by connecting readers in meaningful conversations about the published word.

Shelfari’s members:

• Build virtual bookshelves to express themselves to their friends and to the world
• Discover books that are popular in their trusted circles of friends
• Influence peers by rating and discussing books online
• Discover and learn from people with similar reading tastes
• Participate in online book groups to further explore literature and share ideas
• Interact with and learn from authors

Shelfari was officially launched in October 2006 and was acquired by Amazon.com in August 2008.

Now back to me and MY opinion about Shelfari.

What I do like:

• It’s fun to have to go through your book collection and see all those books you bought and remember why. I, apparently, am (or was) really into The Rolling Stones, astrology, Vin Diesel, writing, marketing, vampires.
• For us psycho’s that like to make lists of their stuff, this project is like virtual crack.
• You know that one book you bought and you thought you were the only one who REALLY understood it? Well you’re not alone anymore. Some other nut liked it too, so maybe you’ll end up making a new friend.
• You can write a book review and rate books and pretend like someone else gives a crap what you thought about [insert name of book here].
• It has that kool widget option, where you can add a .php or flash version of your bookshelf to your blog/website.
• You can monetize the widget if you have an Amazon Associate account.

What I don’t like:

• Their database is missing a lot of older book covers and that there (currently) doesn’t seem to be a way to add them.
• While it does have the option to add multiple books at a time, I could do without having to put the brackets around the ISBNs.
• I think they should add more book shelf design options. I really like my Ikea bookshelves and wanted to use those.
• Configuring that widget gets a little funky and its not just a WordPress plugin that you can add to your site.

Overall though, I think it’s a something worth playing around with. So go check out my bookshelf and then go get your own.