LibraryThing, GoodReads, Shelfari

[Brenda Branson]

Who is using which? How do they compare? Does anyone use more that one? I've started using LT which I really like. Then found Goodreads and I've found the other participants are more active in GR than LT. AND then I found Shelfari and I really like their cool bookshelf for the widget but there's a lot of advertising. I really have attempted to analyze any but if you have strong pros or cons about any of these or know of others, please share.

[Tall Stories - Fine Books for...]

I joined LT on Friday night, merely as a form of extended, free advertising for our shop and because I wanted to see how it all worked. I was sooooo impressed with how easy it was. It read our Homebase software and within 6 minutes we had over 485 titles listed, which is odd, since it says it limits free accounts to 200 titles. It also grabbed the ISBN's off of our webpages. I have never encountered these sites before, but LT was sooooo impressive that I will try the other sites that people have suggested. I was quite impressed to see quite a few South Africans on LT as well. thanks for all the extra info.

[Tall Stories - Fine Books for...]

So I went off to view Shelfari…..
Firstly let me say that I am not the intended target market of these websites. We are second-hand book retailers and these sites are aimed at personal libraries. However, I like to see how the reading public is using the internet and how I could perhaps learn from them. I did find some important differences and LT is a far superior service from my perspective.
I am uploading an existing database, created on free software called Homebase which many second-hand dealers use around the world. A large chunk of the database consists of out-of-print (OP) books. The big advantage of LT is that it gives you 690 options of how you want to match your ISBN’s. Do you want to match your database against the database of the Library of Congress or Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com or the University of the Witwatersrand, University of Pretoria etc. etc. . There are in fact country specific options for ISBN matching of your books. This is important if your books are not in English, or if they are out-of-print books. I chose the Library of Congress option and got +- 485 matches. Shelfari could not read my file (which is just a glorified spreadsheet). I had to import my database from LT and then oddly, 445 books on LT translated to +- 225 books on Shelfari via the import. There were no choices for where my books could be matched against. Shelfari told me it did not recognize many of our bestsellers (2008 international fiction titles) never mind the OP items. The cover-picture matching on LT is much better than Shelfari. If you are a collector, this is an important point.
Other minor irritations, were I could not find South Africans on Shelfari. It is possible I was missing something, but I did try the advanced search option and the results were not relevant. On LT, I found 198 South Africans in 2 minutes and recognized 3 immediately. I could also find other book shops on LT very easily. I found Shelfari a very slow site and although their widget is pretty and they have a facility to link it directly to your blog (provided your blog is on certain sites), it continues to offer the option of “Buy this book from Amazon”. They tell you that this is optional, so I removed that option, however, the “Buy from Amazon” link still appeared, so I had to remove the entire widget. I also had to physically change my url on Shelfari to reflect our name as opposed to LT automatically generating a URL that reflects our name. The BIG advantage of Shelfari is that it appears you can upload as many books as you want for free (LT only 200, but it let us go to +- 485)
I will test the other sites that members have suggested but so far, LT was über impressive, Shelfari, not so much. However, I am not the target market.

[Terri Quinn]

I use all three, but Goodreads is my favorite.

Shelfari has the coolest widgets, but I've connected with more people on Goodreads. Haven't really connected with anyone on LibraryThing or Shelfari. I use all three to keep track of books read and reviewed, but as I said, Goodreads seems more user friendly and I like their layout the best.

I'd recommend using all three to see which one you prefer.

[Stacy-Deanne (Novelist)]

Hi Brenda,

Library Thing- Never used it. I never really liked the set up.

Goodreads- Very active and I've gained many new readers and fans there. A year ago I was way more active there and participated in a lot of groups but since January I have just about stopped dealing with GR. Reasons are that folks started with the funky attitudes and I am too busy writing to spend as much time there as I used to. In fact I only get on to accept friend requests. It's a great place to be but certain things turned me off from it. I also noticed a lack of participation in groups which really turned me off.

Shelfari- Not that active but I like the groups there. I love giving advice in the forums and I like the intelligent atmosphere. It is definitely not as active as GR but right now, it's the one I make sure to pop into when I have the time.

Best Wishes!

http://www.stacy-deanne.net

[Hilda]

I use all three. I like Shelfari the best because it's easy to use and I like the book shelf. Heh. GR is pretty good too and I've just started using LT so I'm still getting used to it. I was also using (until today) LivingSocial, it's cool to add books but its other features suck.

[Loves Books in Texas]

This post just turned me on the the sites-didn't know they were there. Thanks, I think I will try GR.

[Christy]

I'm another one that uses all 3 sites, with LT being my least favorite. The searching options seem to be too complicated for me. I've noticed when I search for something by author, and when I click to add a book to my shelf, the next page has only my shelf items....not all of the other books by that author that came up in the search. So, for someone like me who has a lot of books, this one flaw drives me crazy!

Shelfari and GR, on the other hand, are both great. I've got my full library listed on Shelfari as that was the site that I first discovered. I'm slowly getting everything listed up on GR. I don't have a problem with the search capabilities on either site...both suit my needs fine. I like the forums on both sites, too, and have been able to make and receive lots of recommendations.

Hope that helps!

[Michelle Miller]

I use GoodReads and Library Thing. I don't have my full catalog listed on either yet (1400+ fiction and over 1000 non-fiction and holiday). I plan to list my entire catalog on library thing as soon as I can afford to pay the $25 fee for the lifetime membership. I love Library Thing because of their Early Reviewers (advance reader copies). I like GoodReads because of feedback, linking to Twitter & Facebook, and I love their widgets! I plan to continue using both =)

[Jaime Huff]

I use GR, Shelfari and Librarything. Goodreads is unlimited for your library but uh, librarything charges you a membership for over 200 books. I use Shelfari also. However, all three of those sites are required postings for several places I review for.
I like the social interaction of GR best and have found many other book lovers to communicate with and interact with MANY authors on there too.
LT is different for me, kind of bland, really. I don't like that it is going to cost me to add more books to my library. I don't like their set up, either. Adding books is an enormous pain. Their site is extremely slow, and I have a nice, new custom built computer, so it's not my PC it's their site.
Shelfari, I rarely spend much time on, so I can't really give any pros and cons. Their widgets are pretty nice. Michelle Miller- Goodreads also hosts tons of Giveaways too. You just have to go to where it says Explore. But don't click on anything from the drop down.

[Michelle Miller]

Thanks Jaime! I'll check it out...did not know that!

[Sandra Stiles]

I use both LibraryThing and Goodreads. I started out with Goodreads. They both have their advantages. I am pleased with both. I have not tried shelfari yet. Not sure I need a third one.

[sari]

I love Libarything because I do have a large book collection, though I have to be honest and say I am not good at keeping my list up to date. I bought one of the scanners the site sells and spent about five hours adding my books. Now I add my books now and again.
I have a Good Reads shelf but I do not find it very user friendly, it fustrates me to no end. I have a Shelfari but I keep forgetting to visit it.