I Love eBooks, Book Organization and Book Community

KINDLE

I love my Kindle. Currently I'm using the Kindle app on my iPad (Erin has the Kindle), so I'll just say I love all eBooks and anything that can get a digital book to any of my digital computer type systems. Obviously my love is because I am such a consumer of the written word. BUT..

There is an even better reason to love the format eBook itself that I am proclaiming this love today. It is because I have the ability to find and GET the next book in a series IMMEDIATELY in my hands. If I have the means and am really into a story I no longer have to go to a bookstore and buy the next book in the series before I can find out what happens next to my favorite heroine! Also the Kindle price is often cheaper than the paperback price.

The number one thing that made me write this post is the kicker of them all. I found a book that was the 2nd book in its series and I really did not want to wait to have to find the first book before getting to read that book. So, I looked it up on Kindle and, low and behold! It was only $2.99 Kindle price! So I bought it and now I don't have to wait to actually try to find a paperback book cheap nor do I have to pay full paperback price! So my thoughts ran rampant. What if I could always find the first book in the series EVERY time I had this dilemma? Sure, the price may not always be right, but I have the world's library at my fingertips! I can always have the book I want right there! OK, I'm obsessed. That's going overboard and would happen only in a perfect world where I might have more money than I have brains.

SHELFARI

"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."

I like Shelfari, though it is a community, because it is a place to house my library of books. So far in my Shelfari library I have logged in 3,520 books. Almost all of them are eBooks. Shelfari is linked to Amazon so occasionally after I've racked up a couple dozen books I'll upload them to Shelfari and my count goes higher. Also when I buy them straight out I add them manually. If I remember books I've read in the past I'll add them also. Shelfari is really cool. It lets you separate the books into categories of Owned, Read, Want to read, To be read, Reading Now, Wish to Have, etc... So, the total count may or may not be all the books I actually own or have read. For instance, the total books logged on my Shelfari, 3,656, includes those I have read but do not own. When I remember books I have read in the past I add them to the list.

GOODREADS

"Goodreads is the largest site for readers and book recommendations in the world. We have more than 12,000,000 members who have added more than 400,000,000 books to their shelves. A home for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads users recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they've read and would like to read, find their next favorite book, form book clubs and much more."

I like Goodreads for the actual community. Yes, they also have a place to keep the library of books but they are not connected to Amazon therefore they are not easy to upload every single book I own to the database. There are many more people that use Goodreads for community than Shelfari. It just makes sense to me to use both. 


For a book lover like me any book tool on the web is a good book tool I say. Happy Reading!