20 October 2009

Weekly Geeks: Blogging Extras

Ruth writes:

Book blogging, as a concept, is essentially pretty simple: If you have Internet access and an opinion about a book, you can be a book blogger. However, actually maintaining a book blog is much more complicated — our blogs are labors of love that require a lot of time, energy and devotion. For this edition of Weekly Geeks, I want to focus on the little things that make your blogging and/or reading life a bit easier. Do you use sites like GoodReads, LibraryThing or Shelfari to organize your books? Do you swear by Book Darts? Couldn’t live without your Book Buddy? Love connecting with other bloggers on sites such as Twitter? Tell us about what makes your blog tick. Is there something specific that keeps you organized or inspired?

When it comes to keeping track of books, my newfound love of Excel is making all the difference. In my Reading Spreadsheet (in need of a clever title), I have worksheets for books read, books recommended, to read challenge lists, my banned books challenge, and as of yesterday a sheet for my readathon schedule. Organizing is part of the fun for me!


My other bookish organizer is LibraryThing which I use to keep track of books I own, books I've read, and books I want. Now I've even started copying over my reviews from my blog to LibraryThing. My username is EclecticEccentric over there if you'd like to friend me.

To manage my blog reading, I adore Google Reader. My GR doesn't necessarily adore me right now as it is consistently busy, but I have found it invaluable in keeping me apprised of new posts, allowing me to mark posts to read again later, and I'm sure there is a whole host of other possibilities I haven't begun to explore.

Despite my ridiculous love for collecting books, my husband set me straight on keeping every single book that crosses my path. He's also the one who introduced me to BookMooch. I'm now an avid user which may have backfired on my husband as I seem to get just as many books as I send out. Over at BookMooch, I'm Trillian if you'd like to friend me and share some books.

I resisted Twitter. I really did. Even now, I don't actually talk to or follow anyone that isn't a member of the book blogging community. But I just couldn't resist sneaking in on all the wonderful bookish conversations going on, so I joined. My username is Trish422 if you are interested in following me.

So what are your tools of the trade?

8 comments:

  1. I don't really know what BookMooch is, but I just bet it doesn't work in Denmark ;o)

    I will find you on Twitter and follow you :-)

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  2. -or maybe I wont, since we are already following each other. LOL.

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  3. I LOVE BookMooch! I sent out a lot of old books from when I cleaned out my room at my parents :)

    I don't know how I'd survive without GoogleReader!!

    Tara SG
    25hourbooks.com

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  4. I don't know what I'd do without my excel documents. Seriously--my favorite Christmas present last year was Office 2007 so I could have the upgraded Excel. :)

    I don't use a lot of those other thingies. Get on twitter occasionally but am bad about responding to tweets.

    I love GReader but right now it's taking up to 5 hours for my posts to show up, so I'm hating it in fear that it will be off during the read-a-thon. :-/

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  5. I haven't succumbed to Twitter yet (where would I find the time??), but I'm a big fan of LibraryThing. Most of my reviews make it over there sooner or later. I friended you there, too! My LibraryThing name is yourotherleft. =)

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  6. Louise - BookMooch is international! I'm not sure the extent of overseas activity, but I've sent books to India, Ireland, England, Italy, and the Phillipines.

    Gautami - That stinks!

    Tara SG - I'm with you on BookMooch and GR; they are both just wonderful.

    Trish - I'm clearly not good at Twitter. I rarely get comments and I'm not ever sure what to write on there.

    Megan - Awesome! LT is really what started me on this whole journey.

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  7. Heyy!! Just saw that you signed up for the book club!! So exciting I am so glad to see it. Make sure to keep us updated on your progress once you get the book. If you are looking for a cheap copy be sure to check out abe.com they have dollar copies!

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