My own personal library June 29, 2009

As mentioned in my previous post, I love books!  I have many bookcases of books at home.

As such, I sometimes (not very often, but it does happen) come home with a book I already own!  It’s humbling, frankly.

I’m also always on the hunt for more books to read/consume.  I came across a number of programs to help you inventory the books and media you have at home.  The most fun one I found was Delicious Library.  http://www.delicious-monster.com/ The downside to that is that I DON’T own a Mac, nor will I probably ever own a Mac.  This program seemed extra cool because you can inventory all of your “books, movies, music, software, toys, tools, electronics, & video games”!  This makes that pesty home inventory for insurance much easier.  The bonus is that you can use the camera in the computer to just hold up your item and program supposedly will inventory it for you!  But, alas, with no Mac in sight for me, that was totally out to lunch.

I checked out a number of other programs for PC.  They are much less robust than Delicious Library, but I found one that really suits my needs, if only for the books I own and books I want to read.  This solution is LibraryThing http://www.librarything.com.  It was the most suitable, least flashy of the programs for PC I could find and the best part is that I didn’t have to install anything!

It says a lot when I have 507 books in my inventory, and a good portion of them are in my “I want to read this and don’t own it yet” part of my collection.  I’ve only inventoried about 1/4 of my books thus far, as it’s a little time-consuming.  But I’m slowly getting there.

I always inventory the library books I take out.  I rate the best ones (especially the ones for my little peanut) so I can remember which ones warrant a suggestion for my book club or take them out of the library again.

Geez, I’m really a geek, but whatever.  I love to read!  Oh, and I’m getting my books inventoried for our insurance too 🙂