Surfing Shelfari, Doing the Library Thing

As a newcomer to the brave new world of social book cataloging, I've been doing some comparison shopping among the various sites out there. You can find a useful review of three popular choices—LibraryThing, Shelfari, and GuruLib—at librarytwopointzero, and the theorist has blogged about the relative merits of Shelfari versus LibraryThing. While Shelfari consistently earns points for aesthetics, opinion seems to be running strongly in favor of LibraryThing, founded just over a year ago by collector Tim Spalding. Unlike the other two applications, LibraryThing charges for accounts of more than 200 books, but the fee is embarrassingly nominal ($10 a year or $25 for life).

One caveat about all these applications: If you're a procrastinator, they will only compound your vice. Not only can you now reorganize your bookshelves without ever leaving the comfort of your computer; you can share your addiction with thousands of like-minded bibliomanes.

Terra Incognita on 1,667 Words a Day

It's almost upon us: the annual event known as National Novel Writing Month, a worldwide pandemic of insanity in which tens of thousands of otherwise normal human beings attempt to produce a 50,000-word work of fiction from scratch in 30 days.

And this year, Dr. Fiction will be right there in the midst of the fray.

The fun begins November 1. Stay tuned for details.