Since last week’s announcement that Amazon bought Goodreads, many of the users over there are looking for alternative book cataloguing/bookish social networking sites. I’ve gathered several into a list here, with a few notes obtained by poking at them:

LibraryThing- Extensive and impressive book cataloguing functionality, lighter on the social media aspect (or at least not as heavy as Goodreads). No mobile app. You can catalogue up to 200 books for free, then there is a pay-what-you-will annual option or a lifetime membership option. They’re offering a free year membership if you sign up by Friday. Amazon has a minority but not controlling share in ownership obtained when they purchased AbeBooks.

Shelfari- Owned and controlled by Amazon. I’ve encountered a lot of complaints about how Amazon has functionally abandoned Shelfari, so user concerns are not being addressed, updates aren’t happening, etc. Who knows what will become of it now that the big A has Goodreads. New users must sign-in with an Amazon ID.

weRead- Well they haven’t tweeted since June of last year, but that might not mean anything. There’s a never-ending book quiz that’ll make some Goodreads refugees pretty happy. Doesn’t seem to have an import function, so you’ll have to add your books one by one (unless I’m missing something). The site itself seems very buggy and it’s possible it’s been abandoned.

The Reading Room- Has an import function! Heavy on the book clubs (though when I click on their first Featured Book Club, The Bookanistas, it says the club doesn’t allow negative reviews…ew.) and heavy on the ebook sales.

Libib- For book/movie/video game cataloguing. Options to make your libraries public or private. Uses tags. Not much social media going on. Has an import function.

Booklamp- If you use Goodreads mainly to get recommendations, this is an interesting option for you. The site uses the “Book Genome Project” to analyze the “DNA” of books, and gives you Pandora-style recommendations based on the actual contents of books you’ve selected (as opposed to giving recs based on genre, author, whatever).

Reader2- Book list making site, lets you use tags and search other user lists via tags. Doesn’t let you have separate collections, and only seems to have Amazon links for each book. The UI is wayyyyy outdated- worse than LibraryThing, which says a good bit.

Anobii- Allows GR import, but only for books with ISBNs. Allows reviews- also includes reviews from critics on the books’ pages.

These are in beta:

Riffle Books- focuses on lists and social media, not a heavy cataloguing function. Has a Pinterest-type feel. PRETTY COVERS! Facebook-only login right now, but they should have Twitter login within the next week. Great for people who loved the visual aspect of GR.

BookLikes- this looks like the closest thing to the Goodreads experience that I could find. It uses the “shelves” system like GR, there’s star ratings, reviews, a personal timeline-type activity feed, heavy social aspect. When you sign up, you’re actually creating a kind of mini-blog (so it’s yourusernameorwhatever.booklikes.com). Allows you to connect your affiliate links to your newly created blog-type-page.

Thirdscribe- This one hasn’t even launched the beta yet, but it sounds like it’s going to be interesting: “ThirdScribe is a social networking service designed from the ground up to connect authors and their audience. It does this by combining a social stream with forums, book pages, reviews, member profiles, and a blog network to form a giant discussion about books.” Will be supported by author fees (so no ads- but also no dead authors?).

Slice Bookshelf- Facebook log-in. Allows you to import from GR. Automatically put the books I’ve “liked” on Facebook on my “Favorites” shelf, which I don’t like. Shows the book activity of my Facebook friends automatically, which I also don’t care for (I don’t care what my second cousin is reading, let’s be real). But if you’re into integrated Facebook stuff, this would be a good option.

(Source: bookriot)

A lot of our snobbier co-workers like to play chess during their breaks. 

Daniel and I, on the other hand, like to take all the Biography books down and play a giant-sized game of Guess Who?

nevver:

Poorly Drawn Lines

I have way too many dreams and as senior year approaches they are all beginning to burst out of me

They all involve coffee, lit, art/photography, and traveling. 

amandaonwriting:

Plotting - From CMA

amandaonwriting:

Literary Birthday - 18 March

Happy Birthday, John Updike, born 18 March 1932, died 27 January 2009

10 Updike Quotes

1. Being able to write becomes a kind of shield, a way of hiding, a way of too instantly transforming pain into honey.
2. What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.
3. The essential support and encouragement comes from within, arising out of the mad notion that your society needs to know what only you can tell it.
4. Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.
5. Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.
6. When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas.
7. Each morning my characters greet me with misty faces willing, though chilled, to muster for another day’s progress through the dazzling quicksand the marsh of blank paper.
8. Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went.
9. Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.
10. I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody’s head.

Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic. His most famous work is his Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrom series. Both Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit At Rest won the Pulitzer Prize. He published more than 20 novels and more than a dozen short story collections.

by Amanda Patterson for Writers Write

     Nearly three months ago I got through about 100 pages of the Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling and wrote that I had difficulty sticking with it because the story unravels so slowly. Since I’m an action-movie type of gal, I felt that I was a little too impatient and that the novel deserved another chance.

I’m usually grabbed by a book that has a hook (rhyme unintended) and is suspenseful, or thrilling, or fantastical. I have enjoyed many books that did not have those qualities, but I expected something more whimsical from Rowling even though I was aware of the fact that it would be very unlike the Harry Potter series. 

After further investigation, I learned some of Rowling’s motivation behind writing the adult novel and it helped me connect more to the story. I also did a Google search on a list of the primary characters so I could keep track of them (there are new characters introduced every few chapters in the beginning). 

      In one review, the Los Angeles Review of Books writes that, “though Rowling is known for her vivid imagination, it is her knack for capturing the realties of human behavior and psychology that makes the story feel surreal. Maybe Rowling knows too well from personal experience that reality is often stranger than fiction.”

Here are some tips for if you decid to read the Casual Vacancy:

1. Don’t go into it thinking it will be anything like Harry Potter. You will in a sense get pulled into another world, but nothing that involves witches or magic.
2. It’s an adult-novel, so don’t expect a teenybopper theme with love triangles.
3. It can get quite dull, even depressing. It’s hard to connect with what you’re reading especially if you’re in your twenties and have had an overall pleasant life. I suggest getting disengaged from your real life and try to relate.
   
4. Read the first few chapters and then re-read them. You will have a different perspective then when you began.
5. Do some research and learn why J.K. Rowling wrote the book to give you some background. 
6. Be patient with it. Ask yourself critical questions and try to understand the deeper meaning.

I hope to have a review up by the end of the month!

Do you ever wonder whether people would like you more or less if they could see inside you? … but I always wonder about that. If people could see me the way I see myself - if they could live in my memories - would anyone, anyone, love me?

An Abundance of Katherines, John Green