Expand Your Literary World

There are two fantastic sites out there not only designed to expand your literary world, but to connect with other people with the same interests as you. If you're in school, it's one of the best uses of technology in education as you search for a book for your research paper, or for class discussion.

LibraryThing has a community of nearly a million readers. Its main distinguishing feature is the ability to sign up to receive free review books through a lottery drawing. You can also select a book you don't own and see if it's at a nearby bookstore or at your library. You add books and can connect either with people you know, or people whose libraries you find to be interesting. There are various community groups you can also post to.

Shelfari reminds me a lot of Delicious Library for the Mac in terms of interface. It's not as full-featured as LibraryThing, but the site looks a lot nicer. However, Shelfari is a reminder that what matters about a book isn't its cover, but its contents. The one thing that Shelfari does better than LibraryThing is incorporate a planned reading list so you can show friends what you would like to purchase in the future. There is also an option to hide all spoilers. Like LibraryThing, there are various forums and friend connection tools. What Shelfari lacks is the ability to look for books locally and the opportunity to receive review books, which could cause people to choose LibraryThing over Shelfari.