My buddy Martin just introduced me to a new site called Shelfari. Yes, the same Martin who probably didn't read a full book all the way through during his time as my roommate at UCLA. I don't blame him, there was Nintendo to be played and Discovery to be watched, after all. But something happened to Martin since he graduated, and he's now one of the most avid readers I know. And not just fluff. Some of the books have big words, too.
Anyway, back to Shelfari. It's a place to create your virtual "bookshelf", where you can list your books (down to the specific edition), rank them, tag them, review them, and recommend them to others. The site accomplishes this by integrating with Amazon, which actually bought them in 2008. Personally, I think that means this site has a lot more potential. There's still a number of features it needs before it can really kick butt, like:
- Incorporating Amazon's "Readers who liked X also liked Y" algorithm. Shelfari needs to bring on the algorithms to recommend those obscure books we may not ever find on our own.
- Allowing users to sell books directly through their bookshelf. Currently, you can add books from someone else's bookshelf, but not purchase them. Amazon Associates IDs should be part of your profile, with "Buy Now" links on every book.
- Power User rankings, for those people who rate a lot of books and get high reviews (a la Amazon's current system on its main site).
As it is, the site is a bit of a mishmash of social network and Amazon's native features. But it's young and it has potential, so I uploaded all of my books and gave a bunch of them short reviews. I also created a widget and placed it on the sidebar of my blog (to the right). I put the books in order of my top rankings, so you can scroll through and see my entire collection, even reading some reviews. Technically, you should be able to purchase a book through the widget, but I don't think that functionality is working right now. Soon, hopefully!
If you decide to join, let me know. I'm always looking for book recommendations, and this could be a fun way to get them!
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