Okay before I start let me make it perfectly clear that I know I am "different" than most when it comes to visual vs. text... I prefer the written word to pictures almost all the time, a picture does not always paint a thousand words for me! For whatever reason all the new *visual* stuff like visual dictionaries, visual displays of search returns, etc etc etc just confuse the heck out of me - give me a good old list any day!
Shelfari is designed to display your book collection virtually. I use (not very regularly) GoodReads currently so I understood the premise before signing up. Shelfari is definitely made for those people who like a visual representation of the topic. There is a customizable bookshelf that can display the covers of your virtual library. There are lots of ways to share your books and ideas with others, discussion groups, friends, etc. Each process seems very easy to set up, even for me! The only thing I had some trouble with is figuring out how to add new books. I found the button to do it, figured out the search, but did not get the feedback I was hoping for that I had correctly selected the books. Some of the cool things that I noticed were.... there is a tag cloud (like in delicious) for linking to book ideas, it seems very easy to move your books around to different shelves, there are tons of book reviews, there is an area that you can ask for recommendations, etc.
Overall - if you like the big visuals this is the one for you. If you are a more text based person then give GoodReads a try!
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2 comments:
Heather (HN, my other person to comment this week) also picked Shelfari...it sounds pretty neat, but I swear, who has the time to organize a digital library for fun? If it were work related that would be great, and the concept is cool, but of all the things I want to do with personal-life stuff, this would be way at the bottom of the list, lol.
I agree with you regarding the visual displays. It seems like often it's too much and requires a whole new way of learning. As a visual person myself, visualizing often helps, though some visualizations go too far. Shelfari seems kind of fun though, kind of like browsing a bookstore. The "complicated" factor though somewhat mitigates this.
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