We know how bibliophiles are a little compulsive - as in obsessive compulsive - so Jim Spalding’s library project is a curse. Library Thing is a social cataloguing experience; essentially, it allows the average compulsive amongst us to catalogue our most noble of extravagances and, what’s more, with its built-in cross-referencing tool, lets OCDs / bibliophiles with similar interests touch one another in a non-literal manner.
For more, visit Library Thing. Want to browse my library? Check out my catalogue. Now you know. That way, when I’m dead famous, or famous and dead, or famous from my death, or dead because of my fame, and you guys are trying to figure out whether this or the other book influenced this or the other thought, just flick through my annotated library and all will be revealed.
I feel a certain sadness for librarything.com - one day soon, I sense Tim (the owner and developer of librarything.com) will soon make his fortune by selling out his “invention” to the boys over at Amazon. Don’t do it.
Entries (RSS)
Good God…. now I can organize my library based on the color of the front cover and list them on the web site alphabetically, in reverse…wow. All this years I’ve been doing it the wrong way….by subject and sub-field.
But I do feel a bit offended, we (OCDs) like to think we have other commercial applications/uses beside cross-referencing, such as creating the highest quality service and product, especially in the image processing and recording studios
Exactly. It seems to me that we OCDs (and/or bibliophiles) are the epitome of consumerist culture. No two books are ever alike, no two speakers sound the same. We differentiate, and in differentiating, in segmenting, we create new niches - that’s why the late, great comedian Bill Hicks lambasted marketing executives. At the same time, we thereby also create new sub-tastes. These traits - on the one hand, a cultivated hoarding and on the other hand, a micro-perfectionist ethic - are on the same continuum.