I tried What Should I Read Next? I entered my all-time favorite book, The Phantom Tollbooth, and got back pretty useless results like Dakota: a Spiritual Geography. The reason I like to try sites like this with The Phantom Tollbooth is that it doesn't fit into usual catagories and there are no other books that I know of that are like it. Still, these results aren't very satisfactory. When I try something obvious, like the Warriors series by Erin Hunter, I get great results. Still, for an easily classifiable series like that, I could have figured out what to read next by myself!
I looked at BookGlutton, Overbooked, and BookSprouts. I can see recommending these sites to book clubs.
Librivox is an intriguing idea. We are going to add downloadable audiobooks to our library in the near future. Downloadable seems to be the best format for these, because otherwise the technology constantly changes.
Swaptree is too much work. There's a Half Price Books two blocks from our house, while I would have to drive to mail something. No contest.
BookBrowse is the most intriguing site so far. I like the options, the ability to sort the results, and the results seem to present good choices.
The children's sites are well done. I wish some of these had been available when I had younger children.
I looked at the Facebook apps, but they are just not compelling. I read in the evenings for fun, and I mostly read historical fiction and bubblegum for the mind. Bad scifi, the latest book my kids are reading. I don't read "literature". So I don't really want my reading choices out on my Facebook page where my college president can see that I'm reading Ender's Game or the Ranger's Apprentice series because that's what we happened to borrow from our public library this week. With these social apps, you really have to remember who your audience is and be careful what you share.
These book apps are interesting, but nothing listed here beats LibraryThing. I'm hoping our catalog will become more interactive and more like LibraryThing, which actually makes good recommendations for books that are like the one you are currently reading through the use of tagging.
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