I tried out Library Thing and Good Reads, and I wasn’t really a fan of either. Or rather, I liked parts of both of them, but neither of them seemed to work for me. I liked the ease of adding titles in Good Reads, and I liked that it had a non-flash widget that I could put in my wordpress blog (though I don’t like that it’s all one line). In Library Thing, I liked being able to tag books, which would make it much more useful for Readers Advisory and provide a handy way to search and sort the many, many titles we have jumbled in our heads. I also liked the full cataloging it provided (I am a librarian, after all) However, adding new titles was very clunky and it seemed to take awhile for each one to load. I think that Good Reads would be a handy way to track what I’ve read for my own personal enjoyment, and Library Thing would be a good tool for readers advisory, but neither really works for me. Wish there was a way to combine what I like of both, so I guess I’ll keep my eyes out for new versions now that I can see the possibilities.
Lots of library staff have settled on GoodReads because it is compatible with Facebook. You can use your account while in Facebook and share it with your Facebook friends.