Shelfari, LibraryThing, Booktagger......

Among the rising number of Web 2.0 tools available for booklovers, there are a few worth a quick mention.

Shelfari - "Read. Share. Explore. Shelfari is the premier social network for people who love books." Not only this but Shelfari has recently revamped itself and continues to grow and adapt as the Web 2.0 world expands and grows. There's a nice little post that goes into Shelfari's recent relaunch that's worth a read. Shelfari also has a selection of virtual bookcases to display your online collection with choices of covers to be sure you get the right match.

LibraryThing - "LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere—even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth. " This last bit is what I like best about LibraryThing - the whole RA concept taken beyond the library's walls. Mind you there are possible charges linked to LibraryThing that whilst not prohibitive tend to detract from the overall concept - you can catalog up to 200 books with your free account but if you want to go beyond that you'll need to part with either $10 (US) a year or $25 (US) for a lifetime account. And let's be honest here - how many of us booklovers have well over 200 books? (I'm sure I'd reached that mark by the time I was 10!) Of interest though is that LibraryThing can possibly be integrated into Library catalogues (and already links to the Library of Congress and around 690 other world libraries) which is where I believe its greatest growth will come from.

Booktagger - "Tired of cruising book stores trying to judge a book by its cover? Now you can ask those who've read it before. Booktagger is an online bookshelf application to list the books you've read and to share them with others." Okay, I admit to only just reading about Booktagger (though I get the feeling someone may have mentioned it before) but I like the aspect that it's actually an Australian product and impressed with its hit-rate of 10,000 unique visitors within its first 3 weeks of operation.

These are just a few, I'm sure there must be more out there - any suggestions?