Thing 16- Shelfari

For this thing, you will create an account and profile with the Shelfari website and and start adding books to your “bookshelf”. Wikipedia describes it as "a social cataloging website. Shelfari users build virtual bookshelves of the titles they own or have read, and can rate, review, tag, and discuss their books. Recommendations can be sent to friends on the site for what books to read."  Ready to check it out?

Go to Shelfari and Join Now. For safety's sake, uncheck the box that says, "Send me updates on my friends, my books, and Shelfari." When you get to step two, Skip that step to avoid having your Gmail buddies unnecessarily contacted. I've read it's a hassle. Then you are done, and just start adding books! Now, one feature I think you'll like here is the I Plan to Read list. How many times have you had someone recommend a book to you and when you are ready for a new book, you have completely forgotten what that suggestion was? Problem solved!

When you add a book, make sure you check out all the options. Add a review, tags, rating, note the edition, check out the author, see Shelfari's suggestion for other books. Then when you get to the end of that step, you can do further research on it: learn more about it, recommend the book, discuss it, read reviews, etc.

Another unique feature of Shelfari is its social capability. It's a little like Facebook in this aspect. You can invite people to be your friend, and they can accept or deny your invitation. I even had an author request to be my friend! Then there are groups- you can join an existing one or start a new one. Nimitz has several book club groups and the students discuss their books online. Pretty cool, huh?

For extra credit, add a widget of Shelfari to your blog. They are under "More Content" and can be specialized in a number of ways. I think that covers the major aspects. Play around, add a lot of books, find friends. Like it? Blog about it and let me know what you think.