Good Reads

There are a lot of website around nowadays that are trying to capitalize on the semi-recent popularity of "social networking" sites, like facebook and myspace, by adding a new spin to the base idea.

One of these sites is Goodreads, where you create a profile for yourself, and then browse or search through their vast database of books and rate or review the ones you've read, mark ones you haven't but want to read, and tag the ones you're currently reading. And of course, as a social networking site, you can keep a friends list, and stay up to date on what your friends thought of books they've read, which ones they're reading now, and which they want (maybe so you can buy them a birthday present).

The site's database is quite extensive. In addition to popular fiction and sci-fi books, I was able to find quite a few academic books, such as Kager's Optimality Theory. If you do happen to have read a book that isn't in the database already, you're in luck, because the database itself is editable by users, and the interface for adding a new book looks to be quite simple to use.

If you're even a little bit of a reader, rating books (on a 5-star scale) can be a fun way to while away a lazy afternoon, as you reminisce about what you liked (or didn't like) about books you may have read long ago. And don't feel any pressure to add *all* the books on your bookshelf, or all the books you've ever read. Just rate a few whenever you think of them, and you'll probably have quite a list of books before you know it.