Good Reads, Library Thing, or Shelfari?

[HSinNH]

One of our state requirements is to keep a book log, which I have always done manually on a spreadsheet. But, I thought it might be more fun for my girls to keep track themselves on one of these sites. However, they all seem very public and I am not interested in sharing what my DDs are reading with the entire world. Is there a way to keep your log private or only allow certain users to view it?

 

Which is YOUR favorite?

[boscopup]

I use Goodreads, since it's free and has an app for my phone - I can just scan the barcode on the book IF it has one. I've entered my library into my account.

 

As far as privacy goes... I did not use a last name, and I didn't put my first name in the first name box (put a username instead). You can also set it to not allow anyone but friends to see your profile. You set it to not let anyone see your e-mail address either.

 

Basically, you can put fake info in there so no one can figure out who you are. All they would be able to see is tagged lists made by BubbaTheCoonDog or some such nonsense name like that. :D

 

I had looked at LibraryThing, but there was something it wasn't going to let me do... or maybe it was just too much work to get the books into it? Goodreads just requires an ISBN and bam, it's there. I also can't remember what about Shelfari I didn't like. It's been a year since I tried them all out! My suggestion is to make an account with all 3, test them out, then decide what to use.

 

Oh, and you don't happen to use HST+ for school planning, do you? That would work very well and has a report feature for your reading log. Goodreads does have an option to print the contents of your shelf, though it has icons and such, so it may use a good bit of paper.

[Michele B]

I use GoodReads for myself and am very happy with it. BUT....I use it to find other books I might like, what other reviewers thought, etc. That doesn't sound like what you are looking for. dd11 has been asking to get on GoodReads, but I have so far said no. I want to have a bit more control over what she reads - books and reviews of books.

I use it to follow reviews to books I might want to read. That is not what I want my girls doing independently at this point. ;) Also there are ads for upcoming books as well as suggested recommendations- very useful to me, but not want I want my girls doing on their own.

 

I would be interested in hearing if others had used some sort of privacy settings.

[Kathryn]

We use good reads for books that we read. We both have our accounts set to private.

 

We use librarything for cataloging our book collection. My account there is also set to private.

[Chava_Raizel]

I love Goodreads. I set my dd up with an account so she could keep track of what she reads. I sometimes assign her book reviews to write on her goodreads account. It's free, and it's a fun way to keep track of our reading. Right now I'm her only "friend", but it can be fun to see what other people are reading too.