Mobile LibraryThing

I have been a user of LibraryThing for some time, entering my catalogue of books and then slowly starting to take advantage of the social functionalities of the concept. It has been very useful in sharing my books with family and friends as well as learning about other books and authors I should check out.

In addition to the variety of interesting things that the site offers, I have found the mobile access to your personal book collection to be very useful. I can browse to LibraryThing from my mobile phone and I have immediate access to an organized, web-based catalogue of my personal library. From anywhere in the world, I can refer to what books I own, and access metadata, reviews, and ratings. I have done this from the book store, from the library, and even from work.

Call me a book geek, but I think that is very cool.

Not on the Same Page as Print is Dead

I read this article talking about the hidden features of the Kindle at the Print is Dead blog (from Jeff Gomez, the author of Print is Dead) this morning. Jeff seems to think that additional features of ereading devices are not only great, but necessary. I have a slightly different opinion.

The iPod did not improve the portable listening experience for music, it simply made it possible to carry a complete collection of music around on a very small device. Sony's Walkman pioneered the category, but the iPod connected the gap between the media and the mechanism.

This is what ereaders can add immediate value on -- not creating a better reading experience than a book, but making it possible to carry hundreds of books around in a compact unit. E-ink and the like are technologies that were built because of a recognized shortfall that needed to be rectified to have any success.

There are inherent advantages to digital books that should be exploited, such as linking, full-text search, and tagging. Personally, these are the types of things that I am looking for in an ereader -- I certainly don't need another wireless web browser to go with my laptop and smart phone. I think device companies need to look at form factor, ergonomics, and UI (not to mention critical mass of content!) before adding games, GPS capability, and web browsing.