{"id":2598,"date":"2007-06-21T18:19:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-22T02:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=2598"},"modified":"2007-06-21T18:19:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-22T02:19:00","slug":"2598","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=2598","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

So while I’m happily using both LibraryThing<\/a> and Goodreads<\/a> to keep track of the books that I’ve read, or that I’m currently reading, I still want to keep a separate list of the books that I intend<\/i> to read for my own personal use. I had been using Amazon.com’s wishlist feature to keep track of these books<\/a>, but it’s a feature that leaves a great deal to be desired. A lot of the problems with it are expressed here<\/a> more succinctly than I could, but the real issue I’ve always had with it personally is that that you can’t export the contents of the list into anything like a usable format. In fact, as far as Amazon is concerned, apparently, you can’t export the contents of the list into any<\/i> other format.<\/p>\n

You can print<\/i> the contents, but if it’s a long list (and mine is) then you’re looking at far too many pages, a cumbersome and environmentally unfriendly solution. I want a list that I can do something with, that I can sort however I like, and that I print off in smaller sections if that’s what I need. What I want, essentially, is an Excel spreadsheet. Something simple and easy to deal with.<\/p>\n

So I went online to look for better solutions, or tricks, that would let me do just that. I found a few suggestions — like using Amazon’s Web Services<\/a> as a work-around, or copying and pasting directly<\/a> from the wishlist, or even installing a Firefox extension<\/a> to pull the information (kicking and screaming) from the list in question — but none of them worked exactly the way I wanted.<\/p>\n

And I really<\/i> didn’t want to re-input all those book titles one by one myself.<\/p>\n

But then it occurred to me that I could import<\/i> the list into LibraryThing. They offer what they call “the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of file imports<\/a>,” which will rip ISBNs from any website or file that you give it and plug those books into your LibraryThing catalog. No muss, no fuss — and they<\/i> offer tools that will then allow you to export the catalog into MS Excel. <\/p>\n

True, you can only list 200 titles altogether with a free account, but a lifetime membership with unlimited titles is only $25. And these LibraryThing people seem like good folk, don’t they? They provide a nice service, so why not throw a little money their way? So now I’ve got myself another book list<\/a>, with which I can do all the things I couldn’t do with Amazon.com. It was a nice little eureka moment when I realized how simple this solution was going to be. I’ll definitely be using this list, rather than Amazon, to keep track of books I plan to read from now on.<\/p>\n

I should add that I don’t<\/i> plan to import these titles to my Goodreads shelves anytime soon — at least, not until I’m reading, or have read, them. Unless I’m missing something, there doesn’t seem to be any way to import titles directly to a specific shelf. Instead, these 275 (and counting) titles would end up on my “already read” list, and I’d need to change each one of them individually. That’s a little more work than I’m willing to invest in this.<\/p>\n

However, I am going to continue using Goodreads to keep track of the books I am<\/i> reading. It’s been brought to my attention recently that I might be difficult to find, if you’re trying to friend me. So if you are — and please do — this is me here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now I should probably go read something…<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So while I’m happily using both LibraryThing and Goodreads to keep track of the books that I’ve read, or that I’m currently reading, I still want to keep a separate list of the books that I intend to read for my own personal use. I had been using Amazon.com’s wishlist feature to keep track of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-2598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}