By now, y’all know that i have a book fetish. Just a small one. [Wanna help me move???] So, i really really want to like Books We Like, especially now that i’m revisiting content-motivated recommendation networks. And i do really like their intention (and their kind request for participants to “Be forgiving.”). There’s one small problem: i have *ZERO* desire to input all of my books again. Zero.
Most people bitch about creating a new profile on each service. I feel this way about my books. I currently have two Excel files: one for all books that i own and one for all articles that i own. I am awaiting the kind soul who will build my ideal application for text management. It would start with a XML or DB schema that would access my half.com and Amazon purchasing habits, record when i bought it (which indicates more label material than anything else seeing as i buy books while writing papers or starting classes). And it would allow me to scan what i already have using Marc Smith’s magic toy.
What makes last.FM so valuable to me is that i don’t have to do much but listen to music which i do all the time anyhow. I don’t even have to tag anything since i’ve already done that work for other purposes, namely to listen more without painfully crashing Gwar into Nina Simone (even if some whacked children think this is a good idea… hrmfpt).
Why can’t something like Books We Like connect with my already present habits? Why can’t it help me organize my books. I already write commentary on them – why can’t it help me connect this together? Why can’t it let me simply rate my books for others when i don’t feel like writing a commentary? Why is there so much overhead for participation? Sadly, i can’t be bothered to input information in there – i just don’t see the value as outweighing the effort required. And this is super sad because i really want to like the people’s republic of books.