Tag Archives: LibraryThing

Planning my Reading for 2019

books, reading

This is the time of year when the Library Thing community starts creating groups and challenges for the new year. One of my major goals for 2019 is to read books from my own shelves or from the library. It is time to do some serious shelf cleaning. Library Thing challenges provide a way to browse the shelves, connecting with books that have just gotten lost.

I am always part of the 75 Books a Year Challenge as my main community. Various sub challenges break out from that group that provide ways to make decisions about which books to read.

The BingoDOG Challenge is just what it sounds like: you complete a Bingo card by reading books that meet certain criteria. I’m also “loosely” doing a few other challenges such as the AlphaKIT. Each month features two letters of the alphabet and either author names or title words must start with one or both of those letters. For instance, I get a double hit because January’s letters are A and Q and I read Anna Quindlen‘s book Blessings. I am reading a few other A and Q books, all of which have been sitting on the shelves for awhile.

I have started making various piles related to the challenges as well as just books I want to read in general. I tag the books Read in 2019, and you can follow the tag.

Finding Community Through Books

books, social networking

One of the points I made during my talk with librarians was how books help create community, both face to face and online. When I moved to my current home, I tried to get involved in the town but a crazy work schedule kept me from really finding a place.

Now, my schedule is better, but I need an easy way to connect: no committee meetings or event planning. I found it at my local library. A real life book group that meets once a month. Finding time to read is no problem as I average about 75 books a year. We’ve read a few books I already owned and a few I probably would not have read. The latter were often pleasant surprises as I was sure they were the kinds of books I didn’t like.

My virtual community is, as I have written before, LibraryThing. It was started in August 2005 and I had an account by October 13, 2005. I was looking for the same thing the developer was: a way to catalog my books and reading. Now, almost 13 years later, LibraryThing has become my community as well. I belong to one group–75 Books a Year–where we share our reading and love for books even as we challenge each other to reach an annual milestone. As I have become increasingly frustrated with Facebook, I am finding myself spending more time on LT. As I told the librarians, Facebook seems to be about what divides us. LT is about what unites us.

Sometimes we can get lost in the crowd of social media where number of followers and posts and how many people you reached is more important than the quality of the connection. Moving to a smaller, more focused online community has helped me think more about quality.