The website I use is librarything.com

If I can’t find a specific book on my local library’s website, I type it into librarything and 99 times out of 100 it pops right up. Click on the title, scroll to the bottom of the page, and it’ll tell you exactly where it’s shelved.

Example: Miracle in the Andes (the plane crash book)

982.6 - history and geography - South America - Argentina

Example: What If? by Randall Munroe

502.07 - science and math - science - miscellany

Very useful! I also love browsing their MDS database (they use the Melvil Decimal System, which is functionally identical to the copyrighted and trademarked Dewey Decimal Classification system; both are named for creator Melvil Dewey)

Click on a category, 0 through 9, and it will open ten more subcategories below it. Keep clicking to go deeper and deeper. I have a few memorized; 599 is for mammals, 306 is for culture and institutions, 796 is more most sports.

7xx: arts and recreation
79x: recreation, sports, and performing arts
796: athletic and outdoor sports and games
796.8: combat sports
796.86: fencing

At the bottom of this page they’ll list every book that is classified under a given number, in case you’re looking for recommendations with no specific titles in mind.

…Well, it appears I have entered none of my knitting books into my Librarything. Which makes sense, I guess? Looks like the last time I used it before recently was 2011, which is before I learned how to knit. At least it’s easier to enter books than it used to be? (I cataloged the family library back in 2006, when you had to do it manually or buy a cuecat because, you know, phones didn’t have cameras). Also knitting books are much more likely to be in standard databases than bobbin lace books are. Entering them all in is going to be easy.

And now for my reading wrapped! I only read 41 books in 2025, but that’s good! I’m working my way back up! This year I dipped my toes back into original fiction, which reopens a vast portion of my tbr!

I used to read 100 or more books a year until my attention span took a shit a few years ago when The Depression™️returned full force. But I’m clawing my way back up in every metric!

If you use LibraryThing, you can find your year in review at: https://www.librarything.com/stats/MEMBERNAME/year

(Jumping in before someone pisses on the poor: reading more or fewer books is not a moral thing, I am not saying I am better than anyone, even my past self. I ENJOY reading and I like how I feel when I am taking in lots of information and scenarios, so reading more makes me happy.)

librarything is like crack for people who like books and Sorting I’m so serious.

Amanda Sterling Fink (uhhhhmanda) | LibraryThing | LibraryThing

Since I’m trying to read more, here’s my LibraryThing profile!

LibraryThing (catalog site libraries use) is doing a Book Lists of the Month thing and this month is Guilty Pleasures which has been very funny because it turns out everyone’s definition of “guilty pleasure” ranges pretty damn wildly.

LibraryThing Hunt #39 - 2025 Halloween Treasure Hunt

• Hunt Details
• Lasts until 11:59pm EDT, Friday October 31st

How to get all the jack-o-lanterns? Spoilers ahead.

1. Early Reviewers > StokerCon 2025 Souvenir Anthology
2. Character > Cthulhu
3. Book > Hester
4. Author > M. R. James
5. List > Witchy Fiction
6. Book > Spooky Pookie
7. Award > NPR 100 Best Horror Novels and Stories
8. Book > The Haunting of Hill House
9. Series > Goosebumps
10. Book > Frankenstein
11. Book > The Devil in the White City
12. Film > Sleepy Hollow [1999 film]

AI truly is a scourge on the world

I am no longer writing reviews for Goodreads. It’s sad because I used that site for over a decade to write reviews. Even after Amazon bought GR I remained when other people left because the fact was, GR remained the top site for reviews and connecting with other book lovers. Don’t get me wrong, I understand WHY people were leaving GR (I considered it myself for a bit) and i was careful to not have any personal dox on the site.

I chose to remain because I had lots of friends there, and had lots of fun with my GR groups and what have you. Yes, there were trolls and spammers, but they were easy enough to ignore or deal with.

However, due to AI spam and bots and bad actors, that site has become a shithole. You have “authors” publishing books that are AI generated, and then buying reviews that are also AI generated for their AI “books”, while spamming, and denying their use of AI despite glaringly obvious tells. It is truly distressing to see how awful AI “publishing” has become, and it’s only going to get worse before it gets better (if it ever does) Today was the last straw.

I am looking for a new place to host my reviews, fortunately I had my reviews backed up. LibraryThing and a couple of other sites show promise. I will keep you updated.

LibraryThing Hunt #38 - 20th Birthday Treasure Hunt

• Hunt Details
• Lasts until 11:59pm EDT, Friday September 19th

How to get all the banners? Spoilers ahead.

1. Member > ablachly
2. LibraryThing Authors
3. Author > Steve Jobs
4. Series > Millennium
5. Group > Common Knowledge, WikiThing, HelpThing
6. MDS > 007
7. Store > LibraryThing “Classic” and “Clean” Stamp
8. Member > FrederickDouglass
9. Author > Pope Francis
10. Talk > Talk Like a Pirate Day Treasure Hunt
11. Import/Export - MARC file
12. Group > TinyCat
13. Author > James Comey
14. Book > Circe
15. Venue > El Ateneo - Grand Splendid
16. Talk > LibraryThing is now free to all
17. Your Charts & Graphs page - Example
18. Early Reviewers
19. Awards > The Best Children’s Books of the Year
20. TriviaThing

LibraryThing20

Kevés dolog marad meg abból, amit 20 éve internetnek hívtunk (pl. delicious, Google Reader), vagy ha maradt is (pl. Facebook), akkor azt kívánjuk, bárcsak ne tette volna. Van egy-két üdítő kivétel (Flickr, zotero, WordPress), és ezek körébe tartozik a most 20 éves LibraryThing is.

20 év alatt több mint 3 millió önkéntes könyvtáros csatlakozott az oldalhoz, akik több mint 228 ezer kötetet…

View On WordPress

Seems like the appeal for LibraryThing is wearing thin… The only reason for the app being used still is just the tracking of books I own but of course it does ask for specific information like the medium the book is in or the place of purchase.

Pretty sure TCoVT would be a paaiin to record in there for several reasons. First: I got Eighth Grade Bites from a book fair when Scholastic did the publishing. Second book from a local secondhand book store. Secondly: I have multiple copies via one physical and the other digitally on Kindle for easy access on a phone/tablet.

so i’m trying to set up a catalogue for our branch’s library and a system for books cdes are willing to lend out being organised so people know where books are and with who - you know removing friction for political education and all that jazz

and oh??? librarything back end with tinycat front end ohhhhhh this fucks severely?? personal account is free and you can literally make your own little lending library system of your own? books? HELLO???

i’m in love everyone should do this omg

Uit welk land?

Sinds een paar jaar is LibraryThing een site waar ik geregeld kom. Sinds afgelopen jaar mijn favoriete boekensite. Vooral de statistieken zijn geweldig. Ik doe een poging al mijn boeken (gelezen/bezit) in de database te proppen. Deze week zeven grafiekjes van deze site.

Waar komen al die boeken die ik lees vandaan? Vooral uit Nederland dus, blijkt uit deze opsomming. De kleine landjes komen er…

Uit welk land?

Favoriete schrijvers

Sinds een paar jaar is LibraryThing een site waar ik geregeld kom. Sinds afgelopen jaar mijn favoriete boekensite. Vooral de statistieken zijn geweldig. Ik doe een poging al mijn boeken (gelezen/bezit) in de database te proppen. Deze week zeven grafiekjes van deze site.

Mijn favoriete schrijvers, het totaal aantal bladzijden is bepalend voor de ranking. Klopt wel aardig denk ik. De bovenste…

Favoriete schrijvers

Controversieel

Sinds een paar jaar is LibraryThing een site waar ik geregeld kom. Sinds afgelopen jaar mijn favoriete boekensite. Vooral de statistieken zijn geweldig. Ik doe een poging al mijn boeken (gelezen/bezit) in de database te proppen. Deze week zeven grafiekjes van deze site.

We gaan nu dieper de statistiek in. De standaarddeviatie bepaalt namelijk welk boek het meest controversieel is. Een…

Controversieel

2025 Valentine Hunt | LibraryThing

I’ve been taking part in these since I first became aware of them, probably within the first half dozen. This time around I’ve got 9 of the 14 without needing hints, and I think I’m probably close to a couple of the others. I might actually put in the effort to get all of them this time.

ALT

One of my favourite LibraryThing tags

so i’ve just received confirmation that i’ve been approved for a librarything giveaway, meaning i will be giving out 30 eARCs of we will devour the night next month. if you have a librarything account or know someone who does who’d like to read feel free to direct them there!

2024 Pride Treasure Hunt | LibraryThing

It’s another “Treasure Hunt” at LibraryThing.
I managed half in only a few minutes. I might actually make the effort to try and find the rest. Normally I get the minimum for the badge and then give up when they’re not obvious/easy.

D.A.R.E. never warned me about getting stoned on edibles and giving into the overwhelming urge to sort all of my physical and digital books into librarything.

This. This is my happy place.