Library Thing

Library Thing. This is a stellar tool for keeping up with your growing literary collection. And I had no idea how easy it would be to add books. It does all the searching for you. You can even have partial titles. I only added 7 books for now, but I'll be back to it.

I love the idea of finding others who share my interests--more community building from Web 2.0.

One caveat, though. I wish as an additional feature that it had a way to catalogue books you've read but don't own. When you're an avid reader, you lose track. I think this would be a brilliant feature, especially for those trying to read the 1000 books you should read before you die.

Image Generators - How's that for literacy?

NOt related to books, but to culture and literacy in general, so it fits.  Besides, I had to have a reason for putting this very real photo of my growing popularity up on the Web. 

Letterjames' ecard service. It's supremely easy to make a picture and add your own words to it. Some of the other generators were a little juvenile. Not that putting your name on a sign and saying you're a genius isn't juvenile, but...

Here's the link to Letterjames: http://www.letterjames.com/start.php?mod=image-personalization

Social Bookmarking

I love the idea of social bookmarking. It's brilliant. It's a nod to the part serendipity plays in our lives. The research one can do using social bookmarks and tags is nearly unlimited. Yes, there's an issue with the multiple ways a thing can be tagged, but having one standard tag isn't the best either. What if you can't figure out what that one subject heading is? Then you'll never find it. So your search isn't exhaustive with folksonomy. It wouldn't be anyway, would it? The web has so many resources you will never read them all.