The Thing

Sometimes, you have to use the word "thing" to make a point. It's general, but it's right. It can mean so many things. Like, The Thing (scary). Or "thingamajig" (very descriptive).

Now, there's Library Thing (Thing 14...I see a theme here), which people and libraries are using to catalog their books and share them with others. Before it, nobody thought much about organizing their books beyond grouping ficition together with fiction and non-fiction together with non-fiction. Then by author. But we were longing for something better, prettier to look at than a Word doc or an Access database.

I'll admit I haven't gotten around to cataloging my own books because, as the years go on and my house seems to get smaller and smaller, I have less room in which to keep them. So I weed. And donate. And weed and donate. I'm still clinging to some college textbooks until they are good and out of date (how many moon does Jupiter have now?), but they, too, will eventually go.

For this assignment, I've added five books to my account...some of my favorites: The Vampire Lestat (Anne Rice; I've read this book countless times), Gorky Park (Martin Cruz Smith; love the sequels), The Secret History (Donna Tartt), Naked, and When You Are Engulfed in Flames (both by David Sedaris).

I think I'd probably use LT mostly to find other books I might like to read and to read reviews. With such a small collection, I don't have much to put in...no need to keep track. But I guess the point is the sharing, isn't it?