Investigating LibraryThing is much more fascinating than I expected. One early find is a link to the "Libraries of Dead Luminaries" where you can browse the bookshelves of people like Tupak Shakur, Sylvia Plath and Susan B. Anthony. (Found this in a post on the LibraryThing Blog.) I really didn't expect this level of ... scholarship? There is a lot of research and enlightenment to be found, besides what I expected -( who reads what I read, and what do they think about it?) I was imagining telling a teen looking for biography information on Shakur "You can browse his bookshelf on Librarything!" The next thing you know, the student has his own online library and is talking about books. Not to mention getting a more personal view of his subject. But do we know the authority behind the Dead Luminary's library; how "authoritative" it really is? (Can we say for sure these were books this person read?)
I successfully installed a Librarything widget at left, showing random covers from my library. I promise you I have read them, some recently. There is much, much more to do before I'm through with this site. I am a fan.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Just a quick note regarding your question about the "authoritative"ness (pardon the construction) of the LibraryThing Luminaries' Libraries. The catalogues have been drawn from various sources which differ widely from person to person (a five-volume published bibliography of Jefferson's, a list of the books held by the Library of Congress that once belonged to Susan B. Anthony &c.) We know that the books included in these sources (and thus in the LT catalogues) were all once owned by the Luminary ... whether they read them or not is a different question entirely (have you read all the books on your shelves? I know I haven't :-). Those of us involved with these projects are very careful to get them as close to accurate as we possibly can.
Enjoy them, and I hope your investigations of LT are as much fun as mine have been. Be careful though, it's definitely a bit addictive!
Jeremy (jbd1 on LT)
Post a Comment