Online reading list – bookwormr

I found a great site I wanted to share with everybody: bookwormr.

To explain:

I’ve got 3 large books on my nightstand at the moment:

  • Scotland: The Story of a Nation – Magnus Magnusson – Much of my heritage is Scottish, and I got intensely interested in Scottish history during our trip to Edinburgh last year.
  • Code Complete – Steve McConnell – I’ve read this before, but it’s a good book to review every year or so and pick up new tips.
  • The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales – there are many variations on this book. I have a very old, out-of-print edition. I read a few of these a week–they’re mostly quite short.

Those are all fairly large books and I’ve been working on them simultaneously. Meanwhile, I keep getting book recommendations from various places (blogs, podcasts, family). It’s to the point where if I don’t write them down, I’ll forget. I’ve sort-of kept track of books I want to read on my shelf, in an Outlook note, in e-mails to myself, but I was in need of a central repository for this.

So I stumbled upon bookwormr, which is (almost) exactly what I want.

It’s still in its infancy stages, but I think it shows great promise. And it is usable now, despite some rough edges. The owner seems very amenable to suggestions via the blog.

How it works:

  • Search for books (it uses Amazon as its database)
  • Add them to one of your three lists (already read, reading, want to read)
  • You can tag, review, and rate the books.
  • See what others are reading.

The author also has a wordpress plug-in and a Facebook app to go along with it. I’m going to try out both.

Features I’d like to see:

  • Easier way to add multiple books at a time
  • Ability to sort lists according to a ranking system of my own (the author is planning on adding the ability to sort on author, title, book rating overall)

Update: here’s my bookwormr profile.

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5 thoughts on “Online reading list – bookwormr

  1. Melissa

    Oops – sorry for re-posting info.
    I was in a fit a working and reading blogs at the same time.
    I need to germinate my attentions span from its current tininess to something that will allow me to actual absorb a useful amount of information about my enviroment.
    I assure you it is a work in progress.

  2. Darren Morman

    Hi Ben,

    Thanks for the review. I’ve added some sort capabilities to the list of books you’ve already read. I like the idea of adding a priority to your wishlist books and will add this feature once I’ve finished my current round of changes.

    Glad to see your reading about the history of Scotland, I’m from just north of Edinburgh! Magnus Magnusson was born in Iceland I think but lived in Scotland for most of his life. He is best known in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom as the host of a t.v. quiz show called Mastermind. Can’t wait to read your review:-)

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