Ten Books to Read

My Search

It’s been so long since I’ve been able to read a book solely for pleasure so I decided my list of books should truly be books I want to read. I began my search using Google Books. I searched “Chelsea Handler” because I always watch her television show, love her humor, and have heard she has written a few great, entertaining books. Links to her books immediately appeared. I viewed the ratings for Handler’s books and they all received between 3.5/5 and 4.5/5 stars. I also read descriptions and reviews of her books and decided they were must reads so I added them to my “to read” category in my library within Google Books. In “related books” I saw “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. Of course I’ve heard of this book so I decided I would read the book description, however I was not intrigued and therefore did not add it to my list. I didn’t like any of the other “related books” in Google Books, so I decided it was time to move on to Library Thing.

I don’t have much experience with using Library Thing so I decided to scroll through the site and found the “top wish listed books.” “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett was one of the books in this list. I had heard of this book before but didn’t know what it was about. Once I read the description and discovered it was a story about the Civil Rights Movement I decided to add it to my list because I enjoy reading about the Civil Rights Movement. This book also received a rating of 4.52 stars out of 5 which is very high, another great reason to add it to my list!

Library Thing seemed to be leading me to books I enjoyed so I decided to continue to explore it. I decided to explore the use of tags. I clicked on “comedy” and “memoirs” and didn’t find anything of interest. However, I enjoy non-fiction material so I clicked on the “non-fiction” tag and found a book that I have always been interested in but never had the chance to read. The book “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of All-American Meal” by Eric Schlosser encounters the reality of the American diet. I found two additional books in the same section of Library Thing. These books were “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich and “A Child Called ‘It’ ” by Dave Pelzer. I added these three books to my list but no other books appealed to me in this section so I decided to move on.

After discussing my assignment with a friend he reminded me of two books I’ve mentioned that I wanted to read. These books were “The Half-a-Doctor: Memoirs from My Asylum” by Herb Sokol and “Dear John” by Nicholas Sparks. I searched both of the books by title in Good Reads. There were no discussions or reviews when I searched for “The Half-a-Doctor: Memoirs from My Asylum” on Good Reads which I assume may because it is a newer book. However, I wasn’t surprised to read fantastic reviews on “Dear John” because I’ve heard from so many people how great of a book it is, so I added it to my list. Despite not having reviews for the first book, I still added it to my list as well based on the description and previous discussions about the book I’ve had with others.

Lastly, I decided to use WorldCat to search by title and author for the last book on my list. “The Diary of Anne Frank” by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett is a book I have been wanting to read for years but haven’t had the time. I decided to use WorldCat for this search so I could be sure to find the correct copy I was looking for and so I could immediately order it from the library. After all, I figure I am much more likely to read the book if I physically have a copy!

Google Books

I was pleasantly surprised with my experience using Google Books. I enjoyed the “My Library” function which allowed me to add books that I have read, want to read, and am reading, my favorite books, and the books I want to review (which are all functions I later found in the other websites as well). This would be a great way for someone to keep track of their reading collection. It was also convenient that Google Books has some of the book titles available to read online and for those books not available online, there was a “find in library” link which connected me directly to WorldCat as well as links to Amazon, Borders, etc. to purchase the books online.

Library Thing

Library Thing was the best website I used to find books to compile my list. The use of tags was the most useful feature of this site. I found it very productive to use these tags to conduct my search since I was focusing my search around particular genres which tend to interest me. I also liked how Library Thing showed “popular covers.” This would be helpful when dealing with patrons who remember books based on their covers. Library Thing also took the availability of the books to an entirely different level by providing bookstores with prices and locations, libraries with locations, and swap sites as well. Lastly I enjoyed exploring the “talk,” “groups,” and “local” features which allow users to discuss thoughts on literature with others. I’m sure I could have found my entire list using this website, but I thought I should give others websites a fair chance.

Good Reads

I liked Good Reads because it was specifically geared toward popular literature. I also liked how it was so simple and easy to navigate. I also liked how “bookshelves” could be viewed as “clouds” and how the option to import and export selections was available under “my books.” Good Reads was unique because it has an “explore” option with trivia, quizzes, events, etc. which adds a bit more fun to the world of reading.

WorldCat

WorldCat was somewhat similar to the other websites I used first. However, I liked how this website showed the “users who read this book also read” feature. Some unique features of WorldCat included links for “library information” and “ask a librarian” for each library which owned a copy of the selected book. Other options that I did not see in the other websites but did see in WorldCat included the options to cite and create bibliographies which would be great time-savers for users.


Conclusion

Overall, I feel as though the different websites were very similar. They offered many of the same important features. However, if I had to choose the best website I would choose Library Thing because it by far had the most unique options such as the features previously discussed.

My List of 10 Books to Read:
1. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, by Chelsea Handler
2. Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, by Chelsea Handler
3. My Horizontal Life, by Chelsea Handler
4. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
5. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser
6. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich and
7. A Child Called “It,” by Dave Pelzer
8. Half-a-Doctor: Memoirs from My Asylum, by Herb Sokol
9. Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks
10. The Diary of Anne Frank, by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett