(no subject)

[the_rck]

I've given in and joined BookMooch. I'd been thinking about it ever since I heard of it (I considered Paperback Exchange, too, but that site made me nervous by seeming to have very severe policies about how quickly things need to be mailed out). I hesitated more out of anxiety than because I didn't think it was a good idea. Finally, I discussed it with Scott, and he told me that he'd be willing to take the books to the post office so that I wouldn't need to worry about that part of it.

I sent out my first three books yesterday and requested my first two. I've got another dozen books that have been requested since yesterday morning and will go out some time next week (because I refuse to ask Scott to go to the post office more than once a week). I'm still trying to figure out how fast things will move. I rather suspect that some of the things I'm offering will sit and rot, but I could be wrong. It's just that, when there are multiple copies already offered, I wonder if there's any market for the titles. I think I'll keep things up for a few weeks (possibly longer if I can find a good, out of the way place to keep them but also possibly not) before giving up and trying to donate them.

I am wishing that I could figure out a way to edit the records that come from Amazon. Some of them list the wrong author or no author or just part of the author's name or intermingle two authors' names in weird ways. Amazon's subject headings are also pretty ridiculous. I discovered that while cataloging our collection (a project that's still ongoing because DeliciousLibrary has problems as one gets nearer to 3000 entries and isn't guaranteed to work at all past 3000. I've got some work arounds in mind, but they make me cranky so I haven't tried them yet. Also, they'll work better if I get all the fiction in before I try to implement them. If I can). I laughed to see the Belgariad labeled as 'Contemporary America' and David Drake and Eric Flint's alternate history SF novel, An Oblique Approach, was labeled as 'Gay fiction.' I guess that's the result when there's no quality control or proofing and the entries are created by people paid crap.

My one BookMooch dilemma right now is international shipping. I've got a request to send something to the UK and have no idea what I need to do. Scott forgot to ask yesterday (although I'd left him a note to remind him), and I can't make head or tails of the Postal Service website. The information's supposed to be there, but I just get frustrated. I think there may be too many graphics for me and too many sub-pages that don't seem to me to be logically interconnected.

If you want to friend me on BookMooch, drop me a message about it. I'm not going to post my i.d. here because I'm still trying to limit explicit links between this pseudo and my real name-- Not so much because it's hard to figure out who I am as because I want to make people like my in-laws or my parents have to work a little harder (or ask me directly) if they want to find this LJ or my fan fiction.

Comments

[ceara.livejournal.com]

Export your DeliciousLibrary to LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com). It has many libraries larger than 3k, including ours.

[the_rck]

I may do something with LibraryThing eventually (I've been using it for cataloging the books belonging to Delia's pre-school). Right now, it wouldn't be politic because Scott picked DeliciousLibrary and paid for it. I also really like some features of DeliciousLibrary, particularly the fact that the database is entirely on my computer rather than stored elsewhere. I can fiddle with it without being online (though adding books is much easier if I can get to Amazon to pull records).