My initial exploration of LibraryThing led me to wonder why this would be more useful than Amazon. Then I clicked on “zeitgeist” and began to see the coolness factor. The Harry Potter books are owned by more people registered on the site than any other books! It’s the composite nature of LibraryThing that’s so provocative and useful
The most immediately practical educational application I can see is for the big multi-genre theme project I do. Sometimes it’s tough for the students to find texts by genre or theme and I think the tag search could really help with that, not to mention give them immediate access to reviews.
From a personal standpoint, I’d love to get my own library catalogued (though I’m not exactly sure why yet). I’m only sorry that there are so many books I’ve read that aren’t on my shelf or that I’ve forgotten I’ve read that wouldn’t get catalogued. But for now, that’s just the snob in me speaking.
