Saturday, December 6, 2008

But wait! There's more!

I'm a complete sucker for the right sales pitch. Not being terribly astute, the right sales pitch for me is Buy it! Now! Because I'm a bit of an insomniac, what little TV I watch happens between 2 and 4 a.m., which is infomercial prime time. There's a reason why God closes brick and mortar stores when He does. We don't make sound shopping decisions after 10 p.m. With the advent of on-line shopping, it's all over for people like me. I have buyer's remorse as often as a 3-year old new to daycare has the common cold.

My latest impulse purchase, however, has brought nothing but bliss. It's LibraryThing. I read about it in a newsletter from my cable company, and immediately clicked over to check it out. It's one of the few good things to come from my relationship with my cable company. LibraryThing lets you catalog your books on-line, tag your titles, chitchat with like-minded individuals, and discover new books in other bibliophile's libraries. I'm using it to catalog my children's book collection, a task I've been meaning to tackle for 29 years.

Cataloging at LibraryThing couldn't be simpler. I'm not even going to explain it, because you'll figure it out yourself in about 2 seconds. Just be warned that it's as addicting as crack. I nearly went into convulsions when I tried to catalog my 201st book and discovered that in order to do so, I needed to upgrade to a paid membership.

I took a deep breath and collected my thoughts. This was not a problem for the girl who owns Ron Popeil's Showtime Rotisserie Oven AND the NuWave Oven Pro. I clicked over to the Upgrade page and selected Lifetime Member. Why spend $10 for a yearly membership when you just know you're a LibraryThing lifer? For $25, I can catalog forever. That's less than a carton of Marlboros. If I still smoked, that $25 would be gone in less than a week, and all I'd have to show for it is a svelter figure, a nagging cough and a somewhat calmer demeanor.

LibraryThing. Check it out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

LibraryThing sounds like a good thing, Andy. I plan to check it out over Christmas break!