Google Books — This is a new Google feature that I found in the drop-down menu on the top of Gmail.
I love the fact that everything that I might eternally want is under one Google Account – Docs and Spreadsheets, Gmail, Reader, GTalk and Orkut. These are the Google features I use most. I am getting around to using Google Calendar, Maps and even Picasa to complete the one id shift. I still dont like Blogger account though and prefer my WordPress account over it.
I read a ton of books every month – both for school and for pleasure. I also listen to a lot of music – mostly over radio and from borrowed CDs from friends. These are two things that I don’t find on Google…yet. As of now, most of my book preferences etc are loaded on LibraryThing and I am beginning to enjoy the music on MySpace.
LibraryThing has a really cool cataloging system and a really cool way to add books. What it partly fails is when you stumble on rare works by Indian authors but it has a manual add way of going around it. It also has a somewhat dumb interface. What also makes it dumb are its social networking features.
What would make me switch from LibraryThing to Google Books? First, an equally cool tagging system. Second, a good search feature — knowing Google, it might work on this. Third, a really cool way to share this library with friends.
I have just given Books the first look over and am looking into the details. More on this soon…
Parallel Spirals 