I'm really trying to read everything worthwhile ever written, and just limiting myself to non-fiction, graphic novels, and tech blogs ... but there seems to be a conspiracy of writers who incessantly put more and more stuff on the sales rack. This has got to stop. Maybe I should save my kids the frustration and just tell them books are for dummies. Or maybe ...
... introduce them to Goodreads.com. I've been playing with some other bookish versions of Friendster -- the name for such web technologies is a "social cataloging application" (wiki link). A year or so ago, I actually toyed with the idea of creating a site like this, but punted when I discovered LibraryThing, which has almost everything I dreamed of and a few ingenious things that went beyond my imagination. Very cool. I've skimmed some others, including shelfari.com and Facebook's iRead app, and all of them have uniquely great features, but so far nothing compares to GoodReads.com.
This may be a risky experiment, but I'm going to try it anyway. If anyone reading growthology.org is interested in seeing my reading list at GoodReads, check this link. Let me apologize in advance: I may get overwhelmed by the millions of you who try to friend me (this means you, Mom), but I'll give it a try.
FYI, this post was spurred by a biographical sketch in the NYTimes today on John Kao, author of Innovation Nation. Kao, 57, is a leading thinker on innovation and entrepreneurship, and I have not made up my mind whether his insights are worth the price of admission -- some things are right on target, others seem like PR buzz. Want my overall opinion of the book? You'll have to check my GoodReads page / alert in a few days ... after I finish reading it!
Here's an idea...
Facebook's Iread ought to be compatible with Good Reads.
Good Reads is really cool, but it's not Facebook compatible and thus, you need to friend people much the same way you do on Facebook. You essentially end up double friending people. Why not use the fact that you already have a social network where you have vetted friends?
Posted by: Charles Johnson | June 25, 2008 at 05:21 PM
I wasn't a huge fan of Kao's Innovation Nation. I thought he drew all the wrong lessons from his own analysis. San Diego is the prime example, here. And if you compare Kao to Lester Thurow's Zero Sum Society of 1980, you see almost the exact same language in their proposals.
Posted by: Dane Stangler | July 01, 2008 at 03:52 PM
Several cities and municipal bodies, including San Francisco, are considering or have adopted a ban on official travel to Arizona to protest the new law. The AH&LA has said that banning travel could hurt the state's travel and tourism industry and its workers.
Posted by: juicy couture | May 06, 2010 at 02:37 AM