Thanks Michelle!

For setting up this place. I put " _bcf" behind my username as you did to show I am a fellow refugee....

I can't work out how to add _bcf to my username but I'm Janet (Staff member on BCF) :)

I think mine was originally set up as that.
Please, go ahead and start any threads you want to. :)

Hi Janet, Hi Michelle. I am still feeling my way about on here, I will find out how to start a topic before too long..

Hi all. Vodkafan - left hand column has a link for posting a new topic. Thank you for the link Michelle - that was quick!

Oh yes! I really must learn to read! Nice to see you Willoyd.

Hi everyone! Not sure about this place yet - still finding my way around!

Hi andrea thank you for the friend request. Yes I feel like that too- not found my feet yet.

My 'space' on LibraryThing doesn't extend very far. I belong to two or three groups, and use the catalogue for all my books. I can't cope with too much distance, which is why I struggle with facebook and GoodReads - they both feel overwhelming, and I can never seem to find what or who I want on them (I've now shortcut a couple of groups on FB which helps enormously). You probably feel the same here at the moment.

Yes it's fair to say I am totally overwhelmed at the moment. I am having trouble figuring out the "collections" and "your books" "adding books" things . It seems I don't just manually write a list but have to "find" the book somehow so it links with everyone else who has read it? That's going to take me a while to do.

Just go to 'Add books' and type the title in the search box, and it will give you options. You can use tags, but I prefer collections.. I have one for each year.

However, you can also use this group section, and write a list, as you did in the forum.

I've never gotten on well with GoodReads.. LT doesn't look as 'pretty' but I prefer the way it works.

>10 vodkafan_bcf:
What I do is simply type in the ISBN number on the back of my book. That automatically finds the book for me and links into others who also have it. That's assuming you're adding books you have to hand. Otherwise, as Michelle does, I simply type in the title, which then finds the book for me. I manually input my Folio Society books as they have no ISBN.

People use collections/tags in different ways, and I have used collections in different ways over my time here. What I do now is use 'Your Library' for any physical book I have on my shelves. I also have 'E-books' for books on my Kindle. The only other books I list are those that I have read, but don't have either because I've disposed of them or because they were library books or lent to me. Those go under 'Read but unowned'. So every book listed is in one of those three collections (which are mutually exclusive) - this is how I keep track of my TBR list!

I also have some sets of books that I want to mark as being a 'collection': these for me are my Folio Society books, the Very Short Introductions series and my Slightly Foxed editions.

Finally, I have a fairly short list of 'collections' that show the state of reading, i.e. are they books I've read (not a collection but all the ones I've given a rating to), yet to read ('To Read'), simply for reference ('Reference'), or an omnibus (not in itself to read, but containing books that I've either read or yet to read: 'Collection').

I use tags to categories what each book is (eg Fiction Modern) or is about (eg European History).

Best way to get a feel is to look at others' catalogues and see how they've done it. Some are quite haphazard, others are meticulous - depends what suits you!

I gave up on recording any sort of TBR pile, as I kept buying / getting books, npt getting to them, then deciding to get rid of them!

And? The people joining here know what 'BCF' means to them.

I'm not really one for cataloguing my books so I'm not sure if this is the place for me, and I'm not sure of finding my way around the site for discussions. However I might have a go at starting a reading blog here as Willoyd has done.

Those of you who haven't joined the facebook group (I do appreciate that it's not for everyone), are you looking at any of the other forums?

>17 andrea_bcf:
That makes sense to me Andrea - there's no need to use the cataloguing in order to access the group. It's one reason I suggested it - it's just a simpler sort of forum. Not as well structured by any means as the old BCF, but it's easier to keep track of a thread than in Facebook etc.

Michelle, did you say you tweet about your books? I use Twitter for my birding, but hadn't really looked at it from a book point of view.

I used to have a BCF twitter account, and a personal one, but I ended up using BCF for everything. I mainly follow authors, publishers etc, and will sometimes RT useful / interesting stuff. I also occasionally tweet about books. But.. there's also a lot of political RTs and likes!

I think I am going to try to use the site as is , using some ideas of Willoyd's and some of Michelle's...I need a good clear couple of hours to sort stuff out so I hopefully do it right first time.

I find this site very confusing - Goodreads seems much easier (but I guess that's because I use it regularly). I can't work out how to send a friend request on here...

>22 Bagpuss:
Click on the prospective friend's name in the post heading. That brings up their profile. Then click on 'Add to friends', which should be top right on the page.

I think you're right that ease is down to familiarity, as I cannot get my head around the Goodreads site at all. In particular, couldn't get the book catalogue to do anything I wanted it to.

Hi! Thanks for adding this to Library Thing!Now I'm trying to figure out how this website works!

Not saying I'm an expert, but have been using the site for some time, so if you've got any questions, don't hesitate to ask, and will try and answer.

Hello Folks from BCF! I'm still finding my way around here, and I seem to have been here for 5 years.... *rolls eyes*. Marie H