Golden Anvil

There has been some mention around here about a website called Fantastic Fiction, and I wanted to put in my own plug for a book related website. So, I figured I'd post comparison links, using the recently mentioned Salamandastron book so that you could see what each site has to offer. Then I'll provide some running commentary on a comparison of features of the two sites. I will warn you ahead of time though, that I'm likely to prefer LibraryThing, as I'm already biased.

First off, the main pages... LibraryThing and Fantastic Fiction. Now, it may be just me, but I really do prefer the general color scheme and layout of LibraryThing. It's easier on the eyes, and just looks a little more polished.

Next, we'll take a look at the book pages for Salamandastron by Brian Jacques... LibraryThing and Fantastic Fiction. In Fantastic Fiction's favor, they do have more links for finding places to purchase the book online. LibraryThing has some purchase sites listed, but also has links to some book swapping sites, which is a neat idea that I might get involved with sometime. LibraryThing also has a reviews section, tags, recommendations of similar books, a way to see all of the books in the series (also available in chronological order), a page covering some common knowledge about the book (which hasn't been very well filled out for this particular book), and ratings. Fantastic Fiction does have a more nicely organized list of book editions.

Next up is author pages for Brian Jacques... LibraryThing and Fantastic Fiction. Both have author photos, which I always like. Fantastic Fiction has a more nicely organized list of books, which books grouped into categories. LibraryThing adds composite ratings for all of the author's books, a section of information about the author, links to places and characters in the books, which lead to pages about that place and character which show the other books those appear in, and links to series and award pages.

Next is the other information available on the sites. Now, I haven't scoured Fantastic Fiction in depth, so I may be missing some things... Both sites have award pages which list all the books that have won various awards. Fantastic Fiction has New and Coming Soon pages. Both offer popularity lists for books and authors, although Fantastic Fiction ranks on page hits, while LibraryThing relies on user ratings. LibraryThing offers all sorts of interesting lists that are driven by the data stored on their server. They also have forums, free book giveaways, complete library listings of various dead people (like Hemingway, Thomas Jefferson, etc), and a way to find local book stores, libraries, and book related events.

Finally, LibraryThing allows you to catalogue your own book library. Here's ours. This is free if you don't want to add more than 200 books to your library, or $10 a year, or $25 for a lifetime membership.  Having your own library allows you to generate all sorts of other interesting statistics, such as the percentage of my library that is written by authors that are still alive (67%), or the percentage of my library that is written by male authors (77%), or finding out which books I share with various dead people (not too many, it turns out).

There's all sorts of cool stuff about LibraryThing. I really highly recommend it. Hopefully you'll find it useful too.