Unequivocally, Books

I‘ve been busy with a few projects lately. One of them is currently a secret, though you will hear about it soon. But I can tell you about the other project:

I found an open-source library management program (OSX only, sorry to (and for) you lonely and forlorn PC folks) that seriously sticks it to the man (how’s that for a cliché?). It has a rather boring name: Books, but its designation is the only thing dreary about it. Besides being completely free it also has the admirable qualities of being user-friendly and visually well-designed. It has robust cataloging features that backend to multiple ISBN databases, so you don’t have to laboriously type in all your data. Enter your data in at least one field (ISBN is best, but title and/or author will work well too), click the “Quickfill” button, and you’ll likely see a selection of titles that relate to your tome. Select the right one and all of the available data about that book (sometimes including a picture of the dust jacket) is downloaded and organized. With the software you can track who has the book, you can add reviews and ratings, list value and acquisition date, and even the current location of the text. Of course your entire catalog is indexed by Spotlight, so you can find anything you’re looking for in less than a matter of seconds–I repeat, not just a matter of seconds, but less than a matter of seconds. Put in your own customized keywords if you want Catcher and the Rye to show up when you do a search for “flit.” There’s even more to the program; I’ve only had it for a few days and haven’t explored the intricacies of the “Smart Lists” function (been too busy adding my books). Anyway, if you’re a Bibliophile like me you’ll understand all this gushing, if you’re not–sorry, go play your Xbox or something.

Final verdict: If you have more than two shelves of books Books is for you (oh yeah, you’ll need a Mac too). (Shrunk)Screenshots follow: