Bookshelves 2

Thank you once again to NZM for rescuing me whenever my blog ambitions outstrip my understanding!

A couple of days ago I asked if anyone knew how to sort the links in a sidebar, or how to add books.

NZM came back with these results for me, so may I share them with you: (Elle, get a load of this!)

"You either do it manually or you can set up a semi-automatic list that can be generated from an Amazon Wishlist etc. Some can take referrals from any online links or eshops.But you can look at this site MyMediaList.com to see if it will help you. You just need to find website link URLs to the books, music, dvds that you wish to display and add them onto the list, as well as place Your Personal List html code into your blog template - this will be generated and sent to you in an email when you register for the free service. Another that can generate a list from an Amazon Wishlist is Blogfuel.com (you have to choose a version depending on whether you are using a Wishlist from the Amazon US or the UK site) or Edazzle.net.

"Here's another one that only does books: LibraryThing. You can see what it looks like on a Blogger blog here in the right column.

"Or!

"You can sign up to become an Amazon Associate and show an Amazon list like on the lower left hand side of Tainted's blog. In short, an Amazon Associate is a Web site owner who places links to the Amazon.com Web site on his or her site and earns referral fees through sales of Amazon.com products."

Wow! Now that's helping your fellow blogger! So, from hero (NZM) to zero (MamaD.), here's my experience:

I started with MyMediaList.com, which is a very user-friendly site. (All the links are above.) I set up an account, a profile and a list, and embedded the code in my template with no problem; but when I made a mistake in an entry, I could not work out how to correct it so in the end I removed it. (Also, the colour choices clashed something wicked with my template, and not everyone has a website whizz Habibi to fix it with Corel Photopaint and HTML!) I shall write and tell Zaeem Maqsood about this, because I can't be the only duffer out here! Please note, this reflects my limitations: I'm sure someone more experienced and confident could have worked things out. I do recommend the service.

Blogfuel provides an intimidating table which you have to do something with, but I'm blowed if I could figure out either how to complete it, or what to do with it if I accomplished that much. The Help link took me to definitions, not instructions. Sinking souffles! I need Delia Smith, not Raymond Blanc! Utterly cowed, away I slunk.

I Left LibraryThing til last, because I wanted to list music and movies too, but when I got there I thought it was great - the world's biggest book club! If you click on one of the book covers in my sidebar, it links to a hideous page of in-yer-face buzzwords, but the Amazon link and others (top left), will take you to pages with proper synopses and reviews.

There is much more to LibraryThing. If you love reading and discussing books, but don't have time or opportunity to join a reading club, I recommend you go to the Library Thing homepage: it's a good Thing!

So, I'm all set up. Thank you soooo much to NZM!