Bibliophiles, Did You Know About Google Books?

Every Google user knows about the Google Books application. If you happen to read a lot of books, you will find spending a lot of time on the Google Books website once you discover its features.

Here's a brief summary of its features:

• Books search: most of us instinctively visit the main Gooogle website - google.com to search anything. Even books. Searching on books.google.com helps avoid unnecessary links in the results page. When you're searching for books, you want information only about the book. Not the websites that sell these books. If you're all set to buy a book you know where to buy it. You are unlikely to buy from a new shop.
• Read books online: I'm reading a lot of technical books nowadays. I am accustomed to reading books on my computer screen. If you're like me, you can find lot of free content in the preview mode. Before buying the book, you can read the first few pages and get the hang of it.
• Ratings: In the Internet age, consumers get a lot of power. You can write a review of any book listed and even write a review on the books.google.com website itself. If you write reviews elsewhere, your blog for example, in the books.google.com website you could add a link to the actual review page
• My Library: this has become my favourite feature on books.google.com. A long time ago, I used to keep a list of books read and to read lists in my paper version of personal diary. After getting addicted to computer and Internet tools, I started maintaining the list in my blog. After changing the blog software few times and the lack of motivation to move content with every iteration of software change, I lost track of my list. I'm glad Google gives me a tool to manage my books list. The best part of the story is, you can publicly share your books list if you wish. By default there are five lists
  1. Have read
  2. Reading now
  3. To read
  4. Favourites
  5. Reviewed - if you write a review, the book will be automatically added to this list

  You can create more lists if you like. Google calls it bookshelf, by the way.

I'm adding books to my lists. Once my bookshelves have sufficient books, I will share it with you all.

Go, add books to your bookshelves.

How do you manage your book lists?