Library Thing is My Kinda Thing

Remember that bad late-night game show, where contestants got to see if they could predict the stupidity of “regular Americans”?  They didn’t have to answer questions correctly.  They just had to guess what the “average Joe” would say.  It was usually (almost always) the incorrect answer.

Kind of like an even trashier Family Feud.

Well, it occurs to me now that the internet is a lot like that.  Any site online that “ranks” something based on interactive voting is like that, and a little dangerous.  Because it’s subject to input from “regular folks” like me… and you.  Who are often wrong, and liable to make dumb typos too. 

Also, of course such sites can be easily manipulated.

But despite all of that, I’ve fallen in love with Library Thing, and I want to share!

This site allows you to catalogue books for yourself (handy!) but also to search tags in the site, to see what other people are reading.  And so you can find out what “regular folks” assign to a particular topic/tag.  Which is a good tool for building a library of books to read on any given subject. 

But also  an interesting and revealing look at what we read, and how we define what we read.

The top books  tagged “Jewish” are:

• The book of Jewish food : an odyssey from Samarkand to New Y… by Claudia Roden (11)
• Jewish cooking in America by Joan Nathan (7)
• Something from nothing by Phoebe Gilman (7)
• The chosen by Chaim Potok (33)
• As a driven leaf by Milton Steinberg (7)
• Faye Levy's international Jewish cookbook by Faye Levy (5)
• Elijah's violin & other Jewish fairy tales by Howard Schwartz (5)
• The blessing of a skinned knee : using Jewish teachings to r… by Wendy Mogel (5)
• The Sabbath: its meaning for modern man by Abraham Joshua Heschel (9)
• The slave : a novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer (9)

But then the top books tagged “spirituality” are:

• Care of the soul : a guide for cultivating depth and sacredn… by Thomas Moore (44)
• Conversations with God : an uncommon dialogue by Neale Donald Walsch (40)
• The power of now : a guide to spiritual enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle (40)
• The celestine prophecy : an adventure by James Redfield (47)
• A Course in miracles : combined volume by Foundation of Inner Peace (23)
• Amazing grace : a vocabulary of faith by Kathleen Norris (30)
• Celebration of discipline : the path to spiritual growth by Richard J. Foster (44)
• The art of happiness : a handbook for living by Dalai Lama (38)
• Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (66)
• The cloister walk by Kathleen Norris (32)

And the top ten  books tagged “faith”?

• Plan B : further thoughts on faith by Anne Lamott (28)
• Traveling mercies : some thoughts on faith by Anne Lamott (33)
• The case for faith : a journalist investigates the toughest … by Lee Strobel (14)
• Soul survivor : how my faith survived the church by Philip Yancey (8)
• When God doesn't make sense by James C. Dobson (5)
• Dangerous wonder : the adventure of childlike faith by Mike Yaconelli (3)
• Faith and justification by G. C. Berkouwer (3)
• Mere Christianity : a revised and amplified edition, with a … by C. S. Lewis (29)
• Disappointment with God : three questions no one asks aloud by Philip Yancey (7)
• Where is God when it hurts? by Philip Yancey (7)

Interesting, isn’t it, that we’ve got no overlap?

One might argue that it’s because we’re a minority… but I’m not so sure.  I think maybe Jews just don’t think of “Jewish” as a kind of “spirituality” or “faith”. 

But boy howdy– we do like to cook!