LibraryThing is now offering free accounts through Sunday.
There is no such thing as a free web 2.0 service. We are the
product. If a "free" service built LARGELY on entirely volunteer
reviewing, cataloguing, ranking and commenting can be sold for over a
billion, with no profit or consideration given to the people who
provided all the content, that demonstrates it like nothing else.
For all the (justified) worrying about data mining and reviews, the
target of Amazon's buying GoodReads was probably Bookish, and definitely Barnes and Noble.
The Nook is doing terribly. Since GR is now basically Amazon's book social network, and since more
people than ever are now reading digital books on phones and tablets,
this is going to pump steroids into the sales of the Kindle Fire, with
its extreme DRM.
A bad day for booklovers.
descensus Averno facilis est