On Leaving LibraryThing (and why that's a GoodThing)

There's no better book cataloging resource on the planet than LibraryThing.  For the rabid aficionado of books; for the pathologically obsessed bibliophile, such as yours truly (and thousands of others, many of them my virtual friends), LibraryThing offers the finest system anywhere online I've ever located.

LibraryThing may not be the largest or most popular book cataloging site or community out there, but it's by far the most hardcore.  If you've been to Goodreads, LibraryThing's largest competitor, you can see right away that LibraryThing is like walking through the doors of the finest university library in existence, like Columbia say, and Goodreads, well, isn't.  That's not to say Goodreads isn't good, it just isn't good like LibraryThing is good, a company too good to be called good.  I've decided, nevertheless, that Goodreads is going to be good enough for me.

Having been intimately involved with one of the most active and perhaps more outrageous groups in LibraryThing for the past three years, a group I founded as a complete gag (and after I'd been drinking rum and Coke don't'chu know) -- The Quest for the Last Page of Ulysses -- I'm exhausted.  Having watched it, in truly stunned amazement all these years, blossom and flourish of its own free will and volition, without blueprints -- like it possessed a mind and identity all its own as if it were ALIVE, "It's Alive!" -- I'm, frankly, tired of being led around by the monster (and it's overarching shadow) on a leash.

Through all the elaborately executed ruses and abruptly unexpected name changes, both personal and group-wise, I found my selves becoming, in increments, through the entire wild and wacky and mostly wonderful mutation that was (and is and will remain without me, I suspect) the group's inimitable history, a person(s) I wasn't enjoying being around so much anymore.  And it's clear to me's I can't escape or reinvent my selves to my/our satisfaction and comfort zones any longer in LibraryThing, so we've split.

I'd like to add that it was an unanimous, though excruciatingly difficult, long pro-and-con'd, thoughtfully considered and democratic decision: "Yea" votes all around from Dick, Enrique, the Naughty Hottie and the rest of the lewd and rude crew that comprised us/me.  What drew the decision out longer and made it the most difficult for me, was considering the commitments I'd made to some beloved writers and friends.  I didn't want to break those commitments or my word to them.  In LibraryThing's absence, I plan on completing those commitments and keeping my word through my blog and through other, bigger, more influential blogs with larger followings (and more potential readers looking for great books to read), that I'm closely connected with.

I've landed in Goodreads, and that's a good thing, believe it or not!  Starting over on a vastly smaller, but far more sane, scale, with my library, and hopefully some carryover of friendships from LibraryThing, intact.

Goodbye, LibraryThing!

It was a blast, and I loved you.