Best Book Cataloguing Site

For the new year and the new decade I've decided my book collection needs to be fully catalogued online.

The books fall into two categories, books of which I have copies, and books I've read. The books of which I have copies is doable as presumably other people have copies of the same books and have catalogued them and I could benefit from this once I decide which site to use and learn how.

The books I've read is more problematical. It started over 32 years ago with a handwritten list, redone as a typewritten list, redone on a better typewriter, and finally on a computer. Thing is, I've customized it with numbers for the books in as near as possible the order in which I read them. Every once in awhile I renumber as I come across a book and remember I read it in second grade and have to change over 1,000 numbers. (Please don't yell and call me OCD.) I also don't have an exact date for most books before 1977. Many just have an approximate date read which I'd like to include. I also have them divided into six different categories by age group.

I'd like to be able to sort them by assigned number, title, author, and age group. Is there any online book cataloguing site which allows for this? I got a free account on LibraryThing but don't want to do too much there or upgrade to paid if there is another more closely suited to my needs. Also, does anyone know of other sites to catalog things such as music and collectibles? Thanks for any help.

alleycat said:

You could have had your computer program re-sort the numbers after you added a new one (even Word will let you do that).

Kinda sounds like a simple Excel worksheet would do the job.

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Yeah, I have asked this before and my brother-in-law said something about a spreadsheet but I didn't understand it. I think I could create or modify a template as it's what I did to create my original inventory, in VERY OLD versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft File. If I'm lucky there might even be some way to transfer the information I have already entered to a format recent enough to use on my new computer. Of course, a Word document is no problem as you just convert to Plain Text and you can put it in any text program, but I mean, making a new file and having the information come out in the same fields without having to enter it all in again!

I went to the Microsoft site and although I couldn't find a template specifically for listing books, they do have forums, so I'll go there and try to learn exactly what I need before buying something and finding out it's not what I need. If I am eventually going to put my inventory online, of course I'll have to go to a site which can import files I've already made.