Adding books to LibraryThing

Jason · Sep 6, 2019

Jumping back on on this thread with a question - after trying out the LibraryThing interface, decided I wasn't a fan, because it seems that when you go to add a book, the database goes by ISBN number. I get why, because it's a common identifier, but...if I have a CSV file of both books I've read, and/or want to read, I don't necessarily have the ISBN number for all of these books. Further, ISBN makes distinctions between publication date, reprints, compilations, type of publication (print, eBook, Kindle versions, etc.) And it makes simple list imports with just title and author VERY tedious to load.

So, I went back to try Goodreads, and noticed the same thing there. Now, as an IT guy, with a certain amount of experience in working with databases, I can appreciate the need for this sort of information in certain spaces like Goodreads and LibraryThing, but what I'd be most interested in would be an app that just allows for title and author, with the other fields being optional for ISBN, description, review, rating, etc. Trying a few in iTunes and Google Play but nothing that allows me to import a simple CSV with author,title alone.

Suggestions?

PostHuman · Sep 6, 2019

Jason said:
Jumping back on on this thread with a question - after trying out the LibraryThing interface, decided I wasn't a fan, because it seems that when you go to add a book, the database goes by ISBN number. I get why, because it's a common identifier, but...if I have a CSV file of both books I've read, and/or want to read, I don't necessarily have the ISBN number for all of these books. Further, ISBN makes distinctions between publication date, reprints, compilations, type of publication (print, eBook, Kindle versions, etc.) And it makes simple list imports with just title and author VERY tedious to load.

So, I went back to try Goodreads, and noticed the same thing there. Now, as an IT guy, with a certain amount of experience in working with databases, I can appreciate the need for this sort of information in certain spaces like Goodreads and LibraryThing, but what I'd be most interested in would be an app that just allows for title and author, with the other fields being optional for ISBN, description, review, rating, etc. Trying a few in iTunes and Google Play but nothing that allows me to import a simple CSV with author,title alone.

Suggestions?

How many books are on the list you need to import? I manually added a few hundred when I signed up for Goodreads. Didn't take too long and it was kinda fun browsing and looking them up tbh. In the process, you will find likely find some interesting titles to add to your "want to read" list

shadowsminder · Sep 6, 2019

The LibraryThing team is currently working on a feature for basic book additions without using the manual entry form. (See Tim's threads in the Talk about LibraryThing group.) What I think happens now on LT is that where your spreadsheet has only the title and author, your book edition will appear with the most popular (or, the "winning") imdormation for the work. That can include an ISBN.

When I moved from Goodreads to LT, I tagged all copies that looked off with "wrong edition" and have lazily been working through corrections. One of the fastest steps is to use the Power Edit setting to delete all unwanted ISBNs; that takes a few clicks once you know what the lighting bolt does.

Jason · Sep 6, 2019

PostHuman said:
How many books are on the list you need to import? I manually added a few hundred when I signed up for Goodreads. Didn't take too long and it was kinda fun browsing and looking them up tbh. In the process, you will find likely find some interesting titles to add to your "want to read" list

It's not a matter of looking up the books ISBNs. Some some might come in the form of a physical book, whereas another may come in the form of a Kindle book, and another may be an eBook from the Gutenberg project. Some books in these online databases have multiple ISBN's and others may not even HAVE an ISBN. I don't want to spend my time looking that kind of information up. I want an app where I can import a simple text file:

Title,Author
The Sun Also Rises,Ernest Hemingway

like that...make sense? Know an app that would let me do that?

aspirit said:
The LibraryThing team is currently working on a feature for basic book additions without using the manual entry form. (See Tim's threads in the Talk about LibraryThing group.) What I think happens now on LT is that where your spreadsheet has only the title and author, your book edition will appear with the most popular (or, the "winning") imdormation for the work. That can include an ISBN.

When I moved from Goodreads to LT, I tagged all copies that looked off with "wrong edition" and have lazily been working through corrections. One of the fastest steps is to use the Power Edit setting to delete all unwanted ISBNs; that takes a few clicks once you know what the lighting bolt does.

I tried doing an import and LT kept rejecting it because the ISBN is the primary key...ended up deleting my account in frustration. Already spent way more time on this than I wanted to...now it's become a rabbit hole for me.

Sorry for the derail Lisa, perhaps this discussion should be split out from your original post?

PostHuman · Sep 6, 2019

Jason said:
It's not a matter of looking up the books ISBNs. Some some might come in the form of a physical book, whereas another may come in the form of a Kindle book, and another may be an eBook from the Gutenberg project. Some books in these online databases have multiple ISBN's and others may not even HAVE an ISBN. I don't want to spend my time looking that kind of information up. I want an app where I can import a simple text file:

Title,Author
The Sun Also Rises,Ernest Hemingway

like that...make sense? Know an app that would let me do that?

Ah apologies, perhaps I didn't explain myself well. I didn't look up any ISBNs, simply added a bunch of books to my Goodreads profile when I joined and rated them. For me it's more helpful to track the books I want to read, not necessarily every book I've already read. If your goal is mainly to populate a list of ISBN numbers based on the titles, maybe there is some batch ISBN lookup tool that can help.

Also if you have the physical books, I think on the goodreads mobile app you can snap a picture of the bar code.

AW Admin · Sep 6, 2019

Jason LibraryThing is primarily about cataloging books, less so about tracking reading. It might not be useful to you.
If you just want to track your reading, look at Goodreads, or possibly the newcomer Booklikes.

IN terms of getting a list of books into LibraryThing:

It likely will be a PITA, because everything is tied to ISBN or LOC or Amazon's ID as a unique identifier to a specific edition.

You can import exported lists from Amazon or Goodreads.

If you have the physical book in front of you, you can use a smartphone or tablet and scan the bar code; you can also use some barcode readers (Cuecat in particular).

You can enter Amazon book codes as well, but you can just use title/and or author. Make sure you are on the Add books page.

Otherwise, it's likely going to be a manual process, via the Add Books pabge.

Here's the doc page for Adding and Importing books.

Adding books to LibraryThing

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head

PostHuman

shadowsminder

writing in the shadows

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head

PostHuman

AW Admin