You can take the boy out of the bookstore...

My library has broken the five hundred mark!  Actually I think it broke that mark a while back but I haven't been as diligent about scanning in my books as I should have been.  I also haven't been buying books the way I used to.  Here's my almost up to date catalog if you feel like perusing.

I'm also gonna take this opportunity to once again extol the virtues of the CueCat Barcode Scanner.  It's easy to use and apparently easy to mod to read all barcodes, not just books.  I haven't modded mine yet but I mean to, so I can catalog my CD collection (which is about the size of my book collection).  The CueCat is easy to use, cheap, and requires no effort to install (plus, if you're savvy enough you can use it with Excel spreadsheets).

There's a practical reason for cataloging things, besides self-covetous OCD.  It's great for insurance purposes, worst case scenario you lose everything you own during an Act of God, and if you're out hunting for books and need to know whether or not you already own a copy you can search your database.

My library is now 95% catalogued!

I picked up a CueCat barcode scanner and beefed up my account at librarything.com. Maybe it's my low level OCD and hoarding tendencies but I kind of love cataloging, organizing, and alphabetizing my stuff. A friend once told me, "Hey, you're coveting your own stuff."

The CueCat scanner is very easy to use. If you can manage to plug in a USB cable then you can use a CueCat. It does take a little finesse to get the barcode to read properly but once you get the hang of it there's no problem. One drawback is that there's no information registering beep.

There's a pair of widgets over on the right if you'd like to browse my library. A bunch of other HYR contributors have accounts as well:

• BC3
• blipvurt
• demimode77
• iguanasomethinsweet

Check it out, join the fun.