System!

One thing my new job has taught me is how to use free and cheap software to optimize whatever you're doing.

I have quite the system worked out now.

All of my books (except 5 or so I haven't put in yet) are on LibraryThing. When I acquire a new book, I will post about it here and enter it in LibraryThing. I am also going to go through all my old posts later tonight and link every book to its page on LibraryThing, which offers other people's reviews as well as multiple outlets for buying new and used versions of each book. Additionally, I've subscribed to an RSS of other people's reviews of books in my library, so that before I review a book I get a general idea of how people are feeling on it. Then, once a week, before I go grocery shopping, I'll put recipes from a cookbook into MasterCook, minimum of five, preferably one from each chapter, and use it to generate a shopping list. I then print out these recipes, negating any possibility of getting goo in my nice books, write any/all notes on it, and put it in a binder with plastic sleeves. I then refer to these notes when I write the blog review of each book.

This is so awesome. I am such a dork. Still, I think all of these things could be incredibly helpful if anyone ever reads this blog, and in any case, all of it helps me tremendously.