I had already stumbled on this site, but had passed on – I didn’t want another username and password – until I read a review in Tipmonkies.

Listal is a web based collection manager application which supports DVDs (region 1 and 2), books, games and music. You organise your collection by tagging items with keywords (such as Irish Fiction, Irish Poetry) which will also contribute to the overall classification of items for all users. It also allows you easily see what you have in each category.

I played with it for a while before realising it is fantastically useful. It works by importing information from Amazon – both a weakness and strength as Amazon data is often incorrect. But this is a quibble. The site is in beta but is pretty advanced. You can manually add details (though not correct what you import from Amazon, which can be mildly frustrating).

As I look after Irish Writers Online, I’m sure it will be complementary to it, and another way of promoting Irish writers (including myself, of course!).

But (vain hope?) it may also help me to finally put manners on my bookshelves. It will take a few months at least, but it beats watching brain-dead TV.

You can see my skeletal list here