If nothing else it's a great reverse of a standard service and may even result in some "you won't like these, nyah nyah" reverse psychology.

LibraryThing also has an Early Reviewer program where every few weeks they get a list of review copies that publishers are willing to send out to LT members. Most of them go very, very quickly, but it can't hurt to ask and I've received several myself. No charge and no requirement to write a review on it (although they hope you will).

You may find yourself spending hours there, getting all of your books in and updated and catalogued, with all of the proper covers (most have several versions available to choose from, or you can upload your own if your edition's cover isn't there). There's even a mobile version for when you're standing in Barnes and Noble and need to make sure you don't already own the book you're currently waiting in line to buy.

Add your books, look for more, see what's popular, go snooping in the virtual libraries of famous authors or fictional characters… there's lots to do at LibraryThing.

Most online bookstores have "if you liked this, you might like that" lists. Based on your own purchases and personal reviews, their powerful engines process your tastes and provide you with a list of similar tasting books that may or may not meet your needs, may or may not be available, and may or may not happen to be whatever the bookstore is pushing at this time. Enter LibraryThing.

More like a library than a bookstore (and more like a literary FaceBook than a library), LibraryThing lets you catalog your books and then makes suggestions based on the libraries of other people with stuff like yours, not just on whatever you've bought recently. You can join reading groups, talk about books, send suggestions, post reviews, whatever. For a booklover (with a lot of free time) it's heaven.

Cynical booklovers, however, will want to check out their Unsuggester, which will take books you like and return lists of books you really, really won't. I suspected I would hate everything Dan Brown wrote, but it's an amazing timesaver to have it scientifically verified. I've also noted that I would despise James Frey, Bret Easton Ellis, Mitch Albom, and most religious non-fiction. It's not perfect; I like both Spider Robinson and Hunter S. Thompson, even though they come up as opposites, and I was amused to enter one of my favorite books, "The Guns of the South" by Harry Turtledove, and getting a must-avoid list back that included several of my other favorite books.

If nothing else it's a great reverse of a standard service and may even result in some "you won't like these, nyah nyah" reverse psychology.