When I left home for a career, it was not just about leaving behind my family, friends and neighbors. It also meant bidding goodbye to my favorite restaurant, ur)iversity campus and libraries where I would scour the dusty shelves over the years. But, increasing work pressures saw trips to the library completely vanish from my TO 00 list. It made me sad as books were fond companions and I never got tired of adding to my collection or discussing my favorite reads.

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Then one day while surfing I came across a site, which not only lets you create a virtual bookshelf, but also gives a platform to discuss great work of literature. Shelfari is a networking site for book lovers which you can join for free. It lets you build a bookshelf of your own having the books you have read, want to read or are currently reading in a layout of your choice. You then create a group to discuss books by inviting friends or by joining other groups. You can also become a reviewer and comŽment on books.

Another such site is also free. You get to browse books under various categories such as popular, top rated, top favorite, most discussed etc. The site lets you organize your collection and access books from Amazon. You can also preview books through Google books. The best part, this site connects you with around 300 libraries from across the globe. And if you are not impressed by this site.

Here you will get to access 690 libraries from around the world with books listed from Amazon. This site also lets you create a catalog. You can do this by entering either the author name, book name or the ISBN number and then all you need to do is just add it to your list.

And if discussing other writers' works is not enough, and you feel that you could be the next Salman Rushdie or Jhumpa Lahiri, www. booksie.com is your best friend. You can post your novel, short story, poetry or article for others to read and post comments. Who knows, you could be the next Pulitzer Winner! Write to me about any site that you found interesting.