Share your library (LibraryThing): new Custom BB Codes

[Gurdur]

A full list of Custom BB Codes done as yet for LibraryThing
All these BBCodes are used as so:
[bk#]{your LibraryThing username}[/bk#]

Code	Description
bk1	Displays 5 books taken at random, with small-size covers, from your LibraryThing library. The books displayed change each time the page is reloaded, so every person will see a different listing.
bk1a	Does exactly the same job as [bk1] above, but without showing the explanatory preamble.
bk2	Displays 10 books taken at random, with small-size covers, from your LibraryThing library. The books displayed change each time the page is reloaded, so every person will see a different listing.
bk2a	Does exactly the same job as [bk2] above, but without showing the explanatory preamble.
bk4	Displays 10 books taken randomly -- but only displays their covers, not the author and title as well, unlike the two BB Codes given above. The cover pictures are linked back to the Amazon entries for the books, so there is no link back to your LibraryThing account, since there are no titles and author's names given in text.
bk4a	Does exactly the same job as [bk4] above, but without showing the explanatory preamble.
bk6	Displays 30 of the most common authors in your LibraryThing entries, but at random, and shows them in an Author "Cloud" -- the more books from an author you have, the bigger that author's name should be displayed. Links go to your LibraryThing entries Links go to your LibraryThing entries.
bk6a	Does exactly the same job as [bk6] above, but without showing the explanatory preamble.
bk10	Displays 30 tags taken at random from all the tags you have implemented. The more a tag has been used by you, i.e. the more books have been marked with that particular tag, the bigger that tag should be shown.
bk10a	Does exactly the same job as [bk10] above, but without showing the explanatory preamble.
bk8	Results in a short sentence being displayed giving a link to your collection on LibraryThing in list format. When clicked upon, the link is opened in a new browser or tab window.
bk9	Results in a short sentence giving a link to your collection on LibraryThing in shelf format. When clicked upon, the link is opened in a new browser or tab window.
bk11	Results in a short sentence giving a link to your entire tag cloud on LibraryThing. When clicked upon, the link is opened in a new browser or tab window.
bk12	Results in a short sentence giving a link to the entire list of all authors in your collection on LibraryThing, in the form of an Author Cloud. When clicked upon, the link is opened in a new browser or tab window.
bk14	Results in a pictorial representation of the info of the titles and authors of 5 books taken at random from your library. No links in this one, none of the info is clickable.

I would be extremely grateful if someone who has a LibraryThing account could try out each of these Custom BB Codes, just to make sure that I have coded everything correctly, and that I haven't inadvertabtly left my own username inside one of them.

BTW, be aware that some of these are Amazoned under the Associate program, i.e. if someone follows a link to Amazon and buys a book, theoretically some cash will eventually find its way back to me, and help keep this board going.

If you have an Amazon Associate ID that you think deserves the theoretically potential cash more than this board does, send me the details in a PM and I can make a special BB Code for you.

[Gurdur]

I have had to extensively, again and again, edit many of these BB codes, since the widget often did not end up displaying correctly.

If you see any problems eventuating when you use one of these codes, or if you have an idea for a Custom BB Code utilising some other feature from LibraryThing, please let me know.

[Ana H]

I guess I am stupid. I do not know how to do any of this. I have a short list made at LibraryThing, but do not understand how to post it here.

[Gurdur]

Originally Posted by Ana H

I guess I am stupid. I do not know how to do any of this. I have a short list made at LibraryThing, but do not understand how to post it here.

Ana H, what is your exact username at LibraryThing? If you say that, then I can show you here how to present aspects of your collection.

[Gurdur]

Ana H, is your username at LibraryThing Ana_H?

because if so, here for example are some things you could post anytime you liked, in posts or in blog entries.

For example, if you type in exactly:

[bk4]Ana_H[/bk4]

If you type that into a post or blog entry exactly as given, then this results:

Showing here 10 books below  taken at random from Ana_H's library, books either owned or just read by Ana_H. The books displayed should change when you refresh the page or revisit it later. Clicking on one of the book covers will take you to the book's page on Amazon. If instead you want to visit Ana_H's library at LibraryThing, click on one of the text links given here; you can view Ana_H's library in either shelf format or list format. If you open an account at LibraryThing, you too can share with others here on the board, in posts or in blog entries, all the books you own or just have read.

And then you can also write in things like this:

[bk8]Ana_H[/bk8]

results in:

See Ana_H's library in list format

and typing in:

[bk9]Ana_H[/bk9]

results in:

See Ana_H's library in shelf format

[verte]

Showing here 5 books below  taken at random from verte's library, books either owned or just read by verte. The books displayed should change when you refresh the page or revisit it later. Clicking on one of the book covers will take you to the book's page on Amazon. If instead you want to visit verte's library at LibraryThing, click on one of the text links given here (as author and title links); you can view verte's library in either shelf format or list format. If you open an account at LibraryThing, you too can share with others here on the board, in posts or in blog entries, all the books you own or just have read.

[Ana H]

See Ana_H's library in list format

Thanks Gurdur. I will play around with it for a while when I get back. This is so neat! I do not know how you find the time to find these things. But I am glad you do. It is neat to see what others read, you can tell a lot from what someone reads. Also by seeing what others read, I have some seen some books that look interesting and will look them up to read for myself. Maybe we could start a "book swap".

[homo hirsutus]

I need to pick up a Carl Hiaasen novel next time I have some time.

verte, I noticed you have a few Japanese classics, you might also enjoy Natsume Soseki. A bit more modern, but definitely great books. I think it's funny that most of us have religious books in our libraries, not surprising to me, but I would guess that most people would not be able to tell we're non-theists just from looking at our reading lists. Except for all the Dawkins that is.

[verte]

Thank you, hh! I looked up "Koroko" on amazon, and it looks interesting - I'll definitely give his work a try.

[Don Alhambra]

I'll need to open a LibraryThing account before I do this, but it looks like fun!

[Bud]

This looks like yet another one of those awesome things I'll simply never get around to doing...

[Never]

Originally Posted by Bud

This looks like yet another one of those awesome things I'll simply never get around to doing...

Actually, this is an awesome thing that was easy. It depends on how complete you try to make it. You just sign up with a user name and password, no other info needed. Then you can import your Amazon purchases if you have some (mine went back into the 90's). Then you can add to that as you have time. So the initial library can be done in say 10 minutes.

[verte]

Originally Posted by Never

Then you can import your Amazon purchases if you have some (mine went back into the 90's).

Now that's a great feature - I hadn't realized you could do that til you mentioned it.

[Gurdur]

Adding a new Custom BB Code for all this.


Adding a new Custom BB Code here for this (courtesy of Chris Gann over on LibraryThing, who set the parameters for the widget).

This displays the info on 5 books taken at random from your library, but the info is presented as a pic, and is not clickable in any way, i.e. it is not linked and contains no links.

Use like so:

[bk14]{your LibraryThing username}[/bk14]

Typing in:

[bk14]Gurdur[/bk14]

will result in:

[verte]

[A Dead Relative]

Allie really needs to get involved with this one. There are times I can't get her book out of her hands. I swear I have seen her reading two books at the exact same time (one in each hand).

If I were to join LibraryThing.com, my list of books would be something like "The Cat in the Hat," "Green Eggs and Ham," "Goodnight Moon," etc.

Oh, I almost forgot; I did read "E.T.," when I was in elementary school.

Honestly, I'm not much of a reader. If it's not a magazine, newspaper, or online, I probably am not reading it.

[Allie]

Originally Posted by A Dead Relative

Allie really needs to get involved with this one. There are times I can't get her book out of her hands. I swear I have seen her reading two books at the exact same time (one in each hand).

Well I do have one book for the bed room, one for the car, one for the tub, and one at work.

I have almost every book I have read or been given since I was a baby, as a mater of fact I have my vary first baby book.

I would love to put my books on here but would never be able to pick.

[A Dead Relative]

No you don't. I gave some of them away. OK, not really. I don't think anyone would want them, anyway.

And what would there be to pick? Why can't you list all of them?

[Little One-Eyed Wench]

Showing here 5 books below  taken at random from LittleOneEyedWench's library, books either owned or just read by LittleOneEyedWench. The books displayed should change when you refresh the page or revisit it later. Clicking on one of the book covers will take you to the book's page on Amazon. If instead you want to visit LittleOneEyedWench's library at LibraryThing, click on one of the text links given here (as author and title links); you can view LittleOneEyedWench's library in either shelf format or list format. If you open an account at LibraryThing, you too can share with others here on the board, in posts or in blog entries, all the books you own or just have read.

Just getting started on my library.

[Gurdur]

I'm extremely glad to see people using these BB Codes.

Despite a great deal of work and thought, I don't think any deeper integration of the board with LibraryThing is quite meaningful and possible (the only way I can seem to integrate further would be using frames, and usability for people would suffer from that), but I do think the current BB Codes really do do a good job, and really do help social networking and info-sharing, so I am really glad to see people using them.

And if anyone has any ideas for improvements, please, by all means, let me know.

[homo hirsutus]

I have a question. If I were going to pick up a Carl Hiaasen novel which one should I start with?

[Gurdur]

Depends what your interests are.

If, for example, you're interested in ecological politics, and you like a good thriller with satirical bite, read "Native Tongue".

If you want some satirical commentary on neonazis, read "Lucky You", which also contains some satire on the Southern Biblemania.

If you want a bit on China and archeology, then the book Hiaasen coathored with someone else, "A Death In China".

Hiaasen's book, "Skin Tight", was made into a movie, but the movie is bad. The book, which is quite good, deserved a far better movie adaption than it got, and Hiaasen's scathing sense of humour disappears in the movie version.

[Hazy Daisy]

I'm just barely getting started, so I have a lot of books to add yet.

Showing here 10 books below  taken at random from Hazy_Daisy's library, books either owned or just read by Hazy_Daisy. The books displayed should change when you refresh the page or revisit it later. Clicking on one of the book covers will take you to the book's page on Amazon. If instead you want to visit Hazy_Daisy's library at LibraryThing, click on one of the text links given here (as author and title links); you can view Hazy_Daisy's library in either shelf format or list format. If you open an account at LibraryThing, you too can share with others here on the board, in posts or in blog entries, all the books you own or just have read.

[verte]

We have 6 books in common. I congratulate you on your excellent taste in books.

[Hazy Daisy]

Originally Posted by verte

We have 6 books in common. I congratulate you on your excellent taste in books.

Great minds read alike? I haven't begun to add the Pratchett yet, either, so there will surely be more.