Hayley Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 With the new forum update we have a new feature - the 'Books' app! This will allow you to create your own bookshelves, comment on other people's shelves and rate the books on your shelf. You can also see your bookshelf in your profile! How do I start my bookshelf? Go to the 'Books' app (underneath our logo) and select 'bookshelves' - you should see an option to create your shelf! How do add books to my shelf? It depends whether somebody else on the forum has already got the book on their shelf. If they do, you can simply click on your shelf, select 'add books' in the top right corner, type in the book title and 'add book'! If nobody else has added your book yet, you just need the ISBN of your book to add it. You can find the ISBN above the barcode of a book, on it's 'copyright' page, or by searching google books/ waterstones etc. Once you've got your ISBN click on the '+create' button on the top right hand side of the forum (next to the notification bell and message icons). You will see the option 'book'. Choose which category you think your book belongs in (e.g. it's a non-fiction book/ it's a fantasy book...). Now you will see the 'submit new book' page. Simply add your ISBN, wait a moment for it to load, and all of the data for your book (including the cover!) will be added for you. Once you click 'submit book' you (and everyone else!) will be able to add the book easily using it's title from now on. I started my shelf! Now what? If you click on any of the books on your shelf (or on somebody else's shelf!) you can see other books from the same author, the same publisher, or just books which are similar! So explore new books, explore other member's shelves, interact with them (you can 'like' other shelves!) and have fun. If you have any more questions about how to use the bookshelves, please let me know in this thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Thanks for this. I did not realise you had to click +create to add a book to my own bookshelves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted August 10, 2022 Author Share Posted August 10, 2022 1 hour ago, lunababymoonchild said: Thanks for this. I did not realise you had to click +create to add a book to my own bookshelves. I couldn't work it out for a while either! It does of course mean that the more we use the shelves, the easier it will become for others - because more books will already be there to add Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 (edited) I just posted an e-book collection and while it posted successfully it has incorrect information : The ISBN number listed is actually the ASIN number and it doesn't have 51,348 pages but is 51,348 kb because it's an e-book. I posted it because the e-book is what I read and to see if it would post. I don't want to be difficult but I'd like your advice on how to proceed in future posts. Are the information I posted acceptable especially if I post in the review that it's an ASIN number and it's kilobytes long not pages (they didn't give the page equivalent), can the e-book categories be incorporated or would you prefer that I just posted an equivalent paper book? I do like the whole feature though 😊 Edited August 11, 2022 by lunababymoonchild Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 I just tried to add a few kindle books and the information isn't self populating so I suspect the data being pulled for ASIN numbers isn't great. You should be able to edit the data fields before you submit the book to change the number of pages etc. If you can't, drop me a PM and I can edit the data for you. I don't know if this will be an on-going fix, it all depends on how many issues we have ASIN going forward but it will do for the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 24 minutes ago, Brian. said: I just tried to add a few kindle books and the information isn't self populating so I suspect the data being pulled for ASIN numbers isn't great. You should be able to edit the data fields before you submit the book to change the number of pages etc. If you can't, drop me a PM and I can edit the data for you. I don't know if this will be an on-going fix, it all depends on how many issues we have ASIN going forward but it will do for the moment. The information that's there was input by me by hand and didn't self populate, I didn't expect it to. Everything is there it's just named incorrectly, i.e. the ISBN is the ASIN and the e-book doesn't have an equivalent page number so the number of kilobytes is there instead. I just wanted to know how to proceed going forward. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 53 minutes ago, lunababymoonchild said: The information that's there was input by me by hand and didn't self populate, I didn't expect it to. Everything is there it's just named incorrectly, i.e. the ISBN is the ASIN and the e-book doesn't have an equivalent page number so the number of kilobytes is there instead. I just wanted to know how to proceed going forward. Thank you. Ah ok, I misunderstood. Personally I would change the kb to the equivalent number of pages in a physical edition of the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 1 hour ago, Brian. said: Ah ok, I misunderstood. Personally I would change the kb to the equivalent number of pages in a physical edition of the book. Done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted August 13, 2022 Share Posted August 13, 2022 Had a play around with this feature this afternoon and over half of the books I tried to add needed additional information (the publisher was the main one, along with the cover image). Also, people will need to check the text that is being auto-entered, as the descriptions are often padded out with reviews that run together, and some of the details were entered in the wrong field (I had the name of the book series come up in the publisher field, for example). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted August 13, 2022 Author Share Posted August 13, 2022 The app pulls the data from Google books, so as long as it’s accurately listed there it should all work! If any don’t seem to be doing that correctly, send the ISBN to me and I’ll report it to the creator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted August 13, 2022 Share Posted August 13, 2022 5 hours ago, Hayley said: The app pulls the data from Google books, so as long as it’s accurately listed there it should all work! If any don’t seem to be doing that correctly, send the ISBN to me and I’ll report it to the creator I've had well over a dozen today - do you really want to get into it to that level? I've also just just realised that it has created some entries for some of the books I tried to add without the complete information it was claiming it required. I will try to tidy these up over the next day or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted August 13, 2022 Share Posted August 13, 2022 Okay, just tried one that pulled through the German description of the book! Not sure how that happened! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted August 13, 2022 Share Posted August 13, 2022 22 minutes ago, Raven said: I've had well over a dozen today - do you really want to get into it to that level? I've also just just realised that it has created some entries for some of the books I tried to add without the complete information it was claiming it required. I will try to tidy these up over the next day or so. Done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
France Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 I give up! Sometimes it won't recognise the ISBN numbers, others it won't load the cover or the publisher. I've managed to load one book out of about nine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted August 14, 2022 Author Share Posted August 14, 2022 16 hours ago, Raven said: I've had well over a dozen today - do you really want to get into it to that level? You don’t have to if it’s a pain but yeah, the more information I can send about what isn’t working the better! 47 minutes ago, France said: I give up! Sometimes it won't recognise the ISBN numbers, others it won't load the cover or the publisher. I've managed to load one book out of about nine! Same for these, if you get a chance, it would be useful to know exactly what isn’t working! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 35 minutes ago, Hayley said: You don’t have to if it’s a pain but yeah, the more information I can send about what isn’t working the better! Same for these, if you get a chance, it would be useful to know exactly what isn’t working! I've been putting in ASIN numbers for e-books and didn't expect it to self-populate. Is anything going to be done to make allowances for e-books? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 5 hours ago, Hayley said: You don’t have to if it’s a pain but yeah, the more information I can send about what isn’t working the better! I don't know if it is the add-on or the lack of information in Google Books. It certainly goes through the "loading" cycle each time, but - at best - it's probably only working for one in three of the books I've tried. I tried to enter all the Rivers of London hardbacks I have here this afternoon; three of the loaded no problem at all, the other three retuned blank forms - so it's not like it's one specific author or publisher (I had the same thing happen with the Iain M. Banks books I tried - only one of the three worked - and Terry Pratchett was 50/50). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 Been doing some more testing and I think there is a bug in the plugin. It seems that if you do two or three successful uploads, it then has problems - usually trying to connect to a server - and then after that, it doesn't seem to want to play for a while, even if you close and reopen your browser (this is when I have been seeing blank forms). I'll try a bit more later and get a screen shot of the error. Also, ISBN numbers from Amazon may work better than typing them in from the back of the book (although they should be the same!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 That didn't take long: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
France Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 3 hours ago, Raven said: Been doing some more testing and I think there is a bug in the plugin. It seems that if you do two or three successful uploads, it then has problems - usually trying to connect to a server - and then after that, it doesn't seem to want to play for a while, even if you close and reopen your browser (this is when I have been seeing blank forms). ). That happened to me too. That's when I got really fed up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 (edited) It's not perfect for me either. I just put in the date I read Frey and McGray (August) and it's labelled it January! And there's no way I can change it. Edited August 15, 2022 by lunababymoonchild Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 9 minutes ago, lunababymoonchild said: It's not perfect for me either. I just put in the date I read Frey and McGray (August) and it's labelled it January! And there's no way I can change it. I can't see it in Books, have you deleted it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 3 minutes ago, Raven said: I can't see it in Books, have you deleted it? I deleted it then reposted it. It seems to have disappeared! I'll have another go Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 (edited) I can see three of them now! Edited August 16, 2022 by lunababymoonchild Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 I'll have a tidy up and keep the one with the most descriptive tags. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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