I tried to find a local book club recently that was accessible during the hours I’m available, usually weekends and not too far from where I live. The local library used to do one, but not anymore. Well what to do next? Bookclubs are not always that easy to organise due to the logistics of finding somewhere to meet, agreeing on which books to read, getting people to read them and so on.

However, as with most things nowadays, there is a virtual solution to this desire for literary discussion in the form of two websites: http://www.librarything.com and http://www.shelfari.com Both websites offer users the ability to catalogue their favourite books or those that they are currently reading, offer literary critiques, join groups and get into virtual fights on online forums.

After snooping around the sites for half an hour or so, I decided that shelfari appealed to me the most. Librarything is very similar in its approach, but shelfari had a clearer structure and attractive design and I liked the fact that you could add your collection of books to your own blog in the form of a virtual shelf. (See below for an example of my shelf. It updates automatically as you add more books. If you click on a book, it takes you to reviews.) For all you bookworms out there, why not give it a go?

Shelfari: Book reviews on Diane’s book blog