I chose LibraryThing and am not satisfied. I chose it mainly because of its better (IMHO) DB architecture (more fields, more custom data can be entered, different editions of the same book are linked with each other) and the fact that it had an API – which I thought was a good thing to get my content out again but I was wrong. The API can do nothing but create links to content on LibraryThing. Your library's RSS feed only contains your most recent books, not your entire library. At least there's decent CSV export. For me, the ability to get my data out in a mashup-able format is one of the most important criteria. - Ole Begemann
I've found more people on Goodreads, but given the choice, most people I've talked to choose LibraryThing, partially for what Ole said. LibraryThing makes managing a library much easier than Goodreads: but on the other hand, Goodreads has better social features than LibraryThing. There must be something especially taxing about cataloging book libraries though, because they both are pretty bad at getting your data out, and both kinda suck in how frequently they update your RSS feed. - Mark Trapp
LibraryThing, for example, sometimes takes 6 hours to update your RSS feed: which makes updates to other services (like Friendfeed) nowhere near real-time. - Mark Trapp
Yes, I guess part of the reason LibraryThing is not very open with its data is that they have some kind of licensing agreements with Amazon that does not allow them to redistribute the data they got from Amazon. - Ole Begemann
Using them both, and BookJetty AND shelfari... It's just a book shelf. Three minutes, import, export and done. - "Czar" DJ Peterman
I find Goodreads to be more social and LibraryThing more marketing. - Josh Jenkins
I'm at least liking the UI for Goodreads more than LibraryThing - Shey
