I joined Goodreads this weekend. I had heard of it, but not gone down that road before.

There's only so much time for this stuff. Now I'm hooked on goodreads. It's kind of a netflix for people who like books. Or it's kind of a place to be in or start a virtual book club.  You can do some of this by paying attention at amazon.com, which I deeply appreciate, but amazon is so cluttered with other stuff about buying the books, that buiding your own network of like-minded readers is not so apparent. I have some ideas about what to do on goodreads, and hope to report back in a month or so.

I was in a conversation this weekend with some friends who still find myspace or facebook and others of the superhighways of social networking daunting. One way to thinkabout diving in is to find speciaized social networking sites that feel approachable, familiar, focused, friendly. Several of the folks in the discussion were in book clubs. Having some fun with goodreads could be a natural. We could be book reading friends.

Likewise, I really like allrecipes.com (my wife favors epicurious). I earned a cap from tripadvisor.com. Useful activist sites include care2 and change.org, or right now, a campaign website might appeal, such as Obama's. Start where you feel comfortable.