Lately i've noticed that though some books from my wishlist are available, they don't show up in my wishlist. I guess it has to do with different versions, (even though there is the related edition-option). I found out when i searched an author's name and saw a book show up that has been on my wishlist for years.

That way, a lot of books available out there, don't get mooched because books are not found.

I know BM is thinking of doing something about the database, and I think it's very urgent. I've said it before, but it's an awful mess that scares off people who are not regular moochers.

What do you guys think?

Manual adds are probably part of the problem, and I wish Bookmooch would work like Librarything with more book source than one. It probably has to do with contracts with Amazon, but for me as a Dutch speaker, it's annoying. I always have to add Dutch books manually.

The other problem is that Amazon's database of books is not quite straightforward either. e.g. if you want to add Huckleberry Finn, there are numerous options. If you choose the Penguin Classics (i'm just making this up on the spot), you'll see 5 people who hve the book on their wishlist. If you add another version, there are no people who want that book. It's especially problematic with short story collections. I e.g. have added a short story collection of Angus Wilson in my collection that's on no one's wishlist. There are however quite a few people who are looking for a best of the short stories of Angus Wilson, but from a different publisher.

Would they be happy with my book? Not necessarily (maybe they are really looking for that particular book), but the chances are bigger.

So books that are manually entered and the incredibly messy database of Amazon is I think what's causing the problem. That combines with the out-of-date browsing part of the Bookmooch-website makes me believe that there could be a lot more mooching going on if the database was a bit refined.

For my wishlist, I will try to add all versions of a book I want since there is no cap on the number we can have on our WL. From time to time, I also do a new search on certain authors to see if they have other books I'd like and/or unrelated versions of a book I want. It's tedious but it did help me find a novel by Rachel Johnson that had a different name in the US than the UK.

I don't belong to librarything, but is there an option for members to submit updates to their database when there are two unrelated ISBNs for the same book? If there was, we could submit those when we find ones that do need linking and maybe that would end up linking them here as well.

great place to keep a list of books you have. I log books in as I received them. When I'm looking to order something, I look it up there to see if I've shelved the book. You only have to do one version of the book. If a book has 20 editions, just shelve one and when you look at each addition it show as shelved To-Read, Read or whatever shelves you've created.