#80. Get a barcode scanner and start Project Home Library

Why is it on the List?

I have a dream. One day my wife and I will own a home that will be big enough to have a library. I've always wanted my own library. A room that has nothing but books from wall to wall and floor to ceiling, with some nice comfy furniture to settle in and perhaps a roaring fire in a brick fireplace.

I already have 4 bookshelves overflowing with books and I have an embosser with my initials and "Library Of". With so many books, the fact that I lend them out from time to time, and because I am a giant nerd, I decided the next thing to do would be to catalog the books. Now, entering in ISBN's by hand is a pain in the ass so I decided that a bar code scanner would be the way to go!

The Process

I've wanted a scanner for a long time, but not just any old scanner. I wanted a handheld USB scanner that could read the barcodes off of books and some software to link that bar code to an ISBN. Unfortunately, a nice scanner costs quite a bit of money. Sure I could have bought some bootleg software for $20 and a Cue Cat bar code reader for $5, but it would have been a huge pain in the ass to scan in the hundreds of books I own.

Thankfully, I married the greatest woman of all time. She not only got me an awesome bar code reader for my birthday (the thing can hold 500 bar codes at a time, which means I can take the reader over to the book shelves and not bring the books to the computer... saves a ton of time) but also a sweet software package that is perfect for my ever growing home library. So Project Home Library is well underway. I've got about 2 bookshelves completed and about two more to go!