I remember the days; packets of cheap soup, saving money for beer not food, wearing the same hoodie for a week straight and trying to hit on girls you really had no chance with. Well if any of you out there had a college experience like mine, you just had a flood of memories.

I also remember people complaining about spending money on books, I was a Public Relations major so I never really bought that many books, until the internet came around. Once the internet hit you could easily find books cheaper than those price gouging money mongers at the campus book store were selling them for.

I recently came across The Textbook Price Comparison a nifty little app that compares text book prices. To be honest there are a few different text book comparisons tools out there, and I didn’t notice a price difference between them.

I think this could be a nifty tool to set up for students and friends who go to the same school to compare prices of textbooks. Other textbook Facebook applications offer an exchange style tool, but I never found those services too helpful.

At worst some of your friends can make up a few jokes when they see that you have looked up the pricing for your required reading in “Depressing Women’s Lit of the 19th Century.”

I’ve checked out countless applications related to books and reviewed a couple. Most of the applications have the same features but one of them has been extremely successful. The iRead application has over 110,000 users and it looks like growth has started to peak. Perhaps that’s why they reached out to me to write a review. As a duty to my readers I have to be honest and honest I will be. I have checked out tons of books applications and literally each one seems to be a carbon copy of the next. Each application allows you to display all of your books in your library and the books that you would like to read. iBook is a little different in that it allows users to also post reviews about each book. Aside from that it seems to be a carbon copy of each of the others. I have to credit them though with being one of the original book applications. This may be the primary reason that the application has been so successful. iRead has some pretty impressive statistics:

• Almost 20 percent of the users have added Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to their books
• Over 2 million books have been added by the application users
• On average, iReaders spend 22 minutes per session on iRead (I’m not sure where they came up with this statistic given that Google Analytics were only added to Facebook applications a couple of days ago)
• More than 40,000 unique book reviews written by over 13,000 unique iReaders

Aside from the impressive statistics I am not that impressed by the application. Once Amazon launches complete Facebook integration, I don’t see any of the book applications holding up. The only opportunity that I see with books currently is an automatic book swapper. Today’s free application idea brought to you by Nick O’Neill! Imagine if at the end of each semester, college students could automatically view users that have the books that they need and want the books that they have. Additionally, if they don’t want to swap their book they can find the estimated amount that they will receive for selling their book on the internet. If you love books and are willing to settle for the existing application offerings, check out the iRead application. It is one of the better book offerings currently.

Shelfari, a book based social network, has just launched their Facebook application. The application is designed to let you easily display your books and rate them. Launched in October 2006, Shelfari is one of the fastest growing vertically oriented social media sites on the Internet. With tens of thousands of bibliophiles already registered on the free site, Shelfari represents a vibrant community of readers who actively participate and express themselves through their passion for books. Just like all the other virtual bookshelves on Facebook, this one generates revenue via the Amazon affiliate program. Shelfari is the best looking shelf application that I’ve seen so far but there are definitely limits. As of now it only displays 4 of the books that you add to your shelf. Also it takes up a fair amount of space on your profile. If you are a serious book lover and want to show off your books than this application is for you. Otherwise you may opt for one of the other book applications that take up less space. If you are a bibliophile than go check out the Shelfari application.

Edward Frederick of Washington, D.C. has created a pretty useful application for listing your personal book collection. This follows the trend that I previously discussed in which users within the ’social graph” will list all of their personal belonging and brands that they feel attached to. It will become a natural form of purchase by referral. This will eventually lead to applications that aggregate this information to determine “What people are reading now” or “What clothing brands are hip”, etc. I think that this personal bookshelf is a great way for people to get to know you as well since checking out a person’s personal library can be extremely revealing. Easily populate your virtual bookshelf by browsing the Amazon library and adding your items. One recommendation I would make for this application is they should add a full description including title, author, and publication date. Aside from that, this application is definitely cool and I will be keeping this one on my profile for the time being. If you want to show-off your own personal library, go grab the bookshelf application.