I've been trying the free version of Delicious Library 2 for some days now. I hadn't been sure if I'd shell out the money to buy the full license -- it's just a collection management application after all!

But when I put another book in front of my MacBook's built-in webcam to scan in its barcode and the application told me that it won't accept more than 25 items, I couldn't stop myself from ripping out my credit card.

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This application is amazing. It doesn't do much more than managing your book, movie and music library. But it does it in a way that's totally appealing. Delicious Library displays your stuff neatly arranged on a virtual shelf. The tedious task of entering new items is made easy as pie by using the eyeSight camera as a barcode scanner. Every title recognized will be read out loudly by the OS X speech synthesizer. If you lend out a book, you just drag it onto the friend's contact (imported from the OS X Address Book) and enter the return date. Until checked in again, the item will be displayed as a ghostly image.

I'm still surprised how knee-jerk this one software purchase happened. Seems like I'm getting more and more spontaneous the longer I've been using a Mac. I notice the same disturbing development when visiting the iTunes Music and App Store. I'll have to keep an eye on that behaviour.

Anyway, you can see what's on my shelves at library.geewiz.de.