CONTENT INDEX
FEATURES INDEX
HOW TO...
See the following links to the How To... page which will give you step-by-step instructions for Picky Egghead's main features.
Search for and buy a book
Find, Create, or Request a Recommendation
Review Current Events and the books that explain them
Browse Great Book Covers
Get a Great Buy on a Recommended Book – Bargain Bin
See what’s new in books in your favourite area – New Releases
Join a discussion on the best in the world of books
Book Profile
A Book Profile page can be easily accessed throughout the site by clicking on any book cover, title, Details icon or Buy icon.
Description
A book's Description may include information from the publisher and/or reviews provided by Amazon.
A book's Description can also be seen when viewing books in By the Cover.
Add To Favourite Books
Add books to your favourites list with the ADD TO FAVOURITE BOOKS button near the top right of the Book Profile page.
Recommend This Book
The Recommend This Book button is one of the simplest, most convenient and time saving features on Picky Egghead's. With a single click you can create and save a recommendation with the book's title as the recommendation name, have it appear in the list of recommendations you created in your My Profile list, and be taken to the Create/Edit Recommendation page.
From here you can Tag your book recommendation, add comments, or “Clutch it!” by adding up to five additional related books to the recommendation. (See Create a Recommendation.)
The Recommend This Book button can also be found on any search results page.
Recommended
The Recommended section of the Book Profile page will let you know if a book is found in one or more Picky Egghead's recommendations and provides direct links to view (edit) and add comments to the recommendation.
The Search for related recommendations button found on the Book Profile page looks for recommendations related to a book's subject matter. This button is particularly helpful for finding recommendations that already exist that you can add a book to; e.g., you may wish to recommend a biography of Einstein and would like to know if a clutch of Einstein biographies already exists to which you can add yours.
Buy This Book
The Buy this Book section displays links to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, AbeBooks.com and Alibris.com the top four online book retailers. The lowest price for the book, used or new, is displayed by Amazon and Alibris in US dollars, or Pounds Sterling for Amazon UK.
Follow the link to your retailer of choice to find details on the book's condition and how to purchase.
Pricing
If Picky Egghead's has already searched a book, the prices displayed will represent the lowest available from Amazon and Alibirs, new or used, at the time of the previous search. Pricing is dependent upon edition, binding, and condition.
Abe prices often reflect the cost of a high quality used book. To see if Abe has other copies at lower prices follow the link for your selected book to the Abe site and click on the "View all listings for this book" button. If you don't immediately see this button, click on the book's ISBN 10 or 13 (International Standard Book Number).
Prices from all our retailers, typically refer to new or quality used paper or hard cover editions. Pricing may refer to paperback, ebook, hard cover, or other editions formats and may refer to a book in used or in poor condition. The retailers used by Picky Egghead's provide a description of the condition of each book they sell. Availability and price of popular books can change frequently.
Some books, mostly older books (without ISBNs), do not have additional information; for these books you can select a retailer (AbeBooks or Alibris) directly from your search results. Most links will take you directly to the product page, if you land on a search page try a keyword search.
Also on this Shelf
In the Also on this Shelf feature you can scroll through related books just as if you were browsing the shelves of a library. Select any book to see its Book Profile page.
By the Cover
For an overview of how to browse great covers with step-by-step instructions see How To...Browse Great Book Covers.
The By the Cover feature allows users to view and add their own selection of great covers from their Favourite Books list. You can view and add from drop down menus in several categorises:
Art & Design
Great covers of art and design books
Fiction
Great fiction book covers
Non-Fiction
Great non-fiction book covers
Photography
Great covers featuring photographs and photography books
Typography
Great covers with exemplary typography
Add covers to this feature for all other users to see from your My Profile – Favourite Books. (See How To..Browse Great Book Covers for instructions.)
To view great covers select By the Cover in the Books menu.
Select any cover (or the Details button) of a book that interests you for more information.
Be sure to look out for the “Recommended in” message beneath the book's info. It will let you know if this “great cover” has a recommendation on Picky Egghead's and will link you directly to it.
Recommendations
Create a Recommendation
For an overview of Picky Egghead's powerful recommendation system and step-by-step instructions on how to create a recommendation see How To... Find, Create, or Request a Recommendation.
How to choose a good name for a recommendation
If you wish to recommend a single book, the book's title makes a good name. This is effective for fiction titles and you can record why you like the book in the Comments box.
Names for non-fiction recommendations are effective when they cover a discrete area of knowledge (like an encyclopaedia article) and when they encompass a body of literature large enough to make comparisons.
Clutch
A clutch is a recommendation that includes more than one title.
Clutch It!
“Clutch It” refers to converting a single title recommendation into a multi-title clutch recommendation.
For example, a user may have created a recommendation with the name Churchill: A Life which recommends Martin Gilbert's biography of Winston Churchill with that name. You might want to recommend Churchill by Roy Jenkins and so you could change the name of the recommendation to Winston Churchill – Biography and tag Gilbert's book A Good Read and tag Jenkins' book General Audience.
Tagging Recommendations
The bottom line is: you can use any tag you like on any recommendation or make up your own.
But have a look at the tags below. They have been carefully chosen as good descriptors of how to compare the best in world of books. Except for the tags “General Audience,” “Introductory”and “Best 101” you should choose tags for readers who are looking for informative books and who have a basic understanding of the general subject area.
General Tags
General tags are intended for non-fiction though they sometimes work for fiction titles as well.
A Good Read
an informative, well researched book that is engaging, well organized and a pleasure to read.
Detailed
a book that presents a wealth of facts and is well referenced, typically, a lengthy book for the subject.
Value For Money
an informative, well researched book that is commonly available in used or new condition for less than other books you would recommend.
(Typically, Value For Money titles refer to quality used paper or hard cover editions, but may refer to paperback, ebook, hard cover, or other editions and may be used or in poor condition. The retailers used by Picky Egghead's provide a description of the condition of each book they sell. Availability and price on popular books can change frequently.)
Concise
a short (typicality 100-200 pages), well-rounded treatment.
General Audience
an accessible, well-written book intended for people with a wide range of educational and experiential backgrounds.
Introductory
an informative, well researched book that assumes no prior familiarity with the subject area.
Up-To-Date
a recent book that adequately represents the latest scholarship on the subject.
Well Illustrated
a book with good graphic content in a subject area that benefits from illustration.
A Different Take
an informative, well researched book that approaches its subject from an unusual perspective.
Best 101
a college, university textbook.
Primary Source
an original document or first-hand account.
Author Tags
Author tags are intended for a writer's body of work, fiction or non-fiction.
Best Known For
the work an author is best known for.
Good Intro To
in an author's body of work, the first title you would recommend someone read.
Exemplifies Style
the work which best represents an author writing style or approach to their subject.
Breakthrough Book
the book which established an author's reputation.
Magnum Opus
an author's greatest accomplishment as a writer.
Create a new tag
Try to create tags that can be used to compare one book to another, that say something about how the book is written or the audience for which it is intended.
Avoid tags like “My favourite,” or “The best book I've read.” Such things are good for other readers to know, but are not helpful in comparing one book to another. Tell us these things in the Comments box.
Request a Recommendation
For an overview of requesting recommendations with step-by-step instructions see How To... Request a Recommendation.
View Requests for Recommendations
You can view recommendation requests from the View Requests link in the Recommend menu. Select any you would like to respond to and you will be taken directly to the Create a Recommendation page.
View a Recommendation
For an overview of searching and finding Recommendations with step-by-step instructions see How To... Find a Recommendation.
Edit a Recommendation
Picky Egghead's is committed to a culture of continuous improvement in the quality and breadth of the recommendations found on the site.
The EDIT RECOMMENDATION button (near the top left of a Recommendation page) allows users to improve recommendations by adding books and tags and even by replacing a book with one which, in the opinion of the user, is a better title.
Replace a book if in your opinion it does not merit being included amongst the best books on the topic or does not make a worthwhile contribution to the body of literature on the subject. Any UNLOCKED book in a recommendation (or Clutch) may be replaced.
You may find that a new book is more deserving of another Tag (e.g., Detailed) than one currently assigned. In such cases, you can un-Tag a book or assign it a new Tag.
Lock
You will find that some recommended titles are locked and cannot be replaced. Locking is an authority of Moderators and is used by Picky Egghead's to allow the recognition of certain authoritative books and to prevent the frequent interchange of recommended titles on popular and controversial topics.
Comment on a Recommendation
The power of Picky Egghead's recommendation system is that it encourages the recognition of the best books on a topic and drives the creation of recommendations according to the things you want to know about rather than according to what books are written about.
If you find that the place of a locked title would be better represented by another book, please let a Moderator know why by adding an explanatory comment.
Many great books bridge topics and show relationships between persons, countries, periods, and issues. Books written in this vein do not easily lend themselves to inclusion in a clutch. The Comments box allows users to bring attention to these books which bridge subjects or which otherwise would not easily fit into a topic. You may want to include such a book in a clutch with the “A Different Take” tag or create your own tag. Including a comment on the book's relationship to the clutch will be helpful to other users.
Picky Egghead's encourages an open and critical environment which fosters better understanding and knowledge of books, but comments which unduly defame or deride authors and other Picky Egghead's users may be deleted.
Fiction
Novels and other fiction books lead themselves to single title recommendations. This can be done easily and quickly with the Recommend This Book button and by adding a descriptive tag or a short comment on why you liked the book.
Clutch recommendations that lend themselves to fiction include topics which focus on one or more of country, genre, decade, audience, etc. Individual fiction writer clutches are also popular with users. See the pre-set Author Tags.
Current Events
A Picky Egghead's Current Event is a group of Recommendations on a world news story.
For an overview of viewing and creating Current Events with step-by-step instructions see How To...Review Current Events and the books that explain them
For a list of the top world news stories as selected by Picky Egghead's staff see the Picky's Top Current Events tab in Current Events.
Create a Current Event
See How to... Create a Current Event.
Choosing a good Current Events name
You can in fact use any name you like. But here are a few tips:
- It should be clearly identifiable with a world news story.
- It should have a point of view. Over a period of weeks or months the coverage of stories can develop and change perspective, let other users know what angle you are coming from.
- Make it broad enough to include several recommendations with books that offer background and explication. Remember too that other users may add recommendations to your Current Event.
On organizing and keeping track of Recommendations and including them in Current Events see My Profile – Recommendations.
Search
For an overview of searching and buying books on Picky Egghead's and step-by-step instructions see How To... Search for and buy a book.
Keyword Search
A keyword Search box can be found at the top of each page of Picky Egghead's Bookshop. Enter one or more keywords using any combination of the subject, title or author's name (an “All” Keyword search). Or use the drop down window to select a subject, title or author search.
Advanced Search
Advanced Search can be accessed from the Advanced button to the right of the search bar in the header or from Search in the Books menu.
If you want to specify which of your search terms should match the author's name and which should match the title, you should conduct an Advanced Search.
You can also search by ISBN, date, language, or publisher.
If you search by ISBN, the system will search only by that and make sure you type the number correctly, without dashes.
If you choose to search by subject or publisher, we suggest you specify only the main word from the subject or publisher's name. For example, conduct a search for "Oxford" to find titles from Oxford University Press.
Language
By default a search will only return books written in English. Alternatively, use the language selector to search books written in any language “All” or select one or more of English, French, Spanish, German or Italian.
Holdings
One of the most powerful ways you can refine a search is to select the kind of Holdings to search. Search by type of Holdings on the Advanced Search page.
A default Expansive Search, accessed on the Advanced Search page, will return results from the Library of Congress. You can also choose to restrict your search to Academic Library Holdings or Public Library Holdings. Or choose Holding with General Academic and all Canadian. In each case, your search will be supplemented by data from Amazon and Picky Egghead's database.
Search for Recommendations
Use the Search Only for Items Recommended on Picky Egghead's tick box if you only want to see recommended books.
Author Seach Links
Author search links appear throughout the site and provide a list of the author works. Links with extranious terms, such as "editor" or "illustrator," may not yeild results; try an author seach without these terms.
Top Search Tips
Check Your Spelling!
Searches are not case sensitive, but apostrophes, special characters, and foreign language characters will affect a search.
Search by ISBN
An ISBN is a 10 or 13 digit number unique to each edition of a book, so you can find exactly what you're looking for. The ISBN is located on the lower, right-hand corner of the back of a book or on the back of the title page.
Using Keywords
When you use the keyword field to search, you are searching the title, author and description fields. Therefore, when using keywords, it is a good idea to be as specific as possible.
Not enough results
Do a keyword search and/or use fewer terms.
Too many results
See Refine Your Search Results.
Refine Your Search Results
Use Refine Search if you have too many results or if your results are not specific enough.
The Refine Search button at the top of the book listing on any Search Results page will take you to the Advanced Search page.
Ways you can refine your search:
add keywords
exclude words with a minus sign
specify language(s) on the search results page
enter a publication date range
indicate the type of holdings
choose the most closely related book and use the Also on this Shelf feature on a book's Profile page.
Search Results pages
A search results page is generated when you perform a Keyword Search in the header, search with specified details in Advanced Search, or Browse by subject.
Each Search Results page has three components: 1) a recommendation section which displays any recommendations related to your search; 2) a Bargain Bin - New Releases feature containing recommended low priced books and recently published items related to your search; and 3) the list of books you searched.
At the top of every search results page you will find a title bar which identifies your search term(s). These terms may be preceded by abbreviations dependent on the type of search you performed:
ti: Ttle
au: Author
su: Subject
kw: Keyword(s)
re: Recommended
pu: Publisher
da: Published
is: ISBN
The Bargain Bin feature returns books, at three different price points, which have been recommended by other Picky Egghead's users. These books are in subject areas related to books in your search. (You can also browse book bargains on the Home Page by using the Bargain Bin drop down menu to select book bargains at three different price points.)
The New Releases feature searches for books recently published in subject areas related to books in your search. (You can also browse new releases in the Home Page - New Releases area by using the drop down menu to select a subject.)
From the list of books returned on a Search Results page you can go directly to a Book Profile page or directly into Creating a Recommendation. Select from the drop down menus at the top of this list to view 20, 50 or 100 books at a time, or to filter your results by language. You can also choose to Refine Your Search, a very helpful tool if your search returned too many or too general results. See Refine Search for tips.
Some books, mostly older books (without ISBNs), do not have additional information; for these books you can select a retailer (AbeBooks or Alibris) directly from your search results. Most links will take you directly to the product page, if you land on a search page try a keyword search.
Some Search Results pages also include Non-Book items which appear in a collapsible bar at the bottom of a list of search results. These might include sound recordings, scores, films, prints, maps, or other collectibles. No additional information is provided on these items. Many are avaiable on Amazon and Alibris where you can search for them manually; you might also inquire at your local library.
Browse
Use the Browse menu to look through subjects and select one to conduct a search of books related to that subject. Browse even more specifically by choosing the book most closely related to the subject you are interested in and at the bottom of that book's Profile Page see the Also on this Shelf feature to browse that book's shelf neighbours.
Browse All Subjects
Select Browse all Subjects, near the bottom of the Browse sidebar menu, to find a full list of subjects beyond those listed in the sidebar.
Browse Recommended
Select Recommended, at the bottom of the Browse sidebar menu, to browse through the list of all books recommended on the Picky Egghead's site.
Join
Without signing up you can search books, get information on price and availability, find recommendations, view the best books on Current Events and even view great book covers.
By joining Picky Egghead's through the New User Signup page you can gain access to the site's create, comment and interactive features.
When you sign up you will be able to create recommendations, add comments, add books to other users recommendations to create clutches, and even improve recommendations by updating them with the latest books. And that's just the beginning of the ways to participate and interact.
You can ask other users to recommend books in areas you are not familiar with and help out other users by skimming through the View Requests queue and recommending books in areas you know about.
If you like to follow the news you can create and group recommendations around Current Events to point users to the books that explain and provide background world new stories.
You can keep track of your favourite books in your personalized favourites list and if you love great book covers you can add them to the By the Cover viewing feature.
New User Signup - Login
The profile you enter on the New User Signup page can be seen by anyone accessing the sight, as can your location, age and gender. Your name (First and Last), however, cannot. Only the username you enter will be associated with your personal information on the publicly accessible site.
Moderators
Moderators are users who have Lock and Delete authorities on the site. Some of these features are only visible to Moderator status users.
The most popular of these authorities is the ability to lock specific book recommendations so that they may not be overwritten by other users.
For more information and to apply for Moderator status see Moderator Signup accessible through the Picky's sidebar menu.
My Profile
Your My Profile page gives you access to four tabs where you can maintain favourites and personal information. You can Update your Account and Change your Password, but more importantly you can maintain your Recommendations and Favourite Books.
Your My Profile - Recommendations tab lets you keep track of your Favourite Recommendations.
You can add a recommendation to your favourites list from any specific Recommendation page with the + FAVOURITE RECOMMENDATIONS button at the top right of that page.
Your My Profile - Recommendations tab also keeps track of recommendations you have created and commented on. This is an automated feature.
Send any Recommendation listed on this page to Current Events with the SEND TO CURRENT EVENTS button.
In Favourite Books you can keep a list of any books of interest to you or any you may wish to purchase in future.
From here you can send any book with a great cover to the By the Cover feature with the SEND TO BY THE COVER button.
Add books to your favourites list with the ADD TO FAVOURITE BOOKS button on a Book Profile page.
Forum
Picky Egghead's hosts a discussion forum where you can follow and participate in conversations on the best in the world of books. Enter through the Community menu. A separate login is required. See the Forum's Help link for assistance with the Forum's features.
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