I took a look at Andy Erickson's blog the other day and noticed his Now Reading section.  I thought that was pretty cool and started looking around to see how I could add such a widget to my BlogEngine.NET implementation.  

There doesn't appear to be a BlogEngine.NET widget for a bookshelf, but I did see in some of the CodePlex comments that folks were recommending Shelfari.com.  So, I hopped over there and gave it a try.  Previously, I had played around with LibraryThing.com, but there seemed to be some limitations with the free account--plus, do they have a widget you can drop on your site?  

At any rate, Shelfari seems to have the features I'm interested in, so I'm now pleased to present...Brad's Bookshelf!

For easy access, I've added a link to my bookshelf page on the top menu bar.  I've not added many books quite yet, nor made any comments or recommendations, but more of that should come in time.  I look forward to hearing your recommendations as well!

There are many other things I enjoy besides technology and genealogy: I love books, am forever frustrated by politics, am totally addicted to podcasts, oh...and there's that parenting challenge, too.  So, with this space, as time permits, I intend to brain dump other topics on my mind that don't fit nicely in the other sections of this blog.

Hi, there.  I'm Brad and I'm a genealogy addict.  I've been working on my family history for over 10 years now and have recorded over 3500 individuals in my tree with some lines going back to the early 1500s.  I also love technology and software development.  Hopefully, you'll get an indication of that over at my Technology Blog.  So, in addition to discussing general genealogy topics, I also intend to use this space to discuss the place where genealogy and technology intersect--how technology can make our research and recording efforts more effective.  Stay tuned!

Who am I and what am I doing here?

I am Brad Butts--software developer, architect, occasional project manager, expert at flushing stray birds from my garage (are they really that dumb that they can't find their way out?), designated trash taker-outer for my family, etc.  I have been developing with Microsoft technologies (predominantly but not exclusively) for 15 years.  In this space, I intend to discuss software development matters.  Hopefully, you will find some of these posts relevant.  If not, they will at least serve as memory dumps for me.