One of the key pleasures of being invited to the home of a friend or neighbour is the opportunity to have a browse though their bookshelves. The joy of finding common ground, or the darker pleasure on discovering some unconscionable piece of trash, is the ideal accompaniment to a glass of chilled rosé and some Kettle Chips.

Now a new social network has taken this kind of browsing online. BookRabbit is a social network for readers that lets users look at other members’ bookshelves, hopefully to spot new books to read on the shelves of kindred spirits.

BookRabbit also features an online store, but one where the recommendations are led by users rather than by Amazon’s computer algorithm.

BookRabbit are aggressively targeting the market leader, with a bullish announcement that they can beat Amazon’s prices on top titles and offering free postage. Only time will tell whether they can overcome the sheer inertia that makes most of us stick to the same trusted sources despite the wealth of alternatives.

For now though, Bookrabbit's USP is the online book shelf concept. Regrettably, though, the shelves are of limited size – meaning that users can select the titles displayed for maximum impressiveness and conceal any guilty pleasures from prying eyes, much as we slip our Georgette Heyer paperbacks to the back of the bookcase when we are expecting guests today.

Bookrabbit can be found here

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