A greasemonkey script to remind me of the books I'm reading when I have unread and/or starred items left in Google Reader. With a gentle yellow fade so that you don't feel guilty. Would plug in to Goodreads or Library Thing or whatever tool I use to track what I'm reading (and my progress therein).
Another Goodreads integration idea:
through Goodreads you can keep track of where you are in a book, so theoretically you can have an idea how fast your read books
some libraries (particularly the Vancouver Public Library) operate their catalogue and account system through BiblioCommons. Theoretically there's a web services API for BiblioCommons. Otherwise how would the VPL iPhone app work?
through BiblioCommons I can get a list of books that are on hold, and it tells me how long the hold is active for. VPL holds books for 7 days, after which there is a $1.00 penalty for not picking up.
measuring the number of books I have out, where I am in those books, I can tell when the optimal time is to pick up a book from reserves
what about books that I'm reading that aren't library books?
A failed attempt to show a Goodreads library as a Safari extension (using the emerging feed reader RSS Hero): https://gist.github.com/1419934 Flagging this idea as dead unless I can overcome the Safari extension sandbox in order to inject a third-party script/widget onto a website.
What could jumpstart the project
I find an example where a Greasemonkey script or Safari extension places content from one website and displays it on another
Or go with an <iframe> that loads HTML, living on my own server, that contains the widget code. That works, but can I live with that?