Recently I have wanted to add a few personal notes next to my WL or RL books.  I dont see anyway to do this.  Wondering:  Is there any way to do this/and is this why people misuse the tag system?

personally I haven't seen any misuse of the Tag system...my understanding was that tags are meant for two purposes...for personal tags regarding information we need to have regarding books and for those that want to label books for the group as a whole such as a tag like "christian fiction"

The tags have two purposes: to provide information to YOU and to share information with others.  So tags can be either personal or public.  Tags are exactly what you need.

Aside from people slamming books like The Golden Compass, I have seen no misuse of the tag system.  Many people just don't realize that Tags are suppose to be public OR personal.  The hope is that sometime in the future that the public tags will be reinforced enough that they will "float to the top" of the tags that can be seen.

So tag away.  And if you feel any guilt about it, do what I'm doing.  I made a promise to myself that I would give each book that I finish this year 3 tags.  Things like where it happens, main character in a series, genre, time period and position in a series are all great things to add to tag.  The most important thing to do is look at the other tags for that book and reinforce (or type in the exact word) those tags that are already on the book.  This makes them "float".  :)

Kerry

There is also the Book Journal which is for that exact purpose, to make notes about a book for yourself. I don't mind seeing personnal tags, as long as they are not too long. When people write sentences about books, that belongs in the reviews, which isn't a bad idea for what you want to do either, I don't think. But, if it's just a one to three word something you want to stick to a book or group of books, I see nothing wrong with using the tags. I think of them as being short sticky-notes for the books.