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Amazon.com is reportedly buying Shelfari, a social-networking site for book lovers, according to a report in Monday in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that cited “sources with knowledge of the situation.”

The online e-tailer, which already owns a portion of Seattle-based Shelfari, helped fund the social-networking site in 2007, according to the newspaper. Shelfari allows users to create virtual bookshelves and share title lists among friends.

The deal comes about three weeks after Amazon announced it would acquire AbeBooks.com, which specializes in out-of-print book sales. AbeBooks.com holds an equity stake in Shelfari’s main rival, LibraryThing, the newspaper pointed out.

LibraryThing founder Tim Spalding has accused Shelfari of planting positive comments about the service on blogs and engaging in unethical spamming, for which Shelfari later apologized, the paper reported.

Spalding said he came up with more than 50 examples, writing in a blog post that “it’s icky to…go on and on about how much you ‘love’ Shelfari without mentioning you’re paid by them,” according to the paper.

It’s unclear what Amazon plans to do with the equity stake.