diff --git a/bookwyrm/importers/importer.py b/bookwyrm/importers/importer.py
index f6abef0ee..8acfb1473 100644
--- a/bookwyrm/importers/importer.py
+++ b/bookwyrm/importers/importer.py
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ class Importer:
         "date_started": ["date started", "started"],
         "date_finished": ["date finished", "last date read", "date read", "finished"],
     }
+    date_fields = ["date_added", "date_started", "date_finished"]
 
     def create_job(self, user, csv_file, include_reviews, privacy):
         """check over a csv and creates a database entry for the job"""
diff --git a/bookwyrm/importers/librarything_import.py b/bookwyrm/importers/librarything_import.py
index 3d42e5392..12d841e9e 100644
--- a/bookwyrm/importers/librarything_import.py
+++ b/bookwyrm/importers/librarything_import.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 """ handle reading a tsv from librarything """
+import re
 from . import Importer
 
 
@@ -8,3 +9,11 @@ class LibrarythingImporter(Importer):
     service = "LibraryThing"
     delimiter = "\t"
     encoding = "ISO-8859-1"
+
+    def normalize_row(self, entry, mappings):  # pylint: disable=no-self-use
+        """use the dataclass to create the formatted row of data"""
+        normalized = {k: entry.get(v) for k, v in mappings.items()}
+        for date_field in self.date_fields:
+            date = normalized[date_field]
+            normalized[date_field] = re.sub(r"\[|\]", "", date)
+        return normalized