Friday, April 8, 2011

On Goodreads

Last year, my friend, Mark, introduced me to one of the cleverest websites I know. Most of you probably know Goodreads, but for anyone else, let me explain (or rather, let Goodreads do so) :


Goodreads is the largest social network for readers in the world. We have more than 4,500,000 members who have added more than 120,000,000 books to their shelves. A place for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads members recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they've read and would like to read, form book clubs and much more. Goodreads was launched in December 2006. 


A network for readers sounded like my thing. Thus, I then spent a considerable amount of time plotting in all the books I could remember having read (not nearly as many as I'd imagined, so either my memory fails me or I'm not as avid a reader as I like to think). The networking part of Goodreads isn't necessarily all that effective, at least not to me. After a year I now have about 40 "friends" - most of which are contacts I'd already made here in the blogosphere. Also, I don't visit often enough to actually make it very useful, and when I do I hardly participate in any interaction (other than the occasional comments on friend's reviews). 


However, I still really, really like it. I guess the idea of a website devoted entirely to books has an enormous appeal to me. Further, keeping track of what I read (and more importantly, what I don't read) has a positive effect on me: I've long felt I don't read as much as I'd liked (and used to), but with a website tracking my progress I at least feel some "pressure" to pick up a book rather than turn on the TV... 


In the end, though, the real appeal (to me) of Goodreads is the opportunity to find new reads, get recommendations and find books or authors I otherwise would not consider.


Also, if you are the book review-posting type (which I'm not really, since my reviews tend to drift off into somethingelseness), Goodreads have excellent templates for this, which makes it easy to copy&paste into your blog. Since I have committed to the whole A-Z thing this month, I have decided to re-use a couple of my Goodreads reviews (even if I do stray off the main topic...), so you'll have ample examples of how that can be done (check back in on "P" and "T").  


For all these good reasons, I have vowed to myself to be more active on Goodreads. I should, for instance, link my account up with this blog. It's on my to-do list... 

11 comments:

M.J. Nicholls said...

Goodreads has been good to me. (With reads). I like to chronologize and organise everything I read in order of time and space, and do mini-reviews sos I can remember the experience, like taking mini-reading photos.

Your reviews are very good! More please! And have you read Ellmann yet?

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

I have never heard of Good reads and sounds like a good site.Thanks for writing about it,

Yvonne,

Cruella Collett said...

Mark - Ellmann is elusive. I must summon the courage to order her from afar, since no bookshops here seems to carry her, and neither does Kindle.

As for reviews - most of my reviews are not reviews...

Yvonne - you should check it out - great ideas for new favourite reads :)

Jules said...

I was invited to join by a fellow blogger but like you I know I'm not as avid reader as I think :)
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

Liza said...

I've been meaning to check out Goodreads. Now I will.

Deb and Barbara said...

Interesting, I hadn't checked them out yet. Will do now.

Thanks! B

Marjorie said...

I think I've read a couple of your reviews on there, but I haven't navigated the site at all. I might now, but we will see.

Jolene Perry said...

Mind melt - I'm with you now.

Funny that I thought with E and editing I'd get a TON of people doing the same thing!

Too funny.

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

I'll be checking back. I joined once but never did anything with it. There's only so much socializing I can take.

Liz P said...

I haven't looked too much into Goodreads, but I'll check it out. I use LibraryThing to catalog my book collection, but don't participate much in the social aspect of the site.

Angela said...

Goodreads is one of my favorite websites.

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