"goodreads is a "social cataloging" website that allows individuals to freely search its database of books, annotations, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and reading lists"
- wikipedia
Chances are, you know exactly what Goodreads is, and maybe you're even active there, and quite possibly an expert on how things work. In that case, read on, and enjoy hearing my opinion.
And if you are wondering if it would be a good idea to sign up and get onto Goodreads, maybe you'll find some answers here.
1.
I came to Goodreads about a year ago (or a year + a few weeks, to be exact). It was a very random and spontaneous decision. I had my ereader with me at farmers' market, was bored, started reading Paperfury's reviews, and thought, "so... why not try out this thing called Goodreads?"
It was so worth it.
2.
So, obviously, Goodreads does have its downsides.
Being a social media, it sucks up time and can become addicting and a total waste of your efforts.
Your dashboard and feed will be filled up with useless updates like
Being a social media, it sucks up time and can become addicting and a total waste of your efforts.
Your dashboard and feed will be filled up with useless updates like
"Friend A liked Friend B's review"
"Friend C liked Friend B's update"
"Friend A commented on Friend B's update"
"Friend B followed friend D"
"Friend C liked Friend B following Friend D"
and so forth and so on.
And as you can probably guess, it's full of humans, not all pleasant. They can end up sending hate comments because you disagree with their opinions. There are nasty authors, nasty fans, nasty haters, nasty reviews, nasty reviewers.
^^ advice for dealing with these kinds of users: don't engage. Nothing you say can change their minds or actions
3.
All that aside, Goodreads has been very useful to me in various ways. First of all, in cataloging books for myself.
I consider it my virtual bookshelf. I collect books "read", "want to read", and "reading". I tag them in different ways - mostly by author. Others go by genre, length, pov, year they read it in, target age group, gender of the mc, or any other way of categorizing that they came up with.
Truth be told, you really won't need to keep another kind of book list again.
It's a platform.
Truth be told, you really won't need to keep another kind of book list again.
4.
The second thing is reviews.
This is, obviously, the number one purpose of Goodreads. It's a place for you to writer reviews, and to read reviews.
I used to review everything I read, but unfortunately I don't have that much time these days (I'm trying to get back to it and failing, haha). As bookworms we absolutely enjoy sharing our opinions on books so Goodreads, the natural book loving community, is there to listen.
We also need to read reviews in order to find out is this book really worth it?
^^ Truth be told, mostly we really like reading reviews just for the fun of it ;)
And. quite obviously, Goodreads is the best place to find the reviews - thousands for just one books. But of course, I only really rely on the reviews of friends - who know just what exactly a stranger's tastes are O.o
5.
The community is also very valuablee. To find "kindred spirits" in real life can be hard.
So yes, on Goodreads you can find
- Kindred spirits - those relate to your bookworm joys and struggles
- Community - because there are groups for everything. They are like chat rooms/forums on all manner of subjects, from Ghibli fans to writing contest to role playing to advocating for different kinds of social issues
- People to ask for advice/prayers - it's true. If you are in the right circles seeing updates asking for prayer requests are quite common
- Friends - and while there are hundreds on people there, most will only be your acquaintances. However, you just might land a few very very good friends. I did. That alone makes me happy I went on Goodreads
6.
If you are
a) friends with authors or
b) a writer yourself, planning to publish
then Goodreads is quite the place to market.
After all, being a bookworm community, it is the perfect place to generate excitement over a new release or to do 'promotional work' by posting updates, reviews, and liking/commenting on friends' reviews of the same book, or even recommending the book to others.
If you've established a following on Goodreads, or have a lot of 'friends', chances are your book will 'go around'. I've seen authors adding their books and suddenly your feed blows up with LITERALLY EVERYONE marking it as 'to-read'.
In conclusion, Goodreads is a book lover's paradise of connection, and while there are downsides, in my humble opinion, the goods outweigh the bads.
If you have the time and interest, I do recommend it.
tally ho for now - lisa
then Goodreads is quite the place to market.
After all, being a bookworm community, it is the perfect place to generate excitement over a new release or to do 'promotional work' by posting updates, reviews, and liking/commenting on friends' reviews of the same book, or even recommending the book to others.
If you've established a following on Goodreads, or have a lot of 'friends', chances are your book will 'go around'. I've seen authors adding their books and suddenly your feed blows up with LITERALLY EVERYONE marking it as 'to-read'.
In conclusion, Goodreads is a book lover's paradise of connection, and while there are downsides, in my humble opinion, the goods outweigh the bads.
If you have the time and interest, I do recommend it.
tally ho for now - lisa
are you on goodreads?
if so, are we friends yet?
what are your experiences?
if not, are you interested to try it out?
