some good reads
Alright, so I found the perfect way to distract myself from my NaNo panic. After spending ALL day yesterday procrastinating by doing “research” into how to create perfect characters – everything from character charts, questionnaires, articles on character voice and how to write the opposite gender, … – I saw an update on “Princess” Monica’s blog where she raved about GoodReads and I caved in and signed up.
Now, I know you won’t believe this, but I really, honestly had not been a member there before. I hadn’t even checked it out. Yes, you’re allowed to laugh and no, I won’t hold it against you if you shake your head in disbelief and tut-tut disapprovingly. It’s justified.
I had been meaning to check out what it was all about forever, but it always landed at the bottom of the to-do list, plus, I don’t much like hypes and that’s what it felt like. But since I signed up last night, I have already acquired deep circles under my eyes, who in turn have gone red and swollen from staring at the screen so hard. My fingers on my mouse-hand are hurting from clicking on those teensy stars and I have landed myself with a new addiction. Hussa!
I’m also slowly starting to see why so many people are on there. True, so far all I’ve done is set up a basic profile and wreck my brain trying to think of all the books I’ve ever read and enthusiastically clicking ‘Want to Read’ on everything remotely interesting, but I can see that’s it’s a really good way of discovering new things to read. It’s also a really neat and specialized way of exchanging opinions about books and I think I’ll head over and check out the lists now, because I’ve been meaning to start reading some steampunk and I just don’t know where to start. I’m guessing the lists will be helpful there.
What’s your opinion on GoodReads? And what should I definitely try/look out for/experiment with? Any tips?
Posted on October 27, 2012, in day-to-day and tagged books, GoodReads, NaNo, NaNoWriMo, novels, reading, writing. Bookmark the permalink. 16 Comments.
cresting the words 
yay! Goodreads is such an addictive site even though I feel a bit depressed whenever I see my to-read list growing. whenever I finish a book, there’ll be 3 books recommended and they all look good so I’ll add them in my list. so many books, so little time!
Yes, that does sound frustrating! Are the recommendations good? I mean, if you read them, do you really like them?
Some are good, while others are just so-so. Of course, the computer generated recommendations don’t really know our taste for books. I see you have read more books than me! Keep it up 🙂
I’ve only been on there since I started my blog, and even then I kind of ignored it for several months. But I’ve found I like them. It’s fun to see all the books that I’ve read in one place. I like checking out the recommendations. I will say that a lot of them I don’t really care about, but there are also some really good suggestions. 🙂
How do you distinguish between them? And how good are they? I mean, if you get recommendations and you read them, do you usually end up liking them?
I actually have so many books on my TBR list that I haven’t read the ones they’ve suggested, but a lot of them are ones that I’ve heard from other people and were already on my list of books to read, I just hadn’t marked them down yet.
Okay.
Don’t you feel the pressure sometimes? All those books to read… 🙂
Yes! So many books, so little time! 🙂
I have been on Goodreads for a while. I like the site. It does have some good suggestions as it learns what type of book that you like. Although I do have a few that pop up that I read the descrip and think nope not reading it…
The list are a good system to start a new genre, but I like the recommend books because it goes from books you have already read. If you set it up that way. I have gotten a lot of library books that way and have mostly enjoyed them. Granted there was a few that the summary is good but the book is not kind of thing.
Yeah, I noticed that the recommendations are not always spot on. Also, do you get new ones after a while? Like right now, I’m getting recommendations for countless volumes of poetry and I don’t want to click anything on them, because I don’t want to read them right now, but I might at some point in the future… So do I just leave them in the list? Do I get new recommendations after a while?
But you think in general that the recommendations fit in with what you like?
It should update. I normally clean my out and then its shows new ones. I know you can find ones that you said you didn’t want to read and put them on your list again. Generally they fit what I like.
Alright, sounds good. I’ll see what they’ll bring me! 🙂
I love goodreads. I am an avid reader as well as a freelance editor. I have found many great books that I otherwise would never have known existed and I’ve also gotten in contact with many authors via the goodreads site. I could spend days on that site and never get bored.
Yep, I thought the word “addiction” summed it up pretty nicely. I’ve been there for about 24 hours now and have spent a significant number of those hours just browsing, so I can totally see how you can end up with days spent on there. 🙂
I’m looking forward to explore more! I haven’t figured out the social aspect of it yet, but that’s probably because I have (almost) no friends there yet, so I guess it’ll pick up speed after a while?
Goodreads is awesome! I love discovering new books and seeing what others have to say about that book or the other. It has helped me back away from some very wrong choices, haha. I’ve accepted your friend request, but I’ve also added you on my other account since I prefer to keep my reader and author profiles separate.
Sure, of course. I searched for “Zen” and there were just too many choices! 😉