12 Most Good Things About GoodReads
Are you on GoodReads?
What Is GoodReads? From their website:
“Goodreads is the largest site for readers and book recommendations in the world. We have more than 9,600,000 members who have added more than 340,000,000 books to their shelves. A home for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, GoodReads users recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they’ve read and would like to read, find their next favorite book, form book clubs and much more. GoodReads was launched in January 2007.”
What can you do on GoodReads? Let’s take a look, if you are a reader, you will love this! If you are a reluctant reader, you can find just the right book easily.
1. Set up a profile
Very basic information, yes, however; a crucial thing that many overlook when joining a new site. I know how it goes, you go to check out a new website, don’t know if you will like it so you skip the profile step. Then you never go back to it. Break this habit and create your profile at the beginning, you can always update it later.
2. Find your friends or make new ones
This allows you to connect with your friends from any of these networks or you can invite people via email.
3. Add your favorite books
Click on “My Books” in the top navigation menu and add away! You can add books into read, currently reading, to read categories or edit your bookshelf to add your own categories.
There are additional categories of feature, sortable, sticky, exclusive and recs (recommendations).
4. Find book recommendations
You can check many places for recommendations including a feature called “ask for recommendations” which sends a request to your GoodReads friends. Very cool!
5. Rate books to get better recommendations
Once you rate twenty books, GoodReads will begin making recommendations for you based on your own ratings. I need to work on this section myself.
6. Find awesome quotes
I love the quotes on GoodReads. You can sort by keyword or author and save your favorites.
7. Add some of your favorite quotes
You can add quotes that you like to share with others which is thoughtful.
8. Join or start a discussion group
They have recently active groups and featured groups such as The Perks of Being a Bookworm: A friendly place to discuss books and everything about them. We have monthly fiction group reads, bi-monthly non-fiction group reads, regular recommendation swaps between members and a bi-monthly ‘Broadening Your Horizons’ section, in which a genre is selected and we each read a book which fits the criteria. We always welcome new members.
And Book Junkies: A group for anyone with eclectic tastes. Really, we have no specific genre we like to adhere to. Join if you like to read anything and everything. I love Book Junkies rules:
9. Create a reading challenge for the year
10. Be social
You can share information from GoodReads to Facebook and Twitter directly. You can also search the discussions tab and find interesting discussions. When I looked there were discussions on The Hobbit and The Four Agreements, The Hobbit had 87 different discussions going.
11. Add a widget to your website
There is a cool quote widget that you can add to your blog to display your favorite quote or GoodRead badges.
12. Enjoy the awesome app for iPhone or iPad
It’s free on iTunes and its perfect when you are reading in bed, finish your book and want a great recommendation for your next good read.
Have you tried out GoodReads yet? What are your favorite features? Do you think you might try it?
Featured image courtesy of austinevan licensed via Creative Commons.
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Article by Peg Fitzpatrick
Peg Fitzpatrick
Peg Fitzpatrick is proud to be a Managing Partner and writer for 12 Most. She is Director of Marketing and Social Media Manager for Kreussler Inc., and hosts the popular #MyBookClub chat on the 1st Monday of every month at 8 pm EST. She has also started speaking at events such as the #140 Conference and is honored to be included on several “best of” online and blogging lists. Peggy loves to travel and enjoys photography as well. All about being positive and connecting, she is a true social butterfly. Tweet her and say hi at @pegfitzpatrick, find her Stumbling on StumbleUpon, rocking Google+ here Google or happily pinning on Pinterest
18 comments
As both an author and reader, I love goodreads. But the Goodreads apps are dreadful and missing critical functionality.
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I really need to put more effort in this because I would love the recommendations. I've used Novelist in the past when I want to find "writes like so-n-so". I'll also have to check out the iphone/ipad app.
Been going through business books lately. Just finished Return on Influence, and I'm taking What the Plus on my iPad for the weekend getaway. However, I've been hankering for a good fiction again.
@dbvickery I can't believe you are just reading What the Plus now. Geez! It is a quick read.
I miss fiction too and need to find something soon. I need to work on the reviews so I can get more recommendations but I think I am talking my daughter's next and reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Greene.
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Hey Peggy! The idea of this site is awesome, I never really realized it, thank you so much for covering it - it's definitely on my to do list :)
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I found a wonderful and engaged author community on GoodReads! I had no idea it existed and I should have, but I was so thankful! I am learning so much from those who are far more experienced and... surprise, surprise... many are also willing to connect on Twitter, too, which is at least a place where I feel a tiny bit more seasoned :-). I enjoyed learning about the other aspects of GoodReads through this read. I shared this piece earlier today :-). Thank you! Ellen @chattyprof
Thanks Ellen! I was a very casual GoodReads user but it is a fantastic resource and lots of our friends are there. Some write fantastic reviews but I haven't gotten there yet, not enough time!
I appreciate your sharing. :)
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My favorite part about Goodreads is most definitely the community. I love reading epic fantasy novels ,and The Sword and Laser bookclub is my favorite hangout spot on the site. Thanks for such a great overview of the site, Peg!
@terez07 Very cool! I am not a fantasy book fan but I love that there are so many small and not-so-small communities built around certain genres or books. Connecting with other readers definitely expands our own experience.
Have you found any new books or genres on GoodReads?
@PegFitzpatrick It sounds like a really interesting site that I will check out.
The question is if it's as good for casual users or better for people who become part of a "community" on the site. I sometimes feel that with all the different "communities and circles" that I end up spreading myself too thin, especially since most of my work days I am not on the computer. Wondering what you thought.
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@newdaynewlesson You can use it for reference, casual use or create a whole network of reading friends. GoodReads is very flexible. I haven't been using is as a social network since I am pretty maxed out there too.
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@PegFitzpatrick I haven't found any new genres, but I have discovered quite a few book mainly due to the recommendations of others.
Let’s be social!
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