Some clarification: this is not a boycott goodreads video 😂 I totally understand why people love it and find community there, and I think there are many benefits. I just DO get asked almost daily where my goodreads is, so I wanted to talk about why I'm personally uninterested in the platform for myself!
Hy there, you mentioned an Excel-File in your Video. I do the same for my books. Is there any chance you could share that file or maybe send a printscreen or something… I‘m always interested in others excels to optimize mine… 😉 Thanks a lot and great video! 😁
I’m part of Goodreads but I’m not part of the community other than connecting with the friends I have in IRL. I do the challenge but have never felt compelled to compete against others. I mainly use it to keep track of TBR and look up book details but that’s about it. You can use Goodreads and never connect with people.
Yeah I JUST made an account last year specifically to keep track of what I read and when, this is my first year where I've read 15+ books and it's starting to get difficult keeping track of them all. I never bother connecting with the community
Yep! And I think Goodreads can work GREAT for people depending on what your goals are. I've just found that it doesn't work for me for what I'd want it for.
I second this. I've been using it since 2010 pretty much just how it sounds Bookborn uses her excel spreadsheet. I almost never interact with other people on there. I used to do a tiny bit more comments to others on reviews, but never a ton, and that's basically completely fallen off. I've never done a challenge there ever. I did go back to school though, a couple years ago. It's a bit amusing to see that I read hundreds of books multiple years in a row -- until I started school again. That year I read like 20 or 30. :)
Same here! I like the challenges. It helps me to keep reading, and since I'm not competing with anyone, I keep my goals simple. I admit some people's challenges look a bit ridiculous. People keep sending me friend requests, and I don't know why... I read for myself and leave reviews for the fun of it. I don't use the community features at all.
I use both Goodreads and StoryGraph. I like GR for the social aspect- seeing what my friends are reading and reviewing. Reader reviews are also easier to find. Many other aspects annoy me. I’m not a competitive person so the book goal is more just for fun- I set it at an easily obtainable number. I love StoryGraph for everything else. I used it as a daily reading tracker and love the stats it gives. Community seems really underemphasized though. It’s on a separate tab and is not really laid out well. I do love that SG has page goal options along with book goals- that way it doesn’t discourage away from longer books.
Yeah, I find that Storygraph has so many features that I want, but it doesn't quite seem laid out (yet) in the most useful of ways. I'm really rooting for them, though.
Hi! I’m in the middle of building an app for readers and looking for opinions :). I’d love to chat on whatever platform is most comfortable for you if you’re willing to talk.
Storygraph had a recent-ish update (like in the last 6 months) that really added the polish and ease of use that it was missing. The app is significantly improved as well. It's definitely getting more popular!
I've used Storygraph exclusively for the past two years and I LOVE it. They have improved the app a lot too so it's easy to update on the go if you're not on your computer. They have really cool features including buddy reads (with hidden comments depending on the % of the book you're at so you don't spoil others) and challenges that you can join or create yourself. They add new stuff all the time and you can definitely tell that the developers are readers too.
"Are you reading or just consuming?"... good question!! I use Goodreads and I like the "number goal" feature as a personal challenge, but I often found just what your question asks, Am I reading or just rifling through as many books as possible? Because at what point do we read so quickly that we're no longer digesting the book and even enjoying it for that matter? Then there's the pressure to push through a book so you can just get on to the next one. I've since kept my goal number to about a couple books a week average and use that as a minimum just to keep in my head a goal that helps to prevent life from getting in the way of my reading time. Thanks for this video and your shared perspective. 👍😁
Yeah! I think number goals can be incredibly useful, and even sometimes I try to keep myself a little on track to help prioritize reading over other hobbies that I don't find as fulfilling. But I always want to make sure I'm growing in other ways, too.
I think you're throwing away the baby with the bathwater, here. Goodreads is more than its culture: it is a tool you use to track what you've ready. You don't have to put your entire life on there. You could just start using it today, to keep track of what you've read. I don't actually use Goodreads. I rely on my Audible ratings and reviews, primarily. But it's a structured way, a formal application, to answer the questions: "what have I read" and "what did I think about it?". I find this kind of resource helpful when recommending books to others, as well as determining whether I should continue a series or not. It's better than a spreadsheet.
Why is it better than a spreadsheet though? I can see my reads by year easily, and search easily. The community isn’t there, but I get my community through Instagram and TH-cam :)
I had to start a Goodreads account because I started publishing my books. I probably never would have otherwise. Goodreads is very important for authors -- I definitely get that, and I think there can be some great community interaction there. However, I can't help but feel a wee bit cynical about Goodreads. Without getting too detailed in this comment, I will mention that I've been approached more than once by people who offered me positive ratings on Goodreads for my book (for example, $1,200 for 250 ratings). I don't know how widespread such abuses are, but I have a feeling that a lot of what we see on Goodreads in terms of the star ratings is manipulated by bad actors. I also get the feeling that Goodreads doesn't do much to curb abuses, but I'm no expert there either.
Some excellent insight, as always, Philip. I think almost every review platform has this issue - although, I realize that Amazon is the other platform I think most of, and Goodreads is owned by them 😂 With the recent uptick in review bombing (and that does affect a lot of places more than Amazon), I wish there was a way to curb it, although I don't know how.
I never know how bad the problem is for books that are medium to highly popular. I assume once you get to that point, "real" reviews overtake the kind of thing you're talking about, but that's just supposition. I basically never trust book ratings on books that have lowish total rating levels because of this kind of thing.
While GR is certainly flawed, it's still important for authors. But, IMO it's not worth it to pay for ratings. Many of us don't pay any attention to ratings with no reviews and don't really pay much attention to reviews with 1 or 5-star ratings either.
I don’t use it any longer. I did for a couple years (Covid years) & then found storygraph to track my reading & reaction. It isn’t about community for me. I just want to track things. Community happens through my channel and buddy reads and commenting on others’ channels. ♥️
These were great points! I use Goodreads but I only like to see other people’s reviews on books, see when books are being released and post my own short reviews. I don’t use it to do a lot of interacting within the community but I do agree with StoryGraph in that there isn’t much of a community. I also keep my own spreadsheet which technically would be all I need, but I like how I can post how I feel about books on Goodreads.
yes, totally. I think I get that through my book instagram, which helps, but not everyone is going to want to start something like that, and Goodreads gives a simple way to connect with other readers. That's why I think a site like Goodreads is actually SO important. I just wish they improved a few things 😭
I'm a Goodreads addict... 😄 But I pretty much started it once my heavy-routine reading took off. I slowly added books I've read before, but didn't have TOO many, because I didn't read as much as I do now. I been on long enough to gather friends, so I like the GR community. I only set reading goals for 25 - 30 books a year for myself because realistically, that's about what I accomplish. So, because of that, I never felt that competitiveness
I'm on goodreads daily because I use it to track my reading. I personally find it super easy to use (also not bothered by the UI lol super minority opinion). Second reason i use GR is to follow other people's reviews. Following adds someone to the cranky main feed. But biggest thing is when you look up a book you see reviews of all the poeple you freinded/followed in a section before general reviews. I find it's an easy all in one place way to get a litmus test on if I might like a book. You can set up a permanent dnf shelf on goodreads, it's just not the default. You can mark rereads as well. The reading goal aspect on GR barely matters imo. I don't even know how to check the reading goal of the poeple I follow.
I started Goodreads about 10-15 years ago. I updated my readings at that time because I didn’t have kids yet and I had the time. I use it just to keep track of my reading and to make reading goals. It is non-user friendly!
I use story graph and I’ve encouraged a bunch of my friends to convert too! I think it is mainly word of mouth that gets people to switch over TSG so I’ll post about it occasionally bc it really is so much better than GR & isn’t owned by Jeff bezos.
Why do I love Goodreads? Let me count the ways. Firstly, Goodreads serves as my ultimate book-tracking companion, and this feature alone makes it an invaluable tool for any avid reader. Secondly, I am particularly fond of the 'New Release' section, which conveniently highlights the latest books related to ones I have already read. This ensures I never miss the opportunity to discover new additions to my favorite series. Moreover, the yearly challenge feature provided by Goodreads is a delightful way to engage with my reading habits. Even though it doesn't directly influence my reading pace, I thoroughly enjoy setting and achieving my reading goals each year. Additionally, the 'My Year in Books' page is a cherished corner of Goodreads for me. I delight in revisiting the books I devoured throughout the year and reflecting on how my reading tastes and preferences have evolved over time. Furthermore, the 'Explore' page is a treasure trove of literary exploration. It has become an essential tool for me in discovering captivating books that I might have otherwise overlooked. Lastly, the updates page serves as a captivating window into the reading lives of both fellow readers and beloved authors. It's always intriguing to see what they are currently engrossed in and the thoughts they share. Despite my attempts to explore other platforms, none have managed to replicate the comprehensive experience that Goodreads provides. Other services often seem to lack certain features or fail to capture the essence of what makes Goodreads so special. Consequently, I find myself consistently returning to Goodreads, unable to part ways with the unmatched satisfaction it brings to my reading journey.
Carl Sagan said something that undermines the GoodReads ethos. 'It's not how many books you read, but which books'. Looked at it many years ago and it was obvious it was about bragging, rather than reading.
I mostly use Goodreads to read other people's reviews. I have a few close online friends there whose opinions I really value, and if they were to move over to a different platform, I likely would too. The reading challenges are not too influential for me, I don't feel pressured to read too much, and I always set my challenge for a lower number of books than I know I can manage, because it feels less pressure that way! I used to use Goodreads ratings to quickly determine whether I was willing to try a book or not, but the last few years, my tastes and Goodreads' average rating have diverged quite a bit. A bounce off a lot of highly-rated books, and I ended up liking books that the GR community felt pretty meh about. So now I delve into the actual reviews to see what people liked or don't like. I also think that the shelving functionality helps me avoid tropes I know I won't enjoy like when books are shelved under 'love-triangle' or 'main-character-deaths', stuff like that.
I use storygraph and just decided to start from the moment I started using storygraph. The main reason is, it is not Amazon but independent. The second reason is to get new recommendations for books to read. However I am not going to check that out until I have a decent history of books. To keep track of pages read, I just put a post-it on the cover of a book and mark the page at the beginning of the day and later on add it to Storygraph. It helps me keep track of my reading but it does not force me to constantly open the app. I think Storygraph's biggest problem is that it is an independent team of just three persons so implementing new things takes time.
I think most avid book readers understand that Goodreads is a bad site. Amazon bought it and has basically not updated it in a decade. False book release dates are all over. Meanwhile, they’ve failed to protect authors from review bombs (or avoid manipulative/confusing pre-release positive reviews). I like sharing what I’m reading, but I think it’s an awful website.
I totally see the negative aspects of it but I only use Goodreads to keep track of the books I've read. I don't partake in the community aspect of it and two IRL friends had to do some convincing to make me accept them as friends. I like keeping track of books for myself and no one else. I'm a fairly new reader in terms of novels. I've read manga for a very long time and the occasional novel but ever since I got a Kindle for Christmas this year I've been a man on a mission plowing through books. The minimal functionality is great for me cause having too many options causes my brain to overload and the overlap with Kindle makes it so simple to just put it a book on there and give it a rating. It takes five seconds of my day and that's all I need it for. And it let's me know what books are in a series and what order they go in. I find Goodreads to be very simple when it comes to knowing what novella is in-between books and what series connects with other series without having to look too deep into things.
I use mostly storygraph for the interesting charts and my excel sheet. The excel sheet is great because it is more than just what I read but it is summaries, my thoughts on the book and also a planning doc for tracking future release dates.
Fair points - all of them. I’m there a lot but that’s because I was very lucky to find a brilliant, small, inclusive, group. That and I don’t pay attention to the quantity I read. And I keep a notebook to list all I read and keep my reading notes, reviews😊
I agree that they need to add a DNF function. There's an workaround I've figured out where you can make a DNF shelf and that way you can review a book without having to place it on "read" and you don't have to rate it. I do wish it was a built in feature for everyone thought.
Excel spreadsheets are the way to go! I used one for years to log all my exercise. There's apps now, but the spreadsheet and a stopwatch will do everything you really need.
Damn, now I wanna be on Goodreads specifically because I don't read more than 2-3 books a year - which as an aspiring author I feel is super controversial 😅 But your opinion on it has motivated me to make my slowness public because I do think it's important to show exactly that other side of "loving books"!
@@Bookborn True! But I think in most writing circles it's a bit frowned upon because of the whole "you can't write if you don't read" thing.. I'm glad you see it that way though! Whenever I go to read something, I just immediately get inspired to write, so yeah, reading is hard, haha!
@@geholohorroh I think it's more that if you were NEVER a big reader, people would look at you strangely. If you aren't a big reader now because you're busy writing (or busy other ways), that'd be understandable, though. If you never read others' books very much -- it seems a strange profession for you to go into. Not that that means you shouldn't, it would just feel odd to some of us.
One thing that has kept me on Goodreads is the recommendation engine. It's been sufficient enough for me to find new books based on what I have read or is on my to read shelf. Loved the video! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I agree with all your points... But I also do use it. I have a story graph but haven't kept up with it. I do like parts of SG better but like you said the community/social aspect isn't there which is a good and bad thing. I like to keep up with my what a few of my friends and family are reading. I like stats and so it's nice to see that at the end of the year. SG definitely does a better job of that, but at the beginning of this year I decided to just make my own spreadsheet (Google sheets). I'm still honing it, but I've added a lot of fun functionality to it and have gotten to learn a lot more functions and stuff that I wouldn't have known about otherwise.
I don't use it for the community nor the "reading lists". I just use it to keep track of which book is in which series and in which order. Between GoodReads and Amazon Books, I just like to keep my digital library up to date and cataloged properly.
Thank you so much for saying this. I feel exactly the same way on all points. While I do have an account, I pretty much treat it as a book diary for myself to go back on since I started the account, not so much an accurate representation of my reading habits/history. I think moving to StoryGraph might be a great idea, and it's not owned by Amazon!
I am on goodreads mainly because it’s a record of my reading but I totally agree that I don’t get into numbers of books. I won’t be pressured by that…it’s ridiculous because 1 fantasy book can equal 4 cozy mysteries so numbers don’t mean anything. I like that I can look up if I’ve read the book before etc. I don’t do read alongs anymore…I just read what I want and record them…that’s it. I do set a goal but it doesn’t bother me if I don’t reach it lol… most importantly is that we enjoy what we read. Fir example during covid, I read a lot more than I am now but I don’t care…I just enjoy!
I don't use Goodreads as a community app. It is purely to log the books I've read. I also use a spreadsheet and to lesser extent storygraphs so I have a bit of maybe unnecessary redundancy there.
Setting reading goals should be challenging, but not forcing someone to read differently in a bad way. In my personal opinion, setting a goal wrong is one's own fault, not the tool used. I'm not 100% happy with either Goodreads or Storygraph, but it helped me find new books I wouldn't have otherwise found and to understand my reading habit and taste better. I use it to track my reading, not to make me read, since I already read every day and try to stick to that one goal primarily. I do kind of mostly agree with what you said in your video, and I think goodreads needs a way to separate this "competitive" nature of the site for people who just want to use it without getting guilt tripped into reading more. But I also think that it's not really competitive until you make it so. Now the Design/Layout and functions, yes, I agree it sucks lol. It's outdated and needs some updates so very badly.
I do use goodreads but I understand and agree with your point of view. Plain and simple I got into goodreads during the pandemic to help me keep my mind off the pandemic. As well, I hadn't been consistent with my reading so I needed something to keep me accountable. I don't have any responsibilities that would prevent me from reading 1 book a month so 3 years ago I promised myself that I would watch less tv and read at least 12 books a year, 1 book a month. Luckily, I limit myself to a minimum of 25 pages a day so it works out to about 12 books a year, big or small, and has no role in the choosing of how big the book that I am reading or will read in the future. For me, it's about the immersive experience of reading and not consuming books or keeping up with the Joneses. Thank you for another great video and always providing us with interesting topics.
I still find it useful to track books, otherwise I forget so I use Hardcover but yeah, I don't sign up for challenges. Life is too busy sometimes to add another yet another goal.
I still use Goodreads because it has reading challenges and year in reviews for books that I finished before 2021, which is when I started using Storygraph which I really like the stats and year in reviews.
Goodreads has a lot of my school/college friends, so its a little like Facebook...the personal connection is still there so I still use it. Also, the giveaways are nice, I've actually won a few and paid it forward to the authors. (because I've heard it costs them money to even post their book to be given away. almost like an advertisement...) I've been trying out Storygraph this year and I appreciate the content warnings portion it has in its reviews. Otherwise you are correct about no connections personally to anyone...I think I have 2 people I follow.
Utilizing Goodreads just made sense for me, but I get where you're coming from. I had not been an active reader for a couple of years, and I wanted to get back into it. I didn't care necessarily about trying to remember every book I had read in the past, I just wanted to keep track of my achievements/memories going forward for all the new books I wanted to read.
I have a goodreads account but don't get on there much. Most of the people i know who use it are using it show how much they are reading which I always got the feeling of it being kind of a competition, like you were saying. In the end I realized that I'm mostly just reading for myself and don't feel the need to share everything I read with everybody.
I use it, but only really as a record of what I have read, plan to read etc. I agree that its not that user friendly. Thanks for mentioning storygraph as an alternative, I might take a look.
I've used Goodreads for about 8 years, and enjoy seeing what my friends are reading. I also love looking back at what I've already read and what star rating I gave. I've NEVER used a goal for number of books, as I think that's stupid, considering the pitfalls you mentioned. I always prefer to take my time with books, and read only when I feel like it. The user interface is fine with me, and I don't like half or quarter stars anyway. This isn't scientific, just a gut feel. I like that you can choose the edition of your book, so the cover matches what I have in real life.
I pretty much use GR because it's what "everyone" else uses, so I feel it is the one place to help out with reviews and ratings etc. I can't stand that it never seems to change though, it really looks like no one cares that it barely functions. Saying that, you *can* search someone's read list (if you already have their list, there's a separate search box to look within the books on a list) and you can review DNFs (you can't *mark* them as DNF techically, but I review books I DNF and don't give them ratings and they still show up in my read list). Recently, I have been trialling Storylace (my profile link is in my channel's "about" section), which is another alternative to GR/SG. I like the look and functionality of it, and it has a 100-point scale instead of star ratings, which works for me as I put in my weighted rating score on there when I finish a book.
I've used Goodreads several times for short periods. I did reach out to authors I loved back in the day and got responses which was phenomenal! I also enjoyed the free book giveaways in that I got free books, but the ones I got... well, they weren't good reads 🤷♂️. I like the idea of being able to discuss books I've read and not be beholden to a book club with an assigned book, but even with those things, yeah, just never got Goodreads fully
i am just using GR for tracking my personal goal for year and also reading progress.... books that I want to read in future .... basically not using it as another social media but just tracking/database tool for me
Goodreads was useful to me at the end of 2019 when I got back into reading. I regret not having a way to monitor my books in highschool. It did not even crossed my mind back then. I had such a good memory that the concept of forgeting some of the books I read did not even crossed my mind.
Thanks for posting this. I'm on Goodreads and post reviews, but trying to interact is confusing to me. This gives me permission to stop feeling guilty about not doing more.
As somepeople already mentioned in the comments - the community aspect if GR is optional :D But I think the main advantage of Goodreads is that it has a really high portfolio of books. I was interested in switching to Storygraph, but I'm not native English speaker & I try to read a. 50% of local authors. And I would have to add every single one of them to Storygraph library myself. It really doesn't have much in terms of non-English books.
I totally understand. For me, I like goodreads for tracking books and also for groups where we have challenges, games, chats, and books of the month. Rereads and DNFs can be logged on goodreads, it's probably just not that easy to find. For the reading challenge, Clockwork Reader (another TH-camr) had a great idea to just set 1 book as her goal so as not to get stressed. It's just for tracking.
I literally only use goodreads to keep track of books I wanna read and have read. I recently started an excel spreadsheet because I wanted to be able to rate books on a 10 star scale (with half stars!). I enjoy setting the challenge but I don’t care if I don’t reach it. I don’t take it to seriously because that would ruin the fun of reading. I think good reads lacks a lot of functionality, like the dnf function and half stars, as well as the ability to create a tbr where you can move things around in certain order (I know that is asking a lot) but that’s what excel is for! 😅
Very interesting video. I was put off Goodreads at first because I'm old. I've been reading for literally decades and it would take far too long to put all the books I've read online. Then I decided I didn't need to do that.I just put up a list of some of what''s on my shelves and add when something comes to mind when I'm on the site. I just use it to keep track of what I'm reading and don't interact with anyone on there. My only goal is to read all I can while I'm here. Mike from Mike's Book Reviews just said in a video that he's going to be doing a live stream with you soon. I'm looking forward to seeing that/
I'm with you in disliking all the pressures you mentioned. I only use it to track my reading, but I had to let go of everything I read before starting an account (which did frustrate me). There is a way to search through a friend's lists: "Read," "Currently Reading," "Want to Read" and any additional, user-created lists (such as favorites or DNFs). It just has an inefficient interface by today's standards. I also hate that it doesn't track rereads. You're not missing out!
As always, interesting video. I could not agree with you more about the quantity culture in the book community. Goodreads is certainly part of that, as is Booktube IMHO. I have two bookish pet peeves. I don't want to hear how many books you've read. And I don't want to hear how fast you read a book. That said, I do have a Goodreads account, which I'm slowly updating with past reads. I think the good outweighs the bad, but not by much. I hold out hope that Amazon puts some resources into it someday. I've tried Storygraph, but it had some shortcomings that were a dealbreaker for me. I did do a reading goal this year, but I probably won't again for the reasons you shared. I.e., if you focus on reading quantity, you'll probably lose a lot of the benefits of reading. I'm pretty successful at ignoring that part of the culture, but I'm human, so sometimes I succumb and push myself to read when I should just chill. Anyway, that's my two cents.......
Goodreads is just a stat collector for me. I do write reviews but I use it more like a diary. I think story graph also has some good stats it collects. Its fun to look back at the end of the year. As far as looking at book reviews i use booktube for that.
I remember joining GR back in 2014 and trying for days to remember and all the books I read in high school and college for completeness sake (I wasn't a big reader back then so it wasn't so many). I agree with all of the negatives you point out; it seems like Amazon doesn't care enough to invest in the major upgrade it needs to be a more modern website. I use it for book tracking and (some times) reviewing mostly. I don't really rely on it for the community aspects to find books as a lot of my book friends I follow on other platforms, so I hear about what they're reading there and not on GR. It is helpful as an author to have the user base on there rating and reviewing your books, although this can backfire on you spectacularly if you set off the users in a bad way. I've seen many GR replacements come along but for me, I don't want to have to port over all of my books from Goodreads, unless a site offered some sort of one-click importing.
Use what works best for you and I think your TH-cam channel & Instagram should be enough if people want to see what your reading. The only reason I i started using Goodreads is because of how Indie Authors mention that reviews are helpful even on Goodreads despite the negative side to it. I can't review on Amazon because of their $50 rule for reviews. So that's why I mainly use it. I also keep it as a personal log/list of what I read. And StoryGraph is great it's improved alot. I like the stats feature, buddy read feature audibook review feature & and community feature updates will be added this year I think. So yeah it's a great competitor. Followed you there if you do decide to use again 🙂 and would like to see your spreadsheet someday !
I got into this video kinda late, and for a very specific reason, which ties in to your ending question of "why do you use Goodreads?". Honestly, I just go there and mark the book as read + rate it when I finish a book and that's it. I agree that having no DNF option or the ability to have half stars is bad, I dislike rounding ratings, but it's a useful place to just have the log and to be able to find what someone has read and rated in the past. The only reason I use it is so there's a record of my thoughts. And I came to this video because I'm having a hard time finding out if you and Kyle will continue with the Malazan buddy read or not, lol. I don't think Goodreads would have helped much in this case, since I found out that both of you have read Memories of Ice already through his Goodreads and your channel, but I didn't know if you tried reading House of Chains or not (and Goodreads most certainly wouldn't have helped me with finding the discussions, if they exist, anyway). But yeah, I think it's fine if you don't use it. Merphy Napier has a VERY nice system for logging her readings for the public, but she has a person that does the logging *for her*, and it definitely seems like a hard time getting it set up in the first place (maintenance should be fine, though, I guess), so I understand not doing something like that either. At the end of the day, reading is supposed to be a good experience and, if something like that would detract from it in any way for you, it might simply not be worth it
Your criticisms are pretty reasonable. I've used goodreads since 2010, mostly to keep track of what I've read and as a way to link to my published reviews or give a quick opinion. Personally, I'd rather Amazon stayed more hands-off.
We can share my spreadsheet 😄 I don't use Goodreads to log stuff either. At this point it would be such a small portion of my reading I feel like it's kind of pointless to do. I never rate what I read though anyway. I don't really like to 'gamify' my reading with goals to meet. It just gets in the way of what I want to read and the pace I want to take. Rushing a book never works in its favor. But I'm the ultimate mood reader 😅.
Hullo - I've been following your channel and 2toramble since discovering Brandon Sanderson's books. I've been doing the goodreads reading challenge since 2016. For me it's not to compete with anyone else but just to make sure I don't stop reading - I have read a lot for most of my life (at least a book at week) and then one year when working in Hong Kong, I realised to my absolute horror that I had been so busy with work that I hadn't read a single book that year .. so I use goodreads to keep myself on track to make myself find time to read even if I am busy with work. For a time, I did get caught up in the competition / gameficiation aspect where it kept telling me I was behind so and so ... and in the same way I learned to ignore the game elements of duolingo and memrise, I ended up using goodreads for my own individual purposes - to track and rate books I'm reading, to have other people's books pop up in my timeline and I can click 'want to read' on things that they read that look interesting, I can engage with some of my favourite authors who are on there and also see what they're reading. There's a lot I don't like about it, but I personally find a lot of useful elements. Plus when someone asks me for a book recommendation - I find it easier to send them a link to the last few years of reading challenges so that they can browse for themselves through what I've rated highly depending on their preferred type of book / genre. I also wish there was a DNF option, a half star option. There is the ability to mark re-reads now which is useful because I do re-read a lot of books :D
Similar story for me: I've had an account for years, but only recently starting finding my way around on the platform. It's a little like visiting a foreign country. Yes, the interface is dated and not so user friendly, but there definitely is a thriving community there and I'm interested in connecting with others who share my eclectic mix of interests. Totally understand the impulse to avoid it, though!
I totally agree with all of the reasons why you don’t use Goodreads. I just use it for me, to know which books I want to read and to mark some of the ones I’ve read. I don’t even review books. And I’ve read a lot of books that I don’t even add to Goodreads because I don’t want to alter the algorithm that suggest me books…I think I basically use it as the excel you have 😂
I went through the effort of logging my years of reading backlog and yet I still don't keep up with GR very well. I just forget to check or update it for some reason. And I feel like I should write more than just a star rating but that always seems like too much effort.
I understand your points. I have a goodreads, but I have few friends and engage in no community there. I use it mostly to track books that I read and some authors - new books, sequels, and whatnot - in an easy place to access them all. So I guess I have only the "good parts" of that social media without the "i've read more books than you" :)
I don’t rate my DNFs on goodreads, I created a folder that’s just for my DNF books. I also have a StoryGraph and I have been trying to use that more often.
the only reason i started using goodreads is because my english teacher made me but i honestly love it and don't really mind the fact that my past books aren't shown, however i do agree that it's annoying that you can't mark it as dnf and can't do half stars
I don't like Goodreads for the reasons you've mentioned, but still for me it is the best place to find new books or people who read similar books. But I don't use the community function as I find it hard to make sense of it. I love Storygraph for tracking and charts but it's not the best for just browsing for new reads I think. I'm using a third site from my county, which has its own problems but at least it's local 😅
this video unintentionally made me realize the reason why i have stopped updating my goodreads for over a year now and that was because my reading pace has significantly slowed down in the recent year since my academic workload has been so heavy and challenging. and so the culture that most of goodreads have the like 'i have read this x books already and it's just january' has shamed me into updating mine bc i only read 1 novella that month. i guess it's time for me to leave goodreads bc at this point in my life it has no real use for me and the cons heavily outweigh the pros
I use my Goodreads account. It's the only way i can keep up with what I've read. I set my yearly goal at 80 books every year, which is achievable for me. That way i never feel stressed about reading. I also didn't try to fill in my past reading when i started the account. I do agree with you though. It's really difficult to navigate the app and i hate that you can't do half stars. I also don't think it gives you enough statistics at the end of the year.
I tried Goodreads for awhile and left it for a lot of the same reasons you mention. Also, I tried some of the reading challenges and found that I was getting recommended a lot of books that just didn't fit with my reading style. That left me feeling vaguely defective. Also I really hated that you could rate books that weren't even published. That tanked my faith in the ratings completely. I don't know if you can still do that, because I haven't been on Goodreads for about 5 or more years at least.
I got on Goodreads on couple of years back, and I must say the idea of a community never really went through my mind.. Don't know why exactly. I guess it's partially at least because I don't have a presence online (or it's really minimum). My main goal was to find a place I can add or keep a reasonable tally of the books I've been reading. That being said, again, I never really thought about my reading history when building up my page, though after listening to your thoughts on it, I can see why it would be a bother or an "issue". The number of books I have on my page at the moment is kinda laughable if you compare it to some others but that's just because I decided simply not to bother or go through the trouble to go and try finding every book I've read in x amount of time and post it there. So going off this my lists are indeed small but I've also had other things robbing time and attention in the past years. Also, I thought (and still do) I don't need to post everything I've read. It's fun to have something just for myself. The last point is in regard the competitive side of things on the website/app. Yeah, I made a goal for myself for this year 2024 but again, if I don't reach it, who really cares? I don't (well, technically I do care, it would be nice to reach it but not at the cost of losing my interest), and I'm really trying to revive my love for reading again. But I understand the point you make about this, I've felt it in the past and still sometimes feel it, even though my connections to the book and reading community are very minor. I guess, sadly, it's due to the general feeling of our society today: you have to do more, be more, be faster, better etc. I'm trying to be, like, okay but I don't necessarily want that. Of course I want to improve and so on, but not to the pace or steps the enviorenment around me gives. I'm glad I saw this video, it made me think and ponder on many things, and even question others. I like how you brought up an alternative, maybe I'll give it a look! I have other methods to track my reading, but some of them simply don't have the volume of tomes that Goodreads have. I liked your comment on the Excel sheat and I have a similar thing going on, with Notion, though I'm heavily considering moving to a more local form.
So much of life is a rat race. For me, reading should be a respite from that. So, yeah, I'm with you on not counting the numbers of books or pages read, or any of that. I have no idea how many books I read in a year or even a month, other than to say that I know it varies pretty substantially. I do have a Goodreads profile, as a reader and an author, but I just don't use it to keep track of my reading in any way. I like to rate or review books that I love (particularly those written by friends or acquaintances) and don't bother with rating or reviewing (or even posting that I'm reading) any of the rest. I'd guess I post on G.r. in regard to about one-fifth of what I read. Good topic!
All my stuff is on Excel. If I used an external site I'd probably end up trying to download it all in to Excel at some point anyway... I have an excuse though as a my career is based on keying in to Excel; it is very brave of Bookborn to come out as a fellow user 😂
I was looking for a way to log my reading, and when I heard how Amazon seems to be treating Goodreads I just didn't have any interest. So I've been using Storygraph for about 9 months now for my own personal interest. I have no intention of using it as social media or to compare myself to other people
One of the things with storygraph is it seems you can't add people by like phone number or other social media, so I can't know what friends of mine have it without asking them directly. Plus it's by handle and not name making it tougher. I love it for my personal tracking though
I tried to put the books I'd read into GoodReads so I could keep track of the thrillers I've read. Those authors are so prolific and the titles are so vague that it's hard to recall whether or not you've read a book by Baldacci, Koontz, Thor, Cameron, etc. But it felt clunky so I'd only go in there once every six months and then every couple of years, so it wasn't doing its job for me.
3:35 You can review a book without giving it a star rating, although I don't believe it counts in the average as a zero. I'm one of the people who doesn't participate in reading competitions, book clubs, etc. I do sign up to receive ARCs and I write a review for every ARC I receive. That is the one thing that I dislike: back in the day, the ARC algorithm favored people who reviewed the books and I used to get a lot more ARCs. Due to complaints from people who thought the system unfair (non-reviewers, apparently) they moved to random drawings and the number of ARCs I received fell drastically.
Perfectionism would keep me off Goodreads now - I think it would take me years to remember and update everything I’ve read. I agree about the lack of functionality as well. What draws me there is indeed the community and the lists and shelves archives I’ve built.
I have account on good reads but I only use it to write reviews sometimes when I remember to do it. I’m a slow reader because of my dyslexia so I don’t want to be in a “reading competition “. I rather read my books in my own time and don’t care about how many I read in a year for example.
I definitely agree with your opinion that goodreads doesn’t appear to be run by readers… like realllly why no half stars?????? I tried story graf for most of the reasons you said - but similarly stopped using it… I just found I lost interest in updating it. Guess I’m just waiting for someone to come out with a better platform 🤷🏻♀️
I used to log every book I read in good reads and I suddenly realized how absurd tracking entertainment is. I stopped using it and I no longer track my reading.
I basically use Goodreads to see what books I tagged as "want to read" based on various articles and recommendations from Booktube. It's nice to see what booktube people are reading and quickly just click and add to that list. I could do that using a spreadsheet though, it would just take a few extra steps. The UI could definitely get an overhaul and you called out some significant functional gaps. My assumption is that it won't get changed because Amazon did research and the ROI just isn't there. Will more direct or indirect revenue hit because of any site changes? Likely not. It's just a guess though. One thing I think that Storygraph does much better would be the analytics and trying to find other books based on what you've read. I might get onto that site, but then it feels like a chore to constantly have to update 2 places.
Some clarification: this is not a boycott goodreads video 😂 I totally understand why people love it and find community there, and I think there are many benefits. I just DO get asked almost daily where my goodreads is, so I wanted to talk about why I'm personally uninterested in the platform for myself!
Hy there, you mentioned an Excel-File in your Video. I do the same for my books. Is there any chance you could share that file or maybe send a printscreen or something… I‘m always interested in others excels to optimize mine… 😉 Thanks a lot and great video! 😁
I’m part of Goodreads but I’m not part of the community other than connecting with the friends I have in IRL. I do the challenge but have never felt compelled to compete against others. I mainly use it to keep track of TBR and look up book details but that’s about it. You can use Goodreads and never connect with people.
Yeah I JUST made an account last year specifically to keep track of what I read and when, this is my first year where I've read 15+ books and it's starting to get difficult keeping track of them all. I never bother connecting with the community
Yep! And I think Goodreads can work GREAT for people depending on what your goals are. I've just found that it doesn't work for me for what I'd want it for.
I second this. I've been using it since 2010 pretty much just how it sounds Bookborn uses her excel spreadsheet. I almost never interact with other people on there. I used to do a tiny bit more comments to others on reviews, but never a ton, and that's basically completely fallen off. I've never done a challenge there ever.
I did go back to school though, a couple years ago. It's a bit amusing to see that I read hundreds of books multiple years in a row -- until I started school again. That year I read like 20 or 30. :)
Same here!
I like the challenges. It helps me to keep reading, and since I'm not competing with anyone, I keep my goals simple. I admit some people's challenges look a bit ridiculous.
People keep sending me friend requests, and I don't know why... I read for myself and leave reviews for the fun of it. I don't use the community features at all.
I use both Goodreads and StoryGraph.
I like GR for the social aspect- seeing what my friends are reading and reviewing. Reader reviews are also easier to find. Many other aspects annoy me. I’m not a competitive person so the book goal is more just for fun- I set it at an easily obtainable number.
I love StoryGraph for everything else. I used it as a daily reading tracker and love the stats it gives. Community seems really underemphasized though. It’s on a separate tab and is not really laid out well. I do love that SG has page goal options along with book goals- that way it doesn’t discourage away from longer books.
Yeah, I find that Storygraph has so many features that I want, but it doesn't quite seem laid out (yet) in the most useful of ways. I'm really rooting for them, though.
Hi! I’m in the middle of building an app for readers and looking for opinions :). I’d love to chat on whatever platform is most comfortable for you if you’re willing to talk.
Storygraph had a recent-ish update (like in the last 6 months) that really added the polish and ease of use that it was missing. The app is significantly improved as well. It's definitely getting more popular!
Ohhh that's good to know! I'll have to re-download the app and see if I find it easier to use.
I like storygraph as well
Bold of you to assume you won’t get asked about Good Reads your very next video.
I wish I could Frankenstein a combo of Story Graph & Goodreads and make one coherent, usable app.
ok SAME. Start it Mike, you have time, right? lol
@@Bookborn Oh yeah, tons.
I've used Storygraph exclusively for the past two years and I LOVE it. They have improved the app a lot too so it's easy to update on the go if you're not on your computer. They have really cool features including buddy reads (with hidden comments depending on the % of the book you're at so you don't spoil others) and challenges that you can join or create yourself. They add new stuff all the time and you can definitely tell that the developers are readers too.
"Are you reading or just consuming?"... good question!! I use Goodreads and I like the "number goal" feature as a personal challenge, but I often found just what your question asks, Am I reading or just rifling through as many books as possible? Because at what point do we read so quickly that we're no longer digesting the book and even enjoying it for that matter? Then there's the pressure to push through a book so you can just get on to the next one. I've since kept my goal number to about a couple books a week average and use that as a minimum just to keep in my head a goal that helps to prevent life from getting in the way of my reading time. Thanks for this video and your shared perspective. 👍😁
Yeah! I think number goals can be incredibly useful, and even sometimes I try to keep myself a little on track to help prioritize reading over other hobbies that I don't find as fulfilling. But I always want to make sure I'm growing in other ways, too.
I tried Storygraph aswell. I don't care for tracking my reads, I just want to read and enjoy
I think you're throwing away the baby with the bathwater, here. Goodreads is more than its culture: it is a tool you use to track what you've ready.
You don't have to put your entire life on there. You could just start using it today, to keep track of what you've read.
I don't actually use Goodreads. I rely on my Audible ratings and reviews, primarily.
But it's a structured way, a formal application, to answer the questions: "what have I read" and "what did I think about it?". I find this kind of resource helpful when recommending books to others, as well as determining whether I should continue a series or not.
It's better than a spreadsheet.
Why is it better than a spreadsheet though? I can see my reads by year easily, and search easily. The community isn’t there, but I get my community through Instagram and TH-cam :)
I had to start a Goodreads account because I started publishing my books. I probably never would have otherwise. Goodreads is very important for authors -- I definitely get that, and I think there can be some great community interaction there. However, I can't help but feel a wee bit cynical about Goodreads. Without getting too detailed in this comment, I will mention that I've been approached more than once by people who offered me positive ratings on Goodreads for my book (for example, $1,200 for 250 ratings). I don't know how widespread such abuses are, but I have a feeling that a lot of what we see on Goodreads in terms of the star ratings is manipulated by bad actors. I also get the feeling that Goodreads doesn't do much to curb abuses, but I'm no expert there either.
Some excellent insight, as always, Philip. I think almost every review platform has this issue - although, I realize that Amazon is the other platform I think most of, and Goodreads is owned by them 😂 With the recent uptick in review bombing (and that does affect a lot of places more than Amazon), I wish there was a way to curb it, although I don't know how.
Philip: I’d only charge you $100 for a positive review 😂
@@jimave What a bargain!
I never know how bad the problem is for books that are medium to highly popular. I assume once you get to that point, "real" reviews overtake the kind of thing you're talking about, but that's just supposition. I basically never trust book ratings on books that have lowish total rating levels because of this kind of thing.
While GR is certainly flawed, it's still important for authors. But, IMO it's not worth it to pay for ratings. Many of us don't pay any attention to ratings with no reviews and don't really pay much attention to reviews with 1 or 5-star ratings either.
I don’t use it any longer. I did for a couple years (Covid years) & then found storygraph to track my reading & reaction. It isn’t about community for me. I just want to track things. Community happens through my channel and buddy reads and commenting on others’ channels. ♥️
These were great points! I use Goodreads but I only like to see other people’s reviews on books, see when books are being released and post my own short reviews. I don’t use it to do a lot of interacting within the community but I do agree with StoryGraph in that there isn’t much of a community. I also keep my own spreadsheet which technically would be all I need, but I like how I can post how I feel about books on Goodreads.
yes, totally. I think I get that through my book instagram, which helps, but not everyone is going to want to start something like that, and Goodreads gives a simple way to connect with other readers. That's why I think a site like Goodreads is actually SO important. I just wish they improved a few things 😭
I'm a Goodreads addict... 😄
But I pretty much started it once my heavy-routine reading took off. I slowly added books I've read before, but didn't have TOO many, because I didn't read as much as I do now.
I been on long enough to gather friends, so I like the GR community. I only set reading goals for 25 - 30 books a year for myself because realistically, that's about what I accomplish. So, because of that, I never felt that competitiveness
I'm on goodreads daily because I use it to track my reading. I personally find it super easy to use (also not bothered by the UI lol super minority opinion).
Second reason i use GR is to follow other people's reviews. Following adds someone to the cranky main feed. But biggest thing is when you look up a book you see reviews of all the poeple you freinded/followed in a section before general reviews. I find it's an easy all in one place way to get a litmus test on if I might like a book.
You can set up a permanent dnf shelf on goodreads, it's just not the default. You can mark rereads as well.
The reading goal aspect on GR barely matters imo. I don't even know how to check the reading goal of the poeple I follow.
I started Goodreads about 10-15 years ago. I updated my readings at that time because I didn’t have kids yet and I had the time. I use it just to keep track of my reading and to make reading goals. It is non-user friendly!
I use story graph and I’ve encouraged a bunch of my friends to convert too! I think it is mainly word of mouth that gets people to switch over TSG so I’ll post about it occasionally bc it really is so much better than GR & isn’t owned by Jeff bezos.
Why do I love Goodreads? Let me count the ways. Firstly, Goodreads serves as my ultimate book-tracking companion, and this feature alone makes it an invaluable tool for any avid reader. Secondly, I am particularly fond of the 'New Release' section, which conveniently highlights the latest books related to ones I have already read. This ensures I never miss the opportunity to discover new additions to my favorite series.
Moreover, the yearly challenge feature provided by Goodreads is a delightful way to engage with my reading habits. Even though it doesn't directly influence my reading pace, I thoroughly enjoy setting and achieving my reading goals each year. Additionally, the 'My Year in Books' page is a cherished corner of Goodreads for me. I delight in revisiting the books I devoured throughout the year and reflecting on how my reading tastes and preferences have evolved over time.
Furthermore, the 'Explore' page is a treasure trove of literary exploration. It has become an essential tool for me in discovering captivating books that I might have otherwise overlooked. Lastly, the updates page serves as a captivating window into the reading lives of both fellow readers and beloved authors. It's always intriguing to see what they are currently engrossed in and the thoughts they share.
Despite my attempts to explore other platforms, none have managed to replicate the comprehensive experience that Goodreads provides. Other services often seem to lack certain features or fail to capture the essence of what makes Goodreads so special. Consequently, I find myself consistently returning to Goodreads, unable to part ways with the unmatched satisfaction it brings to my reading journey.
Carl Sagan said something that undermines the GoodReads ethos.
'It's not how many books you read, but which books'.
Looked at it many years ago and it was obvious it was about bragging, rather than reading.
I mostly use Goodreads to read other people's reviews. I have a few close online friends there whose opinions I really value, and if they were to move over to a different platform, I likely would too. The reading challenges are not too influential for me, I don't feel pressured to read too much, and I always set my challenge for a lower number of books than I know I can manage, because it feels less pressure that way! I used to use Goodreads ratings to quickly determine whether I was willing to try a book or not, but the last few years, my tastes and Goodreads' average rating have diverged quite a bit. A bounce off a lot of highly-rated books, and I ended up liking books that the GR community felt pretty meh about. So now I delve into the actual reviews to see what people liked or don't like. I also think that the shelving functionality helps me avoid tropes I know I won't enjoy like when books are shelved under 'love-triangle' or 'main-character-deaths', stuff like that.
People SHELVE things that way? A bit of a spoiler... But I guess if you're using it purely to avoid things -- well then that's cool!
I use storygraph and just decided to start from the moment I started using storygraph. The main reason is, it is not Amazon but independent. The second reason is to get new recommendations for books to read. However I am not going to check that out until I have a decent history of books.
To keep track of pages read, I just put a post-it on the cover of a book and mark the page at the beginning of the day and later on add it to Storygraph. It helps me keep track of my reading but it does not force me to constantly open the app.
I think Storygraph's biggest problem is that it is an independent team of just three persons so implementing new things takes time.
Goodreads is what you make it. I don't do any of the challenges but it's a nice way to share reviews with people :)
I think most avid book readers understand that Goodreads is a bad site. Amazon bought it and has basically not updated it in a decade. False book release dates are all over. Meanwhile, they’ve failed to protect authors from review bombs (or avoid manipulative/confusing pre-release positive reviews). I like sharing what I’m reading, but I think it’s an awful website.
I totally see the negative aspects of it but I only use Goodreads to keep track of the books I've read. I don't partake in the community aspect of it and two IRL friends had to do some convincing to make me accept them as friends. I like keeping track of books for myself and no one else. I'm a fairly new reader in terms of novels. I've read manga for a very long time and the occasional novel but ever since I got a Kindle for Christmas this year I've been a man on a mission plowing through books. The minimal functionality is great for me cause having too many options causes my brain to overload and the overlap with Kindle makes it so simple to just put it a book on there and give it a rating. It takes five seconds of my day and that's all I need it for. And it let's me know what books are in a series and what order they go in. I find Goodreads to be very simple when it comes to knowing what novella is in-between books and what series connects with other series without having to look too deep into things.
I use mostly storygraph for the interesting charts and my excel sheet. The excel sheet is great because it is more than just what I read but it is summaries, my thoughts on the book and also a planning doc for tracking future release dates.
Fair points - all of them. I’m there a lot but that’s because I was very lucky to find a brilliant, small, inclusive, group. That and I don’t pay attention to the quantity I read. And I keep a notebook to list all I read and keep my reading notes, reviews😊
I agree that they need to add a DNF function. There's an workaround I've figured out where you can make a DNF shelf and that way you can review a book without having to place it on "read" and you don't have to rate it. I do wish it was a built in feature for everyone thought.
Excel spreadsheets are the way to go! I used one for years to log all my exercise. There's apps now, but the spreadsheet and a stopwatch will do everything you really need.
Damn, now I wanna be on Goodreads specifically because I don't read more than 2-3 books a year - which as an aspiring author I feel is super controversial 😅 But your opinion on it has motivated me to make my slowness public because I do think it's important to show exactly that other side of "loving books"!
Haha I don’t think it’s controversial to read less as an author! You guys have to write and that’s hard work 😭
@@Bookborn True! But I think in most writing circles it's a bit frowned upon because of the whole "you can't write if you don't read" thing..
I'm glad you see it that way though! Whenever I go to read something, I just immediately get inspired to write, so yeah, reading is hard, haha!
@@geholohorroh I think it's more that if you were NEVER a big reader, people would look at you strangely. If you aren't a big reader now because you're busy writing (or busy other ways), that'd be understandable, though.
If you never read others' books very much -- it seems a strange profession for you to go into. Not that that means you shouldn't, it would just feel odd to some of us.
One thing that has kept me on Goodreads is the recommendation engine. It's been sufficient enough for me to find new books based on what I have read or is on my to read shelf.
Loved the video! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I agree with all your points... But I also do use it. I have a story graph but haven't kept up with it. I do like parts of SG better but like you said the community/social aspect isn't there which is a good and bad thing. I like to keep up with my what a few of my friends and family are reading.
I like stats and so it's nice to see that at the end of the year. SG definitely does a better job of that, but at the beginning of this year I decided to just make my own spreadsheet (Google sheets). I'm still honing it, but I've added a lot of fun functionality to it and have gotten to learn a lot more functions and stuff that I wouldn't have known about otherwise.
I've read 3 books this year 😅 But I've never felt any pressure from Goodreads to read more or fast.
I don't use it for the community nor the "reading lists". I just use it to keep track of which book is in which series and in which order. Between GoodReads and Amazon Books, I just like to keep my digital library up to date and cataloged properly.
I use GR, but don't love. StoryGraph is ok. I'd be interested in seeing how you set up your excel spreadsheet!
Because you want to leave me in suspense longer after finishing books I like. Don't lie, that's the real reason.
Thank you so much for saying this. I feel exactly the same way on all points. While I do have an account, I pretty much treat it as a book diary for myself to go back on since I started the account, not so much an accurate representation of my reading habits/history. I think moving to StoryGraph might be a great idea, and it's not owned by Amazon!
I am on goodreads mainly because it’s a record of my reading but I totally agree that I don’t get into numbers of books. I won’t be pressured by that…it’s ridiculous because 1 fantasy book can equal 4 cozy mysteries so numbers don’t mean anything. I like that I can look up if I’ve read the book before etc. I don’t do read alongs anymore…I just read what I want and record them…that’s it. I do set a goal but it doesn’t bother me if I don’t reach it lol… most importantly is that we enjoy what we read. Fir example during covid, I read a lot more than I am now but I don’t care…I just enjoy!
I don't use Goodreads as a community app. It is purely to log the books I've read. I also use a spreadsheet and to lesser extent storygraphs so I have a bit of maybe unnecessary redundancy there.
Setting reading goals should be challenging, but not forcing someone to read differently in a bad way. In my personal opinion, setting a goal wrong is one's own fault, not the tool used. I'm not 100% happy with either Goodreads or Storygraph, but it helped me find new books I wouldn't have otherwise found and to understand my reading habit and taste better.
I use it to track my reading, not to make me read, since I already read every day and try to stick to that one goal primarily.
I do kind of mostly agree with what you said in your video, and I think goodreads needs a way to separate this "competitive" nature of the site for people who just want to use it without getting guilt tripped into reading more. But I also think that it's not really competitive until you make it so. Now the Design/Layout and functions, yes, I agree it sucks lol. It's outdated and needs some updates so very badly.
I do use goodreads but I understand and agree with your point of view. Plain and simple I got into goodreads during the pandemic to help me keep my mind off the pandemic. As well, I hadn't been consistent with my reading so I needed something to keep me accountable. I don't have any responsibilities that would prevent me from reading 1 book a month so 3 years ago I promised myself that I would watch less tv and read at least 12 books a year, 1 book a month. Luckily, I limit myself to a minimum of 25 pages a day so it works out to about 12 books a year, big or small, and has no role in the choosing of how big the book that I am reading or will read in the future. For me, it's about the immersive experience of reading and not consuming books or keeping up with the Joneses. Thank you for another great video and always providing us with interesting topics.
I still find it useful to track books, otherwise I forget so I use Hardcover but yeah, I don't sign up for challenges. Life is too busy sometimes to add another yet another goal.
I still use Goodreads because it has reading challenges and year in reviews for books that I finished before 2021, which is when I started using Storygraph which I really like the stats and year in reviews.
Goodreads has a lot of my school/college friends, so its a little like Facebook...the personal connection is still there so I still use it. Also, the giveaways are nice, I've actually won a few and paid it forward to the authors. (because I've heard it costs them money to even post their book to be given away. almost like an advertisement...) I've been trying out Storygraph this year and I appreciate the content warnings portion it has in its reviews. Otherwise you are correct about no connections personally to anyone...I think I have 2 people I follow.
Utilizing Goodreads just made sense for me, but I get where you're coming from. I had not been an active reader for a couple of years, and I wanted to get back into it. I didn't care necessarily about trying to remember every book I had read in the past, I just wanted to keep track of my achievements/memories going forward for all the new books I wanted to read.
I have a goodreads account but don't get on there much. Most of the people i know who use it are using it show how much they are reading which I always got the feeling of it being kind of a competition, like you were saying. In the end I realized that I'm mostly just reading for myself and don't feel the need to share everything I read with everybody.
I've been on Goodreads for about 8 years now. I enjoy it.
I use it, but only really as a record of what I have read, plan to read etc. I agree that its not that user friendly. Thanks for mentioning storygraph as an alternative, I might take a look.
I've used Goodreads for about 8 years, and enjoy seeing what my friends are reading. I also love looking back at what I've already read and what star rating I gave. I've NEVER used a goal for number of books, as I think that's stupid, considering the pitfalls you mentioned. I always prefer to take my time with books, and read only when I feel like it. The user interface is fine with me, and I don't like half or quarter stars anyway. This isn't scientific, just a gut feel. I like that you can choose the edition of your book, so the cover matches what I have in real life.
I pretty much use GR because it's what "everyone" else uses, so I feel it is the one place to help out with reviews and ratings etc. I can't stand that it never seems to change though, it really looks like no one cares that it barely functions. Saying that, you *can* search someone's read list (if you already have their list, there's a separate search box to look within the books on a list) and you can review DNFs (you can't *mark* them as DNF techically, but I review books I DNF and don't give them ratings and they still show up in my read list). Recently, I have been trialling Storylace (my profile link is in my channel's "about" section), which is another alternative to GR/SG. I like the look and functionality of it, and it has a 100-point scale instead of star ratings, which works for me as I put in my weighted rating score on there when I finish a book.
I LOVE Storygraph. I use Goodreads because of the community aspect and out of habit, but I find Storygraph's tools and setup much more useful.
I've used Goodreads several times for short periods. I did reach out to authors I loved back in the day and got responses which was phenomenal!
I also enjoyed the free book giveaways in that I got free books, but the ones I got... well, they weren't good reads 🤷♂️.
I like the idea of being able to discuss books I've read and not be beholden to a book club with an assigned book, but even with those things, yeah, just never got Goodreads fully
i am just using GR for tracking my personal goal for year and also reading progress.... books that I want to read in future .... basically not using it as another social media but just tracking/database tool for me
Goodreads was useful to me at the end of 2019 when I got back into reading. I regret not having a way to monitor my books in highschool. It did not even crossed my mind back then. I had such a good memory that the concept of forgeting some of the books I read did not even crossed my mind.
Thanks for posting this. I'm on Goodreads and post reviews, but trying to interact is confusing to me. This gives me permission to stop feeling guilty about not doing more.
As somepeople already mentioned in the comments - the community aspect if GR is optional :D But I think the main advantage of Goodreads is that it has a really high portfolio of books. I was interested in switching to Storygraph, but I'm not native English speaker & I try to read a. 50% of local authors. And I would have to add every single one of them to Storygraph library myself. It really doesn't have much in terms of non-English books.
I totally understand. For me, I like goodreads for tracking books and also for groups where we have challenges, games, chats, and books of the month. Rereads and DNFs can be logged on goodreads, it's probably just not that easy to find. For the reading challenge, Clockwork Reader (another TH-camr) had a great idea to just set 1 book as her goal so as not to get stressed. It's just for tracking.
Personally, I don't love Goodreads either, but I only continue using it because I don't like any of the alternatives 😅
I literally only use goodreads to keep track of books I wanna read and have read. I recently started an excel spreadsheet because I wanted to be able to rate books on a 10 star scale (with half stars!). I enjoy setting the challenge but I don’t care if I don’t reach it. I don’t take it to seriously because that would ruin the fun of reading. I think good reads lacks a lot of functionality, like the dnf function and half stars, as well as the ability to create a tbr where you can move things around in certain order (I know that is asking a lot) but that’s what excel is for! 😅
It's good to know what works for you and accept it. Groovy work.
Very interesting video. I was put off Goodreads at first because I'm old. I've been reading for literally decades and it would take far too long to put all the books I've read online. Then I decided I didn't need to do that.I just put up a list of some of what''s on my shelves and add when something comes to mind when I'm on the site. I just use it to keep track of what I'm reading and don't interact with anyone on there. My only goal is to read all I can while I'm here. Mike from Mike's Book Reviews just said in a video that he's going to be doing a live stream with you soon. I'm looking forward to seeing that/
I'm with you in disliking all the pressures you mentioned. I only use it to track my reading, but I had to let go of everything I read before starting an account (which did frustrate me). There is a way to search through a friend's lists: "Read," "Currently Reading," "Want to Read" and any additional, user-created lists (such as favorites or DNFs). It just has an inefficient interface by today's standards. I also hate that it doesn't track rereads. You're not missing out!
I think they added a reread feature, although you do have to click into your review to see it. It is very inefficient I agree with you there.
@@sachaclow2576 that's good to know! I'll have to figure that out. Is there any way to update info on books read without flooding the feed?
@@Johanna_reads You have to uncheck the box "Add to my update feed". Just another hoop they make you jump through lol
I have goodreads just so I can log my reading and I will check out Storygraph considering I hate only doing out of 5 stars with no decimals.
As always, interesting video. I could not agree with you more about the quantity culture in the book community. Goodreads is certainly part of that, as is Booktube IMHO. I have two bookish pet peeves. I don't want to hear how many books you've read. And I don't want to hear how fast you read a book. That said, I do have a Goodreads account, which I'm slowly updating with past reads. I think the good outweighs the bad, but not by much. I hold out hope that Amazon puts some resources into it someday. I've tried Storygraph, but it had some shortcomings that were a dealbreaker for me. I did do a reading goal this year, but I probably won't again for the reasons you shared. I.e., if you focus on reading quantity, you'll probably lose a lot of the benefits of reading. I'm pretty successful at ignoring that part of the culture, but I'm human, so sometimes I succumb and push myself to read when I should just chill. Anyway, that's my two cents.......
Goodreads is just a stat collector for me. I do write reviews but I use it more like a diary. I think story graph also has some good stats it collects. Its fun to look back at the end of the year. As far as looking at book reviews i use booktube for that.
I remember joining GR back in 2014 and trying for days to remember and all the books I read in high school and college for completeness sake (I wasn't a big reader back then so it wasn't so many). I agree with all of the negatives you point out; it seems like Amazon doesn't care enough to invest in the major upgrade it needs to be a more modern website. I use it for book tracking and (some times) reviewing mostly.
I don't really rely on it for the community aspects to find books as a lot of my book friends I follow on other platforms, so I hear about what they're reading there and not on GR. It is helpful as an author to have the user base on there rating and reviewing your books, although this can backfire on you spectacularly if you set off the users in a bad way.
I've seen many GR replacements come along but for me, I don't want to have to port over all of my books from Goodreads, unless a site offered some sort of one-click importing.
Use what works best for you and I think your TH-cam channel & Instagram should be enough if people want to see what your reading. The only reason I i started using Goodreads is because of how Indie Authors mention that reviews are helpful even on Goodreads despite the negative side to it. I can't review on Amazon because of their $50 rule for reviews. So that's why I mainly use it. I also keep it as a personal log/list of what I read. And StoryGraph is great it's improved alot. I like the stats feature, buddy read feature audibook review feature & and community feature updates will be added this year I think. So yeah it's a great competitor. Followed you there if you do decide to use again 🙂 and would like to see your spreadsheet someday !
I got into this video kinda late, and for a very specific reason, which ties in to your ending question of "why do you use Goodreads?". Honestly, I just go there and mark the book as read + rate it when I finish a book and that's it. I agree that having no DNF option or the ability to have half stars is bad, I dislike rounding ratings, but it's a useful place to just have the log and to be able to find what someone has read and rated in the past. The only reason I use it is so there's a record of my thoughts.
And I came to this video because I'm having a hard time finding out if you and Kyle will continue with the Malazan buddy read or not, lol. I don't think Goodreads would have helped much in this case, since I found out that both of you have read Memories of Ice already through his Goodreads and your channel, but I didn't know if you tried reading House of Chains or not (and Goodreads most certainly wouldn't have helped me with finding the discussions, if they exist, anyway).
But yeah, I think it's fine if you don't use it. Merphy Napier has a VERY nice system for logging her readings for the public, but she has a person that does the logging *for her*, and it definitely seems like a hard time getting it set up in the first place (maintenance should be fine, though, I guess), so I understand not doing something like that either. At the end of the day, reading is supposed to be a good experience and, if something like that would detract from it in any way for you, it might simply not be worth it
I like to keep a log of my reads but I prefer the storygraph, I haven't used Goodreads for a while
Your criticisms are pretty reasonable. I've used goodreads since 2010, mostly to keep track of what I've read and as a way to link to my published reviews or give a quick opinion. Personally, I'd rather Amazon stayed more hands-off.
We can share my spreadsheet 😄
I don't use Goodreads to log stuff either. At this point it would be such a small portion of my reading I feel like it's kind of pointless to do. I never rate what I read though anyway.
I don't really like to 'gamify' my reading with goals to meet. It just gets in the way of what I want to read and the pace I want to take. Rushing a book never works in its favor. But I'm the ultimate mood reader 😅.
Hullo - I've been following your channel and 2toramble since discovering Brandon Sanderson's books. I've been doing the goodreads reading challenge since 2016.
For me it's not to compete with anyone else but just to make sure I don't stop reading - I have read a lot for most of my life (at least a book at week) and then one year when working in Hong Kong, I realised to my absolute horror that I had been so busy with work that I hadn't read a single book that year .. so I use goodreads to keep myself on track to make myself find time to read even if I am busy with work. For a time, I did get caught up in the competition / gameficiation aspect where it kept telling me I was behind so and so ... and in the same way I learned to ignore the game elements of duolingo and memrise, I ended up using goodreads for my own individual purposes - to track and rate books I'm reading, to have other people's books pop up in my timeline and I can click 'want to read' on things that they read that look interesting, I can engage with some of my favourite authors who are on there and also see what they're reading.
There's a lot I don't like about it, but I personally find a lot of useful elements. Plus when someone asks me for a book recommendation - I find it easier to send them a link to the last few years of reading challenges so that they can browse for themselves through what I've rated highly depending on their preferred type of book / genre.
I also wish there was a DNF option, a half star option. There is the ability to mark re-reads now which is useful because I do re-read a lot of books :D
Similar story for me: I've had an account for years, but only recently starting finding my way around on the platform. It's a little like visiting a foreign country. Yes, the interface is dated and not so user friendly, but there definitely is a thriving community there and I'm interested in connecting with others who share my eclectic mix of interests. Totally understand the impulse to avoid it, though!
It's fun to review books on there sometimes, but you have a book channel so you can do that here.
I totally agree with all of the reasons why you don’t use Goodreads. I just use it for me, to know which books I want to read and to mark some of the ones I’ve read. I don’t even review books. And I’ve read a lot of books that I don’t even add to Goodreads because I don’t want to alter the algorithm that suggest me books…I think I basically use it as the excel you have 😂
I went through the effort of logging my years of reading backlog and yet I still don't keep up with GR very well. I just forget to check or update it for some reason. And I feel like I should write more than just a star rating but that always seems like too much effort.
I understand your points. I have a goodreads, but I have few friends and engage in no community there. I use it mostly to track books that I read and some authors - new books, sequels, and whatnot - in an easy place to access them all. So I guess I have only the "good parts" of that social media without the "i've read more books than you" :)
I don’t rate my DNFs on goodreads, I created a folder that’s just for my DNF books. I also have a StoryGraph and I have been trying to use that more often.
the only reason i started using goodreads is because my english teacher made me but i honestly love it and don't really mind the fact that my past books aren't shown, however i do agree that it's annoying that you can't mark it as dnf and can't do half stars
I don't like Goodreads for the reasons you've mentioned, but still for me it is the best place to find new books or people who read similar books. But I don't use the community function as I find it hard to make sense of it. I love Storygraph for tracking and charts but it's not the best for just browsing for new reads I think. I'm using a third site from my county, which has its own problems but at least it's local 😅
this video unintentionally made me realize the reason why i have stopped updating my goodreads for over a year now and that was because my reading pace has significantly slowed down in the recent year since my academic workload has been so heavy and challenging. and so the culture that most of goodreads have the like 'i have read this x books already and it's just january' has shamed me into updating mine bc i only read 1 novella that month. i guess it's time for me to leave goodreads bc at this point in my life it has no real use for me and the cons heavily outweigh the pros
I use my Goodreads account. It's the only way i can keep up with what I've read. I set my yearly goal at 80 books every year, which is achievable for me. That way i never feel stressed about reading. I also didn't try to fill in my past reading when i started the account.
I do agree with you though. It's really difficult to navigate the app and i hate that you can't do half stars. I also don't think it gives you enough statistics at the end of the year.
I tried Goodreads for awhile and left it for a lot of the same reasons you mention. Also, I tried some of the reading challenges and found that I was getting recommended a lot of books that just didn't fit with my reading style. That left me feeling vaguely defective. Also I really hated that you could rate books that weren't even published. That tanked my faith in the ratings completely. I don't know if you can still do that, because I haven't been on Goodreads for about 5 or more years at least.
I got on Goodreads on couple of years back, and I must say the idea of a community never really went through my mind.. Don't know why exactly. I guess it's partially at least because I don't have a presence online (or it's really minimum). My main goal was to find a place I can add or keep a reasonable tally of the books I've been reading. That being said, again, I never really thought about my reading history when building up my page, though after listening to your thoughts on it, I can see why it would be a bother or an "issue". The number of books I have on my page at the moment is kinda laughable if you compare it to some others but that's just because I decided simply not to bother or go through the trouble to go and try finding every book I've read in x amount of time and post it there. So going off this my lists are indeed small but I've also had other things robbing time and attention in the past years. Also, I thought (and still do) I don't need to post everything I've read. It's fun to have something just for myself.
The last point is in regard the competitive side of things on the website/app. Yeah, I made a goal for myself for this year 2024 but again, if I don't reach it, who really cares? I don't (well, technically I do care, it would be nice to reach it but not at the cost of losing my interest), and I'm really trying to revive my love for reading again. But I understand the point you make about this, I've felt it in the past and still sometimes feel it, even though my connections to the book and reading community are very minor. I guess, sadly, it's due to the general feeling of our society today: you have to do more, be more, be faster, better etc. I'm trying to be, like, okay but I don't necessarily want that. Of course I want to improve and so on, but not to the pace or steps the enviorenment around me gives.
I'm glad I saw this video, it made me think and ponder on many things, and even question others. I like how you brought up an alternative, maybe I'll give it a look! I have other methods to track my reading, but some of them simply don't have the volume of tomes that Goodreads have. I liked your comment on the Excel sheat and I have a similar thing going on, with Notion, though I'm heavily considering moving to a more local form.
I did not know why i never tried Goodreads but now i do :)
So much of life is a rat race. For me, reading should be a respite from that. So, yeah, I'm with you on not counting the numbers of books or pages read, or any of that. I have no idea how many books I read in a year or even a month, other than to say that I know it varies pretty substantially. I do have a Goodreads profile, as a reader and an author, but I just don't use it to keep track of my reading in any way. I like to rate or review books that I love (particularly those written by friends or acquaintances) and don't bother with rating or reviewing (or even posting that I'm reading) any of the rest. I'd guess I post on G.r. in regard to about one-fifth of what I read. Good topic!
I use Goodreads, but only to keep track of what I've read and what i want to read.
All my stuff is on Excel. If I used an external site I'd probably end up trying to download it all in to Excel at some point anyway... I have an excuse though as a my career is based on keying in to Excel; it is very brave of Bookborn to come out as a fellow user 😂
I was looking for a way to log my reading, and when I heard how Amazon seems to be treating Goodreads I just didn't have any interest. So I've been using Storygraph for about 9 months now for my own personal interest. I have no intention of using it as social media or to compare myself to other people
One of the things with storygraph is it seems you can't add people by like phone number or other social media, so I can't know what friends of mine have it without asking them directly. Plus it's by handle and not name making it tougher. I love it for my personal tracking though
I tried to put the books I'd read into GoodReads so I could keep track of the thrillers I've read. Those authors are so prolific and the titles are so vague that it's hard to recall whether or not you've read a book by Baldacci, Koontz, Thor, Cameron, etc. But it felt clunky so I'd only go in there once every six months and then every couple of years, so it wasn't doing its job for me.
3:35 You can review a book without giving it a star rating, although I don't believe it counts in the average as a zero.
I'm one of the people who doesn't participate in reading competitions, book clubs, etc. I do sign up to receive ARCs and I write a review for every ARC I receive. That is the one thing that I dislike: back in the day, the ARC algorithm favored people who reviewed the books and I used to get a lot more ARCs. Due to complaints from people who thought the system unfair (non-reviewers, apparently) they moved to random drawings and the number of ARCs I received fell drastically.
Great points. I'm not a big fan of Goodreads for many of the same reasons. (Though I don't have an excel spreadsheet. Dang! lol)
The main reason I use Goodreads is I have ADHD and if I don’t track what I have read than I often can't remember if I have read a book or not.
I dropped Goodreads for Notion and it's the best choice I made
Perfectionism would keep me off Goodreads now - I think it would take me years to remember and update everything I’ve read. I agree about the lack of functionality as well. What draws me there is indeed the community and the lists and shelves archives I’ve built.
I have account on good reads but I only use it to write reviews sometimes when I remember to do it. I’m a slow reader because of my dyslexia so I don’t want to be in a “reading competition “. I rather read my books in my own time and don’t care about how many I read in a year for example.
I definitely agree with your opinion that goodreads doesn’t appear to be run by readers… like realllly why no half stars?????? I tried story graf for most of the reasons you said - but similarly stopped using it… I just found I lost interest in updating it.
Guess I’m just waiting for someone to come out with a better platform 🤷🏻♀️
I’m with you in that I have an account and I then don’t use it 😂
I used to log every book I read in good reads and I suddenly realized how absurd tracking entertainment is. I stopped using it and I no longer track my reading.
I basically use Goodreads to see what books I tagged as "want to read" based on various articles and recommendations from Booktube. It's nice to see what booktube people are reading and quickly just click and add to that list. I could do that using a spreadsheet though, it would just take a few extra steps. The UI could definitely get an overhaul and you called out some significant functional gaps. My assumption is that it won't get changed because Amazon did research and the ROI just isn't there. Will more direct or indirect revenue hit because of any site changes? Likely not. It's just a guess though. One thing I think that Storygraph does much better would be the analytics and trying to find other books based on what you've read. I might get onto that site, but then it feels like a chore to constantly have to update 2 places.