I have been using it properly for only a few months, and I think it's a fantastic site. Even if it's only for ego boosts. According to this, in the 2-3 months I have been using the site, I have read 4600 pages of text, which is a pretty handy way of judging your speed as a reader. Better than judging it by book numbers. And seeing what friends are reading, and how much because I'm by nature nosy is really cool to see. I've also met someone on Goodreads who reads at least 500 books a year! Who uses this site?
I have an account there, actually I had a few over the years, but I don't use it very often. Only when I'm at a loss for things to read or looking for something outside the genres I'm familiar with. To be honest, I find reviews on Goodreads unreliable. I think a lot of people review books to show off their writing and reviewing skills, and many of them are terribly long-winded. Also, quite often I see praises for dreadful books and unfair criticising of the good ones (at least those I consider good). I wasted money more times than I care to mention, buying according to their advice only to end up with some unoriginal, superficial YA or worse. So now, I can't really say that I rely on the reviews much, I prefer amazon for that. As if spending money makes people more to the point.
I use it mainly to keep in touch with a few close reading friends and a cousin who is as much a bookworm as I am. I have to say that I do agree with you, Jazz, as regards the unreliability of many of the "reviews", which are more often than not synopses. I think perhaps I have simply aged into a generation of past sensibilities. Many of the authors whom I love are given rather short shrift and tossed aside as irrelevant. No one wants to read anything with any substance and I find a keen prickliness toward any writing that treats young people as young people and not as soon-to-be-masters of the millennial world. But that is the way for all people, no? The alternative is the grave, so I guess keep bringing on the getting older.
I love Goodreads. I like it best for the statistics portion and the ability to track my own reading. Sometimes I can't remember if I read a book or when I read it, and it's very convenient to be able to go back and check. It is nice also, just as a personal thing, to try to best my number of books that I read last year. As far as using them for reviews, I find the calibre to be about the same as those at amazon. You have to take reviews with a grain of salt. Generally, what I find most helpful are the one star reviews, because when someone hates a book, I'd like to know why. If someone can articulate a really well-reasoned argument for having disliked a book, I take that into account, and often have ended up agreeing with them. People who just like to bitch and moan generally can't make a very good argument for why they didn't like a particular book, so I can ignore those. (And as far as positive reviews, if there are only a small number of reviews and they're all 5 star reviews, I assume that the reviewers are, firstly, the author's mother, and then his friends.) I have, unfortunately, found books I want to read through goodreads. I say "unfortunate" because I really don't need more books to read. I have hundreds in my TBR pile -- I could last for years on a deserted island with all the books I own and have not yet read. But I cannot stop myself from buying more. I also like seeing which friends of mine have read books I have read and knowing what they thought of them. Plus, I enjoy the giveaways. I've gotten a couple ARCs through them and have been pretty psyched to receive them
I think I have read the name "Goodreads" somewhere, though I can't really remember where... So, no. I don't use Goodreads, nor do I use any other e-book site. Based on my e-book experience so far (limited to PDFs and school literature) I must say that I much prefer to sit down with a book in my lap, actually grabbing the pages and turning them with my hands. Maybe a proper e-book reader (and a good novel) could make me change my mind a bit, but I'll always consider my (physical) bookshelf one of my greatest treasures. Oh, and as for the statistics (page count and which books have been read), I already do that manually using a pen and a notebook.
It's just a book site -- not specifically an ebook site. Goodreads does not sell anything directly. It provides information on books and does provide links to various stores and sites where you can buy books. But the site itself doesn't have anything to do with the formats of books. I also much prefer physical books.
Oh, I thought it was another site like Kindle or something... Well, you learn something new every day. In that case I can see it as a bit more useful, especially the social part.
I use it as a reader AND an author. Problematic when the two identities blur, but otherwise I enjoy both functions.
I also have an account there, keep getting newsfeed, but I don't really visit the site. As far as I know, you can free-download books from goodreads, right ?
I use Goodreads often to update the status of the books I'm reading and to add a lot of books to my To-Read list, some of which I may never read in my life.
Apparently she did back in 2009 - she even wrote a blog about it: http://botheyes.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/i-read-500-books-in-2009/ I wouldn't have believed it either until I started following her reviews. She's one sharp cookie.
I've just read this woman's blog. And no, I don't believe her (she cooks from scratch, cares for her kids and husband, has a full-time job, etc.) Or, rather, what she thinks 'reading' is and what I think it is are probably not the same. There is NO way. And I'm a fast reader myself. Either she's speed-reading, skimming, or just plain kidding herself. Or the books she chose are deliberately short. Even reading ONE book a day is a challenge, even when you're not working outside the home. At any rate ...what's the point? "I read 500 books in a year." So??? Sorry if this sounds negative, but I just don't get it. What's the point?
There is no point really. She may not have read that much, I can't prove she did. I do like it, though, how you do see what people - friends - are reading and have read. Sure the reviews are not always accurate, not even mostly, but I've found the average scores Goodreads provide are at least pretty good at indicating the quality of a book.
I use it to keep contact with some friends, and because it's fun to keep track of which books I have read and what I thought about them at the time, although there are a lot of Greek books I could not find there
The giveaways are a fairly big feature of the site, but those are for traditional, paper books (usually ARCs). I think there are sometimes ways you can get electronic books, but it's not a big feature of the site and not it's primary focus. As far as the folks who read over 100 books a year, most frequently the largest components of their lists are romance books or other light literature, (or YA) or some kind of self-help. If I have a few hours, I could knock out a light read, but quantity is not the most important goal to me.
Can someone tell me where you can see which genre is a book you're looking at. I know you can search by genre, but when I'm on a page of a (random) book, I can't see anywhere what genre it is...
It's a great app, I often use Amazon to create my book wish list, but lately I have been using good reads
