Goodreads: Making Reading Social

If you love to read, chances are you will love using Goodreads, an innovative, interactive, and enchanting website for book lovers. One of the primary uses of Goodreads is to keep track of what you’ve read, are reading, and want to read. You will automatically have those three lists on your account to which you can add your books. You can also make lists according to anything you want (genre, character type, a book club, books you’d like to purchase, etc). 

The other primary use for this website is reading recommendations. When you create an account, you will first choose which genres interest you most. A list of books will then be generated for you, which you go through to mark off what you’ve already read and enjoyed. Your ratings will help Goodreads recommend which books you might like to try next, and their recommendations are often spot on. Since Goodreads also has a social network aspect, you can “friend” people you know through their site to see what other people are reading and get recommendations that way, too.

There are many other ways to interact with people through the site besides the friend network. Through the rate and review system, you can share your opinions on the books you’ve read with others in the Goodreads community. You can start discussions on their message boards about any book you’d like, which is great for working with other fans to try to figure out any questions the book leaves unanswered. If you don’t like in-person book clubs, perhaps you’d like one of the many online clubs found on Goodreads better. One of the coolest things about this website is that you can even interact with the authors of your favorite books. The authors that have verified Goodreads accounts write frequent blogs and even do Q&A sessions through the site where you can ask them anything you’d like.

As if all this wasn’t enough, there are also book giveaways, trivia, quizzes, reading challenges, and so much more. Visit the Goodreads website and begin a new reading journey today! 

Allison Green
Boston Tutoring Services