Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.
My second tip: use Goodreads.com. Goodreads is a site dedicated to book lovers. At its most basic, Goodreads helps you find the perfect next book to read using predictive analytics from books you’ve already read and liked.
Once you set up your free account, you’re prompted to rate some books that you’ve read using the familiar Amazon-style star system. From there, recommendations of what to read next start appearing, both from the Goodreads recommendation engine and from book lists that include your top-rated books. Most books have a Goodreads reader ratings and book reviews to peruse, along with favorite quotes.
Goodreads has some useful features that make it a worthwhile companion to the bookworm:
- To Be Read (TBR) List. Adding a book to read in the future is as simple as clicking the green “Want to Read” button included with every title in their 395 million book database. Having a nice selection of books you want to read next minimizes the hunt between books and keeps you reading.
- Book Lists. There’s a good chance that a book that you liked will be included on one or more user-generated book lists that can point you to other similar books. For example, Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals is included on the Best Non-fiction American History Books list, the Best Books to Become an Informed Voter list, a dozens more. A review of these lists can be a great resource for filling up your To-Be-Read list and keep you reading for years.
- Annual Reading Challenge. Each year, more than four million readers set a pledge in Goodreads to read a certain number of books in the year. Your homepage provides feedback on whether you’re on track or not to meet your reading goal based on how many books you’ve marked as “read” in the system. I’ve always liked goals and goal accountability, so this is a motivating feature for me.
- Kindle Integration. You can connect your Amazon Kindle with Goodreads to automatically when you start a new book, finish it, and your overall rating. Since the majority of books I read are on Kindle, this saves me time from having to update Goodreads with my reading activity.
- Friends and Groups. If your book-loving friends have Goodreads accounts, you can share recommendations and join genre/niche groups to discuss books. You can even measure your book compatibility by comparing books you’ve read and rated with that of your friend (or anyone on Goodreads). I wish Goodreads could suggest new friends that match your tastes in books, kind of like e-harmony for book lovers.
- Convenient Shopping. Goodreads makes it easy to buy books with convenient links to Amazon’s Kindle and regular bookstores. You can customize these links to take you to a variety of other bookstores and even public libraries.
There are a few downsides to Goodreads. First off, Amazon acquired Goodreads in 2013, so you can expect to see a lot of plugs for Amazon books within its pages. This also raises privacy concerns among readers. Do you really want Amazon to know everything you read, down to the sections you highlighted? Second, the book challenge can push readers to tackle shorter, easier books instead of more challenging books just to meet their reading goal. I’ve encountered that temptation myself. It also can be dispiriting to be continually reminded that you are tracking below your reading goal. Third, the book recommendation engine churns out a lot of the same widely-read books represented by its huge user base (Harry Potter, anyone?). You’ll have to scroll past many of the top choices to find lesser-known works. Finally, the performance of the web site itself is often slow and non-responsive, which is unusual for an Amazon entity.
For me, Goodreads is a useful system to keep me reading great books, especially with its tight Kindle integration. If you haven’t signed up yet, check it out. Find some great books to read next and set your reading goal for 2020.