I signed up for Goodreads, what do I do now?

[Alessandra Kelley]

Between my habits as a voracious reader and my interest in books and maybe writing some reviews, I finally signed up on Goodreads under my own name.

But I have to admit, I'm a little lost. At the moment on the site I have a list of books-I-have-read. Can anyone see that? How would they find it? How may I find other people's lists? What is this "friends" of which they speak? (I'm not on Facebook or Twitter or any other social network, so I don't know the protocols.)

I'm currently working my way through their "help" section on the rtfm principle. But can I ask people here how they use the site, things that might not be obvious to a newbie, that sort of thing? Thank you.

[MacAllister]

Post a link to your profile, silly, so we can find you. :)

[Alessandra Kelley]

Oh! Heh -- of course. :D

Would that be this?

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6243132-alessandra-kelley?ref=header

[PorterStarrByrd]

unsubscribe

[MacAllister]

That works just fine. :)

[Sage]

Goodreads looks through your e-mail account--or twitter or facebook, I think too--and suggests people that are also using it and are your contacts to friend.

Note... if you're using the same account you're querying with, you get a lot of agents on Goodreads, and if you say, "Sure, friend me," I believe it actually does send a message to them before you follow their Goodreads stuff. Not knowing this, I chose to follow a couple (agents of friends, mostly) and it turned out I sent a message requesting them to be my friend, oops.

[Alessandra Kelley]

Eh, I don't query. I'm not a writer, actually.

[Medievalist]

Oh! Heh -- of course. :D

Would that be this?

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6243132-alessandra-kelley?ref=header

I just friended you.

They have a nifty app for iPad and iPhone that lets you check your books, look for books to read, and with a iPad 2 or an iPhone, take a picture of a barcode on a book and add it to your library with all the bibliographic data.

[auntybug]

I like keeping up with my reading list there & at shelfari. Mainly it's another place for me to leave a review for the AW & Champagne books I read. People seem to be on a 'friending' frenzy today, but I don't do much interacting there. All my 'peeps' there are on facebook as well. Since you aren't there - you'll probably get more use out of the mailbox & such. :)

[MysteryRiter]

Alessandra and Medievalist, I am on Goodreads too! I'll friend you both.

[areteus]

You can find me on there under: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1248752-david-lascelles

Though I rarely use it for anything much at the moment.

[Grrarrgh]

I'm there, too, under the same name. I mostly use it to keep track of what books I've read. I have a few there that are TBR, but not many. I don't do a lot of interacting there, but I use it a lot to find books to read or get general reviews on a book. Sometimes if I'm in the middle of a book and I'm beginning to feel ambivalent about it, I'll go to Goodreads and see what the overall feeling is. I don't read spoilers or specifics, I just sort glance over them to get a general feeling for whether it's worth continuing. I really like it, though, especially now that they've updated their app to include IPads, not just Iphones.

[PorterStarrByrd]

I'm there, too, under the same name. I mostly use it to keep track of what books I've read. I have a few there that are TBR, but not many. I don't do a lot of interacting there, but I use it a lot to find books to read or get general reviews on a book. Sometimes if I'm in the middle of a book and I'm beginning to feel ambivalent about it, I'll go to Goodreads and see what the overall feeling is. I don't read spoilers or specifics, I just sort glance over them to get a general feeling for whether it's worth continuing. I really like it, though, especially now that they've updated their app to include IPads, not just Iphones.

YUK !!

let me count the ways this is just so ... wrong :evil

[Alessandra Kelley]

Okay. I had a little trouble, because it turned out my email was bouncing (I did wonder why I hadn't been notified of my last Visitor Message here), and my password was also problematic. It took a while to straighten things out, since normally one uses the password to fix the email address or the email address to verify the password, argh. But now it's (hopefully) fixed.

Thanks to the Magic of Cookies I could add more books to my page, but more sophisticated profile stuff wasn't doable til now.

I've been putting up books I've read with star ratings. Is that right? I've seen some people's books listed as simply "read."

PorterStarrByrd, what are your objections? Seriously.

[CACTUSWENDY]

Worked for me.

Man....lol.

All that heavy reading with a Ben and Jerrys' Ice cream book in the mix? You sure have a wide span of reading.:D

[bearilou]

I'm boingboing there and I just friended you.

Don't expect much out of me, I go there for the reviews and that's about it. :)

[Medievalist]

I've been putting up books I've read with star ratings. Is that right? I've seen some people's books listed as simply "read."

Whatever works for you is right.

Some people lurk and read reviews but don't post. Some spend most of their time in the Groups/discussion areas.

Some people have lengthy reviews complete with spoiler warnings. Some just make notes for their own use.

Don't stress over it; you're not being graded.

[firedrake]

I've been a member of Goodreads for a few years but have done sod all until my book was released.
Now I haunt it obsessively. As I'm a newbie author I don't have reviewers tripping over themselves to review my book and I'm not one of those who can tweet endless requests for reviews so I look at reader feedback in my pathetic search for some validation. :D
Having said that, there's so much on there it's impossible to get a grip of the place. So my recommendation is to take what you want from it and enjoy the resources.

[Alessandra Kelley]

Worked for me.

Man....lol.

All that heavy reading with a Ben and Jerrys' Ice cream book in the mix? You sure have a wide span of reading.:D

Heavy reading? Uh, thanks. Never seemed that way. Um. Blush.

[Diana_Rajchel]

I'm on there, too, just opened my author account.
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5119308.Diana_Rajchel
Hopefully I can figure it out!

[rosepetal720]

Your questions might have been answered, but I actually wrote a blog article on using Goodreads that might help: http://teralynpilgrim.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-to-use-goodreads.html

[Shadow_Ferret]

I just friended you.

They have a nifty app for iPad and iPhone that lets you check your books, look for books to read, and with a iPad 2 or an iPhone, take a picture of a barcode on a book and add it to your library with all the bibliographic data.

They have one for Android, too.

[readitnweep]

I just friended you, too, as I saw we had some books in common. I like Goodreads to track what I've read and what I thought of it. I often can't recall stories and characters a few months after reading, so this has helped me retain the info quite a bit. And, I like getting ideas on good books to read from others. I see you're a history buff - cool.

[Archerbird]

Hello, I just registered on goodreads too. If anyone wants to share booklists or anything, my link is goodreads.com/stensbylc .

[Medievalist]

Hello, registered on goodreads. Friend me.

goodreads.com/lcstensby

My, how terribly flattering an invitation.

[mccardey]

I joined once, but I felt bad listing any books I didn't want to give lots of stars to. And then that seemed terribly sookish, so I deleted myself.

I think I may have missed the point ... I'm on librarything (https://www.librarything.com/profile/mccardey) though. I'm quite harsh there. I think it's something to do with being able to give half-stars

[night-flyer]

Hey Alessandra I'm on Goodreads. Actually got into it by accident by entering some book give-away thingy. :D Have no idea of what to do there, seldom go there actually. But I'll friend you and we can be lost together. :D

[KellyAssauer]

Goodreads looks through your e-mail account--

Hold on a second here... does it 'look through' whatever email account I give it (say my gmail?) or does it snoop my entire computer? Because one is permissible and the other is a malignant virus...

[Medievalist]

I joined once, but I felt bad listing any books I didn't want to give lots of stars to. And then that seemed terribly sookish, so I deleted myself.

I think I may have missed the point ... I'm on librarything (https://www.librarything.com/profile/mccardey) though. I'm quite harsh there. I think it's something to do with being able to give half-stars

I'm on both sites--I use LibraryThing to track my library, or parts of it (my books are mostly in storage, and un Thinged) and GoodReads to track the books I've read.

To be honest, I initially joined both sites and some similar sites out of curiosity and because I was asked to write about them.

I don't even star most books.

[theichibun]

I mostly use it so I can be in a bookstore looking around and save a book to be read later. Most of the stuff I've read isn't rated. And that's fine. I just want a record.

But I really need to get on the rating thing so I can use it to get some book recommendations.

[Alessandra Kelley]

Well, I've been using it to catalogue the books I have, and have read. So far I haven't used the to-be-read feature, since: A, I find it kind of oppressive just as a personal thing, and B, I've seen some people complain that it gives an inflated impression of what people have actually read (the number of books a member has is displayed, but lists of books to-be-read are included in the total).

I guess the point is that GoodReads can be used for a number of purposes: finding new books, meeting others who read similar things or dissimilar things, cataloguing collections, venting.

There are communities there, I'm pretty sure, but they seem disjointed and hard-to-find.

[BigWords]

I guess the point is that GoodReads can be used for a number of purposes: finding new books, meeting others who read similar things or dissimilar things, cataloguing collections, venting.

The beauty of Goodreads is the discovery of titles which I would never have thought of picking up (and in some cases loving insanely), but the venting thing is - in my opinion - frustrating. If people really hate a book for some reason, they tend to go overboard on their anger.

The lists are my favorite - massive, indexed lists, with all the information I could possibly need to sate my curiosity. Some are plain wrong (thrillers listed as horror, and the knowledge on cheap fifties pulpy paperback titles is staggeringly poor, on the whole), but it has come in handy in a pinch. I really do need to update though...

[DragonHeart]

I use it mostly to keep track of what I've read and I love participating in the yearly reading challenge. When I'm looking for recommendations a lot of times I'll look for authors I enjoy and if they are on GR as well, I will shamelessly compare books to see how similar our tastes are and abuse their book lists to find new material. :D

My GoodReads is linked in my sig, feel free to friend me. :)

[JohnnyGottaKeyboard]

I've been a member of Goodreads for a few years but have done sod all until my book was released.
Now I haunt it obsessively. As I'm a newbie author I don't have reviewers tripping over themselves to review my book and I'm not one of those who can tweet endless requests for reviews so I look at reader feedback in my pathetic search for some validation. :D
Having said that, there's so much on there it's impossible to get a grip of the place. So my recommendation is to take what you want from it and enjoy the resources.Ah, this describes me perfectly and saved so much typing.

I will note that I no longer star books from people I know as this led to a particularly ugly falling out. Not on my part!

Mainly when I see a book anywhere, including often an AW signature, I click on Goodreads first to check it out. I (personally) give more weight to a GR review than, say, one on Amazon.