The cult of Goodreads
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- Опубликовано: 6 июн 2024
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Goodreads is the world's largest site for readers and book recommendations. It was launched in January 2007 with the mission to help readers discover they love and get more out of their reading. Those are the first few lines on the Goodreads "about us" page and I believe that for a while, the sentiment behind them was genuine. But as with all social media sites built on good intentions, today Goodreads is in large part just another place where people who care far too much about being correct on the internet go to scream into the void.
You might think of a place for book reviews as a relatively wholesome part of the internet but a few weeks of regularly logging on to the site will reveal all sorts of controversies, from review-bombing to bizarre author dynamics to good ol' Amazon-fuelled consumerism (in the insidious shape of the Goodreads reading challenge).
That is, you will notice all these things if the website manages to load before you lose all patience.
In this video I talk about some of the more glaring issues with Goodreads and how it has affected reading as a hobby. because if BookTok really is ruining reading, I have a sneaky feeling Goodreads is not far behind...
timestamps:
00:00 - what I talk about when I talk about "cults"
01:56 - why Goodreads sucks
04:53 - why Goodreads REALLY sucks (amazon, overconsumption etc.)
05:25 - why can't we all just quit it?
06:33 - the criticism: "competitive reading" and review bombing
10:15 - why Goodreads looks so bad: status and conoisseurship
resources (in order of appearance):
Sounds Like a Cult podcast: www.soundslikeacult.com
Cultish by Amanda Montell: www.harpercollins.com/product...
videos about leaving Goodreads
Rana Najjar • HOW BOOKTUBE AND GOODR...
Marisa Thoman • we need to talk about ...
Leena Norms • Goodreads is dead. Wha...
Jack Edwards • why I'm moving to The ...
The Gamification of Reading is Changing How We Approach Books www.shondaland.com/inspire/bo...
Goodreads is Terrible for books. Why Can't We All Quit It?
thewalrus.ca/goodreads-is-ter...
Goodreads is right to divide opinions, wrong to boil them down
www.theguardian.com/books/202....
thanks for watching, pls subscribe etc etc xxxxxxxx 
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I dont look at tik-tok, goodreads, reviews. no tracking how many ive read, no therapy nothing. just raw dogging life.
absolute chad
now, now
✨just raw dogging life✨
based
Jack Edwards’ video is how I found out that Goodreads is owned by Amazon so I’m really glad he made that video because that connection is so icky
Before I even start watching the video, I'll just say: The StoryGraph FTW! By far the superior alternative to Goodreads.
I switched to Story graph and it has been amazing!
Can we share our StoryGraph usernames on here lmao I have two friends
I'm whichwitch96 💖
Storygraph is so so good (dont consider ir a social media at all tho, just a catalog of books/ place you can track/log/ search books
@llve-zzzsh did it? They have that option por that little text AI sinopses but are the genre/ vibes/ pace etc provided by AI ? I didnt think it was
@llve-zzzsh I think you can disable that
i use goodreads for tracking my book and the fact that there are people who use it socially is insane to me. i did try to switch to storygraph but i'll be honest i found it even more user unfriendly than goodreads and have no clue what people are talking about when they say its so much easier to use 😭😬
I got so confused when trying to switch over😭 idk if it’s my silly brain but I just go on these apps to mark off read books and do a star rating, I just need a simple, easy thing
See, this is the way I feel/felt about goodreads. We’re Just creatures of habit. 😅
I'm on goodreads, but I only use to track books I read. I don't use the social aspects, groups, challenges. I use library thing (even older than Goodreads) as well for the same thing, and I think it is better (even with the more outdated look, it is better for how I search for new books). But I'm old school
Never tried library thing, but I might give it a go!
@@accordingtoalina If you want only to catalog your books (with the amount of details you choose), Library Thing is good (it is like a virtual library, hence the name). For algorithmic recommendations, sharing on social media what you reading, the social aspects Goodreads it is better (but there is groups and reviews in LT as well). Library Thing has a powerful tag system for managing catalogs (but the UI it is not the best), tag mashes for any number of tags is wonderfull to search for very specific type of books if you want
yeah same
Same, it’s handy to keep track of books I’ve read, and books I would like to read. Nothing much else.
Same. I just use it to track the books I've read. And occasionally to write a review. I've never used it to socialize.
I was reluctant to join storygraph but as soon as I saw how much prettier and fun it was I never even opened my goodreads anymore. I couldn't even work out how to make the most of the social aspect of goodreads i absolutely hated it.
Thank god that "I read more books than you this year, I'm better" thing never worked on my autistic brain 😂 My goal every year is 12 books to make sure I read at least one book a month even though I usually end up reading about 25
Literally! I have two kids so my goal is 6. It’s also crazy to me that people are purposely picking short books. When I was younger the longer the book was more impressive.
@@alyssavb42 I remember one time I was in a store with my family shopping for new year's and I saw books! And my parents were like it's holiday, pick one and I picked the thickest one I could find because why would I waste this opportunity on a book I would finish in one day
I love Goodreads. It’s the accountant part of my brain. I love tracking what I’ve read and thinking about what I want to read. I set a goal, but I don’t feel pressure to reach it. I think my current reading level is a phase and it will ebb and flow over time.
I don’t feel the need to compare myself to others. If you do, all social media is probably not healthy.
Goodreads has its issues, but as a person from a small country that reads about half of the books in my language (not english) and others in english, it's basicly the only platform i can use to keep track of all my reads in one place.
the GR database is the most extensive for sure. I also wish I'd specified in the video that the various dramas/controversies taking place on the platform come from anglophone writers and reviewers, mostly US and UK-based
Goodreads "looking old" is so funny to a person who spends most of their reading-related time on Archive of Our Own... I mean you can see that the design is decent, it has slightly shaded rounded buttons (very different from old-timey 3D ugly buttons) and whatnot, but it's so very simple that it could've been done twenty years ago. I doubt that it uses much of Javascript, let alone any of those fancy webdev stuff that changes every three months. But on the other hand, it has no ads and is, as far as I can tell, as fast as it needs to be.
I'm not familiar with it at all, so I'll have to look it up!
Goodreads does have the biggest database, which is relevant when you want to track the editions you own and read books / editions that aren't that new or popular. When I migrated my data to Storygraph it screwed up quite a few listings. I still have books on there in languages I don't speak and editions I don't own.
You can fix that of course and they also let you submit new editions to their database, but it costs time and I can see why just staying on Goodreads feels easier.
storygraph is pretty annoying about book informations, it somehow decided that my german translations of seneca texts were romanian?? also the fact that its pretty slow to work on issues if you submit a ticket...
You can log a request for them to change it. I usually add a link to the publisher's site to make sure that they have the correct information. I know that seems like extra work, but multiple Afrikaans editions for some reason show up as a totally different language & I know I'm making it easier for the next reader!
Tracking different editions is what I use Goodreads for too (I haven't actually checked it in any systematic way but it _feels_ the most complete to me in that respect).
if u need some book info to be changed or improved on goodreads it's usually done within a day
For knowing the editions in my library I use Goodreads. I read a lot in other languages and a lot of the editions do not exist on storygraph. There are 4/5 times in Goodreads
I use it just to track what I read. I don’t even rate books or read articles or search for anything else.
Just progress and completion, that’s it.
I use the challenge to track my reading -- and so far the 'accountability' has worked to help me get back into the habit of doing something I love. I also write short reviews as memory-joggers at my (IRL) book club discussions. The point is to use this platforms in a way that suits you and not let the platform 'use' you.
I basically use Goodreads as a virtual bookshelf to add books that I'd be interested to read. That's it. Clubs for discussions are absolutely not user-friendly. Ratings are not even reliable, so three-star reviews are the ones I go for if it want to see what other people think about the book. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And challenges is a questionable thing as well. It does make you want to reach a specific goal, even if it is small, but still, it sort of takes away the fun of reading. It can also make you disappointed in yourself when you compare your current challenge results to the previous years. It is especially true if you are struggling mentally. This extra pressure is not helping. I know that you can opt out and not do it, but before starting doing the challenges, I used to just..you know...read. And at some point I'd just sit and remember that books that made me feel a certain way, not how many books I read that particular year.
My GR reading target last year was 100, which I reached on the last day, but it meant my December was really focused on reading as many books as I could. This year I've dialed back my target to 72 books, which is more comfortable for me but still gives me something to strive for... reading is not a competitive sport... quality is better than quantity.
Genuine question (not an attack in any way) but given it's obviously _not_ a competitive sport, why set a number at all ? Is the hope just that the more books you read the higher your chances of having enjoyable reading experiences (sort of playing the "law of averages") ?
Or is it maybe more that you feel you have trouble avoiding distractions and setting a number kind of gives yourself an "excuse" to stick with reading over other things ?
(or something else ?)
I’m making my goal equal to the number of books I read the previous year so it’s attainable. I usually beat it by a few, which makes me read a bit more each year, but I’m not tryna stress myself out
@@anonymes2884 I like looking at numbers for my life, books read, gigs gone to, metres swum, countries visited etc.... but it is just comparing myself to my previous self/sleves not to anyone else... if you read more or less than me, it is not a problem for me. It is easy to read more books by reading shorter books or even reading children's picture books.
@@jimsbooksreadingandstuff Yeah, I guess it's that last point that puzzles me about the number thing (which personally I don't do) because I totally agree - how many is entirely arbitrary and tells you nothing about how well you _enjoy_ them.
But I get that you like the sort of "quantification" aspect. Thanks for the response :).
Well... it is to me. Meaning, that there are more books I want to read than I can read, which means that I need to read faster to be able to read more. It's a competition with myself. In the big picture the amount of books - or the quality of one's reading - is totally irrelevant to everything.
I used to be a goodreads user but I've become a storygraph girlie through and through.
I've never used goodreads much for the social aspects and I just wanted to leave amazon and found the storygraph app so much easier to use. Goodreads was... fine but storygraph actually motivates to read more.
Since i read a lot of ebooks from my library it's the most convenient way to track my read books and it gives me the sense of accomplishment that physical books give me when i get to stack them into my bookshelf.
Yeah, its connection with Amazon is definitely one of the things that sucks about goodreads, but I usually take the info they give me about books (synopsis, other reads also enjoyed, etc) and use it to not shop there (and my friends and family use it I stick around and track everything I read and want to read). Usually I’ll read the books through Libby from the library or go to a big chain bookstore near work since there aren’t any indie bookstores near me. 😢
Book sleeves 😂 all laughing aside though, they are great for protecting your paperbacks in your bag. The amount of times I’ve bent pages yikes
I'm now a book sleeve convert!!
it’s gotten to the point where i don’t even look at reviews on goodreads anymore because i always end up disagreeing with them. so many times lately where i have finished a book i loved and flew thru and looked at the reviews afterwards and saw everyone saying how boring it was and they had to dnf it😭
SAME with the boring thing, I can't tell if maybe I just like "slow burn" books or if avid goodreads users think a book is boring if it doesn't have an action scene or seggs scene literally chapter..... but then if it is super fast-paced then people are like "nooo I want no plot just vibes" like pick one 😭 atp I will go to goodreads only because if it has a 3.5 or lower it means I'll probably like it
Same, I just finished a book and i really liked it , because i was new to the genre and it had a lot of scientific aspects involved which i was interested in , but when i went to goodreads and read the reviews and people where being straight up mean sometimes for no good reason.
For me it's usually the opposite lol.
It's always the popular books on GoodReads i tend to dislike or DNF (Addie Larue, Emily Wilde's.., The Song of Achilles, Divine Rivals, etc.) and i was like: Did i read them wrong? Because those i mentioned were a chore to get through :D
omg, hi-thanks for mentioning my video about goodreads (07:36)! Completely agree with everything you said, especially the comparison to the wine app: "he was interested in being the guy who tried the most types of wine out of all of his friends." I can admit that is the main reason I initially made goodreads. I don't even typically leave reviews-it's purely to track how much I read and feel good if I'm reading as much, if not more, than my friends. Which... is kind of icky when you think about it! I'm still working on getting better about that. Especially now that I make content on booktube, it's really hard not to compare myself to others and keep up with what everyone's reading. I'm trying my best though. Actually, as you posted this, I JUST finished filming a video about switching to storygraph 😅 we'll see if I ever learn my lesson, I suppose. Great & thought provoking video!
ahhh comparison is such an insidious thing and so easy to fall into! Sending you good, creative vibes
To me tracking numbers isn't _inherently_ "icky", it's more about _why_ reading _more_ books is seen as _more_ worthwhile than e.g. watching more hours of TV (or anything else we do for pleasure). Because it might suggest we see reading itself as difficult, a task requiring external validation and _that_ IS slightly disturbing IMO. It seems to say we see even recreational reading as more eating your greens than having dessert but surely being "a reader" means reading itself _is_ the reward (finishing a book read for pleasure is just a _symptom_ of enjoying the reading of it, it doesn't mean anything in and of itself - it's not an _aim_ separate from reading) ? That's kind of the point of fun right - you don't need to be paid to do it, nor do you need your friends or anyone else to acknowledge you had the _most_ fun (no one ever says "Well done ! You ate _all_ your ice-cream !" :).
Basically, I think we accept that we "game-ify" e.g. going to the gym precisely because most of us don't really _want_ to do it. So what does it say if/when we "game-ify" reading ?
Hi there. I’ve also found that as a critical and more experienced reader, I cannot trust the ratings on good reads because so many people classify a book as good because the story took them along for a ride. I don’t know about y’all but I’ve read plenty of badly written books that took me for a ride but I wouldn’t rate them based on that alone. Many do and I’m seeing books that are objectively badly written rated 3 stars and above. When I say badly written I mean inconsistent world building, shallow characters, and barely-there plots to say the least.
Different people have a different rating systems.
I don't care if a book is "badly written" or has plot holes as long as i had a good time (and they made me happy).
If a "well written" book was boring and it felt like a chore to get through it gets a bad rating.
I don't use goodreads or any other bookish app/website, because imo reviews or ratings are pointless unless the book has so many grammar issues that it's basically unreadable.
We all just expect and even want different things, so reviews are obviously always subjective and waaaaaaay too many people get influenced by other people's opinions and won't even read the book if the rating is below 4 on good reads.
When it comes to the topic of why Goodreads looks so old the answer is much more simple than that imo, and im going to use another website/program as an example. Steam (the most famous videogame online shop and launcher) has the same problem. It looks very old, the functionality of the website is very outdated and overall everyone agrees that it needs a lot of changes but the problem that they have is that since it is so old, it is impossible to fully fix it without break it entirely. With Goodreads its the same, it has been around for so long that the only way to fix all the problems that it has, its just make the website from the scratch again (basically make Goodreads 2.0). And considering the amount of active users that they have daily and the fact that they are the leading website for books, its just doesnt make sense nor it is worth it to do the full rework.
this actually makes a lot of sense and would not have occurred to me! thanks for adding to the conversation x
As always, the problem with a tool is how you use it. I started using Goodreads when I started reading a lot (100 books a year) and realized I wanted a centralized easy to access place to check if I purchased a book already, and what my thoughts had been at the time. I've had situations where I reached back to an old review of mine and thought "oh yeah, that point really ticked me off, or was a really strong point, I'd forgotten about it." I like that I can access it from everywhere, meaning I don't need to worry if my computer crashes. And I used it to improve my ability to write a review. Knowing that someone else may read what I wrote made me more thoughtful about what and how I was writing. I liked informative reviews and I tried to come up with them as well. I'm definitely not using it as a social platform, it sucks from that point
As an author, I love goodreads because it's honestly the only way I can get feedback on my book. As a reader and author, I feel like it's an excellent way to let other authors know what you think of their work, good or bad, especially indie authors.
i have pretty bad avoidant personality disorder, which basically boils down for me that I have a lot of fear of sharing myself and my opinions with other ppl for fear of how they will percieve me, so using goodreads was horrible for me! I hated how i approached what i was reading in terms of how ppl i interact with on goodreads would percieve me. I use storygraph now and i have my account on private, so all my books and reviews are just for me and that pressure is gone. It feels so much better since I've switched this year.
I have a Goodreads account but I no longer do anything with it. I track my reading on a spreadsheet.
same
As a person from a small country that prefers reading books in my languages (not english) - storygraph is just not it. It always confuses languages, so you cant even enjoy statistics, it does not recognise some languages overall and it does not have 80% of our books in database.
i’m from a small country too and while what you said isn’t as big of an issue for me since i read more in english, i definitely felt it too! i usually just add the books in my native language manually to the database (which i know can be annoying and i’m not saying people should do it). i used goodreads at first but it took ages to load with every press of a button, so despite it being more accessible to non english readers, i switched to storygraph
omg, I completely forgot about that Goodreads goal! it was such a stressful part of using it! And I even had someone laughing at me for the low amount of books I managed to read in a year. I like Storygraph better because it's more about me and my reading. I love adding a book on there and looking at the little charts and how they change and feel proud of myself, because I no longer compare myself with others and because the app doesn't facilitate that comparison.
no way they laughed at you!! what a dick
So apparently someone calling goodreads a cult is the push I needed to finally move over to storygraph!
well you have some very good points there, loved the video! but I have to say that’s not my experience >>at all
so so happy to hear that you're having a lovely time on there!
i know Goodreads sucks in various ways but i have a hard time imagining how Storygraph can be so much better than GR if it misses the social aspect? Reading is a great hobby but it can be such a lonely one, i can't help feeling like it misses the point of a reading app if we can't really interact with each other or if it's not something that's facilitated.
sure, there's plenty of crap reviews on GR (see most amazon book reviews that are two sentences saying the book was delivered promptly and was packaged securely) but what other site has the kind of thoughtful, in-depth reviews of books you can get on GR? they're from real people giving real opinions, not shill reviewers on "professional" sites/publications, like legacy media or places that get blurbed by publishers, and so you're more likely to get an honest idea of how a book reads to a real person.
it's like youtube - there's no viable alternative and so GR persists, despite its problems.
Amazon acquired GR so long ago and practically nothing has changed. I didn't think anyone was actually obsessed with it. 😆 I have used it since 2009. That's why it's still my main place to track books. I'm not going to add my entire 3,000 book TBR to another site now.
tbf you can download your data from GR and load it into storygraph, its pretty easy, should you ever be interested 😅
I've been using The storygraph for 3 years now and it's SO much better than Goodreads, although I have to agree that it's missing the social interaction. For now you can't leave a comment on your friends reviews or reading status. BUT unlike Goodreads, The storygraph is constantly adding new features so I hope in the near future we'll have more improvements in it.
14:32 that happened to me years ago. I wrote a review on Instagram of a book I didn't like (and that I had bought with my own money, it wasn't a collaboration) and the author harassed me on Ig, Twitter and Facebook. I had to block her.
Always interesting, Alina, many thanks. My Goodreads account has been dormant for ten years or so; my partner was enthusiastic about it at the time, and I made a half-hearted attempt to upgrade from the little Red and Black index book to which I have now reverted for keeping track of books read. It really never was for me, but since then the trend for performative reading in quantity has become visible (I live under a rock for the most part) and it looks a lot like unrewarding drudgery. Each to their own of course, but I'm content to keep literary interactions between the reader, author and the text and not involve social media.
I love the StoryGraph and have checked out several sites (mostly in my first language) but I still come back to Goodreads as a tool because as the main reading site it centralizes such a bounty of opinions and information and it had yet to be replicated.
I like perusing 1 star review whenever I feel unsure about reading a book to see if they are just "book bad, erh" or highlight specific points I would not appreciate, problematic aspects from the perspective of the concerned community (people have really learned how to make use of Goodreads for that!) or excerpts of horrendous writing... And sometimes angry reviews are such wonderful pieces of writing (I know, I thrive in negativity, I'll admit!).
As a librarian, having access the original reviews of foreign books when considering acquiring the recent translation is extremely useful too!
GR definitely has the biggest database, so I can see how it can be useful to you as a librarian for sure!
Very interesting topic! I like GR for keeping up with what I'm reading/have read, but mainly to be able to scout out new books coming out in genres I love (mainly historical fiction, specifically gothics) as well as older books I might enjoy. I dont really use any of the social aspects.
am i the only one SHOCKED that goodreads is owned by amazon?? it makes total sense, but still i had never thought about it
Bezos bought it years ago. I stopped using it as soon as I found out
I found out lately and was shocked and appalled. But not as horrified as I was when I found out that Amazon owns Abebooks, where I had been shopping for years, thinking that I was virtuously boycotting Amazon.
don't worry, I only found out a couple of years ago
yes this too!!
@@accordingtoalina great video btw! found more reflexions aa always and even alternatives to badreads
I had not read books in over a decade and coming back to this hobby I was excited to track my progress that's how I ended up on goodreads. But just like with fitness apps I'm not interested in other people's progress. I only focus on my page and that's it. It's the only hobby I have left I don't want this to be a competition too. Didn't even know you can follow friends there lol Occasionally I leave comments when I liked or didn't like a book and that's it. For recommendations I ask Reddit.
Deleted my Goodreads account last week, I don't miss it at all.
I started goodreads as motivation to track what I was reading after a few years of not reading for pleasure very much in undergrad. It helped me start reading again, and now I mainly just use it to track what I read. This year I don’t have a goal anymore, but it’s nice to see all the books I read in one space.
Storygraph is way better and honestly even if it were worse, id still use it because i hate Amazon
Honestly lately I realized I'm finishing books I don't even enjoy just to get the number up, so I switched to just using... A notebook to write down what I read and my thoughts. Everything "counts" from fanfic to comics and manga. If you're someone who loves to quantify and write down your reading it's a lot more fun, and even if you dnf a book that doesn't mean you can't write about it. Plus you can decorate it and stick in art from the books! It's really fun to look back on!
Because I use the apps mostly for tracking my own reads and book collection, not really the social aspect, I mostly use The Storygraph nowadays for the stats.
I even pay for the premium version to support it.
That being said, I still log the books I read in Goodreads, I do it at the same time I update Storygraph, takes me 5 seconds.
Reason I’m doing this is because I do have a hard time to let go the very accurate list of books I’m carefully maintained for + 10 years now.
I did transfer it on The Storygraph a couple years ago, but I like to maintein an updated list on both anyway 😅 talking thousands of books so all this hard work needs to be maintained.
switching costs 🤷♀I don't use any goodreads functions except for tracking what I've read/want to read. I prefer to do it digitally so when I find a book I can copy paste the title/ author exactly into my library system. I also like that I can track what page I'm on, which is useful when reading multiple books simultaneously. I could do the same with the notes app in my phone but I started using goodreads like 10 years ago and I cba to shift to something else.
I changed to using a private notion database for my books and it’s quite life changing! I don’t feel the pressure of logging on goodreads anymore (I might make a new priv storygraph account just to have the stats without the perception of goodreads lol)
My personal anecdote for using goodreads was because I was desperately trying to remember the title of a weird book that I had read in middle school and a Goodreads community for naming titles of books people kind of remember came up, so I made an account, asked my question in the forum, then forgot about the account for several months. I would never have known that book otherwise so after I logged in months later and saw my question was answered, I thought I would use it since my notes app list wasn’t doing it for me anymore. I don’t remember if I knew it was owned by Amazon back then, but at least Amazon doesn’t pretend that GR is not part of their company (the bar is in hell).
I did do a project on its UI/UX for a design class because it sucks so much like it could be so much better if it was owned by people who actually cared. I signed up for storygraphs a month ago but haven’t utilized it much as of yet.
I use Goodreads to track the books I read, partly it is because of how it looks. It’s very simple and I like it. I tried using story graph as well but it wasn’t user friendly to me, but I want to try again with it. I also have a book club I’m a part of that the majority of the members use good reads and I like to see what they think of books sometimes. We have have such varying opinions and it’s fun to see if we agree on a book or not and not all of the members meet in person or we don’t have time to talk about every single book we’ve ever read.
Loving your videos, Alina! I've always used Goodreads (since 2011 - and the website definitely hasn't changed AT ALL since then) in a very non-committal but nonetheless habitual way. I don't care for it much, and yet it's firmly imbedded in my reading process. Personally, I use it most for reading reviews, tracking my reads, and for scoping out the variety of cover editions a certain book may have. But it's almost become an essential platform for being reader - like, if you're a reader in the 21st century, you have to be on Goodreads (in the same way that we once were all on Facebook or MySpace if we cared at all for our social identity). Your identity as a reader is solidified by the act of creating and using a Goodreads account. Likewise, you haven't really read a book if it isn't in your Goodreads "Read" list. At the end of the day, it's really all about image and status, like any other social media platform.
omg hi Shaye!! thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts, I'm sure you've thought carefully about all these things, especially with your book social media experience
Interesting video and I do not disagree, but I would also amplify some people’s opinions here that it all depends on how you use a platform. I set a reading goal for fun but don’t feel stressed if I don’t reach it anyway because I just like reading books! I enjoy asking people “how are you liking it so far?” when they post a current-read update and read hilarious reviews (my personal favorite: “rest in peace Dorian Gray you would’ve loved botox” 😭). Also glad I’ve never personally experienced all the other negative sides mentioned here :)
I started using story graph in last December and Im loving it
I’ve used Goodreads since before Amazon owned it to keep track of books I wanna read and have read (I honestly sometimes forget stuff). Also I like to see book page counts quickly for books I’m considering as well as the book synopsis (like to decide what to take on a vacation or whatever). I don’t use the social aspect at all and would be fine having a private profile if that were a thing, maybe it is and idk about it 😂
I like good reads cause it shows me if a book I'm interested in is in a series and if it is what order the series goes in, and cause it helps me keep track I didn't even know there was a social aspect to it
I remember trying Goodreads for the first time about 8 years ago, but the website was so frustrating that I gave up right away. Two years ago, I decided to give it another chance, and now I am actually enjoying myself. I use it to keep track of the books that I read, and I leave reviews solely for myself. I do this because I always wonder how my opinion or taste might change over time. Additionally, it's fun to see what my friends are reading and hype them up a little, haha
I love that Jack Edwards is given as an example of someone who quit goodreads and felt like he had to explain himself and was afraid to disappoint people, while he just continues to update both apps. No shade on him through because don't we all lol. I think this just emphasizes how hard it is to leave a super popular platform even if it doesn't align with your ideals.
yes, I definitely didn't mean that example as criticism to Jack - I love his content - so I'm glad the sentiment translated
I have used Goodreads only two times and both of them were because I wanted to know the opinion other people had about some books, one that I wanted to read and the other was one I am currently reading. I didn't know the platform was this problematic. Thanks for your advice.
I used GoodReads once when I was looking for reviews for a book, and I saw that most of the reviews were 1* referring to a comment in the book that was NOT actually related to a real life controversy. I thought it was ridiculous that people read fictional books to escape reality, but cannot help but push reality into the books and review bombing the books because of that.
honestly, as a goodreads user, the only thing that draws me to the app is the ease with which it allows you to keep track of the books you have read. i like being able to look back and see what books i’ve read, when i read them, how long it took me to read them, etc. i use other apps (like storygraph for the buddy read feature, or fable for the book-club feature), but i find goodreads makes it much easier to keep track of my books.
The only aspects of goodreads I use at this point are tracking (some) new reads and the social feed. Over time I've accrued friends on goodreads that I don't know irl but enjoy reading their reviews, so I'll stop by occasionally to see what they're reading for inspo. My closest friends are on storygraph though and that's where I actually track everything bc it's just vastly superior!
shocked that there are ppl just now finding out gr is owned by amz. goes to show unless every content creator makes a video abt the news it just drags along
I used Goodreads for a few years as a database to track my books I want to read, have read, and to look for series BUT I recall when Amazon purchased it... I ended up basically boycotting ot as did not think it was right AMZ was using my tracking to monitor what we all read and as you mentioned figure out what to sell me.
I use Goodreads but I also use other various logging apps/websites for my films and whatnot. It helps me to remember the names and titles and I like to look at what my friends are reading/watching. I barely post reviews bc I feel inadequate to do so.
I used to have a good read account when I was in high school, 6-8 years ago. I used to follow the trend of reading the same amount of books as the year I was turning and after a few years I got burnt out and was exclusively reading graphic novels at the end of the year to hit my “goals” on time. I deleted my account and just recently resigned up for it in the last two years. I missed being able to track everything that I have ever read (there is a lot I don’t remember). I mostly like it bc it tells me the percentage of the book I’ve read lol otherwise it’s a social media-fication of reading.
Also a pro for goodreads, the Apple-esque integration with e-readers.
I read books almost exclusively on e-readers, it syncs on whatever platform, I annotate, make notes on my kindle, and when I'm done leave a rating.
Given i rent my books through libby, i can then return them, but through goodreads, still access my notes. I don't see an alternative to goodreads for people who use e-readers and use libby to get their books.
When I first joined GR in 2015-2016 I did enjoy the social aspect of it, since almost no one in my real life is an avid reader. I used to write lots of reviews and read reviews from people I followed and got recommendations from them. At some point I got tired of the bad design of the site and for years I've only been using it to track what I read. I'm not particularly interested in moving to Storygraph because books originally written in Spanish (my mother tongue) often do not appear on the site.
First two years of the reading challenge - really enjoyed it.
Subsequent years of the reading challenge - felt weirdly discontented
I dumped it and use story graph with no targets
I think it really comes down to how a person uses a platform. I've only been on GoodReads for 9 months, but I love it. I track data about my books in my notebooks to begin with, and I like to have a digital form as well. I write down my impressions of a book and thoughts in the review. And it's been great to go back and look at my reviews to jog my memory when people ask for recommendations. I don't feel like the reading goal is competitive, and I don't pay attention to other people's progress on their goal. I don't feel like it's pretentious for me- I read a variety of books and genres- some that are romps, others that have more substance. I think this stuff you're talking about (minus the data collection etc.) comes up based on how people choose to interact with the platform. As for creators making GoodReads departure videos, they're book creators and it's content! Making reading related videos is what they do.
lol what. I just use it to track my books.
I use goodreads to keep track of what I'm reading because I like looking at my personal statistics plus I sometimes read reviews but only after I've finished a book. The only reason I haven't moved to another similar site is that I'm too lazy to re-enter all the books I've read and I'm also emotionally attached to my account which is 10 years old
You can import all your data to storygraph, no need to manually input everything again, just fyi 😊 I was also reluctant to use sth else, but it was pretty easy in the end. (I still occasionally visit my goodreads though)
@@Helcaloth tysm! I'll check it out!
I gave up on GR a long time ago. Now, I keep a spreadsheet to track what I've read
I agree with what you say, Goodreads has been making me anxious lately so I decided to try it against Storygraph, which I found better (I even made a video😊). I have actually wanted to try and make my own no-anxiety reading tracker-journal, and your video inspired me to finally do it :)
aaaah this is nice to hear! hope you find your own fun way to enjoy reading xx
the only reason i still use goodreads is to cross post my reviews from storygraph because of the connection between goodreads and netgalley. i like i request arcs from netgalley from time to time just for fun, and it's an easy way to find new releases i may not hear about otherwise, and my goodreads profile acts as my "blog" that publishers look at when they're deciding if they want to send an arc or not. storygraph is what i use for actually tracking books, and i don't ever open goodreads aside from posting reviews i'm already writing for myself and that's all. i started writing reviews this year for most of the books i read more as just an exercise for myself to think more critically about the books i'm finishing instead of just jumping from book to book without giving them any thought, maybe they're helpful to someone and maybe they aren't, but since i'm writing them anyways i post them when i track the books as finished
Thank you for making this video! Kinda hoping I've seen this before I did what I did last week lol. Okay, the story: I used to have a book blog and because of that, I was also actively posting reviews on Goodreads - mostly low-star ones because I made a rule to not give 5 stars unless the book changed my life lmao. I realized now though that my very low average rating seems a bit rude, especially because I was rating books I genuinely enjoyed with 3 stars. That being said, I decided to stop with the star rating and remove my reviews as well (after deleting my blog). However, because my account was old as hell, it was going to take so long to delete every history of interaction I had with every book. Because of this, I decided to just create a new Goodreads account and transfer the books there, including their dates read to “stay true” when I read them. It took me three days to transfer everything correctly. Funnily enough, I didn't transfer the graphic novels and manga that I've read, now wanting to appear less of someone who enjoys graphic novels and comics. Now that I've watched this video, I had to take a step back to wonder, “Why?” Why did I do all that? I wasn't going to re-add my friends on my new account. I merely wanted to list books I've read, but also I know deep down that it was for bragging rights. I would always share my GR reviews, rating, and wrap-up (or challenge updates!) on different social media platforms. I'm the only one among my peers who actively use GR, so I guess you can't be more wrong with some of the points you said here. With all of these being said though, I think I'll leave the platform altogether now. Part of the reason I haven't been reading as much as I used to was the feeling of “falling behind” everyone there whenever I fair to reach my annual goal.
aaaah this all sounds very familiar so don't worry, you're not the only one to have done this!!
the only reason i still use Goodreads is because i like to see the lists the create of new books etc, being able to find new stuff to read and add to my reading list is just really helpful :)i use both apps and have tried to move to storygraph multiple times but its sooo hard once you already have evvverything on goodreads to do with friends etc
It’s interesting hearing your stance on this. I’ve never seen your channel before. So I feel like we have very different perspectives on Goodreads. I don’t have any feeling that I have to update or check my friends updates. I just track what I read in a year and check other books in series Im in or check if fantasy book is Romantasy (I don’t like Romance).
different perspectives are welcome here! thanks for checking out my channel xx
I like Goodreads. I haven’t tried storygraph yet although I’d be down to switch if more of my family / friends were willing to. I like categorizing all of my books/tbr into shelves so I can look back on it when I’m in a certain reading mood and remember why I took that recommendation for the book. I also like looking at other people’s reviews of books I’ve read after forming my own opinion to see how they compare and whether I agree/disagree/missed something etc. the review comparison is why I chose Goodreads over storygraph since many of my friends and the people I follow also use it. I do totally see your points about competitiveness and intellectual superiority on the site but I don’t think that’s something that is exclusive to Goodreads, and I try not to buy books from Amazon but I do get the concerns there as well
I had Goodreads for a bit but I just found it kind of a hassle after a while. If I forgot to add a book as read or something. I'm also bad at leaving those super detailed reviews and finding the right (English) words to explain why I liked a book (I never added a book to the list of I had disliked it.).
But also the challenge and feeling the pressure of needing to read More, More, More because otherwise you're not a 'real reader'.
And then also the pressure of just how big Goodreads is, how many books are on there and always seeing new ones I'd want to read. Then being frustrated when I wasn't able to find it in my local library or on my ebooks subscription. And I don't have the funds to buy all the books I want to read.
the problem for me with other platforms is that they mostly have books that are in English or translated into English and I mostly read in Spanish (I think this applies to other languages as well an not many people are taking this into account in the discourse) so I rather stay on a platform that has the books that I read though I understand why people are moving away I would if my books were there
I just love to see what my friends are reading. It makes me happy and excited, i understand their tastes better and when we catch up, we discuss about them. Im on story graph too but i miss seeing what my friends are reading.
this is so wholesome, good for you x
I have kept a list of books that I have read for my whole life and I use goodreads as an enhanced version of my formerly written lists. it is important to me as a record of my reading, and having entered thousands of books, I am not apt to up sticks for another site. as far as feeling competitive with oneself or others with the reading challenge; as you get older and move through more and less busy periods of life, or harder or more joyful times, I think you'll see that it's not going to be a matter of reading more and more each year. some years I had other things going on in my life that made me read a lot less or a lot more and that can put your reading life in perspective.
I like Goodreads for ME. I used it for years just to track my reading before my friends used it. Now a lot of my friends have Goodreads (we’re librarians lol) but I still get surprised when my friends know and bring up what I’ve been reading. Usually they’re commenting on how much I read, which makes me uncomfortable. I don’t want it to be a competition but it’s like they take my reading as a threat. So I actually dislike the social aspect of Goodreads. I also keep getting random people trying to follow me that I don’t know and I can tell based on how many people they add that they just want to collect followers?? I hate that. I do also use storygraph, and I like that that’s not social tbh. I’m just so used to using Goodreads so I still use both.
I use Goodreads because i hate myself. I use Storygraph because i hate myself, but i want that hate to be well-optimised
Lmaoooo
I use goodreads only for tracking my reading. I'd like to use other apps, but last time I checked they didn't have that many books from my country..
So I don’t have social media. I deleted it about a year ago. But before deleting it, I fell in love with reading in late 2022 and in early 2023, I decided to start a Booktook account. It was all fun and games for about a month and a half. Seeing how competitive and elitist booktok was I quickly deleted. But I was still using GR. I think my situation with GR is a little different because I don’t have friends on the app, I only follow people who appear to read similar to me so that I can see books I may want to read. I do use the challenge feature but since I’m off social media and have no GR friends, I’m not competing with anyone or proving my worthiness so to speak by how many books I’ve read. I use GR as a source to track which books I’d like to read (when I’m in the library just browsing for my next reads, I open my GR app and go to my Want to Read. I also use it to keep track of the books I’ve read and how I rated them (I don’t leave reviews, just rate). One thing I’ve stopped doing recently is reading the reviews before deciding to read a book, because I’ve noticed a lot of what you mean about review bombing, etc.
to be clear I definitely think it's possible to use GR in a positive way, so I'm glad to hear that this is your experience!
I’m still salty about Goodreads closing Shelfari, it was the superior service and I miss it so much.
Honestly, I think we're all just creatures of habit and that if you've had goodreads for a while, it kinda is just hard to let go for some.
yep, there's a lot of merit to this for sure!
Not me deleting my Goodreads as I’m watching this 😂
I have been meaning to for a while, but I was too lazy to. Which took 3 seconds so 😂 thanks for the push! Hahaha
navigating goodreads' social functions is indeed a nightmare
i literally just use it to track books im reading and want to read
ooo interesting video. i occasionally use goodreads but i use storygraph way more consistently lol the streak feature rlly motivates me to read plus nice graphs
sounds like I need to give storygraph a chance??
I mostly use it as a search engine for books it's easier to find books from different genres, authors and subjects, and
as a book tracking app luckily I am too lazy to compete or to argue
I read constantly but I’m not in the booktok or social media aspect the book sphere, so I didn’t know anything aside from Goodreads existed until this video. It may seem like everyone is plugged into every social media sphere but there are a ton of people who aren’t, and may contribute the the number of still existing goodreads users.
Also inconvenience is a factor. After this video I decided to switch to Storygraph but I don’t have time to export right now, and I’m on mobile. Sometimes people just don’t want to do the work if goodreads is serviceable.
I am switching to Storygraph, I’m just lazy lol.
that's fair and I agree that sometimes it's just a case of people not knowing about other apps/ not wanting *yet another* app, and that's ok!
i actually currently prefer goodreads over storygraph, because if you don't participate in the challenge it doesn't tell you how many books you have read in the current year, whereas with storygraph you can't escape that number, and since numbers i can increase fuck with my brain a lot i need to be able to keep that out of sight
I love using Goodreads lol but sometimes I get stressed when I'm behind on my reviews😂.
The one thing that never sat right with me is how you can rate a book that is not even published yet
So the rating is not really accurate
The platform also delete some reviews apparently ?
I think part of that is due to the way books get marketed - publishers will send out review copies to readers to create some buzz around the book and people get very easily flattered to receive a free book before everyone else, hence the pre-publication reviews. But I'm sure that a significant portion of those reviews are literally the authors' friends and family lol
I enjoy Goodreads for my own purposes. I love writing reviews and tracking which books I have read. I also take part in the yearly challenge but I really don’t care how many books anyone else reads. I read what I want when I want to and hardly look at anyone else’s stats. I love Dickens but also can be happy with a trashy Sophie Kinsella and her shopaholic, Becky. If you read 90 books at a time, good for you. I’ll carry on challenging myself to ten! 😂
For authors that are self published, piblished by a small press, or are just new/lesser known, Goodreads is kind of non-negotiable as a marketing tool. If readers left it in mass, then that would change, but as of now its probably the number one way to get reviews on your book. Even people who are avid reviewers are much more likely to post on Goodreads than they are on Amazon (meaning the Amazon product page, obviously its all technically Amazon at the end of the day). Since the product page will sometimes display the Goodreads score (presumably if there are enough of them or maybe by some other factor). It's true that a book review on Goodreads will certainly not make a book blow up or "go viral" in the same way it would on something like TikTok, its more about having that consolidated collection of reviews all in one place than anything else.
That said, the platform is extremely clunky and like half of it feels like is managed by "Librarians," A.K.A. human volunteers (I don't believe they get paid) who fill in the many systemic gaps in the website itself through having some kind of admin access. I've also noticed a lot of that "connoisseur" behavior on the platform too with readers with there being a certain tone to some reviews and overall star ratings typically being lower on the book's Goodreads page than they are on the Product page for major retailers. I've seen some pretty toxic stuff even in like the religious books side of things where I would have previously liked to believe that vibes would be more positive and supportive overall. I also just tend to see lots of negative reviews where it almosy just feels like the person didn't read the book blurb or something because it sounds like the book delivered what it promised to, but it wasn't extravagant enough for them compared to other things or something.
Weirdly, the interactions I've had in the horrendous forum spaces have all been quite lovely. Maybe it's because navigating those takes the patience and grace of a saint.
I like the gamification of reading challenges on StoryGraph - to me it’s made reading way more fun! To me it’s not a competitive thing more just a motivator for me.
I just like Goodreads so I can log my own books. Kinda like how I use Letterboxd just to remember what I watched and what days I watched them
i actually prefer storygraph over goodreads (i use both) because of the stats they generate. the social ascpect is just a small pro but i dont like how goodreads is structured tbh
Super interesting. I mostly use storygraph now because its easy and fonctions are great, plus they’re adding more and more community things. But i still use goodreads for à few things
Arcs because publisher still like revjews on goodreads
To keep track of my wkshlists and soon to be released books
I review books who don’t have a lot of reviews too
Loved the video! Though it feels like you want to say a lot more. I vote for a part 2!! ❤
there's definitely a lot more to say, especially about publishers' and authors' reliance on Goodreads ratings in their marketing - very culty business but maybe in a part 2 video focussed more on the author perspective
The topic of this video was already familiar to me (still really liked it) but I would be even more interested in how it affects the publishing industry!
The issue is not with goodreads' reading challenge, the issue is with people you are surrounding yourself with. If you find that feature toxic, then you are probably engaging in toxic circles online. No one has ever made me feel bad for not hitting my yearly goal on goodreads and people would tell me they admire me for reading 50 books when my goal was 70 and I failed. I bet that there are places online (yes I mean tik tok) where the opposite could be the case and people foster a weird atmosphere and take their reading goals way too seriously. As usual, people are pointing at the wrong thing as the source of their issues. If that feature stresses you out, you are being too harsh on yourself, and you will probably be better off not using it and chilling out about reading. It's completely optional to set a reading goal.