I use it mostly to track my own reading and record my star rating. I feel awkward writing reviews because I’m not particularly academic when it comes to reading, I want to escape reality and if the characters and plot are good I generally like the book. I also like to see what others are reading so that I can add to my want to read list.
I have to say, your reason for not wanting to review is really sweet and humble, and you just saying that means you’re more reasonable than many of the people who leave reviews 😆
I'm rarely consistent with my star ratings and reviews. Sometimes it's well thought out and objective, sometimes it's just OMG I LOVE THIS SO MUCH blah blah lol As long as my opinion is quite positive though, I do like to just capture it in the moment.
Reviews don’t need to be academic at all. Mine aren’t. I just tend to write how I felt about the book and maybe some parts I did or didn’t like about it. It’s more for my memory’s sake so when I look back on the book years later I’ll remember why I did or didn’t like the book.
@@desertrose0601 Yeah exactly and I feel like this girl is shaming us for writing subjective reviews, and that's the reason a lot of people feel awkward or avoid writing them entirely. Heck yeah I'm gonna write a subjective review, it's my profile and my opinion, I never said I was a professional reviewer. It makes me sad when I see some of my Goodreads friends rate a book but not write a review because I want to know their SUBJECTIVE opinion. Reading objective book reviews would be boring.
That’s just 1 or 2 a week. It’s completely fine if you’re too busy to do that, but in the overall scheme of things that’s not really that much time reading. If you figure an average length novel might take 6 hrs to read, that’s basically an hour a day reading to hit a book a week.
Jamie 902209 Of course it counts. You’re ingesting every word of the book whether you hear it or see it. Makes no difference. And actually audiobooks take about twice as long to get through than a written book, so it cracks me up every time people say using audiobooks is cheating somehow. 😂 It’s just another way of reading, slower than just reading normally, but with some books it’s the best way to push through an otherwise dry or slow read.
Relevant to point number 1, one of the most-liked reviews on goodreads ever is Patrick Rothfuss leaving a review on the page for the third Kingkiller book which isn't even out yet saying, "look at how many time travelers have read my book that isn't even out yet! They've given it 5 stars!"
@@colin1818 Well, of course. Because that's who's reading the book! I don't think that's avoidable and readers are generally aware that politics polarise and thus reviews do too.
@@crelgen1588 - "Well, of course. Because that's who's reading the book!" Except they're not. More often than not, a politically charged book will have a ton of 5 star and 1 star reviews. A huge portion of those people never read the book (especially amongst the 1 stars). It's just tribalism. People 'voting' based on their world view and not based on the merits of the book.
@@colin1818 That is very true! What I mean to say is that most people going into these books know why the reviews are either fawning or disparaging and imo unlikely to be deterred by it since it comes with the territory.
I'm an old person, I've read books since before internett, and honestly - when I first registred on goodreads I tried to list every book I've read, but I can't even remember them all, and most of the books I've read are the Norwegian translation, and not all of them are on goodreads. Because I'm a bit of a systemfreak, I wondered about take all my shelfed books out and have "all the books I've read since 2018" instead, since the shelfes are incorrect *lol* I also started to rate books, but I found it difficult. I read for escapism, and rating just on how the book made me feel, seemed a bit superficial and insufficient, so I stopped rating. I use goodreads for tracking what I've been reading, and what I want to read. I have lists over books I've read in some of my planners, but the goodread tracking system are better. I also do the goal-thing, but I adjust the numbers if I hit a reading slope - I have one this year, it seems I can't get out of it, and instead of letting the "you are 14 books behind schedule" stress me, I adjust the number. The goal is not to have read as many books as possible, but to enjoy the books I read, and I felt i didn't do that with the "behind schedule"-thingy.
I'm basically a ghost watcher everywhere :) here on youtube I rarely comment and the same is true for GoodReads - I rarely comment on other people's reviews, I just use the website to track my books and to keep lists of upcoming releases etc... but I basically agree with everything you said!
My friend and I both have a similar star rating system: 5 means we loved it and will read it again, 4 means it was good but not the best and we probably won't read it again, 3 means someone may like it but we sure didn't, 2 means it was bad bad bad but had like one redeeming thing, and 1 means it's trash. However, I will watch youtubers who say all these super positive things about books and then only give the book 3 stars and for me that does not compute. I've come to realize that everyone has a different rating system so it's better to focus on what the person liked and disliked vs. the star rating.
Love your system, 5 stars mean I'm going to read it again or have read it more than once. 4 means almost 5 stars. 3 means it was okay, I liked it. 2 means I've read worse. 1 means, well, imo, the worst. And there is nothing bad about a 3 star rating!
I'm also one of those people who use goodreads pretty much only for tracking. I think goodreads isn't all that bad but it has a lot of room for improvement 😆
I've accidentally given a book 4 stars when I was just trying to read the synopsis and I didnt know how to take the rating back but I couldn't figure it out so there's a book out there from me that's rated that I never read 😕😕
@@Ivielynn123 Whenever I need to do something on Goodreads that the app doesn't allow, I log in on the Safari app and "request desktop site" (this is at least an option with iPhones) and then you can go to the book, scroll down to "my activity" and click "edit review" and then at the bottom of the review page there's an option to remove from your books. Hopefully that helps. There are way too many things on Goodreads that you have to manually fix.
I wholeheartedly agree about the star system. It lacks nuance and context. I (begrudgingly) submit to the star system on platforms like goodreads or book vendors, because a flawed review system is better than none, but that is also why I like platforms like booktube, where more in-depth critique can be found.
Yes, agreed! I’m very guilty of putting too much weight into star ratings, but I wish I wasn’t 😅 I try to at least look at reviews though. I would like it so much more if we rated individual elements of a book and then it averaged that.
Man it annoyed me to no end when I saw that the novelization for both LA Mulan and Aladdin were out last year/this year and people rated it 1 star before they even came out- Aladdin because it obviously sucks because it's live action and there is no Robin Williams (though that one has been out for a few months so the rating is up now) and Mulan because it's another live action movie so it must suck - I just hope that it's ratings change once it comes out :(
Have you seen Rincey’s review of Goodreads? She suggests how one can make a permanent shelf and name it DNF. She also posted the instructions for how to do that.
I created an “abandoned” shelf and marked it exclusive so whenever I lose interest in a book that’s where it goes. You can just search a how-to on Google it’s pretty simple
I 100% agree about how bad the navigation of the site is. One of my favourite features is the book stats (books/pages read per month), but it's so hidden I didn't know about it for agaes. Also, there was a feature that listed your most read authors but Goodreads got rid of it because not that many people used it. If it was easier to find people would use it.
I use it only to track what I've read and what books I own. That's it, but there's also no way to distinguish between those two on GR. I wish there were. Beyond that, yeah, I've never used any of the features beyond tracking what I'm reading and marking them done. I don't obsessively update what page I'm on or try to read as fast as possible; it's just a tracking tool.
Yes! But I’m sooooooguilty of being addicted to checking GR all the time! However...... I recently found a gently used book at a thrift shop here in AZ and felt that old magical feeling of finding a gem of a book and getting excited to read it because of its synopsis and because it was a large floppy paperback to boot! Ha! I pulled my phone out to check its reviews on Goodreads but stopped myself this time. I didn’t want to be let down or disappointed about what other people thought of this book. I just wanted that old fashioned way of finding out for myself! Now that was literally 2 days ago and need to finish other books before getting to this mysterious new book. But I’m still so intrigued by it! I just miss this feeling of finding a great book. For this book I’ll stay away from GR until I finish the book and only then will I see where my Uninfluenced opinion lies. I wonder if a lot of the people/reviewers I follow have read it and liked it as well? This is my project. If it goes well, I will probably keep doing this when I come across new books! Well, i don’t know about you, but I’m excited about it! 😜 Thanks for reading. 📖📚 Thanks for your honest videos. ✌🏻
Loved this discussion. I have only started using Goodreads in the past year or so. I agree with so many of these. The reading goal function is one I have a love hate relationship with it encourages me to read more but I agree it can be used to put people down and sometimes I feel bad about my reading speed etc as I compare myself to others.
To me, the most useful way to use Goodreads is to follow people you look up to or respect in some field, to see what they read. I follow successful entrepreneurs, and I think I could quantify the ROI on doing so. Extremely useful in that sense. Not sure this can apply to fiction readers, but if your goal for reading is learning, I'd highly recommend this.
I really only use Goodreads for tracking what I've read and keeping a TBR, honestly without goodreads help I would never remember all the awesome books I hear about! I also use it to help improve my book reviewing skills and so I have thoughts to refer back to when filming my monthly wrap ups. Great video as always, super insightful and helpful 😊
I find navigating Goodreads soo difficult! It's so hard to search for people and to add books to your owned shelf without having read it? Also when people say a 2 star book is okay that annoys me, 1 and 2 star should be negative and 4 and 5 should be good. Anyway that's my rant, great video 😂
Great points, Elliot. I enjoy reading others' reviews on Goodreads as well. There is gold in many of the reviews. Die-hard readers tend to write thoughtful reviews, which give gloss and different insights. It's a collaborative growth experience. Keep up the good work.
These are all valid points. As a fellow GRer I have seen the behaviors that you mentioned. But the folks that fo this also provide some very interesting views and insights. Overall, I really liked the video! Thanks
I use goodreads, and actually I don't really look at star ratings, I prefer looking at the highest rating reviews and the lowest rating reviews before considering buying a book. And in fact, I mostly get books from a bookstore/library just because the blurb makes it seem interesting :P
The tracking part is my main reason for using GoodReads because i keep forgetting all the books i read/listened to, and it makes the whole concept of TBR a lot easier.
I personally love goodreads since I tend to use it for more than just reviewing but I do agree with a bunch of your cons. I even filmed a video recently about how I’ve been struggling with star ratings recently because the number rating can mean something different to everyone and it’s hard to reduce a book to a single number. I also HATE when people rate books they haven’t read yet, whether they’re doing it negatively or positively. I think it’s important to read reviews instead of going by the average rating!
No single thing has helped me with reading more and being a better educated reader than goodreads. The search engine algorithm is terrible yes, but Thanks to good reads Ive doubled -tripled my reading. Its helped me immeasurably with finding new books, authors, and being able to research to save time with series order and volumes I was unaware of and most importantly from reading books that I would not like but the cover or blurb would have sucked me into buying it thinking it was something it was not. I can go to goodreads read reviews, and discover if thats a book that is actually for me. I love goodreads, its not perfect but my god the amount of positive you get for free is truly a gift for readers.
Hey Elliott. I totally agree with the majority of these pros and cons. I hate when I finish a book that I totally fall in love with, only to find that it is rated low on GR. I think you should do a video on your favorite low rated novels.
yessss the reason i signed up for Goodreads was so i could keep track of books and find more books to read!! last summer i got a library card and wanted to start reading and had no idea where to start. i picked up a RANDOM self-help book and didn't even read a single page. i found out about Goodreads and started finding loads of books that i eventually loved !!!
I totally agree with the frustrations on star ratings. That’s why I refuse to even look at the star ratings until I’ve finished the book or if I was thinking of unhauling a book I haven’t read. My favorite part is just having an easy way to track my library and reading.
I totally agree about the quantity over quality thing. It’s soooo apparent in wrap ups too. Like if you didn’t read 10+ books it wasn’t a good reading month (ya know) I now care so much more about liking books as opposed to reading a bunch of books I didn’t like.
I haven’t used Goodread for a couple of years other than for looking up books, but not for tracking reading I definitely agree, the website is hard to navigate One of the main reasons why I dont use it, is because we all rate in different ways , for some people 3stars is a good one, for others 3 is a bad book, so really the rating is just not that convenient
the first one is so true!! and it makes it so easy for people to hate on authors/books by just giving a book 1 star for no reason besides not like the author or the synopsis!!
Ugh, that rating thing is such a problem, I agree. Everyone has a different metric for how they rate. A lot of people only use the extremes, 1 star or 5 star, for simple "like" "didn't like" which is kind of a dick move because it isn't very honest and messes with the average rating. For me, 3 stars is a good book. It didn't blow me away, I probably won't think about it much if at all after I finish it, but I had a good time reading it. As such, a lot of what I read gets a 3. But that doesn't mean someone shouldn't read it or it was a bad book. It was just a normal good book.
I almost exclusively use Goodreads to keep track of the books I read. Lately, I have put interest into seeing how many people have read/reviewed a book since it gives me vague sense of popularity and I am interested in reading some lesser known fantasy books lately. I have not used any of the community aspects of it but it is something I might look into.
Useful for tracking what you’ve read and finding books you might want to read. Listopia can be useful too. I do join the Goodreads annual challenges & set targets BUT I also don’t hesitate to change that target if my circumstances/the amount of time I actually have free for reading, changes. Last year on furlough & in lockdown I got through 3 x more books than normal. This year, employed again, the target’s not so high! Totally agree about the navigation. On ratings - I don’t follow trends, it’s whether or not I like the look of the topic/plot, unless a lot of the actual reviews are bad. I don’t leave many reviews, it depends on the book.
I like the list feature and adding books that you may want to read to the "to be read" area and I don't like when you make a reading goal for the year it tells you how many books you are behind.
I use Goodreads for so many things. I track what I read and what I want to read, of course, but that just the tip of the iceberg for me. I love book challenges and there are so many options for that. I love their lists, even though their search function for them is the WORST. (I actually google what I want and usually find a goodreads link there. Ridiculous that I have to do that.) I also have a huge (HUGE!) pile of unread books and I put them all on goodreads shelves to make it easier to track them. (I'm kind of obsessed with the shelves.) The review system is not the best, but like you said, read a variety of reviews before making a decision. Use it intelligently. Don't let an arbitrary number determine whether or not you will read a book. I'm so jealous of people that are able to use goodreads from a young age. I would love to have a record of every book I've read.
All the reasons you use Goodreads are why I still think it’s a beneficial website to have! Also, yes, the search function is awful 😅 And I agree; it would’ve been so fun to use it as a kid!
I like goodreads as a source of information. I am often looking to see what books are in a series, or what else an author has written. My star rating is based on my enjoyment. When I started goodreads I wasn't giving star ratings, but then I discovered that when looking through a group shelf, my star rating is the best way to quickly see which books I have already read. Goodreads is also great for keeping track of what I have read. I wish I had started keeping a reading journal in 1965 when I started reading, because it is difficult to remember all the books I have read. My goodreads read list is only accurate for the last 4 years. Everything before that is guesswork. When deciding if I want to read a book the tags are very useful. I will choose science fiction over fantasy, and literary fiction over young adult. If everyone is raving about a book, but I see it tagged as young adult I will probably skip it. The young adult category is a little strange for me, since there was no Internet when I was young, and I just read whatever I found in the school library that looked interesting, ignoring the librarian when she told me that a book was for older children. There were no bookstores or other libraries out in the country, but we did get library books by mail from the University library in the near by city.
Totally agree with you on all your points ! I would have one other con but it is more personal. I think my con would go with the diversity point. I use Goodreads a lot for recommendations but since I started using it, I read a lot more in English and a lot less in French (my native language). I have difficulties finding recommendations for French books. Even if people from all around the world are using Goodreads, popular groups, lists, discussions mostly features books from native English speakers and since the navigation system isn't the best it is kind of difficult to find recommendation for books written by non-native English speaker. It's my personal feeling but maybe I'm just not using it correctly...
I agree so much, especially about people rating books that aren’t yet released 🙄 I used to get hung up on Goodreads star ratings when choosing books until I nearly discounted a certain historical fiction book, then saw that many people rating it 1 star were mad about the mc being a lesbian... definitely made me reconsider how much I let other people’s ratings affect what I read
You make an interesting point about those who rate without reading. I’m not sure how you’d be able to prove that someone had the book though. Maybe by scanning the barcode if it’s physical or the app knowing you have the book if it’s digital? What about audiobooks though? It’s a difficult thing to figure out since there are so many ways someone could be reading the book. You mentioned receipts, but as someone who primarily reads library books or arcs, I would never qualify under that standard because I rarely buy books myself.
I really wish they'd stop letting people rate books before the release date. Unless they have a way of verifying who got an arc then those ratings are just biased for or against the book.
I primarily use goodreads to track my books. The star ratings are meh. I've also been on it for so long that I've cultivated a trusted list of people's opinions that I agree with based on similar tastes. That, and I'm a librarian on it too and it's infinitely satisfying updating and correcting Metadata 😁
Mellissa, same here. On goodreads, there are about a dozen or so folks who, over the course of about 6 years, I've learned to trust that 1) they read the book and 2) there reviews will be honest and 3) if we absolutely disagree, we can have a great and civil discussion. On the other hand, those books that 'win' awards at the end of the year? I've ran statistics on the numbers: they are often statistically impossible.
i think goodreads works more as a social medium rather than as an aggregate: you mark people that match your taste or read reviews for books but always filtering them according to your taste. My main beef is the UI of the site and (more important) the app.
I use my Goodreads to track my reading lists and to follow people whose opinions I trust. I rate the books I read (sometimes they change) but I don't typically write reviews. I know what I like and what I don't but I'm not always good at articulating why (especially when it comes to non-fiction which I am hesitant to even rate much less review for fear of being (mis)judged).
You know Elliot, you actually brought up a very interesting point. Should a reader judge a book by what it's supposed to be or should the reader rate it from personal enjoyment? The first one seems better empirically. You can create structurally better reviews tailored to the content. The second one is worse in this aspect, because the same book can have different impacts on the same person in different points in time. So we lose the subjectivity of a rating due to the circumstances of a reader. But, I believe there is a lot of value to, let's say, an 16 year old ready shakespeare and giving it whatever rating it is, as long as it's genuine. It's the job of the person searching to be critical of the ratings. At the end of the day I think both ways should exist in tandem and only one way alone would never suffice for a complete review.
Limitations of the Goodreads rating system is what prompted me to start a book journal. I end up giving 3 stars on Goodreads to almost everything I read because the range is so small. In my journal I give separate ratings for different aspects of a book and use a 10-star system. I don't rate books if I feel I can't give a fair rating (I often choose not to rate middlegrade novels). Yesterday I spent half an hour looking for my stats. It was a struggle.
I agree with so many of your points! I would also add that I find the fact that it is apart of the Amazon imperium, which I don’t like just because that makes me were uncomfortable to be supporting them. Anyway, what I wanted to add is that I don’t mind so much when people link their video review on goodreads, since it affords me the opportunity to watch instead of read a review. I can imagine other people maybe not familiar with Booktube finding it through that. With that being said, I haven’t seen it happen a lot, so it probably hasn’t had the chance to annoy me
i love goodreads... it is my personal digital library... i am from the philippines... and books here esp. newly released ones are quite expensive... so i really scrutinize the books i buy... and goodreads book reviews are really helpful... when i read middle grade and ya books, i always consider the perspective of the "younger" me... and rate them accordingly... you've raised valid points... btw i really love your channel :)
I'm from Chile and I do the exact same thing! I buy primarily online and shipping is really expensive so I have to be really sure I'm going to like the book I buy, so Goodreads is a lifesaver, I just take my time to find reviews that resonate with my opinions.
I did start using Goodreads mainly to track the books I was reading back in 2010, now is much more than that, now I use the platform to see what to read next, mainly I have some friends (not many), that I follow to see what they are reading, and if the book is interesting I read some reviews of it, if I like what I see I go and read the book or add that to the the wishlist. The book clubs and the recommendations also help on piking a new book. I never was a good reader, well I didn't read at all before 2010 and I did have ins and outs in the past few years, and one of the things that did get me to read, the challenges, I do love a good challenge (I think that was because of my gaming addiction hehehe). About two months ago I discover the book-tubers (don't really know if that's the designation of it ) and now is a bit different, I see some youtube videos and see what people like and then Ill go to goodreads to see the reviews/stars. You can see how many voted 5/4/3/2/1 stars and normally above 2 I will read anything that I consider interesting, specially if its a not a well known book. What I can see in most of the books I like is people giving 1 star because they didn't like the book, excellent books rated with 1 star because its not the genre that the person like, or because it's to slow, doesn't have enough action, sex scenes or whatever controversy. I really like what your doing with your channel Elliot Brooks, keep up the good work because it's a wonderful service to the community :) Lots of information and debate mainly regarding fantasy.
Good points. I think the points you make about age diversity are pretty interesting and not ones I have really considered in terms of Goodreads. I use Goodreads to track my reading, to see what other's are reading, get recommendations and to keep track of new releases. I never go by average star rating alone but usually read a few reviews from both ends of the spectrum to get a sense of what makes people tune in and out, plus I pay attention to reviews from trusted reviewers of similar tastes. I primarily base my own ratings on enjoyment which is much dependent on context. Was I completely immersed when reading the book? Was I distracted? Was I in the right mood? Did I listen to on audiobook (adding a layer of interpretation not inherent in the book itself)? As for reviews, I agree with your self-promotion complaint, though I love when people leave a link to the specific review (not channel or blog) on alternativ platforms at the end of their Goodreads review. It's nice to have a direct way to access video reviews (or wrap-ups, vlogs or whatever), since finding reviews for a specific book on my faves' channels can be a hassle.
I am using Goodreads but only to track the number of books I read in a year. I also use an app called Bookly which also allows you to time your reading sessions. For me a system that takes the best of Goodreads and Bookly and has a better rating system would be the ideal.
The main reasons I will look at negative reviews is for trigger warnings I've picked up a book that I thought I would really like and the trigger wasn't mentioned and I dnf'd it and I use it to keep track of books I've read and want to read
I'm one of those who reads a high volume of books. Depending on my load at work, over the last 10 years my low was 70 or so and high was 154. That includes graphic novels and audiobooks, not just books, but it's still a lot. I mainly use Goodreads to track what I've read because a while back I got a book and spent half of it with deja vu before I was certain I had read it before. I give star ratings based on how much I liked the book and I generally don't even look at the average rating until I've finished the book. And yes, I hate the UI. And I keep thinking that one day I will go back and add all the books I read for the 25 years before I found Goodreads but who knows.
I have a Goodreads account but I dont keep it up to date. I mostly use it to figure out what book i should pick up for a long flight, or something similar. It would be cool if it synced up with Audible, because I always give at minimum a Star review there
I think Goodreads should show you the best and worst review like Google play does for its apps, you can see what people liked best, and disliked the most. As a fast reader, I've always wished I could read slower, and be in the book longer, and just savor it. But I've tried reading slower, I just end up reading a little bit fast. 😒 I actually still tend to use the 'old fashioned' method of deciding whether or not to read (I feel so new to the internet still😆), and if I end up not liking it, I'm not afraid to DNF it anymore, and at least now I know whether or not I like it.
Actually you can....sort of. If you scroll down to the “Community Reviews” and click on the “Rating details” a window will pop-up and you can choose to read only 1 star of 5 star reviews. It’s not user friendly but the option is there.
Bit of a stretch comparison, but I think Goodreads could take a hint from ratemyprofessors which has scores for level of difficulty, % that would take again, and then tags attached of things that might affect someone's enjoyment. (Not like the genre tags on Goodreads, but rather more specific aspects like extro/introvert protagonist, revenge-focused, worldbuilding, character-based, action-filled, political intrigue, etc. that readers could attach to a book for others' reference)
I appreciate your feedback especially on Goodreads I personally like Goodreads but on the other side of the token it can be poor in navigation I agree with you on that but I also would like to learn a little bit more about getting a better understanding
For me a big con is that you have to keep your books in the three main shelves. Like if I dnf a book I don’t want to have to keep it in my want to read, for example. Because obviously don’t want to read that book. And I don’t want to put it in read since I didn’t finish or keep it in currently reading either. It’d be nice if we could keep them in only our own shelves instead of the three main ones.
Occasionally I'll see a book that I truly enjoyed be given a bad review or low stars and it's a reminder to me, as you point out, not to allow those things to dictate all the books I select to read. Also, one of my issues with the five star system is that I want to reserve five stars for only those books that become my all time favorites, so my four star ratings mean I really enjoyed a book tremendously, and a three star was still fun to read. Other people give out 5 star ratings pretty liberally. I'd love if I could add or subtract half stars for more nuance. What I end up doing is not rating a book at all unless I have really strong feelings one way or the other.
I'm almost ashamed to admit I'm one of those who owns more books than I have read and feel like a fraud because of it. But over the last several years goodreads has helped me organize my titles like a library card catalog (god, I'm old!) and gradually read through them.
I use Goodreads for tracking my reading length and when I finished the book I write review, and use the Stars ⭐️ but sometimes times it’s get a little difficult to put a fair score. Love the Year Challenge also. But I don’t read the reviews because sometimes the only thing that you read first are only bad reviews no matter the book in question.
Star ratings generally have this problem that people have different standards or rating aspects. The only way to address this is a + - 0 rating I figure. Basically thumbs up or down or neutral. This way the average or median of a rating is much more comparable. Hate or fangirl votes have much less impact this way as well. It would be cool to have a very simple thumbs rating to generate the average but then a complex and detailed rating scheme to see at a glance what individual people think about different aspects of a book.
I love discussion videos! Okay, let's talk about those cons, here we go: 1. The lack of receipt was a good point that I had never considered. On the other hand, there are also 5-star ratings that are not based on the book itself, but reflect someone's anticipation for the next book by an author or in a series. I that way, you could say the reading community itself has taken care of that already. 2. The age thing is also a valid point, BUT I'm going to give an example: I am an adult who regularly reads YA. It so happens that you see some very mature, complex, plausible characters in some ya novels and then there are some very tropey-childlike voices in others. The comparison and contrast is inevitable. I may not belong in the target demographic when it strictly comes to age, but I regularly read in that genre, so I think my opinion is in a way informed and, thus, I can complain about it. That being said, I believe you were talking about something slightly different, e.g. people picking up YA expecting it to be adult, which creates illogically high expectations that the book did not promise to fulfil in the first place. Which I totally agree with. 3. The Goodreads goal actually puts you in the spot sometimes, overiding the setting-goals part and taking it to the level of competitive-reading. I thing we need to check ourseles on that point.
I love GRs so I don't agree on all your points. However, I agree that people need to look at the context around ratings. For instance, if a book has a low rating for being "too dark" or "too scary", then I actually want to read it more
I love Goodreads, but I think you're right, the type of reviewers and ratings could be monitored a little better. I also wish they had a "listened to" as well as a "read" shelf. I have a friend who has over 4,000 books on her "read" shelf, claims to be a slow reader, and I found out that 90% of those books were listened to on audible, and if she didn't like it, she'd stop listening no matter how far in, but still counted it as a "read" book. The only other thing I wish they would do is clean up some of the Listopia lists. For example, if the "100 Novels Everyone Should Read" has over 800 items in it, and of those items, it'll have "Romeo and Juliet" (play, not a novel) and then two items down will have, "Complete Works of Shakespeare" (1, mostly plays and sonnets, not novels, and 2, includes Romeo and Juliet, already listed). Wish they could clean those up for List Searching ease. Otherwise, I agree with your review! Good job!
Another thing about reading a book on on any type of format I need to see what the cover looks like and I would hope I could find the first book in the series and if it's good enough read it'll keep my interest and Above & Beyond I hope that I find a book that would literally be like that and if nothing else they're not going to keep my interest and I will not read it but I like the reviews quality over quantity is always best
I started using Litsy more for tracking and I like its rating system better. Instead of stars you can mark it a pick, so-so, pan or bail. If you like reading in depth reviews it may not be for you though because it has only a 450 character limit per post.
You can edit your reading activities on a book and set a new reading date after finishing ir or switch it back to currently reading while you read it. It will then add up to youe reading challenge and say you read it twice.
I enjoy Goodreads for tracking my reading progress and seeing what friends and family are reading. I also use it to see what sort of content is in a book. There’s not a content level rating system for books like there are for movies (G, PG, PG13, R) and is pretty much impossible to tell from the outside of a book what level of violence, language, steamy scenes, etc are inside. Plus we all have certain tropes we dislike and would prefer to avoid. I always read some two and three star reviews to see if what other people dislike about a book are the same sorts of things I dislike about a book. I end up giving very few one or two star reviews myself because I try to weed out most of the books that just aren’t for me.
Totally agree that Goodreads has poor navigation, they need to update their site! Other than that, I love Goodreads. Just wish it were easier to rearrange shelves.
I really like goodreads. I mainly use it though for keeping track of the books I've read and upcoming releases. It's also sometimes use their lists to find new books. I found a lot of great books there, which I probably wouldn't have picked up on my own. I rarely use the community aspect of goodreads though and I think navigation of the site on the phone is awful.
I use it for tracking primarily because I just haven't had the best experience with it over the years. I've tried reading reviews but anything over 3 stars tend to have way too effusive reviews which seems suspect, so I always end up reading through the 1-2 stars which seem to have more helpful details (people seem to be more honest when they're complaining lol). My biggest con with the site however, is that they still allow fanfiction reviews, which boggles my mind.
I use Goodreads almost exclusively to track what I read, when I read it and what I want to read. I do not do reviews. When I rate a book, it just means how much I liked the book. My rating has nothing to do without whether you will like the book or not. I hardly ever give a rating of 5 because, to me, that means that that book was among my all time favorite books that I have ever read. I’ve been reading books for over 70 years and only a very select few would fall in that category. Fortunately for me, the same would be true for a 1 rating. If a book were to fall in that category, it probably be apparent pretty early and it would fall in an entirely different category. Mainly, DNF. I have no idea how to use the community on Goodreads. I have people who have “friended” me and I get updates on what they are reading and what they think of those books, but, I don’t ever follow up on those updates or even know how to do so. Since I don’t do reviews and only rate books after I’ve read them, I have no idea what goes out to these “friends.”
I use Goodreads to track what I read and find out information about books in a series, future books, etc. and I like it for those aspects, but I do agree with you that there’s a lot of room for improvement, especially in the UI navigation area. I think Goodreads has a lot of potential and a good basic structure, but the developers are not making it as amazing as we all know it could be.
I admit, I’m one of those people that rarely read a book below 4 stars. I have so many on my tbr that I have to cut it off somewhere. But I do have a list below 3.8 stars that’s waiting for when I finally catch up. But for now it’s the only way I have of trimming it. But if it has like 3.8+ I treat it all the same unless it’s like 4.5 then I’m like “wait, let me see what the hype is about.”
The biggest con of goodreads is,in my opinion is that most of the 'intellectuals" on there despise HP Lovecraft for some reason.Maybe they don't comprehend his stories,maybe they think he's overrated or maybe they just hate him for certain of his 'extreme' opinions on people of different race and ethnicities(that shouldn't take anything away from his stories though).
I'm guilty of a few of these at some point in my years of using Goodreads. And it was mostly just me figuring out the best way that Goodreads can work for me personally. re: the diversity point - I think marketing plays a HUGE role in this. Sometimes publishers and the bookstores will market a book one way (e.g. YA vs adult) so people pick it up expecting something that it isn't. I remember when A Court of Thorns and Roses came out and bookstores everywhere had it shelved in YA when it clearly isn't.
One thing that I really didn't like is that I've seen people using it to harass the author. I saw people asking Patrick Rothfuss about book 3 on a review that he made on a comic book (not even related), I marked as SPAM and they removed it, but the spam just kept coming. I guess it can get annoying sometimes. One thing I like is that I can invite people that usually don't read, to create a Goodreads account and set a challenge, some of them really got motivated and that lead them into reading more.
Thanks to goodreads' recommendations I've found a lot of books, that were literally forgotten. Many of them I would never give less than 4 stars... But it's fine, whatever people want.
This is the same with any Rating website - google, yelp, anything.... ANYTHING.... I hate all of them. When some controversy comes up around a creator and then suddenly one stars reviews on their products or friends products fills me with rage. I hope we can get rid of this across ALL platforms
I use Goodreads to leave my star review and to keep track of books I've read/ want to read. I try not to rely heavily on the overall ratings of books anymore. You're right when you say there are people who don't rate objectively and that is a peeve of mine. Especially when the reviewer rates a book one star but then starts the review by listing all of the things they liked and really just didn't like one character...😑
If I do check star ratings on a book I’m interested in, I always read some of the reviews. Ratings, for anything, is subjective. I especially look at the 1 and 2 star reviews. If the problem they had with the book is not an issue that I have with books, then it’s likely to stay or go into my TBR. If it has just a few “one off” bad reviews, then I don’t typically bother reading them. In general, I prefer to form my own opinions without being tainted by others’
Con - The search function is broken... You start to type in a book title and the guesses are hilariously wrong. It almost seems that it is avoiding the right book. Pro - the scan feature (sure beats typing/searching for speed)
I wish Goodreads had a better (more extensive) genre system. That would make it easier to discover books and tell if a book might be for you. Cause we all know, sometimes those synopses are not all that descriptive.
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I use it mostly to track my own reading and record my star rating. I feel awkward writing reviews because I’m not particularly academic when it comes to reading, I want to escape reality and if the characters and plot are good I generally like the book. I also like to see what others are reading so that I can add to my want to read list.
I have to say, your reason for not wanting to review is really sweet and humble, and you just saying that means you’re more reasonable than many of the people who leave reviews 😆
I'm rarely consistent with my star ratings and reviews. Sometimes it's well thought out and objective, sometimes it's just OMG I LOVE THIS SO MUCH blah blah lol
As long as my opinion is quite positive though, I do like to just capture it in the moment.
Reviews don’t need to be academic at all. Mine aren’t. I just tend to write how I felt about the book and maybe some parts I did or didn’t like about it. It’s more for my memory’s sake so when I look back on the book years later I’ll remember why I did or didn’t like the book.
@@desertrose0601 Yeah exactly and I feel like this girl is shaming us for writing subjective reviews, and that's the reason a lot of people feel awkward or avoid writing them entirely. Heck yeah I'm gonna write a subjective review, it's my profile and my opinion, I never said I was a professional reviewer. It makes me sad when I see some of my Goodreads friends rate a book but not write a review because I want to know their SUBJECTIVE opinion. Reading objective book reviews would be boring.
You and me both
50-100 books a year? This makes me feel inferior. I'm happy if I finish 15-20 in a year.
Haha, whatever works for you is great 😄
Do the people that read a book a week count audiobooks as reading a book.
@@jamiejonah5320 I assume so, because why wouldn't you ?
That’s just 1 or 2 a week. It’s completely fine if you’re too busy to do that, but in the overall scheme of things that’s not really that much time reading. If you figure an average length novel might take 6 hrs to read, that’s basically an hour a day reading to hit a book a week.
Jamie 902209 Of course it counts. You’re ingesting every word of the book whether you hear it or see it. Makes no difference. And actually audiobooks take about twice as long to get through than a written book, so it cracks me up every time people say using audiobooks is cheating somehow. 😂 It’s just another way of reading, slower than just reading normally, but with some books it’s the best way to push through an otherwise dry or slow read.
I happen to love Goodreads. I'm a slow reader. However, I don't let it bother me when I see someone else has read 45,387 books!
I totally agree 😃. To each its' own.
45,387 books? That's seriously impressive.
Relevant to point number 1, one of the most-liked reviews on goodreads ever is Patrick Rothfuss leaving a review on the page for the third Kingkiller book which isn't even out yet saying, "look at how many time travelers have read my book that isn't even out yet! They've given it 5 stars!"
Hiii
Political books are the worst. They always get spammed by both supporters and opponents of whatever position is taken in the book.
@@colin1818 Well, of course. Because that's who's reading the book! I don't think that's avoidable and readers are generally aware that politics polarise and thus reviews do too.
@@crelgen1588 - "Well, of course. Because that's who's reading the book!"
Except they're not.
More often than not, a politically charged book will have a ton of 5 star and 1 star reviews. A huge portion of those people never read the book (especially amongst the 1 stars). It's just tribalism. People 'voting' based on their world view and not based on the merits of the book.
@@colin1818 That is very true! What I mean to say is that most people going into these books know why the reviews are either fawning or disparaging and imo unlikely to be deterred by it since it comes with the territory.
Omg I hate the self promotion reviews!
I'm an old person, I've read books since before internett, and honestly - when I first registred on goodreads I tried to list every book I've read, but I can't even remember them all, and most of the books I've read are the Norwegian translation, and not all of them are on goodreads. Because I'm a bit of a systemfreak, I wondered about take all my shelfed books out and have "all the books I've read since 2018" instead, since the shelfes are incorrect *lol*
I also started to rate books, but I found it difficult. I read for escapism, and rating just on how the book made me feel, seemed a bit superficial and insufficient, so I stopped rating.
I use goodreads for tracking what I've been reading, and what I want to read. I have lists over books I've read in some of my planners, but the goodread tracking system are better. I also do the goal-thing, but I adjust the numbers if I hit a reading slope - I have one this year, it seems I can't get out of it, and instead of letting the "you are 14 books behind schedule" stress me, I adjust the number. The goal is not to have read as many books as possible, but to enjoy the books I read, and I felt i didn't do that with the "behind schedule"-thingy.
I'm basically a ghost watcher everywhere :) here on youtube I rarely comment and the same is true for GoodReads - I rarely comment on other people's reviews, I just use the website to track my books and to keep lists of upcoming releases etc... but I basically agree with everything you said!
My friend and I both have a similar star rating system: 5 means we loved it and will read it again, 4 means it was good but not the best and we probably won't read it again, 3 means someone may like it but we sure didn't, 2 means it was bad bad bad but had like one redeeming thing, and 1 means it's trash. However, I will watch youtubers who say all these super positive things about books and then only give the book 3 stars and for me that does not compute. I've come to realize that everyone has a different rating system so it's better to focus on what the person liked and disliked vs. the star rating.
Love your system, 5 stars mean I'm going to read it again or have read it more than once. 4 means almost 5 stars. 3 means it was okay, I liked it. 2 means I've read worse. 1 means, well, imo, the worst. And there is nothing bad about a 3 star rating!
I'm also one of those people who use goodreads pretty much only for tracking. I think goodreads isn't all that bad but it has a lot of room for improvement 😆
I've accidentally given a book 4 stars when I was just trying to read the synopsis and I didnt know how to take the rating back but I couldn't figure it out so there's a book out there from me that's rated that I never read 😕😕
Hahaha, that’s actually pretty funny 😆
@@thelasthandbook6704 it's on my phone and I don't know much about the app. I dont really use it.
@@Ivielynn123 Whenever I need to do something on Goodreads that the app doesn't allow, I log in on the Safari app and "request desktop site" (this is at least an option with iPhones) and then you can go to the book, scroll down to "my activity" and click "edit review" and then at the bottom of the review page there's an option to remove from your books. Hopefully that helps. There are way too many things on Goodreads that you have to manually fix.
Just click the star you wanted it to be. It’ll adjust itself.
I wholeheartedly agree about the star system. It lacks nuance and context. I (begrudgingly) submit to the star system on platforms like goodreads or book vendors, because a flawed review system is better than none, but that is also why I like platforms like booktube, where more in-depth critique can be found.
Yes, agreed! I’m very guilty of putting too much weight into star ratings, but I wish I wasn’t 😅 I try to at least look at reviews though. I would like it so much more if we rated individual elements of a book and then it averaged that.
@@ebnovels, agreed! For what it's worth I am guilty of judging books by star ratings, too.
Rating a book 1 star before it's even out. Not cool, man.
It’s very lame!
Even after I read a book. I feel bad giving it less than 3 stars. If it is under. I really hated it. My average this year is 3.60.
Man it annoyed me to no end when I saw that the novelization for both LA Mulan and Aladdin were out last year/this year and people rated it 1 star before they even came out- Aladdin because it obviously sucks because it's live action and there is no Robin Williams (though that one has been out for a few months so the rating is up now) and Mulan because it's another live action movie so it must suck - I just hope that it's ratings change once it comes out :(
@@albertelnen9144 my average is like about 3.6 to 3.7 Smth
I wish there was a way to “shelve” books that you either lost interest in or DNFed without it affecting your reading goal.
Amanda Marie omg this, I’m literally having this problem rn bc I’ve DNFed Ninth House😓
You can just create a new shelf and name it Dnfed books or something?
Have you seen Rincey’s review of Goodreads? She suggests how one can make a permanent shelf and name it DNF. She also posted the instructions for how to do that.
I created a not for me want to read list and it helps
I created an “abandoned” shelf and marked it exclusive so whenever I lose interest in a book that’s where it goes. You can just search a how-to on Google it’s pretty simple
I 100% agree about how bad the navigation of the site is. One of my favourite features is the book stats (books/pages read per month), but it's so hidden I didn't know about it for agaes. Also, there was a feature that listed your most read authors but Goodreads got rid of it because not that many people used it. If it was easier to find people would use it.
I use it only to track what I've read and what books I own. That's it, but there's also no way to distinguish between those two on GR. I wish there were.
Beyond that, yeah, I've never used any of the features beyond tracking what I'm reading and marking them done. I don't obsessively update what page I'm on or try to read as fast as possible; it's just a tracking tool.
Yes! But I’m sooooooguilty of being addicted to checking GR all the time!
However......
I recently found a gently used book at a thrift shop here in AZ and felt that old magical feeling of finding a gem of a book and getting excited to read it because of its synopsis and because it was a large floppy paperback to boot! Ha! I pulled my phone out to check its reviews on Goodreads but stopped myself this time. I didn’t want to be let down or disappointed about what other people thought of this book. I just wanted that old fashioned way of finding out for myself! Now that was literally 2 days ago and need to finish other books before getting to this mysterious new book. But I’m still so intrigued by it! I just miss this feeling of finding a great book. For this book I’ll stay away from GR until I finish the book and only then will I see where my Uninfluenced opinion lies. I wonder if a lot of the people/reviewers I follow have read it and liked it as well?
This is my project.
If it goes well, I will probably keep doing this when I come across new books! Well, i don’t know about you, but I’m excited about it! 😜
Thanks for reading. 📖📚
Thanks for your honest videos.
✌🏻
Loved this discussion. I have only started using Goodreads in the past year or so. I agree with so many of these. The reading goal function is one I have a love hate relationship with it encourages me to read more but I agree it can be used to put people down and sometimes I feel bad about my reading speed etc as I compare myself to others.
To me, the most useful way to use Goodreads is to follow people you look up to or respect in some field, to see what they read. I follow successful entrepreneurs, and I think I could quantify the ROI on doing so. Extremely useful in that sense.
Not sure this can apply to fiction readers, but if your goal for reading is learning, I'd highly recommend this.
I really only use Goodreads for tracking what I've read and keeping a TBR, honestly without goodreads help I would never remember all the awesome books I hear about! I also use it to help improve my book reviewing skills and so I have thoughts to refer back to when filming my monthly wrap ups. Great video as always, super insightful and helpful 😊
Same.
I find navigating Goodreads soo difficult! It's so hard to search for people and to add books to your owned shelf without having read it? Also when people say a 2 star book is okay that annoys me, 1 and 2 star should be negative and 4 and 5 should be good. Anyway that's my rant, great video 😂
Great points, Elliot. I enjoy reading others' reviews on Goodreads as well. There is gold in many of the reviews. Die-hard readers tend to write thoughtful reviews, which give gloss and different insights. It's a collaborative growth experience. Keep up the good work.
"...empathy and understanding..." ---> YOU NAILED ITT.
These are all valid points. As a fellow GRer I have seen the behaviors that you mentioned. But the folks that fo this also provide some very interesting views and insights. Overall, I really liked the video! Thanks
I use goodreads, and actually I don't really look at star ratings, I prefer looking at the highest rating reviews and the lowest rating reviews before considering buying a book. And in fact, I mostly get books from a bookstore/library just because the blurb makes it seem interesting :P
You made some really good points! Especially on mobile the navigation is horrible. And I also wish goodreads had half star ratings.
The tracking part is my main reason for using GoodReads because i keep forgetting all the books i read/listened to, and it makes the whole concept of TBR a lot easier.
I live tracking my books and reading reviews.
I personally love goodreads since I tend to use it for more than just reviewing but I do agree with a bunch of your cons. I even filmed a video recently about how I’ve been struggling with star ratings recently because the number rating can mean something different to everyone and it’s hard to reduce a book to a single number. I also HATE when people rate books they haven’t read yet, whether they’re doing it negatively or positively. I think it’s important to read reviews instead of going by the average rating!
No single thing has helped me with reading more and being a better educated reader than goodreads. The search engine algorithm is terrible yes, but Thanks to good reads Ive doubled -tripled my reading. Its helped me immeasurably with finding new books, authors, and being able to research to save time with series order and volumes I was unaware of and most importantly from reading books that I would not like but the cover or blurb would have sucked me into buying it thinking it was something it was not. I can go to goodreads read reviews, and discover if thats a book that is actually for me. I love goodreads, its not perfect but my god the amount of positive you get for free is truly a gift for readers.
Hey Elliott. I totally agree with the majority of these pros and cons. I hate when I finish a book that I totally fall in love with, only to find that it is rated low on GR. I think you should do a video on your favorite low rated novels.
yessss the reason i signed up for Goodreads was so i could keep track of books and find more books to read!! last summer i got a library card and wanted to start reading and had no idea where to start. i picked up a RANDOM self-help book and didn't even read a single page. i found out about Goodreads and started finding loads of books that i eventually loved !!!
Not only am I surprised I watched your whole video, I'm surprised I liked it. Good job. I am new goodreads and this was very informative .
I totally agree with the frustrations on star ratings. That’s why I refuse to even look at the star ratings until I’ve finished the book or if I was thinking of unhauling a book I haven’t read. My favorite part is just having an easy way to track my library and reading.
I totally agree about the quantity over quality thing. It’s soooo apparent in wrap ups too. Like if you didn’t read 10+ books it wasn’t a good reading month (ya know) I now care so much more about liking books as opposed to reading a bunch of books I didn’t like.
I haven’t used Goodread for a couple of years other than for looking up books, but not for tracking reading
I definitely agree, the website is hard to navigate
One of the main reasons why I dont use it, is because we all rate in different ways , for some people 3stars is a good one, for others 3 is a bad book, so really the rating is just not that convenient
the first one is so true!! and it makes it so easy for people to hate on authors/books by just giving a book 1 star for no reason besides not like the author or the synopsis!!
Your hair was fabulous in this video.
Ugh, that rating thing is such a problem, I agree. Everyone has a different metric for how they rate. A lot of people only use the extremes, 1 star or 5 star, for simple "like" "didn't like" which is kind of a dick move because it isn't very honest and messes with the average rating. For me, 3 stars is a good book. It didn't blow me away, I probably won't think about it much if at all after I finish it, but I had a good time reading it. As such, a lot of what I read gets a 3. But that doesn't mean someone shouldn't read it or it was a bad book. It was just a normal good book.
I almost exclusively use Goodreads to keep track of the books I read.
Lately, I have put interest into seeing how many people have read/reviewed a book since it gives me vague sense of popularity and I am interested in reading some lesser known fantasy books lately. I have not used any of the community aspects of it but it is something I might look into.
Excellent video, very detailed, and I love the way you talk and your thoughts ❤️
Useful for tracking what you’ve read and finding books you might want to read. Listopia can be useful too. I do join the Goodreads annual challenges & set targets BUT I also don’t hesitate to change that target if my circumstances/the amount of time I actually have free for reading, changes. Last year on furlough & in lockdown I got through 3 x more books than normal. This year, employed again, the target’s not so high! Totally agree about the navigation. On ratings - I don’t follow trends, it’s whether or not I like the look of the topic/plot, unless a lot of the actual reviews are bad. I don’t leave many reviews, it depends on the book.
I like the list feature and adding books that you may want to read to the "to be read" area and I don't like when you make a reading goal for the year it tells you how many books you are behind.
I use Goodreads for so many things. I track what I read and what I want to read, of course, but that just the tip of the iceberg for me. I love book challenges and there are so many options for that. I love their lists, even though their search function for them is the WORST. (I actually google what I want and usually find a goodreads link there. Ridiculous that I have to do that.) I also have a huge (HUGE!) pile of unread books and I put them all on goodreads shelves to make it easier to track them. (I'm kind of obsessed with the shelves.) The review system is not the best, but like you said, read a variety of reviews before making a decision. Use it intelligently. Don't let an arbitrary number determine whether or not you will read a book.
I'm so jealous of people that are able to use goodreads from a young age. I would love to have a record of every book I've read.
All the reasons you use Goodreads are why I still think it’s a beneficial website to have! Also, yes, the search function is awful 😅 And I agree; it would’ve been so fun to use it as a kid!
I’m just over here still waiting for half stars to be an option
Sameee like half of the books I read are half stars and not fully 2 or 3 or 4 so I just have to Smth like
Actual rating- 4.5
I like goodreads as a source of information. I am often looking to see what books are in a series, or what else an author has written. My star rating is based on my enjoyment. When I started goodreads I wasn't giving star ratings, but then I discovered that when looking through a group shelf, my star rating is the best way to quickly see which books I have already read. Goodreads is also great for keeping track of what I have read. I wish I had started keeping a reading journal in 1965 when I started reading, because it is difficult to remember all the books I have read. My goodreads read list is only accurate for the last 4 years. Everything before that is guesswork. When deciding if I want to read a book the tags are very useful. I will choose science fiction over fantasy, and literary fiction over young adult. If everyone is raving about a book, but I see it tagged as young adult I will probably skip it. The young adult category is a little strange for me, since there was no Internet when I was young, and I just read whatever I found in the school library that looked interesting, ignoring the librarian when she told me that a book was for older children. There were no bookstores or other libraries out in the country, but we did get library books by mail from the University library in the near by city.
Totally agree with you on all your points ! I would have one other con but it is more personal. I think my con would go with the diversity point. I use Goodreads a lot for recommendations but since I started using it, I read a lot more in English and a lot less in French (my native language). I have difficulties finding recommendations for French books. Even if people from all around the world are using Goodreads, popular groups, lists, discussions mostly features books from native English speakers and since the navigation system isn't the best it is kind of difficult to find recommendation for books written by non-native English speaker. It's my personal feeling but maybe I'm just not using it correctly...
I agree so much, especially about people rating books that aren’t yet released 🙄 I used to get hung up on Goodreads star ratings when choosing books until I nearly discounted a certain historical fiction book, then saw that many people rating it 1 star were mad about the mc being a lesbian... definitely made me reconsider how much I let other people’s ratings affect what I read
You make an interesting point about those who rate without reading. I’m not sure how you’d be able to prove that someone had the book though. Maybe by scanning the barcode if it’s physical or the app knowing you have the book if it’s digital? What about audiobooks though? It’s a difficult thing to figure out since there are so many ways someone could be reading the book. You mentioned receipts, but as someone who primarily reads library books or arcs, I would never qualify under that standard because I rarely buy books myself.
I really wish they'd stop letting people rate books before the release date. Unless they have a way of verifying who got an arc then those ratings are just biased for or against the book.
I primarily use goodreads to track my books. The star ratings are meh. I've also been on it for so long that I've cultivated a trusted list of people's opinions that I agree with based on similar tastes. That, and I'm a librarian on it too and it's infinitely satisfying updating and correcting Metadata 😁
Mellissa, same here. On goodreads, there are about a dozen or so folks who, over the course of about 6 years, I've learned to trust that 1) they read the book and 2) there reviews will be honest and 3) if we absolutely disagree, we can have a great and civil discussion. On the other hand, those books that 'win' awards at the end of the year? I've ran statistics on the numbers: they are often statistically impossible.
i think goodreads works more as a social medium rather than as an aggregate: you mark people that match your taste or read reviews for books but always filtering them according to your taste. My main beef is the UI of the site and (more important) the app.
I really like the idea of this video. I agreed with pretty much everything you said. Great video as always!
My biggest issue is a read a lot of novel-length fan-fiction that doesn't count for Goodreads and the books read per year goal.
I believe the author just has to submit it though, so you could always request the author to do that so it would count on there.
I use my Goodreads to track my reading lists and to follow people whose opinions I trust. I rate the books I read (sometimes they change) but I don't typically write reviews. I know what I like and what I don't but I'm not always good at articulating why (especially when it comes to non-fiction which I am hesitant to even rate much less review for fear of being (mis)judged).
You know Elliot, you actually brought up a very interesting point. Should a reader judge a book by what it's supposed to be or should the reader rate it from personal enjoyment? The first one seems better empirically. You can create structurally better reviews tailored to the content. The second one is worse in this aspect, because the same book can have different impacts on the same person in different points in time. So we lose the subjectivity of a rating due to the circumstances of a reader. But, I believe there is a lot of value to, let's say, an 16 year old ready shakespeare and giving it whatever rating it is, as long as it's genuine. It's the job of the person searching to be critical of the ratings. At the end of the day I think both ways should exist in tandem and only one way alone would never suffice for a complete review.
Limitations of the Goodreads rating system is what prompted me to start a book journal. I end up giving 3 stars on Goodreads to almost everything I read because the range is so small. In my journal I give separate ratings for different aspects of a book and use a 10-star system.
I don't rate books if I feel I can't give a fair rating (I often choose not to rate middlegrade novels).
Yesterday I spent half an hour looking for my stats. It was a struggle.
I agree with so many of your points! I would also add that I find the fact that it is apart of the Amazon imperium, which I don’t like just because that makes me were uncomfortable to be supporting them.
Anyway, what I wanted to add is that I don’t mind so much when people link their video review on goodreads, since it affords me the opportunity to watch instead of read a review. I can imagine other people maybe not familiar with Booktube finding it through that. With that being said, I haven’t seen it happen a lot, so it probably hasn’t had the chance to annoy me
i love goodreads... it is my personal digital library...
i am from the philippines... and books here esp. newly released ones are quite expensive... so i really scrutinize the books i buy... and goodreads book reviews are really helpful...
when i read middle grade and ya books, i always consider the perspective of the "younger" me... and rate them accordingly...
you've raised valid points... btw i really love your channel :)
I'm from Chile and I do the exact same thing! I buy primarily online and shipping is really expensive so I have to be really sure I'm going to like the book I buy, so Goodreads is a lifesaver, I just take my time to find reviews that resonate with my opinions.
I did start using Goodreads mainly to track the books I was reading back in 2010, now is much more than that, now I use the platform to see what to read next, mainly I have some friends (not many), that I follow to see what they are reading, and if the book is interesting I read some reviews of it, if I like what I see I go and read the book or add that to the the wishlist. The book clubs and the recommendations also help on piking a new book.
I never was a good reader, well I didn't read at all before 2010 and I did have ins and outs in the past few years, and one of the things that did get me to read, the challenges, I do love a good challenge (I think that was because of my gaming addiction hehehe). About two months ago I discover the book-tubers (don't really know if that's the designation of it ) and now is a bit different, I see some youtube videos and see what people like and then Ill go to goodreads to see the reviews/stars. You can see how many voted 5/4/3/2/1 stars and normally above 2 I will read anything that I consider interesting, specially if its a not a well known book.
What I can see in most of the books I like is people giving 1 star because they didn't like the book, excellent books rated with 1 star because its not the genre that the person like, or because it's to slow, doesn't have enough action, sex scenes or whatever controversy.
I really like what your doing with your channel Elliot Brooks, keep up the good work because it's a wonderful service to the community :) Lots of information and debate mainly regarding fantasy.
Good points. I think the points you make about age diversity are pretty interesting and not ones I have really considered in terms of Goodreads. I use Goodreads to track my reading, to see what other's are reading, get recommendations and to keep track of new releases. I never go by average star rating alone but usually read a few reviews from both ends of the spectrum to get a sense of what makes people tune in and out, plus I pay attention to reviews from trusted reviewers of similar tastes. I primarily base my own ratings on enjoyment which is much dependent on context. Was I completely immersed when reading the book? Was I distracted? Was I in the right mood? Did I listen to on audiobook (adding a layer of interpretation not inherent in the book itself)? As for reviews, I agree with your self-promotion complaint, though I love when people leave a link to the specific review (not channel or blog) on alternativ platforms at the end of their Goodreads review. It's nice to have a direct way to access video reviews (or wrap-ups, vlogs or whatever), since finding reviews for a specific book on my faves' channels can be a hassle.
I am using Goodreads but only to track the number of books I read in a year. I also use an app called Bookly which also allows you to time your reading sessions. For me a system that takes the best of Goodreads and Bookly and has a better rating system would be the ideal.
The main reasons I will look at negative reviews is for trigger warnings I've picked up a book that I thought I would really like and the trigger wasn't mentioned and I dnf'd it and I use it to keep track of books I've read and want to read
I'm one of those who reads a high volume of books. Depending on my load at work, over the last 10 years my low was 70 or so and high was 154. That includes graphic novels and audiobooks, not just books, but it's still a lot. I mainly use Goodreads to track what I've read because a while back I got a book and spent half of it with deja vu before I was certain I had read it before. I give star ratings based on how much I liked the book and I generally don't even look at the average rating until I've finished the book.
And yes, I hate the UI. And I keep thinking that one day I will go back and add all the books I read for the 25 years before I found Goodreads but who knows.
I have a Goodreads account but I dont keep it up to date. I mostly use it to figure out what book i should pick up for a long flight, or something similar.
It would be cool if it synced up with Audible, because I always give at minimum a Star review there
I think Goodreads should show you the best and worst review like Google play does for its apps, you can see what people liked best, and disliked the most.
As a fast reader, I've always wished I could read slower, and be in the book longer, and just savor it. But I've tried reading slower, I just end up reading a little bit fast. 😒
I actually still tend to use the 'old fashioned' method of deciding whether or not to read (I feel so new to the internet still😆), and if I end up not liking it, I'm not afraid to DNF it anymore, and at least now I know whether or not I like it.
Actually you can....sort of. If you scroll down to the “Community Reviews” and click on the “Rating details” a window will pop-up and you can choose to read only 1 star of 5 star reviews. It’s not user friendly but the option is there.
Bit of a stretch comparison, but I think Goodreads could take a hint from ratemyprofessors which has scores for level of difficulty, % that would take again, and then tags attached of things that might affect someone's enjoyment. (Not like the genre tags on Goodreads, but rather more specific aspects like extro/introvert protagonist, revenge-focused, worldbuilding, character-based, action-filled, political intrigue, etc. that readers could attach to a book for others' reference)
I appreciate your feedback especially on Goodreads I personally like Goodreads but on the other side of the token it can be poor in navigation I agree with you on that but I also would like to learn a little bit more about getting a better understanding
When it comes to making a book decision on star-reviews, I put more interest in what the one-stars have to say
Yup
For me a big con is that you have to keep your books in the three main shelves. Like if I dnf a book I don’t want to have to keep it in my want to read, for example. Because obviously don’t want to read that book. And I don’t want to put it in read since I didn’t finish or keep it in currently reading either. It’d be nice if we could keep them in only our own shelves instead of the three main ones.
I think it probably depends upon why you use the site! I mainly just use it to track my own personal reading!
Occasionally I'll see a book that I truly enjoyed be given a bad review or low stars and it's a reminder to me, as you point out, not to allow those things to dictate all the books I select to read. Also, one of my issues with the five star system is that I want to reserve five stars for only those books that become my all time favorites, so my four star ratings mean I really enjoyed a book tremendously, and a three star was still fun to read. Other people give out 5 star ratings pretty liberally. I'd love if I could add or subtract half stars for more nuance. What I end up doing is not rating a book at all unless I have really strong feelings one way or the other.
I'm almost ashamed to admit I'm one of those who owns more books than I have read and feel like a fraud because of it. But over the last several years goodreads has helped me organize my titles like a library card catalog (god, I'm old!) and gradually read through them.
I use Goodreads for tracking my reading length and when I finished the book I write review, and use the Stars ⭐️ but sometimes times it’s get a little difficult to put a fair score. Love the Year Challenge also. But I don’t read the reviews because sometimes the only thing that you read first are only bad reviews no matter the book in question.
Star ratings generally have this problem that people have different standards or rating aspects. The only way to address this is a + - 0 rating I figure. Basically thumbs up or down or neutral. This way the average or median of a rating is much more comparable. Hate or fangirl votes have much less impact this way as well. It would be cool to have a very simple thumbs rating to generate the average but then a complex and detailed rating scheme to see at a glance what individual people think about different aspects of a book.
I love discussion videos! Okay, let's talk about those cons, here we go:
1. The lack of receipt was a good point that I had never considered. On the other hand, there are also 5-star ratings that are not based on the book itself, but reflect someone's anticipation for the next book by an author or in a series. I that way, you could say the reading community itself has taken care of that already.
2. The age thing is also a valid point, BUT I'm going to give an example: I am an adult who regularly reads YA. It so happens that you see some very mature, complex, plausible characters in some ya novels and then there are some very tropey-childlike voices in others. The comparison and contrast is inevitable. I may not belong in the target demographic when it strictly comes to age, but I regularly read in that genre, so I think my opinion is in a way informed and, thus, I can complain about it.
That being said, I believe you were talking about something slightly different, e.g. people picking up YA expecting it to be adult, which creates illogically high expectations that the book did not promise to fulfil in the first place. Which I totally agree with.
3. The Goodreads goal actually puts you in the spot sometimes, overiding the setting-goals part and taking it to the level of competitive-reading. I thing we need to check ourseles on that point.
I love GRs so I don't agree on all your points. However, I agree that people need to look at the context around ratings. For instance, if a book has a low rating for being "too dark" or "too scary", then I actually want to read it more
I love Goodreads, but I think you're right, the type of reviewers and ratings could be monitored a little better. I also wish they had a "listened to" as well as a "read" shelf. I have a friend who has over 4,000 books on her "read" shelf, claims to be a slow reader, and I found out that 90% of those books were listened to on audible, and if she didn't like it, she'd stop listening no matter how far in, but still counted it as a "read" book. The only other thing I wish they would do is clean up some of the Listopia lists. For example, if the "100 Novels Everyone Should Read" has over 800 items in it, and of those items, it'll have "Romeo and Juliet" (play, not a novel) and then two items down will have, "Complete Works of Shakespeare" (1, mostly plays and sonnets, not novels, and 2, includes Romeo and Juliet, already listed). Wish they could clean those up for List Searching ease. Otherwise, I agree with your review! Good job!
Another thing about reading a book on on any type of format I need to see what the cover looks like and I would hope I could find the first book in the series and if it's good enough read it'll keep my interest and Above & Beyond I hope that I find a book that would literally be like that and if nothing else they're not going to keep my interest and I will not read it but I like the reviews quality over quantity is always best
I started using Litsy more for tracking and I like its rating system better. Instead of stars you can mark it a pick, so-so, pan or bail. If you like reading in depth reviews it may not be for you though because it has only a 450 character limit per post.
Navigation is frustrating and I reread books and idk how to add those to my reading goal
You can edit your reading activities on a book and set a new reading date after finishing ir or switch it back to currently reading while you read it. It will then add up to youe reading challenge and say you read it twice.
I enjoy Goodreads for tracking my reading progress and seeing what friends and family are reading. I also use it to see what sort of content is in a book. There’s not a content level rating system for books like there are for movies (G, PG, PG13, R) and is pretty much impossible to tell from the outside of a book what level of violence, language, steamy scenes, etc are inside. Plus we all have certain tropes we dislike and would prefer to avoid. I always read some two and three star reviews to see if what other people dislike about a book are the same sorts of things I dislike about a book. I end up giving very few one or two star reviews myself because I try to weed out most of the books that just aren’t for me.
That’s a very productive use of Goodreads. I suppose it could fall into informative, but I honestly could’ve made a whole point about that 😆
Totally agree that Goodreads has poor navigation, they need to update their site! Other than that, I love Goodreads. Just wish it were easier to rearrange shelves.
I only get books you or Merphy recommend. Finishing Way of Kings and just ordered Gentleman Bastards book 1.
I really like goodreads. I mainly use it though for keeping track of the books I've read and upcoming releases. It's also sometimes use their lists to find new books. I found a lot of great books there, which I probably wouldn't have picked up on my own.
I rarely use the community aspect of goodreads though and I think navigation of the site on the phone is awful.
I use it for tracking primarily because I just haven't had the best experience with it over the years. I've tried reading reviews but anything over 3 stars tend to have way too effusive reviews which seems suspect, so I always end up reading through the 1-2 stars which seem to have more helpful details (people seem to be more honest when they're complaining lol). My biggest con with the site however, is that they still allow fanfiction reviews, which boggles my mind.
I use Goodreads almost exclusively to track what I read, when I read it and what I want to read. I do not do reviews. When I rate a book, it just means how much I liked the book. My rating has nothing to do without whether you will like the book or not. I hardly ever give a rating of 5 because, to me, that means that that book was among my all time favorite books that I have ever read. I’ve been reading books for over 70 years and only a very select few would fall in that category. Fortunately for me, the same would be true for a 1 rating. If a book were to fall in that category, it probably be apparent pretty early and it would fall in an entirely different category. Mainly, DNF.
I have no idea how to use the community on Goodreads. I have people who have “friended” me and I get updates on what they are reading and what they think of those books, but, I don’t ever follow up on those updates or even know how to do so. Since I don’t do reviews and only rate books after I’ve read them, I have no idea what goes out to these “friends.”
I use Goodreads is to check for triggers in books :)
Pretty much lol, if I'm scared of a book because of what it might have in it, I look at reviews to see if it'll scar me or not. XD
HONEST REVIEW LIKE THIS IS RARE AND VERY PURE THANKS FOR THAT MAAM LOVE FROM INDIA
I use Goodreads to track what I read and find out information about books in a series, future books, etc. and I like it for those aspects, but I do agree with you that there’s a lot of room for improvement, especially in the UI navigation area. I think Goodreads has a lot of potential and a good basic structure, but the developers are not making it as amazing as we all know it could be.
I admit, I’m one of those people that rarely read a book below 4 stars. I have so many on my tbr that I have to cut it off somewhere. But I do have a list below 3.8 stars that’s waiting for when I finally catch up. But for now it’s the only way I have of trimming it. But if it has like 3.8+ I treat it all the same unless it’s like 4.5 then I’m like “wait, let me see what the hype is about.”
The biggest con of goodreads is,in my opinion is that most of the 'intellectuals" on there despise HP Lovecraft for some reason.Maybe they don't comprehend his stories,maybe they think he's overrated or maybe they just hate him for certain of his 'extreme' opinions on people of different race and ethnicities(that shouldn't take anything away from his stories though).
I'm guilty of a few of these at some point in my years of using Goodreads. And it was mostly just me figuring out the best way that Goodreads can work for me personally.
re: the diversity point - I think marketing plays a HUGE role in this. Sometimes publishers and the bookstores will market a book one way (e.g. YA vs adult) so people pick it up expecting something that it isn't. I remember when A Court of Thorns and Roses came out and bookstores everywhere had it shelved in YA when it clearly isn't.
One thing that I really didn't like is that I've seen people using it to harass the author. I saw people asking Patrick Rothfuss about book 3 on a review that he made on a comic book (not even related), I marked as SPAM and they removed it, but the spam just kept coming. I guess it can get annoying sometimes.
One thing I like is that I can invite people that usually don't read, to create a Goodreads account and set a challenge, some of them really got motivated and that lead them into reading more.
Thanks to goodreads' recommendations I've found a lot of books, that were literally forgotten. Many of them I would never give less than 4 stars... But it's fine, whatever people want.
This is the same with any Rating website - google, yelp, anything.... ANYTHING.... I hate all of them. When some controversy comes up around a creator and then suddenly one stars reviews on their products or friends products fills me with rage.
I hope we can get rid of this across ALL platforms
I use Goodreads to leave my star review and to keep track of books I've read/ want to read. I try not to rely heavily on the overall ratings of books anymore. You're right when you say there are people who don't rate objectively and that is a peeve of mine. Especially when the reviewer rates a book one star but then starts the review by listing all of the things they liked and really just didn't like one character...😑
If I do check star ratings on a book I’m interested in, I always read some of the reviews. Ratings, for anything, is subjective. I especially look at the 1 and 2 star reviews. If the problem they had with the book is not an issue that I have with books, then it’s likely to stay or go into my TBR. If it has just a few “one off” bad reviews, then I don’t typically bother reading them. In general, I prefer to form my own opinions without being tainted by others’
Con - The search function is broken... You start to type in a book title and the guesses are hilariously wrong. It almost seems that it is avoiding the right book. Pro - the scan feature (sure beats typing/searching for speed)
I'm that person who picks up a book not even reading the synopsis and then I'm like "why didn't anyone tell me this was about zombies I hate zombies"
I wish Goodreads had a better (more extensive) genre system. That would make it easier to discover books and tell if a book might be for you. Cause we all know, sometimes those synopses are not all that descriptive.