In case you live under a rock and hadn't heard the news, Goodreads is now owned by Amazon, that behemoth of a bookseller/tax evader/price cutter that everyone in the book world loves to hate. Following the acquisition, there was a lot of talk of what would happen over at Goodreads: would the platform change? What would Amazon do with all our DATA (probably use it to sell more things)? Would anti-Amazonians quit the platform? What are the alternatives?
Bookriot ran a lot of great coverage on the acquisition, how readers reacted, what it means for readers, for publishers, and for the world of social book networks, and the current alternatives to Goodreads (a list that has changed even in the last few months), and I'm not going to re-hash that all here. I'm going to admit that I contemplated deleting my Goodreads account, for a variety of reasons, but in the end, I just... can't.
I'm hooked. Not to the book-tracking aspect of Goodreads; my nerd-self has created a spreadsheet that tracks all the reading stats Goodreads tracks for me and then some, including my progress in my yearly reading goal, pages read, books abandoned, author gender, pub year, and more. And though I check the little "want to read" button on approximately 1 million titles a month, I rarely, if ever, go back to my "want to read" shelf when selecting my next read or browsing a book store (I prefer a much more organic method of organizing my TBR, in that I don't organize my TBR list really at all).
No, I'm hooked on the social aspect of the reviews, the prioritization of reviews by those I know versus those I do not. Though the star rating system has its downfalls, the beauty of stars and reviews on Goodreads is that I can read these reviews in the context of a friend or fellow blogger's preferences. If I know a friend likes light, beachy reads and hated Cloud Atlas... well, that's not really much of a surprise now, is it? And if a blogger I follow reads mostly literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, but recommends a romance novel as worth genre-jumping for, that recommendation is going to mean more for me and my tastes than a recommendation from a die-hard romance reader.
There are millions--literally--of books out there that I will never, ever get a chance to read. I cannot possibly read fast enough to keep up with the onslaught of new books I want to read each year, not to mention all the old books I learn about each day.
Other websites, including Amazon.com, have rating systems, but a rating without knowing the rater tells me nothing other than that a stranger may or may not have liked a book. While reviews from people I know can never guarantee that I will like a book, they at least up my chances. That is, after all, why all us book bloggers do what we do, isn't it?
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I'm pretty hooked, too. No plans to quit, even though I'm an Amazon disliker.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm not a huge fan of Amazon, but it is a good product.
DeleteI'm with you - I'm not spending any money on it, so I don't care that it's owned by Amazon. Just as long as it doesn't change... (Is that a big "if"?)
ReplyDeleteExactly - a free product is a free product. And it's a good free product.
DeleteI don't think it's a big IF at this point, though there was a TON of speculation when the acquisition was first announced.
I"ll stick with GR as long as any changes are ones I like. I've been there since 2007.
ReplyDeleteSame. I haven't seen many changes yet, and those I have noticed have been minimal. Frankly, I'm hoping they re-integrate with Amazon's search, because the current search functionality is kind of awful.
DeleteI'm the same way. I created a LibraryThing account after the whole Amazon hoopla, because they were offered for free, just in case there were major changes - but nothing seems to have changed much.
ReplyDeleteI have a LibraryThing account as well, but it's been inactive for years. I like it for recommendations and tagging and true book data, but it doesn't rival the social aspect of Goodreads for me.
DeleteI hope Goodreads stays the same because I love it so much. I'm actually very interested in hearing more about your spreadsheet...it sounds awesome! :-)
ReplyDeleteHappy to share it!
DeleteI think the knee-jerk reaction to Amazon's purchase of Goodreads was a bit more of a panic than it should have been. Ultimately, Goodreads hasn't changed yet (hopefully it won't), and for many people, the social and book-tracking qualities of it far outweigh any of the negatives... Goodreads essentially makes it easier for readers to get recommendations from reviewers they trust, and like you say, gives context to a lot of reviews.
ReplyDeleteYes, the reaction was swift and harsh, and so far, for little cause. Of course, I understand users not wanting to share any more data than necessary with Amazon because they are a behemoth and not always the least-evil of behemoths. But Goodreads does offer a great product for avid readers and the reading community.
DeleteWhen Amazon first bought GR I thought NOOOOOO! But then I calmed myself down ;) I decided to be cautiously optimistic that nothing would change. So far so good. It's such a great site and I hope it stays the way it is.
ReplyDeleteCautiously optimistic is well-put. So far, I'm ok with what I'm seeing!
DeleteI'm on GoodReads, but I've been on LibraryThing for about 5 years longer. I'm much more addicted to it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I do use (and like) LibraryThing, but I just never got as into it as Goodreads.
DeleteI was one of the vocal freakouts until I realized Amazon already has all my personal data and as long as they don't change the basic looks and functioning of Goodreads, I'm fine.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely- I trust the reviews from people I know (even if I've never met them in person!). I am also still laughing about you having a spreadsheet for your reading- I have one too!
I don't work for Amazon so I have no guarantee that this is true, but at the end of the day, Goodreads was a great investment for them precisely because they could mine the reader data there. And that does eek me out. But right now, the benefits outweigh the data-mining-skeeviness.
DeleteI haven't used Goodreads in years (after my job finally blocked it, it took away from a lot of my browsing time), but BookLikes might be a good alternative. The only problem is that everyone is already on Goodreads, so great new sites like BookLikes (which I really like) have a tough time getting new users. It's a bit Tumblr-esque, but you can have shelves just like on GR, and if you follow friends or bloggers you know then you'll see what they're reading and how they're rating things.
ReplyDeleteBut I totally get not being able to get away from something even though it irks you a bit morally. I know that Amazon is the big baddie of the book world, but I haven't been able to quit them yet. Buying from Amazon is just so convenient! (Also, they own The Book Depository which means buying from there is really no different, which kind of sucks.)
Oh, interesting! I poked around on BookLikes yesterday and I see what you mean about the Tumblresque aspect of it. That could be really interesting. But I also see what you mean about the users - my biggest pro for Goodreads is that I can get reviews from people I know, and that doesn't work if they aren't on BookLikes too.
Delete"Other websites, including Amazon.com, have rating systems, but a rating without knowing the rater tells me nothing other than that a stranger may or may not have liked a book" - This is so true and a good reason why Goodreads works so well.
ReplyDeleteI mostly use it to keep track of books: what I want to read and how I rated past books. I keep more detailed stats in a spreadsheet and I don't post my reviews on there, but it's a good place to get a quick glance at everything.
So far I'm glad there haven't been big changes since the acquisition by Amazon. Hopefully things will stay that way.
I wish I used the want-to-read functionality more. I mark books to-read all the time, but I never seem to go back and look at that list...
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