Ben Greenfield Read a Book a Day
In that location'southward nothing like finding the perfect read: a page-turner that keeps y'all hooked and up all night considering y'all can't put information technology downwards; a novel that takes you to a distant, fascinating world and lets yous escape from reality for a fiddling while; or a volume that teaches y'all virtually something you've been longing to learn about — like pizza making, domestic dog preparation or career evolution.
But finding the perfect book is no easy task. I have the feeling that sometimes I spend more time figuring out what my next great read volition be than actually reading. Considering once I observe that rare novel that checks all of the boxes, I devour it.
I've developed certain tricks when it comes to discovering that cracking next book: asking my friends with similar reading tastes for recommendations; checking the new releases from some of my favorite authors; reading book recommendation lists from those authors; and visiting NPR's almanac, curated selection Volume Concierge. But these last few years I've as well turned to Goodreads.
Goodreads is a social network and book database that launched in January 2007. Amazon, which started its giant retailer concern as an online bookseller, bought Goodreads in 2013.
"Our mission is to assistance people find and share books they love," Goodreads' website says. Goodreads' social network aspect lets you lot create an account, track what you're reading and keep a log of it. You can also add friends and run into what they're reading. One of my favorite features is the "Reading Claiming." Every January you can set a number of books you want to read and and then work your way toward that goal amount throughout the yr. Setting a realistic yet somewhat challenging goal can exist the perfect way to persuade yourself to read but a picayune chip more, fifty-fifty if information technology's just one or 2 more than books than the previous year. And this is one of those competitions where yous're just measuring yourself against yourself.
Yous can likewise just utilize Goodreads equally a catalog to look upwardly a book'due south author, publication date or number of pages.
Goodreads' Reviews, Ratings & Lists
In add-on to tracking your progress and seeing what your friends on Goodreads are reading and favoriting, you tin utilise this social network to run into what its millions of users (statistics website Statista estimated Goodreads had 90 1000000 registered members in July 2019) are perusing and how much they're liking their reads. Demand some more assist navigating the site? Here are some of Goodreads features that tin assistance you lot choose your next volume:
Reviews: Book reviews are one of Goodreads' most appealing offerings. And while those reviews are written past users, not professional book critics at major publications, some of those who write book reviews do it regularly. They may even be bloggers who read well-nigh specific topics or genres. Think about it like the type of restaurant review yous tin get on Yelp.
Per Goodreads review guidelines, commercial reviews are not allowed. If a reviewer receives a gratis re-create of a book, they must disclose it in the review. Some reviewers receive advanced readers' copies (ARCs), which makes it possible for a review to hit Goodreads before a book's publication date.
Ratings: Lazy readers, like myself, adopt to requite a book simply a i-5 star rating instead of writing an actual review to go with it. Most books have a bigger number of star ratings than actual reviews. I trust Goodreads' users plenty that I might avoid a book with a rating lower than 3.5 stars. Also, the bigger the number of ratings, the more reliable the metric tends to be.
I apply ratings and reviews in conjunction to help me make up one's mind whether I should start reading something or not. 1 of the about recent reviews for the commencement book in the Bridgertons series, for example, already warns the reader nearly the book'south most controversial passage. So, fifty-fifty if that book has a iii.89 rating, a review tin can help yous make a final conclusion. And yes, reviews might finish up being a bit spoilery. So be careful when you do your research.
Lists: They can be created by users or the Goodreads' team and they are a adept way to detect reads in specific genres. If you lot like a volume, you can see what lists that title is included on and discover something similar. In that location are lists for everything, from Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries to Science Fiction Books by Female Authors or Food Books for Readers to Devour.
This is probably my favorite role of Goodreads. Each yr users can choose their favorite books in different categories — Fiction, Mystery & Thriller, Fantasy, Romance, Science & Technology, Historical Fiction, Horror, Humor, and and then on. Not only is this a proficient way of giving some love to the authors you've enjoyed reading, merely the winners and runner-ups as well tend to be solid books to add to your list. (They might fifty-fifty aid you with your holiday shopping.)
And while Goodreads has received its fair share of criticism for being a flake outdated — I don't remember the concluding time the website or app were refreshed — I still can't see myself non using it. Information technology's buggy sometimes and it lacks some usability features, but it sure has allowed me to discover authors and books I would have totally missed otherwise.
Source: https://www.ask.com/culture/goodreads-book-reviews?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740004%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex