Goodreads: Why It is So Useful

I use Goodreads a lot. Many readers use Goodreads extensively. And it is good for a lot of things. If you're interested, you can find Goodreads linked here and create an account for free.

I personally know that Goodreads can be pretty annoying sometimes, but that will be in tomorrow's post. Today is about why Goodreads, in my opinion, is a great website for us readers.

Goodreads keeps track of your extensive TBR. This is something that is can be so hard to do without a database like Goodreads. If you keep a physical list of any kind - whether it's on your computer or an actual list on paper - that is amazing! But if you're anything like me - forgetting a book's title 5 minutes after you see it - Goodreads is great that way. You can scan book covers, search up book titles or authors, and so much more. It isn't imperative to remember a book's title, cover, and author until you can get your hands on a copy.

You can see all the genres and sub-genres a book falls under. Believe be: categorizing a book under so many genres and sub-genres can get a little tedious in my opinion. However, being able to see this on Goodreads is another positive attribute to Goodreads. And the dedication people have (I'm assuming) to placing these books under all those categories (it can add up sometimes) amazes me.

You can select various book formats for your currently reading list. This is one I haven't used as much, but believe me: it can be helpful. If you're reading a book as an audiobook, you can choose that format for most books on Goodreads. This one can be a bit confusing because there isn't always a distinction, but it definitely is helpful when the distinction is there.

You can create multiple, virtual shelves of your own. Whether you want to shelf your books by year read, book format, or however else, sorting your virtual Goodreads shelves can be very helpful. (I've started reading ebooks through the Libby app, and having an ebook shelf has come in super handy for seeing what books I've read were ebooks and library books.) You can add a bit more variety to your virtual shelves other than "Want to Read," "Currently Reading," and "Read" (past tense).

You can make friends and follow people, and you can see what they're reading. This is one of my favorite features of Goodreads. If I see someone I follow or am friends with reading something, I'm often looking into it, even if it's not a part of the history or historical fiction genres. This is a great way to find new books without scrolling through all of Goodreads' genres or recommendations.