5 Shelves I Recommend Creating on Your Goodreads

First off, here are two blog posts I have already done on Goodreads:

• Goodreads: Why It is So Useful
• Goodreads: Some of Its Quirks

I thought of this post for a few reasons.

1. I've had a few friends create their Goodreads account recently (within the past 4-6 months), and I tend to be a broken record when talking about what shelves I recommend creating on Goodreads.
2. Having these shelves set up on your Goodreads can make it easier to navigate and find specific books you've read or want to read.
3. It's easier for your Goodreads friends to find specific books and see how you categorized them on Goodreads,

That's where the idea for this post came from: 5 Shelves I Recommend Creating on Your Goodreads.

Shelf 1: Favorite books. This is a general shelf with all (yes ALL) of your favorite books. You can edit and change this shelf as time goes on and you have new favorite books and some older books are no longer your favorites. But having a general favorites shelf can help you find these books faster.

Shelf 2: Favorite books of a particular year. I.e., your 2021 Favorites or your 2020 Favorites. This way, you can see what your favorite books were in a particular year. You don't have to go too far back in time, and you don't even have to try to remember a previous year's favorite books. Just start with 2021 and create shelves for your favorites of each year from there.

Shelf 3: Books you DNF-ed. This may seem a bit contradictory, but keeping track of books you DNF-ed may help you and your friends out. Let's say you DNF-ed a book a year ago, but you know your friend would enjoy it. If you have it shelved in a specific DNF-ed shelf, it'll be easier for you to find it. You can have a general DNF-ed shelf, a shelf dedicated to books you DNF-ed a particular year, or both. It really is all up to you.

Shelf 4: Have a shelf or two dedicated to your favorite author(s). Yes, it can be easy to find their books on Goodreads, but there are a few authors out there with similar (or even the same) names. Disregarding the name aspect, having a shelf or two dedicated to your favorite author can help you find a specific book by them if you need.

Shelf 5: Have a few shelves dedicated to your favorite genres. I do recommend keeping these shelves as broad as possible and not being too specific. Every book - and I mean every book - will have all sorts of sub-genres based on what it's about. Keeping these shelves broad at "YA Books" or "Fantasy Books" will help you categorize the books you have read better, and it may also help out your friends in the process too.

How you shelve your books on Goodreads is ultimately up to you. There's no right or wrong way to go about your Goodreads account, and there's no "right" or "wrong" shelf to have. But these 5 shelves are the main 5 I tend to recommend on repeat.