I've been thinking a lot lately about the resources that I use besides my laptop/tablet for reading and blogging and Goodreads is one of the most used sites/applications that I go to pretty much daily. So this got me thinking that perhaps I should write up a post about my favourite things on Goodreads and why I love using it so much!
Keeping Track - I love the ability to keep track of ALL THE BOOKS! Read, to be read, wishlists, review copies... you name it, you can make a shelf to track it. I've edited mine many times and probably will again soon (I noticed some changes I'd like to make after making a screen shot of my current shelves). It's also how I rate and review books. Oh and another great tracking feature is make notes and updating your reading progress on each book you read.
Book Groups - I've joined a few groups on the page, some I have participated in a lot in the past and others I have yet to write anything. I plan to be more active in them in 2018. I might even join a Book Club type group! And the challenges group on my list is new to me and I look forward to being a part of that in the new year as well. You can find so many groups on Goodreads!
Giveaways - There are a lot of giveaways each month and I've entered often. In the past I won a few advance reader copies, but it's been a little while for me. Regardless, I like to see what's available and what's popular each month.
Lists - There are times I'm looking for a book recommendation and I enjoy searching the lists to see what people have compiled that I can pick from. Recently my searches included upcoming releases for this fall, books published in 1979 (for another post I put together), and YA dystopians.
Ask The Author - You can participate in asking authors questions about their work, their writing process and more. A great way to interact with your favourite authors. Especially for those of us who are not able to attend book events.
Quotes - I love saving the quotes from my favourite books and the quotes section allows you to "like" quotes from books and save them to a list on your profile. This really helps when I want to include a quote in a post or make one of my quote images.
Events - In the past I used to have a calendar on my blog that tracked upcoming bookish/author events in Canada. One of my resources was this events tab on Goodreads. I always found out about book festivals through this page.
Blog - I'm not sure if many people actually read the Goodreads blog, but I actually enjoy many of the posts they put up each week. Sometimes I just like to comment and other times it inspires me to read certain books or write about certain discussion posts.
Goals - Track your reading progress for the year using the Reading Challenge Tracker! You can set your own goal each year and the tracker updates each time you finish a book.
Do you use Goodreads to track your reading or write reviews? If yes, what are your favourite parts of the site/application?
I LOVE GoodReads! I’m currently (and very slowly!) revamping my shelves. Right now I mostly use it for the tracking and the yearly challenge but your post has inspired me to poke around the site sometime this week!
ReplyDeleteExcellent post! I clearly haven’t been utilizing GR to its fullest extent. :)
I'm gad I've inspired you to take a peak around the site. There is a lot to do and it can seem overwhelming, but it's so interesting and fun. Hope you meet many new people while checking out the different features!
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