We get a lot of repeat suggestions here, which we really don't mind because the more suggestions we get for a feature the more we know how much ya'll want it!

However this can be done more efficiently, so I'm going to make this a standing thread that I will update occasionally with the top items from our todo list. If you see something on here you like, by all means mention your support!

The Todo List
- ability to view the intersection of two shelves
- Improved UI around ordering books
- Custom views for my books
- Better integration of owned books into the my books page
- Add support to status updates for ebooks/audiobooks and other variable page formats
- Quizzes
- Members with similar books to me
- Homepage notifications of review comments
- Author pseudonyms
- More downloadable Ebooks
- Customizable book pages for authors
- Book recommendations
- Ability to order a group's shelves
- half-star ratings
- allow more customization of profile (which shelves, etc)
- support for books that are in a series (eg LOTR 1-3, Harry Potter 1-7)
- Friend groups
- Ability to follow a book and get updates about new reviews
- Ability to customize layout of your profile page.

* note: this list is only a fraction of the actual list as many items are too technical or boring to bother you all with

Recently Added
- book swap: http://www.goodreads.com/swap
- Facebook Connect
- Orderable quotes
- Most popular bookclub books
- Popular books by date
- character profiles
- Author blogs
- Downloadable Ebooks
- Ability to "fan" or "favorite" an author and receive updates about them.
- mobile app (works well on iphone, blackberry, and more)
- Ability to skip trivia questions by a particular member
- More structure for book clubs and fan clubs
- Site redesign to make things easier to find and use
- Book progress indicator for currently-reading books
- author roles, more than 3 authors per book
- Group polls to help choose which book to read next (currently in beta)
- listopia/book lists
- Event inviter & evite-style responses
- allow ordering of to-read list
- mark which group discussion threads are new/unread
- top friends or friend groups, to provide better filtering of updates on the HP
- add book trivia
- add custom shelves in groups
- add events to groups & member profiles
- ability to customize 'find at' options on book page
- add a spoiler flag to reviews
- add a 'recommended by' field to reviews
- add private notes to reviews

Otis,

Thanks for asking! And, great idea for a thread:

My wish list:

1. allow ordering of to-read list (ideally Netflix queue style: 1 through whatever number, but any capability appreciated)
2. add custom shelves in groups
3. half-star ratings

and also important:

4. author roles, etc. EDIT: there is one book that is driving me crazy, so yes, I'd really like this one. Book was published first under a pseudonym, then eventually, with the author's real name. Multiple edtions of the book under each name.

5. members with similar books to me
6. allow more customization of profile

and maybe:

7. options on book page
8. friend groups

I don't care about:

9. book swap

I look forward to each and every item on that list. However, my top two are

* author pseudonyms (aka the "aka option" ;) )
* half-star ratings

Probably in that order, although they're pretty close.

I would also like to see half star ratings (well, I really only need 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 <g>), the ability to print out the "to read" list to bring to bookstore or library, to not see duplicate editions on my "read" list (at first I thought I must have reviewed them multiple times so tried to delete one edition but that deleted the entire book), and the ability to pull/push a listing from Amazon onto our site when the normal "find books/Amazon" comes up with nothing but the book is really there.

However, what we do have is loads of fun. Thank you for all your support, Otis!

No, no, no! I must have 2.5! *froths*

;D

I'm not clear on what you mean regarding the duplicate editions issue. There is a "find duplicates" function, which was added a month or two back. But I think perhaps that's not what you mean?

And grabbing a book from Amazon is easy (IF it has an ISBN) using the bookmarklet.

(Note to Otis: I knew it existed and had some difficulty finding it. Didn't there used to be a front-page link to the widgets and gizmos and such?)

I'm definitely a fan of half-star ratings and like the idea of top friends!

I'm truly looking forward to:

- author pseudonyms, roles
- add custom shelves in groups
- top friends or friend groups
- half-star ratings
- allow ordering of to-read list

I'd also love to see a feature that was suggested a while ago, i.e. an email digest containing book discussions for books that are on my bookshelves.

Great idea, Otis! :)

I would love
-author pseudonyms
-half-star ratings
-customshelves in groups
-ordering of to-read list

and would love a more advanced search function
such as the ability to search by author and/ or title.

Jumping on CLM's suggested, I'd love a printable version of individual shelves that includes the full text of my reviews.

Otherwise, there are several on your "to-do" list I look forward to and will find useful, thank you!

I would appreciate all the suggestions being added, but ordering of to-read - or alphabetization of books - or some other management system would be fantastic. :)

1. members with similar books
2. ordering of to-read

Honestly, I don't understand the need for half star ratings. Books are so vague and feelings about them shift from day to day, the broader the rating the better it seems to me. If it helps curtail ratings inflation, though, I'm game.

I assume it's a relatively easier upgrade, so...to each his own.

1. Books recommendation engine.
2. Members with similar books.

Thanks for posting the list. I'm already down for half stars. (Jason, yes, it does help curtail inflation. Ideally I'd like 5 stars to be books that are nearly perfect while 4.5 are books I really enjoyed but lacked one or more elements, usually superb writing).

I'd also like to suggest as long as we're talking about making it possible to put the to-read list in order (not a big priority for me, but one I can certainly see being a priority for others), I'd like to be able to put the read list in order. I really want to keep it in the order that I've read the books and now if I go back to make a change to a review I have to remember not to update my feed or it will screw up the order and I'll have to go back and add something to every subsequent review until I can get the first book back into place.

So maybe instead of making it possible to put the to-read shelf in order it would be better to be able to put books in all shelves in order? That way if people want they can either keep track of things chronologically or rank them since books may have the same number of stars but actually rank differently.

Can you also add 2008 so that we can start adding books that we plan on reading in the coming year. Thanks. Sorry if this was already requested.

Sherri,

The date/year function is a good start but there are months I read 10-15 books and I'm trying to keep things in the order that I read them.

I am new to group, not here to annoy anyone, lol...just love to read and am interested in reviews of others about books that I might want to put on my 2008 shelf. Thank you. Hope everyone has a great reading Holiday!

I love the idea of putting the "to read" list in order.

I'd really like a way to put books in a series in order especially. I think being able to order books within a shelf would take care of that issue. It'd also be nice if there were a field to note what number a book was in a series, and perhaps the name of the series. And also notations such as awards (Caldecott, Newberry, etc.) Right now I'm putting that info in the Recommend to field. If there were perhaps it'd then be possible to search by series name or award - that'd be nice too.

Putting books in a series is definitely on the extended todo list, but I'll put it on here too. I like the the awards idea though - nice! Another person had a good idea to allow a 'character series' too - like "Jack Ryan" from Tom Clancy.

Thanks Otis, I agree, a character series option would also be great.

Bree - I really like the idea of a comments area, especially one that could be made private. Sometimes there are notations about books I'd like to make that really would be only of interest to me.

I also like the idea of being able to make some shelves private. I keep track of books I've given as gifts here on shelves for that purpose, so I don't forget who has what. But since some of those people are on Goodreads I have to wait and remember to add them after Christmas so I don't spoil the surprise :)

Oooh...the pretensious part of me really likes the idea of private shelves. That way I can load up all my pulp fantasy novels (and Clancy--thanks for the reminder!) and such without feeling ashamed when my friends ask. It's nice just to have your own personal tally of books, if you know what I mean. the only issue: would those books be reflected in your total book count, or would your total only represent your "public" books?

On behalf of other children's book illustrators like myself, I'd love to see us integrated into this site more: searches, our own "author-style" pages and profiles, etc.

In the children's picture book industry especially, we are half of the completed work. And I'm sure the artists working in comic books and graphic novels wouldn't mind the attention, either!

Thanks!

Christina and All, I'm in total agreement here. When I manually add a children's book, or if the information is missing and I notice it, I always put illustrator information in the book description field. I know Otis has talked about having fields for illustrators, translators, etc. which would be terrific.

Lisa - thank you. I also agree it's imporant and have an interest in the illustrator of children's book. In fact, it'd be great if someday we could search by illustrator, as well as author.

When you add custom shelves in groups, can you also make it possible to view up to 200 books on a group shelf (the way we can for individuals' shelves)?

1) Thanks for Goodreads!
2) I would also love half-star ratings and the ability to organize and "rank" to-read list.

I wish you could see an alphabetical list of all titles OR authors in GoodReads (not just the authors who belong to GR). Something like this:

Booklist Center.

Same with authors.

- Books recommendations engine
- on turning OFF default check on "get the daily email digest for x"
- spoiler boxing
- character series is a GREAT idea

Hey Paul,

We did just launch a book recommendations engine (see it on the right side of any book page). Also, the default checkbox to get the daily email digest turns off after you've posted 3 or more posts in that group :)

I would love a feature which would add an LOC or Dewey number to each entry. I currently do this using tags...

What I think would be helpful is if the folders collapsed, and only opened up to show the threads that have been posted to since your last visit.

i don't know if people have posted this suggestion, but:
-- since there is a field to put in when we read a book, is there a way (if not there should be a way) to "view your year" by books? So you can say "view 2007" and it will show you pix of the books you read each month. or you can view by month.

All the to-do’s look useful, but I particularly support sorting books on my shelves (not just to-read).

New(?) suggestion: In addition to read, currently-reading and to-read, I would like an “incomplete” shelf to indicate books that I have partially read, but do not intend to complete. Right now, I’m moving books I don’t finish from currently-reading to to-read, even though I don’t actually intend to read them. Thanks.

You have the ability to make any of your custom shelves exclusive. Go to "edit shelves," and you should see the option.

A comment on the idea of noting books that are in a series, will there be an option for indicating which volume of the series the book is? The reason why I say option is because there are the series that go in order (like Harry Potter)and the series, like The Royal Diaries, that go in no particular order because they're separate stories but still part of the same series.

Haha I hope that makes sense...

I would love to see:
- add custom shelves in groups
- author pseudonyms, roles
- ability to customize 'find at' options on book page
- allow ordering of to-read list
- half-star ratings
- allow more customization of profile (which shelves, etc)

But I'm indifferent about:
- book swap
- top friends or friend groups, to provide better filtering of updates on the HP
- members with similar books to me

Other ideas (Not sure if they've already been mentioned):
- Subtitles
-Ordering of all the books would be nice. I don't remember when exactly I read a particular book, but I'd like to be able to rearrange them in the order that I read them.
-One of my friends commented to me that she found the website hard to navigate. I'm fine with how it's organized, but maybe it's difficult for newbies?

Hi Iris,

Thanks for all the feedback! Everything you'd like to see are things we'd like to see too :)

You can order books by date you read them by filling in the 'read at' date.

What in particular confused your friend? We're always happy to improve things for newbies.

It might complicate things too much but it might be neat to allow for more than one "read at" date and rating for when we reread books.

Now as I write this, I think it would be easier to just type that information ourselves into the "My Review" text box but I'll throw the idea out there anyway.

I've said before, but want to reiterate, since management seems to be counting votes:

I really, really, really, really want to see "top friends or friend groups, to provide better filtering of updates on the HP." By far my biggest wish for the site, no contest, and in my opinion, would be a vast improvement for the site.

Thanks.

I'd really love to be order my "to-read" list. I also like the idea of being able to find members with similar books to me.

Happy Holidays!

I was just thinking about this, and I just want to clarify something I said below:

I think even better than "top friends" or "friends groups" would be if for each friend, you could opt into the particular updates you want to see from them. As I understand a potential "friend group," you would put some of your friends in a certain group and you'd be able to see all updates from them, i.e., you'd get an update whenever they made a comment in a group, when they commented on someone's profile, etc. The next level group, you'd only be able to see when the made a comment in a group but not when they commented on someone's profile. And so on, going on down.

I think it would be far better if for each friend, I could select what I wanted to see from them. For example, and no offense to anyone, I don't want to see comments for a group I'm not a member of -- I'm just not interested in reading snippets of discussions from the "I Love Richard Simmons!" group or whatever; if I were interested in those discussions, I'd join the group. And so forth. Ideally, I'd like to see only when people add books to their shelves or review books, period. So I think it would be way more useful to be able to set your settings for each friend, rather than having to get updates in a clump depending on what group you put your friends in.

Hope I've been comprehensible.

My top request is to beef up the group thread functionality to make it easier to jump to new content (marking threads as read or new, clear indications of who made the most recent post, etc.) plus more customization of threads, such as filtering and being able to "forget" threads you're not interested in, all of which is calculated to make it easier to keep up with what you want to keep up with.

Second priority -- shelving. Much as I love, and make extensive use of, custom shelves, there is something to be said for offering the option of filing things under standard genre shelves or tags that would do the same thing, which I think would help a lot when searching for specific types of books others have shelved. For example, some people file books for children under a shelf called "children," others use "kids" or "childhood" or "favorite books of childhood" and so on. A standard children/kids tag or shelf would make those searches a lot easier, but of course would not be required.

The thing is: Laura really does love Richard Simmons. But I agree her suggestion is a good one. Everything should be customizable (except all Richard Simmons content should be mandatory).

Another thing along these lines: I would like to be able to keep track of interesting people who are not on my friends list.

And as long as I am rambling, at the top of my wish list is a real recommendations engine, based upon our cumulative ratings (not like the stop-gap that is in place now), plus a "find similar readers" function. Cheers.

I think this would be great...there are a few of my friends who add 200 books to their "to read" shelf nearly every day, but only write reviews once or twice a week. I like their reviews, but I'm thinking of unfriending them just for the sheer lengths of my digests each day. (And I've been guilty of this as well, so I've learned to unselect "add to my update feed".

Can't wait for half star ratings

Being able to order the to-read shelf would be great!
I'm sure I've just missed it...I don't see how to order my books in the order I've read them. I have filled in the date on some (especially my book-club shelf) but I can't find how to put them in that order?
Sorry if this is addressed somewhere else. Thank you!

Dustin: As long as you aren't picky editions, you might try using a different edition when you reread something. I haven't run into that problem yet myself since I've only recorded the books I read in the last year, but I'm sure I will. Since I like to keep my books in the order they're read, I'll need a way to have a book in two places at once, too.

Melissa:Go to the "my books" page and click on the "date read" button. That should work for the books that have a date read filled in.

I'd like to be able to change the edition of a book. I initially went and searched for Terry Pratchett and ended up with the US versions of the book. Now when I try to select the UK versions by editing the book and then selecting a different version it doesn't save the setting.....

So I deleted all my books (after exporting the csv settings - which really should be better documented btw) and now it's not re-importing the edited version. The error message "note: We weren't able to parse your file correctly, and have scanned it for ISBN numbers. While this will work, no meta-data will be imported (reviews/ratings/shelves). Making sure to save your file as a CSV often helps correct this" is not very helpful as why can't you parse the file and surely you should still be able to read the shelves and ratings? I can provide my import file if required for debugging.

I'm now waiting 43 minutes for my 30 books to load to see if it worked or not - I'll be checking it tomorrow rather than waiting up!

I am just not seeing the "book recommendations engine" on the right side. I've looked at dozens of books. I see things like "book data", "popular bookshelves", "other editions", and "books you've recently looked at".

What I expected to see (pretty please) was something like "If you liked 1984, you may also enjoy xxx"

- Paul

Where you are seeing "books you've recently looked at" is where the suggestions show up -- just refresh the page.