How I Keep Track of What I Read with Goodreads

For many years, my mum has kept a little notebook in which she writes down the titles and authors of books she has read. As the most avid reader I know, she has inspired my to keep track of my own reading, and for the last five years, I’ve done the same in a now rather dog-eared Alice in Wondlerland notebook. 

Many years ago, I used also to keep a bookblog, sharing my reviews via blog posts, but when that became too time-consuming, I reviewed books on Amazon instead, and occasionally on Goodreads.

Are you familiar with the app GoodReads? It’s a kind of social media for readers that helps you track your own reading, share what you thought of books via ratings and reviews

Originally, Goodreads felt like a little world of its own, away from retail platforms. As well as sharing book reviews, members could also befriend each other and follow their favourite authors. 

For historical reasons that have passed me by, reviewers on Goodreads tend to be more sparing with the stars than on Amazon – even when the same reviewer is pasting exactly the same review for the same book on both platforms! What gains a 4*, for example, on Amazon, generally earns 3* on Goodreads.

This is all the more bizarre now that Amazon owns Goodreads, after buying the previously independent platform a few years ago. It’s now Amazonised it in other ways, eg every book’s profile includes a link to buy it on Amazon. Also, just as Amazon does, it recommends similar books you might like to read next. (So with my author’s hat on, it is a handy source of new readers who discover me via Goodreads’ recommendations!)

There are still some other differences between the two platforms, eg Amazon’s retail store site it strictly policed (if not always consistently) for misdemeanours by publishers, authors, and readers alike, whereas Goodreads still feels a bit like the Wild West, with only designated “librarians” recruited from its membership to resolve users’ queries voluntarily.

It can also be subject to people gaming the system, eg setting up “lists” of the best books in certain categories – and then use them to vote their own or their mates’ books to the top of the list! After all, Jane Austen and her ilk aren’t around to persuade their followers to vote her books to the top of their categories!

For various reasons, I’ve fallen out of the habit of posting on Goodreads, but now I’ve realised that it’s time to retire my tatty reading record notebook and use Goodreads instead to record the books I’ve read.

You can also use it to list books you would like to read, and to track progress as you go, and even to record books you’ve given up on!

Click here to follow me on Goodreads, and you’ll also be kept up-to-date with reviews of the books I write, as well as those I read.  Feel free to post your reviews there too!

(I haven’t yet transferred across all the books from my reading record notebook, but plan to when I get an idle moment – or need to procrastinate from my work-in-progress!)

I also thought I’d take advantage of Goodreads’ handy facility to embed each new book review in a blog. So as an experiment, I thought I’d append my reviews of what I read each week to the end of each new blog post. Tell me if it gets too much and I’ll stop!

In the meantime, happy reading, whether or not you share your books on Goodreads!

What I Read This Week (via Goodreads)

The Memoirs of Marie: Abbess and Poet by Deborah Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another fascinating imagined insight into the life of one of the early Abbesses of Shaftesbury and the complex relationships between royalty and nobility in England and France (which make 21st century “blended” families look simple!) I confess I wasn’t familiar with Marie de France before – my only knowledge of this period was from the wonderful film “The Lion in Winter”, with Katharine Hepburn playing Eleanor of Aquitaine and Peter O’Toole as Henry II, but am now keen to find out more, and to read more of Marie de France’s writing, hooked by the delightful “tasting menu” at the back of this book.

A shout-out for the cover artist Alison Merry too – the set of the three of the books in the series so far are beautiful to look at on my bookshelf!

I hope there will be more in this compelling series.

The Cradle And The Cage by Hastie Salih
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow, what a whirlwind of a story, from which I learned so much about Kurdistan and its many contrasts – from the beautiful cradle of civilization to melting pot of inequalities and injustice – through the gripping story of a young British woman who visits her mother’s homeland on what she hopes will be a pleasant holiday. Meeting members of her family is the starting point for a shocking quest that changes her life forever – and her sense of self, as well as her sense of her past. I felt my understanding of certain political and human rights issues was much enhanced by reading this book – but I’m not saying what they are, for fear of spoiling the plot.

I enjoyed this so much that I’m going to buy the author’s first book now too.

(Special shout-out for the cover designer by the way – perfect for the nature of the book, and looking very striking on my coffee table!)

View all my reviews on Goodreads

In Other NewsComing on 16th August! Novel #16, and counting…

It may still be summer (in the northern hemisphere where I am, anyway!), but it’s less than a fortnight until the launch of the third in my Cotswold Curiosity Shop cosy mystery series, Death at the Village Christmas Fair! It’s now available to pre-order online eg from Amazon UK or from Amazon US, or ask your local bookshop to order the paperback for you quoting the ISBN 978-1835185827 (the publisher is Boldwood Books).

Now back to writing my work-in-progress, a new standalone cosy mystery novel based on my play script, The Importance of Being Murdered…