Is Goodreads Ruining Reading?

Sorry-not-sorry for the clickbait headline.

I'm addressing Goodreads here purely as a reader, not as an author, so if you're looking for delicious author vs. reviewer drama, wait about 12 minutes, and I'm sure some will come up.

In the meantime, I'd like to consider what Goodreads means to me as a reader.  

First, and foremost, it's the book journal I always meant to start and never did. I really enjoy the fact that I can keep track of what I've read (especially handy for "I know I read one in this series...was it this one? I mean, it was five years ago..."), and that I can look back and see what I thought about what I read. For me, it's a very nice record of my reading life.

And yet. I do feel a certain dark side. Like when it's taking me three weeks to get through a book, and I'm thinking, "Oh God! People on Goodreads are judging me!" even though I know that NOBODY is following my updates that closely, and fundamentally nobody but me cares about what I read. The "social" aspect kind of makes me put pressure on myself.

This isn't entirely bad. It does encourage me to choose reading among my many entertainment options. But it also leads to something else I have mixed feelings about: reading a book just to say you've finished it. Maybe that's too strong. It's not just to say I've finished it, but I sometimes find that I crave moving the book to the "read" shelf in the same way I once craved pointless "achievements" on the Xbox. Finishing books is awesome, of course, but what's really awesome is reading books. Am I rushing through books in an effort to declare them finished? Is that what I want out of reading?

Ultimately, I suppose this is more about me than Goodreads. Though Goodreads does encourage this kind of thinking with their "read x number of books" challenges.  I guess my advice to myself is to read lots of books at whatever pace suits me and not worry about unlocking the "finished 800 page epic fantasy novel!" achievement.