Ten Ways You Know You're a Goodreads Member

Posted by Hayley on September 5, 2017

Goodreads Turns Ten is sponsored by Audible. Enjoy a free book with your trial.

Your Want to Read shelf is out of control. You need to update your reading status. You'd rather be reading your book right now. (Sorry, we'll let you get back to that in a minute!)


You're here on Goodreads because, like us, you love books. And if your love of reading borders on obsession, don't worry—you're definitely not alone. We're all a little obsessed here.

For our Goodreads Ten-Year Anniversary Celebration, we asked you to complete this sentence: You know you're a Goodreads member when…

Your top answers are below. Check them out and then tell us what makes you a Goodreads member in the comments.


1. "Your husband looks at you funny when you give him four out of five stars after he's done mowing the lawn." -Elizabeth


2. "Your Want to Read pile is taller than Mount Everest." -Kate

3. "You obsessively hype up Goodreads to every single person you know. It's like the happiest cult I've been a part of. Anytime someone mentions anything to do with books, I say, 'You know what would help with that? Goodreads.'" -Carolyn

4. "You recommend all your books to your friends and then smile when you see the same book pop up on THEIR to-read lists!" -Allison

5. "You can't start a book without immediately going to the app or website to change the book from 'to read' to 'currently reading.'" -Kristin

6. "You type 'goo' into your browser, and Goodreads comes up before Google." -Alex


7. "Your friends check your Goodreads profile for gift-giving purposes." -Angie

8."You update your reading status before going to bed every night." -Lana

9. "You mentally rate the book while you are reading it, constantly changing the rating based on how impressed you are with the book. 'Three stars. Wow! Four stars at least… Now this brings it down to two… Not bad, four stars again… That was a solid five stars!'" -Vlada

10. "You check your Reading Challenge like it's the stock market." -Tessa


See complete coverage of the Goodreads Ten-Year Anniversary Celebration, including:
Participate in our Hide-a-Book Day on September 18
The Best Books of the Decade, Chosen by You
Ten of Our Top Reviews of All Time
Five Stories of Friendship and Favorite Books Found on Goodreads



Comments Showing 1-50 of 313 (313 new)


message 1: by Veronica (new)

Veronica I love Good Reads from all the new authors I have found out about through the site and their reviews and reading books ! Plus winning alot thru giveaways dosent hurt either! Some of the obvious authors I have found out about from GR is Baldacci, Nora Roberts, JD roberts, Mary Balogh, Lisa Scottolini and to name a few (pardon my misspelling) I'm so excited about the 10 years of Goodreads and CELEBRATE!!!


message 2: by Susan (new)

Susan I am 9 out of 10 stars on that list. I haven't gotten into the habit of updating my reading status nightly. But maybe that is because I've read 211 books so far in 2017? Why update my status when I can get an extra page or two in before bedtime?


message 3: by Stephanie (new)

Stephanie Number 6 - I only type G into my browser and Goodreads comes up. :-)


message 4: by Andrea (new)

Andrea 5, 6, 9, and 10 are me. 2 is probably me too, but I see it as a positive thing!


message 5: by Lisa (new)

Lisa Konet My reading challenge is done 4.5 months early!!!

I am a good blend of all these answers.... Goodreads shows up before Google! I love changing my "to read" to "currently reading" definitely makes me excited.

I also love checking my progress.

I <3 Goodreads!


Alex (ReadingBetweenTheNotes) Ah yay, my comment made it!! I was number 6! My excitement about this is yet further evidence of my obsession.


message 7: by Anshita (new)

Anshita All of these are absolutely true and hilarious as well. I'm proud to be a Goodreads member!


This Kooky Wildflower Loves a Little Tea and Books 5.6. and 10 speak truth to me.


[S] Bibliophage 6 out of 10: 2, 5, 6, 8, 9 & 10.

I may also add that you spend more time here in Goodreads than in your SNS accounts.


message 10: by Elizabeth (new)

Elizabeth Stephanie wrote: "Number 6 - I only type G into my browser and Goodreads comes up. :-)"

Same here :)


message 11: by Jeane (new)

Jeane 5, 6 and probably #10 too! I had a friend ask me for some book recommendations for her book group.. and I asked, "Don't you belong to Goodreads? " How can that be?


message 12: by Sofia (new)

Sofia this is so accurate it's scary


Cerenela (Cherry Books) Number 6 is so real. In fact, I only have to type G and Goodreads appears. XD!


message 14: by Jennifer (new)

Jennifer i definitely do a lot of these!!


message 15: by Chani (new)

Chani These are all so accurate! When people ask how a book is I'm currently reading my response is usually something like, "well I'm 23% through and right now it's a solid 3 stars".


message 16: by Lynne (new)

Lynne These are all very funny but true! I love Goodreads!


message 17: by Vavita (new)

Vavita So true, oh, my! So true!


message 18: by Erinn (new)

Erinn Hill Numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10 for me. :P


message 19: by Vitalija|Vivija (new)

Vitalija|Vivija Books 10, 8, 2, 5 :) It is all me :)


message 20: by Hifza (new)

Hifza Guilty of all of the above except 7 :D


message 21: by Katherine (new)

Katherine Hayward Pérez 2,3,4,5,6,8,9 and 10. Love Goodreads! I check it several times a day. Just adding some books now......


message 22: by Katherine (new)

Katherine Hayward Pérez I have another one....when your sister asks what you've read lately and you email her the Goodreads link. I'm still persuading her to join and read more!


message 23: by Lauren (new)

Lauren Stoolfire Sounds accurate!


message 24: by Katherine (last edited Sep 05, 2017 11:58AM) (new)

Katherine Hayward Pérez Or when you don't know what to read next and, instead of searching Amazon for ideas, you look on your "to read" list on Goodreads. You know it's quicker and the recommendations will be better. Also when you have read a book you love and immediately save all the similar recommendations to your "to read" list. Or discover a new author and save all their books to your "to read" list because you are thinking of doing a reading marathon just with their books. And, yes! It's the only place where you can quickly locate and save them.


message 25: by Julia (new)

Julia Agree with all of these!!


message 26: by Dianne (new)

Dianne Landry Another one is you never add a book to your to read list without first checking the reviews on Goodreads. I do this all the time.


message 27: by Kristin B. (new)

Kristin B. Bodreau All of them! Number 6, makes me laugh every time I need to search for something and end up here instead.


Shradha | shradhashelves 9/10. Definitely obsessed.


message 29: by C.A. (new)

C.A. Number 11. When you're reading a book that's terrible so far your only motivation to finish it is being able to post a ranty review about it!


message 30: by Jaclyn (new)

Jaclyn I do all of these things lmao


message 31: by Bishwajit (new)

Bishwajit  Paul 2 ,3 ,4,5 (slightly 6) and 8 definitely true for me.


message 32: by Kasia (new)

Kasia Proce #6 IS SOOOO TRUE!!!


Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ Alex (PaperbackPiano) wrote: "Ah yay, my comment made it!! I was number 6! My excitement about this is yet further evidence of my obsession."

Love your comment!


message 34: by Kayla (new)

Kayla #5 & #6 so true!!!


message 35: by S (new)

S I'm definitely one who has to immediately update my book reading status, and have a reading list I doubt I'll finish in my lifetime, although if I never watched TV, movies, or spent time on the internet it would be very doable.


message 36: by Selena (new)

Selena 7 out of 10 of these are super true for me. ^^;;;


message 37: by Jordan (new)

Jordan Lombard Stevie wrote: "I'm definitely one who has to immediately update my book reading status, and have a reading list I doubt I'll finish in my lifetime, although if I never watched TV, movies, or spent time on the int..."

If I didn't spend all of my time on Goodreads organizing my to-read books, and finding more, I'd definitely be able to finish more books within a year!


message 38: by Overbooked ✎ (new)

Overbooked  ✎ #9 is me, I would also add to the list:

When you need to update your reading status and find that Goodreads is down for maintenance, you panic or throw a massive tantrum.


message 39: by Eilert (last edited Sep 05, 2017 03:01PM) (new)

Eilert 5 - 8 - 9 - 10

This makes me laugh. I am glad that I'm not the only one who's sick from an illness I just acknowledged.

I'd had liked to have the first. It'd be so funny.


message 40: by idiffer (new)

idiffer Jordan wrote: "Stevie wrote: "I'm definitely one who has to immediately update my book reading status, and have a reading list I doubt I'll finish in my lifetime, although if I never watched TV, movies, or spent ..."
Same here. I probably spend more time on GR than actually reading books.


message 41: by Joan (new)

Joan Happy Birthday Goodreads! I was thinking about how I check GR ratings before I decide to read a book but someone beat me to that. What I haven't seen here yet is how excited I get when I see an email that says there is a giveaway for a book on your to read list. I click the link immediately. The rest of my emails can wait (a bit). This is IMPORTANT!


message 42: by Leslie (new)

Leslie You know you are a Goodreads member when you:

talk to people in real life about conversations you have had with your GR friends!


message 43: by Amber (new)

Amber I love goodreads because I made my very first online book club here of the reading for pleasure book club, plus great people are here and you find great reading discoveries here and more.


message 44: by [deleted user] (new)

SO RELATABLE! specially 6, 9 and 10.


message 45: by Nicole (new)

Nicole Normand I am so guilty of those!
#2: Plenty more "snow" to come
#5: I just can't not do it
#6: So true. One day I'll put it in my start list.
#7: Please don't! I have them all!
#8: Of course I do and right back in the morning when I wake up!
#10: Even my husband noticed!!!


message 46: by C.A. (new)

C.A. #3 is so me!!


message 47: by Alanna (new)

Alanna #3, #5, and #10 are so me!! Goodreads fangirl, right here!! :)


message 48: by bookaholic_kim (last edited Sep 05, 2017 07:37PM) (new)

bookaholic_kim "You know you're a Goodreads member when You type 'goo' into your browser, and Goodreads comes up before Google."

This is so me and I only need to type "G". haha


Arlenis Ralfsdóttir 5, 6, 9, 10. xD


message 50: by Audrey (new)

Audrey 2, 6, 10 are my favorites.


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