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Goodreads Hack: The Power of the Want to Read Shelf
Every month, more than 18 million books are added to “Want to Read” shelves on Goodreads.
What's a Want to Read shelf, you ask? You'll notice the green "Want to Read" buttons near each book cover on the site. When you click on that button, not only do you make it easier to plan your future reading, you also unleash the power of the Want to Read shelf.
Let us explain: Adding books to your shelf isn't just an easy way to track books you're interested in; it also helps build a book's buzz and gives you inside access to when that book is on sale, or free as part of our Giveaways program!
We'll break it all down for you! But first things first…
Never forget the books you want to read
Remember that book your friend was telling you about? Or that bestseller you've been meaning to read but keep blanking on the name? If your Want to Read shelf is up to date, you're always ready for your next trip to the bookstore or library. You can also view your Want to Read shelf on Kindle when you connect your Goodreads and Kindle accounts.
Pro Tip: Scan book covers straight to your Want to Read shelf
You can use the Goodreads smartphone app to easily scan book covers to your Want to Read shelf, which is really helpful when you're snooping through a friend's bookshelf. You can learn more about the scan function here.
You determine which upcoming and new books have the most buzz
If you shelve a prepublished book, you'll be notified when that book hits the stores. In addition, those shelvings on a book page let our editorial team measure the excitement for an upcoming book. We use that data to alert readers to the hottest books of the month, season, and year.
Share your future reading plans with your Goodreads friends
Adding books to your WTR shelf also creates a newsfeed story on your Goodreads homepage, depending on your newsfeed privacy settings. This lets your Goodreads friends know what you're looking forward to reading. If you're nice, they may even loan you their copy.
Get a great deal on a book you've got your eye on (and maybe get it for free)
United States-based Goodreads members will be notified if there's a Goodreads Deal for a book on their shelf. Your WTR shelf is also used to personalize your Goodreads Deals landing page. In addition, when you add a book to your shelf, you'll get an email alerting you to a chance to win that book if it becomes part of the Goodreads Giveaways program. The best part? Because publishers often run a giveaway to build early buzz on a book, you can sometimes get your book for free before it's in stores!
What's a Want to Read shelf, you ask? You'll notice the green "Want to Read" buttons near each book cover on the site. When you click on that button, not only do you make it easier to plan your future reading, you also unleash the power of the Want to Read shelf.
Let us explain: Adding books to your shelf isn't just an easy way to track books you're interested in; it also helps build a book's buzz and gives you inside access to when that book is on sale, or free as part of our Giveaways program!
We'll break it all down for you! But first things first…
Never forget the books you want to read
Remember that book your friend was telling you about? Or that bestseller you've been meaning to read but keep blanking on the name? If your Want to Read shelf is up to date, you're always ready for your next trip to the bookstore or library. You can also view your Want to Read shelf on Kindle when you connect your Goodreads and Kindle accounts.
Pro Tip: Scan book covers straight to your Want to Read shelf
You can use the Goodreads smartphone app to easily scan book covers to your Want to Read shelf, which is really helpful when you're snooping through a friend's bookshelf. You can learn more about the scan function here.
You determine which upcoming and new books have the most buzz
If you shelve a prepublished book, you'll be notified when that book hits the stores. In addition, those shelvings on a book page let our editorial team measure the excitement for an upcoming book. We use that data to alert readers to the hottest books of the month, season, and year.
Share your future reading plans with your Goodreads friends
Adding books to your WTR shelf also creates a newsfeed story on your Goodreads homepage, depending on your newsfeed privacy settings. This lets your Goodreads friends know what you're looking forward to reading. If you're nice, they may even loan you their copy.
Get a great deal on a book you've got your eye on (and maybe get it for free)
United States-based Goodreads members will be notified if there's a Goodreads Deal for a book on their shelf. Your WTR shelf is also used to personalize your Goodreads Deals landing page. In addition, when you add a book to your shelf, you'll get an email alerting you to a chance to win that book if it becomes part of the Goodreads Giveaways program. The best part? Because publishers often run a giveaway to build early buzz on a book, you can sometimes get your book for free before it's in stores!
Comments Showing 201-250 of 256 (256 new)
Charlie wrote: "I would like a function so when you finish a book it adds the next book(s) in the series to Want to Read"That's a GREAT idea!
Aimee wrote: "Charlie wrote: "I would like a function so when you finish a book it adds the next book(s) in the series to Want to Read"That's a GREAT idea!"
As an option, okay, but not if it does it automatically.
Viraphone wrote: "Also, we should be allowed to rate 0 star as "hated it" or something. But zero star equals no rating... "I wish we could rate half stars!
My list is so long already that I don’t even look at it anymore. Maybe a way to sort by favorite author? Or genre? Or already read part of the series?
Yeah, That would be good, I have like 450 books on my want to read list and they are so messy... So sorting would be a good update. Or maybe we could also READ the books ON GoodReads.
Kevin wrote: "Yeah, That would be good, I have like 450 books on my want to read list and they are so messy... So sorting would be a good update. Or maybe we could also READ the books ON GoodReads."You should be able to sort with that amount. Anything under 1000 books I think you can sort. You have to go to My Books --> Bookshelves (EDIT) --> Check mark "Sortable" --> At the bottom hit "I'm Done." Then you can sort your list by number. You can arrow up and down to move or you can change the number, then hit "Save Position Changes."
Elyse wrote: "Unfortunately that won't happen and it would be easier for you to make your "Want to Read" shelf your Wishlist shelf. Switch them in your mind and on your GR shelves, I know you have lots of books but I'm just trying to give you the alternative so you can get the recommendations/giveaways you want. I think that's going to be your only solution. "
Unfortunately to use this feature you are likely right. I remember years ago the shelf was renamed to Want to Read from "to be read". When asked why Goodreads did not create exclusive wishlist shelves automatically, it was said the creators of the site never thought about it and were surprised people wanted one. THAT surprised me since I assumed most readers have a wishlist or some sort
Please please do not rate a "want to read" book. I try to form my own opinion of a book, rather than rely on someone else's. However a one star rating meaning that you want to read a book, but not as much as another, would be misleading. My "want to read" shelf is approaching 100, but I pick the next one based on my mood, or if it's the next in a series. I love being able to add another book by a newly discovered author or just a book I've heard about.
I would like a didn't finish/stopped reading option, sometimes a book is boring, had to return to the library before I was done, I don't like the story or writing style and it just stays on as currently reading.
Jeannine wrote: "I would like a didn't finish/stopped reading option, sometimes a book is boring, had to return to the library before I was done, I don't like the story or writing style and it just stays on as curr..."You can make an exclusive shelf for DNF. You have to go to My Books --> Bookshelves (EDIT) --> Add shelf - Did Not Finish (or whatever you want to call it) --> Check mark "Exclusive" --> At the bottom hit "I'm Done." They will not count as Read or Currently Reading. I choose to count my DNF as "Read" if I've gotten more than halfway through. Otherwise, it goes on the exclusive shelf so it doesn't count towards my Goodreads Challenge.
Elyse wrote: "They will not count as Read or Currently Reading. I choose to count my DNF as "Read" if I've gotten more than halfway through. Otherwise, it goes on the exclusive shelf so it doesn't count towards my Goodreads Challenge. "NB: If you put anything in the "date read" column, a book will count for your Goodreads Challenge regardless of the exclusive shelf it is stored on. So if you want to track the date you stopped reading, you will need to use the private notes field or the review field, rather than the date fields.
Anki wrote: "Elyse wrote: "They will not count as Read or Currently Reading. I choose to count my DNF as "Read" if I've gotten more than halfway through. Otherwise, it goes on the exclusive shelf so it doesn't ..."Good to know, I think I've deleted those when I've DNF early but didn't realize that was necessary to not count to the Challenge. Thanks!
Gumaro wrote: "lol i will have over 20,000 books in my want to read in 3 years"Me too. I add them way faster than I can read them!
I recently cut my want to read shelf to 1/3 of what it was because it was so overwhelming to look at, I couldn't decide what I wanted to read when I looked at it or forgot why I wanted to read those books in the 1st place. What I want to read one month may change drastically 6 months later. It all kind of depends on what I'm in the mood to read. I may even knock some more off the list because I can see it getting longer again very easily.
this is a funny article some pepole have 13k books they want to read lol
Vee ♔Under Mountain Books♔ wrote: "I don't think it's ever a good idea to tell people to spam books so they become popular. Greedier publishers will just hire people to do that and then (as usual) no-one will be able to trust the ratings. "They're already doing that - the Want To Read shelf is used by GR to market to users, and the GR blog is pretty obviously used as paid advertising.
Additionally, the Want To Read shelf isn't a very good indicator, as many people are forced to shelf books there - such as for entering Giveaways - that they're not necessarily going to read, and many of us use custom shelves for books we want to read, and don't use the default one at all.
Gumaro wrote: "this is a funny article some pepole have 13k books they want to read lol"You bet I do! Any book I'm even mildly interested in goes in my Want to Read. Then to focus myself I have a To Read Soon shelf as well.
Caitlin wrote: "Sara wrote: "What I need aside from that is a button or stars indicating how much I want to read that. Because maybe that book is interesting but the next one is even more interesting and I want to..."I suggest just making custom shelves for that. You can make one for each category, then shelve the book accordingly.
Or, you can use the ratings stars for it.
Sean wrote: "With over 1,000 books on my "Want to Read" shelf, it's become pretty useless to me. I almost wish there was some other way to organize them."There is! Make custom shelves for different levels of interest, etc. Or reorder them. Or use the Private Notes field. Or rate them according to degree of interest. Or a combination. Whatever works for you. There are many ways to organize your books here.
Cillian wrote: "Emily wrote: "You can add a star rating to any book on your Want to Read Shelf!"And that's exactly why GR ratings can't be trusted: you just encouraged users to give books the "WANT TO READ"--hav..."
Averaged ratings have never been "trustworthy" in the way you're wanting, either here or even Amazon, for a variety of reasons.
Much better, IMO, to look at individual reviews and how those people rated it, and I find most helpful the fact that GR separates out our Friends and Following reviews up at the top, and even gives a separate averaged rating for those.
The fact is, people can, and do, rate books however they want for whatever reason they want, and that's just reality.
Alexandra wrote: "Or, you can use the ratings stars for it..."Nooooo that's not what they're for, don't tell people to do that! That skews ratings and marks the book as 'Read,' why would you do that? Shelves, make new shelves!
Tracey Allen wrote: " I’m going to assume/hope that Emily has misspoken or made a mistake and that it’s not GRs policy to allow readers to rate books based on enthusiasm to read it. "Then your making a false assumption. GR's position has always been that users can rate books however they want, for whatever reason they want. Period.
"However it would be very easy to prohibit a book rating to be made on a book until it is marked as read. I can’t imagine any GR user having a problem with this"
Then you're making a lot of assumptions, and don't have much imagination. Many users would have a problem with that, me included.
Elyse wrote: "If you're entering the giveaway, clearly you want to read it. If you don't want to read it, don't enter the giveaway. I don't see the problem. "One problem is many of us don't use the Want To Read shelf at all, and instead have several custom shelves we use for that purpose. So, even if we do want to read a book, or do if we won a copy, forcing us to shelve it according to how GR wants it shelved, rather than how we want it shelved, skews our personal tracking and cataloging systems.
Additionally, the entire reason GR wants these books shelved on that shelf is for marketing purposes, and many of us don't like being used in that manner.
The fact that I have 0 books on my Want To Read shelf, and won't put any book there, means I am not eligible to enter Giveaways. I can live with that, but it's pretty sucky of GR to try to force us to do so to serve their marketing agenda.
Having advertising on the site is one thing. So is having users naturally "creating buzz" and promoting books just out of honest user actions. Quite another to force us into being unwilling marketing lemmings.
Carol wrote: "Don't take it personally. The app stinks no matter what phone one owns. Just use the desktop version on all devices all the time. Trust me. "Agreed. I only use the desktop version, even when on my phone, for exactly that reason.
Elyse wrote: "Nooooo that's not what they're for, "They're for whatever that user wants them to be for. GR TOS makes that clear. GR staff have made that clear.
don't tell people to do that! That skews ratings and marks the book as 'Read,' why would you do that? Shelves, make new shelves! "
People need to start understanding the FACT that GR users have always been able to rate however they want, for whatever reason they want. THAT is what the ratings are "for".
And no, it doesn't necessarily mark a book as "Read". We can rate books without having them on the "Read" shelf.
Some people want to do that, because that is what works for them. And we all get to rate however we want, for whatever reason we want, according to what works for us in cataloging and tracking our books.
The averaged general ratings have always been "skewed" for this, and other, reasons. And if you think they're not skewed on Amazon as well for many reasons, then you're just not aware of all the issues there.
The general averaged ratings cannot be used the way you want to use them with any degree of certainty, and never have been.
I advise ignoring the general averaged ratings.
Sure, people can make new shelves, I do. They can also rate books based on interest, if they want to. And what you, or anyone else, thinks about that doesn't change that fact.
I use my want to read list for all books that I currently own and haven't read- i added a filter that says Books I want, so I know which i need to buy.
I’m not the first to say this, but I’d also like to see a “Did Not Finish” button. I have an “Abandoned” shelf, but even when I file a book there, it will still also be in either “Read” or “Want to Read”. I don’t want to remove the book from my shelves because it will also blow away my review of it (which I’ve provided to warn others of the stinky and the boring). If I didn’t finish it, it shouldn’t be in “Read”, and it certainly shouldn’t go back to “Want to Read”.
Meredith wrote: "I’m not the first to say this, but I’d also like to see a “Did Not Finish” button. I have an “Abandoned” shelf, but even when I file a book there, it will still also be in either “Read” or “Want to..."You need to make it an Exclusive shelf and then it will show up at the top with Read, Want to Read, Currently Reading. Go to 'edit' at the top of your bookshelves list, check off "Exclusive," and hit Save. As long as you don't have a Date Finished, it will not count towards your Goodreads Challenge.
Charlie wrote: "I would like a function so when you finish a book it adds the next book(s) in the series to Want to Read"Yes this would be so nice! Or even as an option after the book changes shelves. "Do you want notifications on future releases" "Would you like to add the rest of the books from this series to your too read shelf"
Please expand Goodreads Deals beyond the US :(
This is good to know. I'm just happy when I see members adding my books to their list. I was excited to see Parkland: Birth of a Movement just land on your Most Anticipated of 2019 list, and had no idea that was why. Thanks, Goodreads readers!
Mike wrote: "Tonk82 wrote: "I just mark as "Want to read" every book i buy :/ 368 Books "To-Read" is too much, so i do nothig with their position field and i just stack on the table the ones i want to read with..."Do you find the books you've added to your personal lists automatically get put on the 'to read' list? Is there a way to only have them on one list and not both? I've got a list called 'On the shelf' for books i've bought but haven't read - I'd like my 'to read' list to only be books I don't own that i want to read...??
Rachael wrote: "Mike wrote: "Tonk82 wrote: "I just mark as "Want to read" every book i buy :/ 368 Books "To-Read" is too much, so i do nothig with their position field and i just stack on the table the ones i want..."You need to make your other shelves exclusive so that they don't show up on Read, Currently Reading, or Want to Read shelves. When you edit bookshelves, check off 'exclusive.'
Anyone know why I can’t have over 100 books? I’m trying to keep my owned books on here so I can quickly see titles I have that I may have forgotten
Bryce wrote: "Anyone know why I can’t have over 100 books? I’m trying to keep my owned books on here so I can quickly see titles I have that I may have forgotten"If you are using the "owned books" feature to track things, you should know that it is a leftover pieces from a long-defunct bookswap feature of the site, and no development work is being put into it. Consequently, the functionality is probably going to be questionable.
If you just want to have an easily accessible list of your owned books, I would recommend creating a non-exclusive shelf for that purpose. The shelf I created for this is "status-owned" (to go along with "status-borrowed" and "status-released", also shelves that I use).
For me it's how I catalog the books I have but haven't read yet... For the ones I want but don't have yet, I created a "wishlist" shelf.
I created a new shelf called "interested" that I use instead of Want to Read. These are for books that caught my eye, but I haven't decided yet to read. Now my 'to-read' list is shorter and contains only books that I intend to read in the near future.
Robert wrote: "I created a new shelf called "interested" that I use instead of Want to Read. These are for books that caught my eye, but I haven't decided yet to read. Now my 'to-read' list is shorter and conta..."
I've got a to-read-own, to-read-don't own and looks-interesting-maybe read. So, that helps my To Read shelves not get ridiculously large, helps me track what I own and what I don't - so I'm not neglecting books I already have lol, as well as be able to keep an eye on some that caught my interest but I'm not sure about or haven't gotten around to yet.
Bryce wrote: "Anyone know why I can’t have over 100 books? I’m trying to keep my owned books on here so I can quickly see titles I have that I may have forgotten"What Anki said. Best to make a shelf for tracking books you own.
Elyse wrote: "Rachael wrote: "Mike wrote: "Tonk82 wrote: "I just mark as "Want to read" every book i buy :/ 368 Books "To-Read" is too much, so i do nothig with their position field and i just stack on the table..."Yes. Books must be on one Exclusive shelf. So when you shelve it on one that is not Exclusive the default puts it on Read also. If you want to not have it on one of the default Exclusive shelves you'll need to make a custom shelf an Exclusive shelf. Done as Elyse describes in Edit of your shelves.
I would love to have Goodreads bridge with Libby so when I’m done reading or listening to a book on Libby anything Libby has available in my Goodreads “want to read” shelf is pulled up first rather than having to go back and forth between apps or scroll through long lists of books I’ve read or don’t care to read in order to find something
I guess this is a good place to ask this question - Viewing the Want to Read shelf on mobile, the list is sorted by lowest rated book at the top and highest at the bottom. Is there any way to reverse this?
Hitesh wrote: "I guess this is a good place to ask this question - Viewing the Want to Read shelf on mobile, the list is sorted by lowest rated book at the top and highest at the bottom. Is there any way to rever..."It might depend on if you have an Android or iOS phone but for Android at the top it says "Sorted by..." and up/down arrows. Click those and you can change how the shelf is sorted. If you hit one twice it will go highest to lowest or lowest to highest/alpha A-Z or alpha Z-A, etc
Sean wrote: "With over 1,000 books on my "Want to Read" shelf, it's become pretty useless to me. I almost wish there was some other way to organize them."I use want to read as the books I actually own and look forward to reading and created a wishlist shelf for the books I'm interested in but haven't yet bought.
Sara wrote: "What I need aside from that is a button or stars indicating how much I want to read that. Because maybe that book is interesting but the next one is even more interesting and I want to read it firs..."EXACTLY
JoEllen wrote: "I would love to have a field where I could mark how I heard about a book as I add to my Want To Read shelf. Then I could look back and see what were my favorite sources for new reading material!"Agree this would be a great feature. Right now, you can "review" the book when you add it to your to-read shelf. If you go to the bottom of the review form and click on the "more" button, you get a "private notes" field where you can mark down anything you like about the book. I use that to put a few notes on why the book is on the list, including where I heard of it. You have to "Post" the review, even though you've entered no useful public info, in order to save those notes.
I hope the Goodreads folks fix the UI to surface this feature to the front page of the shelf.
What I would love is a shelf for “Don’t Want to Read” for books that seem interesting at first but, upon further research, I specifically choose to avoid them. I have several times made a Do Not Read decision which I almost immediately forget and then find myself having read the same book description multiple times and making the same decision each time. It would be helpfulto be able to flag these books on the first go around. I know I could create a custom shelf for this, but when you add books to custom shelves it automatically puts them in one of the standard Reading or Finished shelves as well.
Rachael wrote: "What I would love is a shelf for “Don’t Want to Read” for books that seem interesting at first but, upon further research, I specifically choose to avoid them. I have several times made a Do Not Re..."Create an exclusive shelf for those books. Create the shelf, then check off "exclusive" and you won't have to add it to Want to Read, Currently Reading, or Read. It becomes special like those shelves. And uncheck recommendations so you don't get books like those either.
"exclusive shelves: All members have three default shelves (read, currently-reading, and to-read), which are mutually exclusive, meaning a book can only be on one of them. Members can create as many additional shelves as they like, and books can be on as many non-exclusive shelves as you desire. This may be useful for shelves such as "reference" or "gave-up-on." It may take a few minutes for the changes to propagate if you have a lot of books on this shelf."
There is, you can filter by star rating and just see the rating/reviews for 1 star, or 2 star, etc."
Found it. I am an idiot. I can't believe I didn't see that. Thanks!