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Has Goodreads changed the way you read?
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Instagram is one of my biggest reading influences - my Instagram itself is almost solely dedicated to the books I read. So many lovely people to discuss books with on Instagram and so many beautiful pictures - I must say I've spent more since I've joined the bookstagram community!
Gloria wrote: "I'm so thankful that I discovered Goodreads last October! I loved reading in elementary school but I let that habit languish in middle school. In high school I began again but I didn't know many pe..."Wow! It was just wonderful to read your interesting comment. And I'm glad that you like this group. It's really a very good group with a lot of people with different tastes to broaden our reading horizon and, as Terri said, members are always ready to support or comfort you if you have a bad time. It's a big family made of friends!
GR absolutely affected my life...., my TBR is getting longer and longer.....lol
Loved reading through all the comments, this is a great thread Terri!Like many others, when I joined in 2011 I used it as a way to track my reading. (I did have a database for that before, using GR makes me feel soooo much less nerdy though). Then I got in contact with my first GR friend, solely on the basis of him having read a book I loved, but the two of us at that time were the only two people having rated it, so I sent a really shy friend request, not at all knowing the etiquette of GR yet. This resulted in a great and regular correspondence with a Swiss professor for German literature living in Brazil.
I then started to get a bit more courageous and joined a few groups.
Being able to share my enthusiasm for the books I was reading felt like a gift, because at that time there weren't so many people in my life that I would do that with.
GR has greatly changed my horizon. English not being my mother tongue, my literary horizon was very much defined by the German book market and what got translated and talked about by German literary magazines. I would hardly read in English. Now a third of my reading is in English, and not only because I like to read in original language if I can, but also because if that South -American poet I always wanted to read hasn't been translated to German but to English - well then I read the English translation. So it feels like I now get to choose from two worlds.
Also audiobooks and multiple books read at the same time: I blame and thank GR. I sometimes feel I need to slow down again. Too many books at once and too many ambitious reading plans sometimes start to stress me out.
One of the most important and most unexpected things for me though: I've made new friends that greatly influence my reading now. Some of them I've met, in Rome, in Copenhagen or in Bremen, sweaty hands and all, as if going on a blind date. Priceless :)
Jenny wrote: "Loved reading through all the comments, this is a great thread Terri!Like many others, when I joined in 2011 I used it as a way to track my reading. (I did have a database for that before, using ..."
Had to smile about this, Jenny. I hadn't realised we were on a blind date!
LOL Gill 'as if'!! (But sweaty hands I had, mind you, that could have been my speedy biking style)
Jenny wrote: "LOL Gill 'as if'!! (But sweaty hands I had, mind you, that could have been my speedy biking style)"Jenny, you are priceless!
Jenny wrote: "Loved reading through all the comments, this is a great thread Terri!Like many others, when I joined in 2011 I used it as a way to track my reading. (I did have a database for that before, using ..."
Loved to read also your thoughts! But now I'm curious to know the title of that book :D
Gloria :-) oh, I'm similar.I have a few bookshelves in GR, but that's it.
also, I agree on what you are saying about social media sometimes creating a level of "competitive thinking" ... but you get tougher with time, hihi. // I love to explore what my friends are reading and sometimes would add a book to my TBR shelf because a particular friend is reading it.
nodding, too on reading groups :-) discussing a book together can be a real mind-opener.
dely wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Loved reading through all the comments, this is a great thread Terri!Like many others, when I joined in 2011 I used it as a way to track my reading. (I did have a database for that ..."
dely, it was Beleuchtete Höhle: Sanatoriumstagebuch by Max Blecher, a Romanian author. I think it's not translated to English sadly.
Terri wrote: "Caecilia, I've never thought of Instagram as a source of reading ideas. I'll have to check it out. "it so is. there is a new term called: bookstagram.
it is particularly for people who like to take and share pictures of book arrangements. some of these accounts are amazing, the creativity which can be expressed by arranging a book with decorations ... I really love it.
I have met many book lovers via bookstagram.
and we not only share our recent reads but also read books together and discuss them in the message inbox part of instagram.
if you go to the search option within instagram, click into the empty search field, go to the second option: (search by) # .. and type in, for example: bookstagram ... you will find thousands of booklover feeds :-)
Heather wrote: "Instagram is one of my biggest reading influences - my Instagram itself is almost solely dedicated to the books I read. So many lovely people to discuss books with on Instagram and so many beautifu...";-) very same here, Heather!
Jenny wrote: "dely, it was Beleuchtete Höhle: Sanatoriumstagebuch by Max Blecher, a Romanian author. I think it's not translated to English sadly. "
It seems a pretty difficult and demanding book. Added it however to my wishlist, perhaps one day I will find and read it.
it's quite philosophical dely, but I don't remember it as overly heady or difficult. ( the blurb makes it sound quite heavy though)
Goodreads has made me read books from different genres, like dystopia. Also it makes me want to pick up all the classics since everyone on Goodreads has read them.A bad way in which it affects my reading is that I often force myself to read certain books quickly -even if I lose interest in them- just so that I can complete some challenge or a readathon.
Yes I have found myself reading books I would have never read if not for Goodreads readers. The Last of the Soviets and the Gilead trilogy come to mind this year.
Jenny wrote: "Loved reading through all the comments, this is a great thread Terri!Like many others, when I joined in 2011 I used it as a way to track my reading. (I did have a database for that before, using ..."
Jenny I echo much of your thoughts and joined GR for exactly the same reason... To keep track of what I read.... But what a world it opened up- I'm not corresponding with any nerdy professors... I don't think.... But GR has really encouraged me to share my passions and link up and correspond when time allows with all sorts of book lovers and the occasional author.
I considered myself pretty well read when I joined but GR has so challenged me to read more classics, finished books I started a long time ago, and led me to lots of new authors. A lifelong lover of literature who never had the time or leisure to study the subject (O Level English Lit nearly put me off the classics for good) GR is in some ways is like a busy university without the necessity of writing essays or attending lectures!
GR has increased my passion for books and I often feel inspired to keep going with a book because of encouragement from GR friends or to read something someone has enthused about.
But above all GR celebrates and welcomes book lovers. Instead of skulking among bookshelves in libraries and bookshops we can feel safe to greet each other and chat about anything and everything.
All About Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Beleuchtete Höhle: Sanatoriumstagebuch (other topics)Ragnarok (other topics)
The Willows (other topics)
War of the Whales: A True Story (other topics)
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (other topics)
Caecilia, I've never thought of Instagram as a source of reading ideas. I'll have to check it out.