Locating all "group read" threads?

[Michele]

Is there an easy way to find all the "group read" threads? In other GR groups I belong to there has been a "Group reads" folder but I don't see one here? I'm looking forward to some of the upcoming group reads, and I don't want to miss them when they start. Thanks1

[Becky]

This group creates a new folder for each book read, since there are usually at least two threads per book, but sometimes more. So you'd be looking for the folder for the discussion, not just a thread.

[Sarah]

Past reads go into a folder for the year read. If you're on a computer there's an area under the box for polls and bookshelf and such. It's a smaller box for searching. Enter the name of the book and once the search comes up click the "topics only" bubble and hit search again. That will pull up anything that has a thread title that matches the book you're looking for.

[YouKneeK]

Here’s some additional info that may or may not just be more confusing. Ignore me if it’s confusing. :)

1. Sarah’s instructions work great. I just wanted to note that, in some of the older discussions (2010 and older?), they truncated the longer titles. For example, if I search for “Assassin’s Apprentice”, it doesn’t pull up the group read threads because the subject headings all say “Assassin’s Appr…” Searching for “Assassin” will work.

2. If you happen to be browsing through the group bookshelf when you see a book that you want to see the discussions for, you can try the “View Activity” link to the right. It won’t work for everything, but many of the books are tied to their original group read discussions. When it works, it’s really convenient.

3. There’s a structure to how the group read folders are created/managed:

3a: The two current month’s reads are always in the third and fourth folder on the Discussions list. So the first folder is “Group Business”, the second is “SciFi and Fantasy Book Challenge”, and then this month the third one is “City of Bones Discussion” and the fourth one is “Starship Troopers Discussion” because those are the two books we’re reading this month. Within the folders there’s usually a non-spoiler thread, started at the beginning of the month, and a spoiler thread started in the middle of the month.

3b: Next month, the City of Bones and Starship Troopers folders will be moved further toward the bottom of the discussions list, below “Goodreads Author’s Discussion” and the folders for the new month’s books will take their place.

3c: I believe they’re limited to how many folders they can have, so the threads contained in the older folders have to get moved into the yearly folders at the very bottom of the discussions list. “Group Reads Discussions 2013”, “Group Reads Discussions 2012”, etc.

4. This is less related to searching for group discussions, but a while back I copied and pasted the group bookshelf list into an Excel spreadsheet. It’s so much easier to search/sort/filter in Excel since Goodreads’ group shelf features are a little lacking. The links all still work, so I can quickly get to the Goodreads book page if I want. I also add my own notes about what I’ve read, whether it’s a completed series or a standalone or an ongoing series, etc. For standalones and completed series, I have info about how many books and estimated pages. I also have the “View Activity” link included, so it’s really nice when the books are tied to that because I’m often starting from my spreadsheet and the first thing I try is to just click the link. Each month I copy the two new books into my spreadsheet, so there's a little maintenance, but for me it's worth the time.

[Cheryl]

But you asked about upcoming reads. You can add anything that's on the "to-read" shelf in the group bookshelves to your own personal calendar.

Or, what I do, is set my profile to get email notifications. On a PC (no clue about mobiles), hover over your avatar on the top right of the window. Click Account Settings. Click the third tab, Emails. Scroll down, find the option " Email me when one of my groups is about to start reading a book" and check for yes.

Also, on that very same page, on the right rail, there's a list of your groups, so you can customize the settings for each group. I have it set so I get a 7 day reminder for all group reads, but you can choose 'no reminder' or 1 day or anything up to 60 days.

(If you don't like email, I bet there's a way to customize notifications from your profile, too, but I don't know it.)

[Sarah]

The threads aren't opened until the 1st of the month that they're being read so there's no way to look them up ahead of time.

[Cheryl]

Sarah Anne wrote: "The threads aren't opened until the 1st of the month that they're being read so there's no way to look them up ahead of time."

No way to look up the threads, right... but you do shelve upcoming reads as 'to-read' so Michele can look up the books, right?

[Sarah]

Yep, they go on the bookshelf as soon as they officially win the poll. Just not with threads attached :)