Why do we ask you to post links to the book when you nominate books for group read?

[Danielle The Book Huntress , Literary Adrenaline Junkie]

This question has come up before.

Here's the answer.

1. Because we have specific criteria for what books qualify for our group reads, using a link helps to facilitate the poll creation process for the moderator. It may seem like a quick process, but it can be time consuming.

We cannot select books that are out of print because that means not all our group members can find the books easily in time or at all to read them for the group read month. Also, out of print books can be expensive and it's not fair to expect members to pay large expenses to read a book for one group read. If I can quickly check the book on Goodreads and follow the link to Amazon, I know in seconds if that book is available to easily buy.

2. Also, this is a Goodreads group. The books we read should be available to read and rate on this site, and members should not have to do extra work to pull the book up if they want to check it out and see if they want to nominate it.

It may seem silly and a waste of your time, but it's saves time for all of us in the long run.

So what if I use a phone or tablet to participate. How do I nominate books?

Here's a suggestion from Jim, one of the group members:

What you can do is find the book, copy & paste the URL into your comment. Between that, the book title & author, the mod will be able to quickly make sure she puts the correct book in the poll.

What I just did:

On my Ipad, I looked up the book, and clicked on the icon that means share/save/copy. It looks like a tray with an arrow pointing downward. When I clicked on it, it takes me to a screen that gives me options for how I want to share the link, and I clicked on "copy". When I went into a thread, I held my finger down against the open comment browser and a message that says "paste" came up and I clicked on this. Then I was able to paste the link into the browser. It works this way too.


If other members have suggestions, feel free to post.

I just want you to know that I do listen to feedback, but this rule is not going to change. I realize that it adds another layer for members who don't use a pc/laptop, but it's doable, and many members have done it since we have had group reads. If it was impossible, then I wouldn't have this requirement.

Fundamentally, this is a way to help each other to be able to have group reads every month.

Moderators do the work out of their love for books and book conversation. We just ask for a little help from the members to make that possible.