Help! How Do I [Do That Thing] on Goodreads?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

No guide except the community guidelines for goodreads which says no personal attacks. I don't think that was something you were worried about, so have fun!

[Sean]

Hi, cheers for the quick reply. I didn't even get time to make a coffee. Most of the authors I read and re-read are dead unfortunately, so they won’t be reading anything I write . . . well . . . maybe if I put the review in the supernatural forum they might . . .
I just didn’t want to put some time and thought into doing a few reviews and then find after the fact that I should have followed a set protocol, cheers again.

[Michelle]

Sean wrote: "Hi, cheers for the quick reply. I didn't even get time to make a coffee. Most of the authors I read and re-read are dead unfortunately, so they won’t be reading anything I write . . . well . . . ma..."

I think the reviews are mostly for potential readers. Some authors probably read them, but it's the readers that form the bulk of the reviewer's...audience?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Hahaha I suppose you can say whatever you want of the dead ones--we all win if they come back to say more, even if it's to tell you off!

But no! They're primarily what you want to remember about a book and if anything is secondary, it's what another reader will think. The only concrete community rule is against personal attacks. Everything else is what sounds fun!

[Sean]

Allison wrote: "Hahaha I suppose you can say whatever you want of the dead ones--we all win if they come back to say more, even if it's to tell you off!."

My favourite SF author is Keith Roberts and a few years back i got hold of a number of books from his estate collection i assume to be his personal copies . . . I haven't decided yet if that makes me cool . . . or creepy.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

let's go with cool, that was my gut reaction haha

[Jody]

Hey, how do I add my book to the Scifi & Fantasy Book Club bookshelf? Thanks!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Jody, you can see how books are added to our shelf here:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Aga]

I remember adding books to Goodreads. IBSN number, cover photo and basic information. Is it still an option and I just can’t find it or something has been changed by GR?

There’s a book I’m reading, I want to add to my shelf, that is not on GR.

[DivaDiane]

Unfortunately, they disallowed that a few months ago. Only official Librarians can do that now. I think Anna is one. If you ask her real nice she might add it for you.

[Michelle]

Aga wrote: "I remember adding books to Goodreads. IBSN number, cover photo and basic information. Is it still an option and I just can’t find it or something has been changed by GR?

There’s a book I’m reading..."

I have one, too!

[Anna]

Normally I would be happy to help, but I'm super busy irl this month :( I'm sure we have other librarians in group, or you can go the official route, which is to post in the Librarians group. For books not in English, if there is a group for that language/country, it's very likely quicker to ask* there, it can take weeks to get things added through the official means.

* edit: ask if someone is a librarian and can add

[Kirsten]

I find that praying to the Goodreads patron saint helps. I think it's the same one you pray to for lost causes.

[Becky]

I'm a librarian and can add them when I have a bit of free time. :)
Just need this stuff:
Title
Author(s) name(s)
ISBN (or ASIN)
Publisher
Publication date
Format
Page count
Description
Language (if not English)

[Michelle]

Becky wrote: "I'm a librarian and can add them when I have a bit of free time. :)
Just need this stuff:
Title
Author(s) name(s)
ISBN (or ASIN)
Publisher
Publication date
Format
Page count
Description
Language..."

Thank you! I'll get it for you after work.

[Aga]

Becky wrote: "I'm a librarian and can add them when I have a bit of free time. :)
Just need this stuff:
Title
Author(s) name(s)
ISBN (or ASIN)
Publisher
Publication date
Format
Page count
Description
Language..."

You’re a saint!

Title: Park Grabiszyński. Miejska puszcza.
Author(s) name(s): Ewa Zachara, Małgorzata Piszczek
ISBN (or ASIN): 9788395286490
Publisher: Ovo
Publication date 2021
Format Hardback
Page count 232
Description
232 strony prezentujące miejsce nazwane „niewiarygodnym skarbem pośrodku Wrocławia” przez Petera Wohllebena, autora słynnego „Sekretnego życia drzew”. 270 niezwykłych fotografii przedstawiających florę, faunę i codzienne życie parku. Teksty przyrodniczki i Wrocławianki Roku 2020 w kategorii pro-Eko, Małgorzaty Piszczek. Tajemnicze mapy z legendami pełnymi wspomnień. Radość dla wszystkich obecnych i przyszłych miłośników Parku Grabiszyńskiego.
Album powstał dzięki pasji i zaangażowaniu społeczników działających w Społecznej Radzie Parku Grabiszyńskiego i Grupie 51, przy wsparciu Rady Osiedla Grabiszyn-Grabiszynek oraz sponsorów.
Language (if not English) Polish

It’s checked and ready to copy and paste.
I looked for Polish librarian group but couldn’t find any.

[Aga]

So, do I get it right? You can’t just add a book here anymore? You have to be a librarian? Did they explain why?

[Anna]

Aga wrote: "So, do I get it right? You can’t just add a book here anymore? You have to be a librarian?"

Yes, I hate it.

Can we please either start a new thread for add requests, or in today's case, DM Becky?

(Thanks Becky! ^_^)

[Becky]

Aga - Done: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... :)

[Becky]

Aga wrote: "So, do I get it right? You can’t just add a book here anymore? You have to be a librarian? Did they explain why?"

It's to better ensure that the database only has the desired kinds of books. If users aren't able to add "Not a book" items, then those don't have be continually removed by librarians.

[Michelle]

Oh, is that why they changed it? Thanks again for helping us!

[CBRetriever]

plus there are multiple listings for the same book that aren't linked

[Aga]

Becky wrote: "Aga - Done: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... :)"

Thank you!

[Aga]

I hope they are looking for a software solution to check if it’s a book you’re adding and to inform people that the book is already in database. I always thought that’s why we typed ISBN while adding a book.
I feel the current solution is an overkill.

A new thread for adding books is a great idea.

[Becky]

They expect users to search for the book to verify it doesn’t already exist prior to adding it. There’s unlikely to be any automated duplicate verification any time soon, and even if they did develop that, I doubt they’ll ever go back to allowing all users to be able to add to the database.

[Michelle]

Does anyone know if there's an easy way to sort my books according to genre? That doesn't seem to be an option when I'm under "all books". I wanted to make custom genre shelving such as SciFi, HF, etc, but I really don't want to have to scroll through all 2600+ of them in order to do this.
If there's not a simple solution, the heck with it :)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Sadly, no easy way without manually sorting :( I think you might be able to on one of the other bookshelf sites, but I am not 100%

[Michelle]

Allison wrote: "Sadly, no easy way without manually sorting :( I think you might be able to on one of the other bookshelf sites, but I am not 100%"

Ok, thank you! So much for that.

[J]

Hello. How can I find people who are currently reading the same book as I am?

[Becky]

J wrote: "Hello. How can I find people who are currently reading the same book as I am?"

I don't know if this is actually possible anymore. It used to be possible by clicking on the Top Shelves option, and then the number of users who have that book shelved that way was clickable, but now it's not.

I suppose that change is intended to prevent spam, or maybe for privacy reasons... but Goodreads doesn't even want to show us OUR FRIENDS who are also reading the same book. Which is... a decision.

[jaii ♡ (selwyn's version ♡ )]

J wrote: "Hello. How can I find people who are currently reading the same book as I am?"


Go to the book that you're reading (with the cover on the left side and the bio on the right.) Scroll down until you see something that will explicitly say "[number] people are currently reading."

[Amy (Other Amy)]

You can scroll down to the bottom of the book page and click on discussions, which will show you all group threads related to that book. I rarely have any luck finding active discussions at the time I'm reading it, but I like to go read past discussions after I've finished to see what other people thought sometimes.

[Becky]

Jai ♡ jaii (active :) wrote: "Go to the book that you're reading (with the cover on the left side and the bio on the right.) Scroll down until you see something that will explicitly say "[number] people are currently reading.""

This doesn't help to find who is actually reading the book though. It only shows a number.

[J]

Becky wrote: Goodreads doesn't even want to show us OUR FRIENDS who are also reading the same book. Which is... a decision

Man, that's a shame. What a weird and doubtful decision. I subscribed because of books (of course) but I also wanted to connect with people about what I read. I guess I'll just have to do what Amy (Other Amy) does.

Thank you for your answers people :)

[jaii ♡ (selwyn's version ♡ )]

J wrote: "Becky wrote: Goodreads doesn't even want to show us OUR FRIENDS who are also reading the same book. Which is... a decision

Man, that's a shame. What a weird and doubtful decision. I subscribed bec..."


I mean you can create discussion threads on the groups with the book name and see if anyone read it but threads get made so often... you never know.

[Meredith]

You can see if any of your GR friends are currently reading a particular book. Scroll down on the book page to Ratings & Reviews then Friends & Following and it shows ratings by any of your friends. Then it shows the shelf your friends have the book on (if they haven't written a review), and if any are currently reading it shows that shelf.

Another way to see what your friends are currently reading is to go to your friends list and it shows a most recent status for each, showing what book they are reading.

Like others have said, I usually poke around in old discussions to see what has been said.

[J]

Meredith wrote: "You can see if any of your GR friends are currently reading a particular book. Scroll down on the book page to Ratings & Reviews then Friends & Following and it shows ratings by any of your friends..."

Hi. I don't have any friends yet. I just subscribed and wanted to do some sort of "buddy reading" with the people reading the same thing as me. I figured it would encourage me to keep reading as I read very slow and have a tendency to procrastinate my reading a lot. :/

I'll just do what you all suggest. I guess the end result will be the same. But it would have been nice to be able to click on the users list of the people who are currently reading any given book.

[Becky]

If you’re looking for buddies, you can post in this group (most groups, honestly) to recruit some. You’d probably have more luck that way than reaching out to random people who might not be open to discussion or participation like that.

[Raucous]

Perhaps this piece on Goodreads languishing under Amazon (and the problems that have resulted) helps explain why it's sometimes so hard to [Do That Thing] and why we get all of these weird updates that tend to focus on disabling things:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/techno...

Goodreads comes across as a sad cautionary tale of technical debt.

[Ines, Resident Vampire]

Amazon could handle the technical debt. They, of all companies, have the resources to overhaul this site. They just don't see the need, because they get the data anyway and that's what's valuable to them.

[CBRetriever]

Becky wrote: "I'm a librarian and can add them when I have a bit of free time. :)
Just need this stuff:
Title
Author(s) name(s)
ISBN (or ASIN)
Publisher
Publication date
Format
Page count
Description
Language..."

Becky, I have two requests one of which has been sitting there since June 12th with no action. They're both books offered by Tor so they have no ISBN or ASIN though I expect the second one will in the future. Anything you can do to help would be appreciated:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I want to use them on the Short Fiction Challenge, but since they don't exist on Goodreads....

[Becky]

CBRetriever wrote: "Becky, I have two requests..."
Done and done... May take a few mins for everything to show up. :)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

[CBRetriever]

Becky wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "Becky, I have two requests..."
Done and done... May take a few mins for everything to show up. :)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1......"

thank you so very, very much - I'll mark them closed if you haven't

[Becky]

No, I didn’t. I’m not a member of that group anymore. You’re welcome!

[CBRetriever]

wow, wonder who jumped on my request then? A big thanks to them. I'd been waiting on the one since June 12th. They were not there at the time I posted about them.

[Faith]

CBRetriever wrote: "wow, wonder who jumped on my request then? A big thanks to them. I'd been waiting on the one since June 12th. They were not there at the time I posted about them."

Becky added the books. Librarians don’t need to join the Librarians group in order to edit book data.

[CBRetriever]

Faith wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "wow, wonder who jumped on my request then? A big thanks to them. I'd been waiting on the one since June 12th. They were not there at the time I posted about them."

Becky added ..."

ah, OK - that works

[Becky]

Ahh, yeah... Sorry, for the confusion, CB - I can SEE the posts you linked, but I can't mark them completed over there unless I rejoin the Librarian's group, which I don't want to do. :)

[CBRetriever]

Becky wrote: "Ahh, yeah... Sorry, for the confusion, CB - I can SEE the posts you linked, but I can't mark them completed over there unless I rejoin the Librarian's group, which I don't want to do. :)"

I understand - I marked them closed/done so all's good

[Melanie, the neutral party]

"2023 Read All The Books: A Decade of AtTENding the Shelf" thread seems to be stuck with always 1 unread post. It's not a huge deal, but it bothering my need to complete all the things.