Do You Use The "Friends' Recommendations" Feature On GR? (9/3/23)

[Marc]

If you click on your avatar, there's an option called "Friends' recommendations" (and when you finish reading a book, GR asks you if you want to recommend the book to anyone). Do you use this feature? Are there books recommended to you that look like you might read them?

[Carol]

Marc wrote: "If you click on your avatar, there's an option called "Friends' recommendations" (and when you finish reading a book, GR asks you if you want to recommend the book to anyone). Do you use this featu..."

I don’t use it, but maybe 10% of the time when I’m a tagged recipient, it’s a thoughtful rec and something I’d read. In my experience, users of this feature — driven by their momentary enthusiasm for a book - recommend books to too broad an audience and it’s annoying. I assume good intentions.

[Catherine]

Never have. Should I?

[Hugh]

I have to admit that I find them annoying and always ignore them, though the home page recommendations are worse.

[Alwynne]

I look at what friends have added to their lists and I use it for friends who always add a particular author or type of title when I think they may have missed the one I'm adding. So, for example, a friend who's following a particular Japanese detective series and may have missed the news that a new title's been translated. But I don't use it often or more generally.

[Marc]

I discovered there were 70+ recs for me because I never look at the feature. It’s hard to tell which are specific to me and which got sent out in bulk. I do know some of my GR friends don’t have a large friends list so those recs feel slightly more personal. I rarely use it to recommend books to others but if I do, it’s to only a few people. I’m more likely to be interested in a book based on reading friends’ reviews.

The home page recs are worse, Hugh!

[LindaJ^]

Never. Hugh is spot on.

[Glenda]

I don’t

[Whitney]

I just checked, and there are several recommendations I never saw, as well.

I remember several years ago when I found the feature, I sent a few joke recommendations to people, but other than that, I'm obviously not using it.

Like everyone else, I see what people are reading and add books that way. If I find something I really think someone else will like, I'll PM them.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

When I was first exploring GoodReads I tried it a couple times. But I would never use it now. I don't think I've ever read a book because it was recommended to me by someone using that feature on GoodReads. To be honest, I think it is primarily used for author spam.

[Tracy]

Didn’t even know it existed until now. I don’t plan to use it unless it’s a family member, and I finally remember the name of the book we were talking about. But then I could just text, so, still no.

[Cher 'N Books]

I use it sparingly. When I receive recommendations, much like you guys have reported, it is generally for a book I never intend to read, though I have discovered a few gems through the process.

I mainly use it to recommend books to others, but I only do this for a few books a year and only recommend them to 1-3 readers that I know well and genuinely think they will like it.