A Goodreads Review

You may have heard of Goodreads, a book sharing and reviewing site. According to website, they have over 50 million users. I joined Goodreads about a month ago and decided I would do a review to help others learn about Goodreads. As an aside, this review is completely my own opinions.

Overview

Goodreads was launched in January 2007 by Otis Chandler. He created it as a way to find new books through your friends and now, recommendations. Through it you can find books (so far I've found every book I've searched for, even if it's old), rate them, write reviews, and shelve them. You can become friends with other people and then see what they read. It's a community built around books.

Features

Goodreads has many features designed to help readers find books. Here are a few that I know of.

Shelves. These are created by you, however you want. I categorized mine by genre, but you could do it alphabetically or however you want.

Book reviews. You can read what other members have said about the book, though I don't always suggest it. Members can also see if their friends have read it and what they thought of it.

Lists. These are put together by members on various subjects. You can browse by clicking on a genre tag in the side panel, or searching for something. So far I've found the few I've used helpful.

Recommendations. Once you have rated twenty books, Goodreads starts giving you recommendations based on your shelves and favorite genres. So far, I've been impressed by what they've suggested. If you don't like a book, hit not interested and they will improve on what you want to see.

The Reading Challenge. If you want to read a certain amount of books in a year, you can joint the Goodreads reading challenge. You set how many books you want to read, then go for it. The level can be adjusted if you aimed too high or too low.

Emails. They send very nice emails, not too often, about new releases, giveaways, and what's new from the authors you follow.

Pros and Cons

Pros
-It's easy to use
-The recommendations are great
-If you want to read a book later, you can save it to your Want to Read shelf
-Your account can be very private
-It's a great way to find something new to read
-You can go from Goodreads to Amazon to buy a book

Cons
-You never know what you could come across by accident
-Reviews of books can be harsh
-Just browsing can be hard to figure out

Signing Up for an Account

Are you now eager to try Goodreads yourself? Setting up an account is quick and painless. I'll show you in 3 easy steps.

1. Go to www.goodreads.com. On the right there is a place you can put your name, email, and password along with a sign up button.

2. Go through the steps to set up your account. You can also sign in with Facebook.

3. You can now add books, friends, and shelves.

I hope this review is helpful to you. In short, I like Goodreads and will continue using it for my reading. 

Do you have a Goodreads account? What do you think of it?

Read part two of this post.