If you’re like me (Nancy), you keep track of the books you’ve read, as well as those you want to read. For a long time I kept an Excel spreadsheet that tracked each book’s title, author, the date I finished it, and if it was fiction or non-fiction. My spreadsheet also included statistics and graphs so I could compare from month to month and year to year. Ok so maybe you’re not so much like me, but I know a lot of readers who do track their reading.
A few years ago I made the jump from my trusty spreadsheet to Goodreads. Goodreads feeds right into my need for statistics and organization. I can put a book on several shelves, e.g. The Son of Neptune is on mythology, ya, fiction, audio and 2011 shelves. I can then filter on a shelf to see what other books I’ve read in that genre. These shelves are not exclusive, so a book can sit on as many different shelves as I want. There are also shelves that can be set as exclusive. While I’m reading a book, it sits on my currently-reading shelf. When I finish it, I move it to the read shelf. So a book cannot be on currently-reading and read at the same time.
While I love tracking my own books, I recently realized there’s an even better way to take advantage of this exclusive feature – tracking books for the kids. I added new exclusive shelves — alex-read and alex-to-read — and filled them up with books he’s read recently and those he wants to read. I then used a new Goodreads feature to find recommendations of books he may like. I love this because it’s getting harder and harder to find things he’ll like that are age- and grade-appropriate.
Goodreads has so many great features, including:
- The ability to see what your friends are reading and read their reviews
- Seeing what other people with similar literary tastes are reading
- Author pages that list their works, blog posts and other information
- Giveaways of new books
- Access your “to read” shelf (or shelves) at the library or bookstore via the Goodreads iPhone, Android or iPad apps
Sounds great, right? Go ahead and give it a try, and best of all, it’s free! And if you’re looking for some friends, feel free to add me (Nancy) by using this link.
Goodreads was also interested in hearing my (Jennifer‘s) feedback, as one who has never used any system like this before. Yes, I’ve thought about it, I’ve thought how cool it is to keep track of what I’ve read and to connect with others, but I’ve just never had the time to actually get started.
Or so I thought.
This weekend, I made the plunge. I signed up as Jenndon and told Goodreads what I like to read, and it immediately populated the page with a list of books for me to either rate (if I’ve read them) or mark as “want to read” if I haven’t, but I’d like to. With each click, the options changed. It was SO simple.
Next I’m going to do as Nancy has with her son Alex, and see what it might recommend for Kyle.
Now I just need the friend factor. I friended Nancy and Elizabeth, but if you’d like to add me to your list of friends, please do!
What about you? Are you on Goodreads or another book-tracking program? What do you like about it?
I haven’t tried Goodreads yet, but it sounds like it’s very simple. Is Goodreads kid-friendly? Do you think ten year olds would be able to monitor their own shelves?
I’m a fifth grade teacher, and right now some of my kids are having trouble keeping track of all the books they’ve read, and want to read. Lists and sheets in their notebook somehow always get lost.
What do you guys think?
Nancy has been using it much longer, so hopefully she’ll weigh in, but yes, I would think that it would be very easy for a 10-year-old to set it up and use.
Yes, I would say that fifth graders would have no problem using Goodreads, sounds like a great way for them to keep track of what they’ve read! And if they friend each other, they can see how their friends felt about a book.
Thank you both for your thoughts! I think I’ll check out Goodreads few weeks and see how I can incorporate it into my class. Maybe we’ll just start out with a “classroom” shelf and go from there.
Thanks again for a great post!
Use Goodreads all the time since discovering it recently. Have added Nancy and Jennifer as friends, though, truth to tell, haven’t figured out that function.
I LOVE Goodreads – have been on it for a couple of years and it’s just a way to peruse new books, read reviews, and especially track what I’ve read and want to read. It is my #1 source for reviews before I look anywhere else because it’s just regular readers like us. I friended both of you!
Thanks for the great post 🙂
I am also on Goodreads and have been on it for a number of years. Besides the ability to keep track of books read, etc., I also like the fact that I can join virtual bookclubs and read a wider variety of books. Its an excellent site.
I’m a long time goodreads.com user and couldn’t live without it at this point! Great write up of all the site’s features!