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I think I'm one of the very few people who finds sites like goodreads almost entirely pointless.

 

There is so much 'content' that you can't see the woods for the trees. If 500 reviews that are 20 or 30 words long are attributed to one book I have no desire to trawl through them to find the gems. I equally hate the customer reviews on Amazon. 90% of them are meaningless comments on how much someone thought the book 'rocked' or 'sucked'. You very rarely find a decent review which can give you a good idea of what the book may be about. I'm sorry, but for me a book review actually needs to review the contents, themes and ideas and advise on what kind of reader might enjoy the book. Comments about 'I read this when I was 12 and loved it' are a big turn off for me.

 

I've chose a random example to illustrate...

 

Quote '"Read Gaiman!" they say. "I can't believe you've never read Gaiman! You have GOT TO read Gaiman!" "Gaiman is SUCH an important part of popular culture and one of the BEST contemporary writers! You HAVE TO READ GAIMAN!"

 

Well, I've read Gaiman now.

 

Hi Gaiman!

Bye Gaiman!' End Quote

 

What exactly is the point in that?! I know nothing from this review, and I would say 90% of reviews on goodreads and amazon are exactly like this.

 

Finally, I think that a lot of the reason behind sites like this is for people to 'collect' ratings/ reviews/ number of books posted. Much like with facebook it's not really about making friends or reading books - it's listing in public a whole host of information which no-one but the author actually cares about. I'd rather spend the hour it might take to post 50 books on reading some books. The information stored on this site could dissappear in the blink of an eye and all that time spent adding reads would be obliterated without meaning. I just think it's a complete waste of time.

 

I do keep records of my reading for myself with details of title, author, genre, how much I enjoyed it, but that's just for me and I wouldn't want anyone else reading it - it's probably nonsense to anyone but me anyway.

 

It's just not for me I'm afraid!

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jankensan, all I can say is each to their own, aye? I personally don't use goodreads in order to find great titles and great reviews, I can do that here on BCF where I'm sure to get some excellent recommendations.

 

Finally, I think that a lot of the reason behind sites like this is for people to 'collect' ratings/ reviews/ number of books posted. Much like with facebook it's not really about making friends or reading books - it's listing in public a whole host of information which no-one but the author actually cares about. I'd rather spend the hour it might take to post 50 books on reading some books. The information stored on this site could dissappear in the blink of an eye and all that time spent adding reads would be obliterated without meaning. I just think it's a complete waste of time.

 

I do keep records of my reading for myself with details of title, author, genre, how much I enjoyed it, but that's just for me and I wouldn't want anyone else reading it - it's probably nonsense to anyone but me anyway.

 

Don't you think that the goodreads member themselves cares about their listings? I personally love having all my books (read, to-be-read, currently-reading etc.) listed on computer, it's just the most excellent way to keep track of everything I've ever read, with the ratings and the dates and such and such. Besides, I am interested in what my friends have been reading and how they're rating the books. IMHO, it's quite bold to say that no one but the author cares about the people's listings. The author is actually the last person I would ever have thought would go through the lists. It never even occurred to me.

 

I hope you don't take offense, those are just my personal views and I find it interesting how two people can look at goodreads so differently :)

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@jankensan.. I agree somewhat on the reviews. Those you posted about Gaiman was indeed one that doesn't has much use. However.. I don't like the typical reviews either, the ones you mentioned with themes, ideas and what readers might enjoy the book. I love the personal reviews more, where someone tells what emotions this book meant for them, what it felt like reading it. I mean, the summary etc of a book often tells you the contents and some themes, and besides, I don't read books by just themes, I read books because they speak to me/my imagination. And to judge if a book will do that, the personal, subjective and emotional reviews are the better for me.

Plus, I too love having all my books up there. And it helps me see what books I've got already, because the other day I almost bought a double. Also, since joining the site, I added a whole bunch of books to my "to read" list.. I find the "listopia" part of the site very useful, I love browsing through lists of books to see which I'd like to read. And honestly, the site is for me. I don't care who sees it. But I do love that I have some friends on there from this forum, who have given me (knowingly or not) good tips so far on which books to read, seems our tastes are similar and I know people here can be quite critical, like me. So when I see someone giving a four star rating to a book I'd like to read, that makes me want to read it more. ;)

 

So for me, so far, the site's great. :D

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I don't take offence at all- you're entitled to your likes/ dislikes and opinions just like I am :D I just hate sites like that and in the interests of the the thread being about more than people telling us their user names and requesting friends I though a little debate was in order.

 

Personally, I really don't care how many books other people have read, want to read, wish they could read or that they read a book on the train on the way to work and thought it was amazing etc etc.

 

I'd rather spend the time reading!

 

By author I mean the person who wrote the list, not the author of the book btw. Probably not very clear on that one. I think it's unlikely that anyone who uses that site really CARES about anything that anyone else on the site has read or reviewed. It's just human nature to catalogue and list. Unfortunately for me, I now have to trawl through hundreds of reviews about what people 'think' about books whenever I want to buy one in order to find a review from someone that has actually read the book and thought about it properly. I have honestly seen reviews that say 'not read it yet, but looks awesome'. I love pickled onions, but my bf hates them - it's the same for books- you just can't tell from a 20 word review about how much someone liked a book.

 

There are so many better resources for finding out about books in genres you love - for me the primary one being actually reading them, and talking to friends who like the same kind of thing as me in depth about whether or not it's interesting and worth a read. Amazon 'look inside' is very good for reading books you think may be of interest. The review articles on here are also quite good!

 

I'd be interested to hear if anyone else thinks it's a time waster if they dare come out the woodwork! :cool:

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I don't take offence at all- you're entitled to your likes/ dislikes and opinions just like I am :D I just hate sites like that and in the interests of the the thread being about more than people telling us their user names and requesting friends I though a little debate was in order.

 

There's always room for a good and healthy debate :D

 

By author I mean the person who wrote the list, not the author of the book btw. Probably not very clear on that one. I think it's unlikely that anyone who uses that site really CARES about anything that anyone else on the site has read or reviewed. It's just human nature to catalogue and list. Unfortunately for me, I now have to trawl through hundreds of reviews about what people 'think' about books whenever I want to buy one in order to find a review from someone that has actually read the book and thought about it properly. I have honestly seen reviews that say 'not read it yet, but looks awesome'. I love pickled onions, but my bf hates them - it's the same for books- you just can't tell from a 20 word review about how much someone liked a book.

 

Ah yes, I confess to misunderstanding you on the author point. And I guess I'm one of those people who just loves cataloguing and listing. I know it's not for all. Now that you've expanded on your thoughts, I do now get that when you're looking for a review that would serve your purposes and really tell you something valuable about the book, you really have to go through a lot of trouble to find the good reviews from amidst all the "Really lik3d it!! R3ad it, m4n!" reviews.

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  • 7 months later...

Well after all the chat on here I decided to dust down my Goodreads account, and get using it again, I think my problem was a registered with a few similar sites and overloaded myself :giggle2: however, I am enjoying it, but I am thin on the ground with friends so if you would like to be my friend my user name is dawnbirduk My Goodreads Profile

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Just been exploring this site at www.goodreads.com. Bit like Librarything and Shelfari. You can log your books, write reviews and vote etc. Not sure whether to sign up as I use LT. Have a look and see what you think - anyone using the site? :welcome:

 

I'm on Goodreads too, it is a great place to share your books and reviews, it has huge DB of books not only English. My name is Ali Shams on Goodreads.

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  • 1 month later...

I love GoodReads (and LibraryThing - I use them for different purposes). I just like to have my list of books that I plan to read, and it's nice to have a list of books I've read in each year to look back over. I agree that some of the reviews are not so good ("this book sucked" - I mean, a review like that is not much use to anyone - but there are some good reviews on there as well). I have so many books - over 1000 - and I find it helps me to keep track of them all!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Have you guys noticed the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards? You can vote for your favorite books of the year. I'm not sure how it works yet myself, I've just discovered the poll and I'm trying to work it out. Seems like I haven't read any of the books in the first section, makes choosing one of them rather difficult :rolleyes::D

 

Edit: Or the second, or the third, or the fourth....

Edit again: Okay I haven't read any of the nominated books. That was fun...

Edited by frankie
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Have you guys noticed the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards? You can vote for your favorite books of the year. I'm not sure how it works yet myself, I've just discovered the poll and I'm trying to work it out. Seems like I haven't read any of the books in the first section, makes choosing one of them rather difficult :rolleyes::D

 

Edit: Or the second, or the third, or the fourth....

Edit again: Okay I haven't read any of the nominated books. That was fun...

 

:giggle2: Lol

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I'm so distraught after learning that Goodreads will no longer have Bookswap after Oct. 31st. :( I can't find that great of books for so cheap anywhere!

 

 

Why aren't they doing it anymore? I've never used it myself.

 

I love GoodReads (and LibraryThing - I use them for different purposes). I just like to have my list of books that I plan to read, and it's nice to have a list of books I've read in each year to look back over. I agree that some of the reviews are not so good ("this book sucked" - I mean, a review like that is not much use to anyone - but there are some good reviews on there as well). I have so many books - over 1000 - and I find it helps me to keep track of them all!

 

 

I agree completely with all of this! :D

 

Have you guys noticed the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards? You can vote for your favorite books of the year. I'm not sure how it works yet myself, I've just discovered the poll and I'm trying to work it out. Seems like I haven't read any of the books in the first section, makes choosing one of them rather difficult :rolleyes::D

 

Edit: Or the second, or the third, or the fourth....

Edit again: Okay I haven't read any of the nominated books. That was fun...

 

Bahahaha! Aww, hun...empathy.gif

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Have you guys noticed the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards? You can vote for your favorite books of the year. I'm not sure how it works yet myself, I've just discovered the poll and I'm trying to work it out. Seems like I haven't read any of the books in the first section, makes choosing one of them rather difficult :rolleyes::D

 

Edit: Or the second, or the third, or the fourth....

Edit again: Okay I haven't read any of the nominated books. That was fun...

 

 

Frankie

You are a HOOT ~~ Very cute about the book award voting. I'll have to give them a look myself .I probably havent read many or any either .

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Have you guys noticed the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards? You can vote for your favorite books of the year. I'm not sure how it works yet myself, I've just discovered the poll and I'm trying to work it out. Seems like I haven't read any of the books in the first section, makes choosing one of them rather difficult :rolleyes::D

 

Edit: Or the second, or the third, or the fourth....

Edit again: Okay I haven't read any of the nominated books. That was fun...

That was me when I saw the poll :giggle2:

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