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Comment by irrational | Hacker News Reader

I read a ton of books, but I’ve never used Goodreads. What is it about Goodreads that makes people want to use it? If you can identify why you want to use it, then you might have identified why you can’t quit it. For me, it is like smoking. I never started smoking, so I don’t need to quit it and feel no desire to start (or start again for those who did quit in the past and are tempted to start again).

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Goodreads scratches an itch in my stupid monkey brain by tracking everything I've read. I gain some satisfaction/sense of accomplishment looking back at stuff I've read. I should probably find a better way to track my reading

How about a bookshelf?

I do most of my reading via library books, either physical or digital - a bookshelf wouldn't help me there, nor would it help me organize books by multiple categories, or remember what I rated them as, or let me easily leave and search notes about them.

I don't use GoodReads' social aspect at all, but I do use it as a book database, and will continue to do so until they remove the ability to exfiltrate my data.

This sounds jokey but it's a serious question: what would you lose by not doing any of that?

I read a lot, and used to use goodreads for this, and now I don't use anything for this. I have a messy little notebook where I write down books I want to read so I don't forget they exist.

I inconsistently cross them off as I read them, and all together it's enough to usually remember what I read and often remember how I felt about it. It turns out my reading life isn't improved by any more than this.

I like keeping a journal as I read and find that valuable. But goodreads isn't well suited for that and I never look back through it anyway. Writing it is useful, indexing it isn't.

IDK my reading isn't your reading but you might be surprised how little of the goodreads feature set is actually valuable if you stop using it.

> what would you lose by not doing any of that?

Not much, all things considered. But I have a pretty bad memory, and it can be hard to remember which books by an author I've read, and which ones I haven't.

I guess I could just store all this in a spreadsheet, or email myself reviews, but this is convenient enough that I don't do that.

Two main things I use it for:

1. Keeping track of where I am in a series. Goodreads has a handy feature where you can see the list of books in a given series. I maintain a reading list with (way too many) different series and it has my next book in each one.

2. Remembering which books I've read. (Kind of related to #1.) More than once I've gotten more than a few pages into a book and realized, "hey I'm pretty sure I read this before".

Either of these would work in a notebook or spreadsheet but that would require changing my workflow (and "importing" a long list of books).

Some tangible things I'd lose:

- I read a lot and so friends not-infrequently come do me for recommendations. Having rated a big chunk of the things I've read, I can sort by rating and scroll for things they'd like. Often I go "holy shit I forgot all about that one, but it's perfect for Bob."

- I'm always looking for the next thing to read, and it's really nice to be able to quickly scroll through my (long) 'want to read' list for something that piques my interest for the mood I'm in.

My library's (Brooklyn Public Library) website shows me all the books I've checked out and even lets me keep public and private reading lists. No place for me to write reviews though, last time I checked. Since I almost exclusively get my books first through this library, then buy the books I really really liked, the checkout history functions as a good enough database for me.

It would be awesome if it were federated with other libraries somehow, since I also use the NYPL.

The library fines end up being too high.

Low-value answer. I'm in my 50s, I've lost track of how many times I've moved and culled books. (About to do that again, cull anyway...) There's also ebooks, library books, etc.

After, oh, ten years, I'm likely to forget whether I even read a book or not. And unlikely to have a physical copy unless I really liked it. So "bookshelf" is a pretty flip and un-useful answer.

I'm not sure if this helps but I started a blog and while I don't create many posts I do have a section for "What I've read" and simply post the book title + author under a certain year and that's it. It's been useful and gratifying to see it build. It also serves as a reference when I'm forgetting a book, helping me kick start the memories of it.

Obsidian has a book search plugin that people use to create a library of notes: https://github.com/anpigon/obsidian-book-search-plugin

I recently came across it in a youtube video but haven't used it myself.

Edit: video I came across: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PFFJlyiv28

I remember that the Google books API didn't return page or word counts. That was the only thing missing so that I could create a book database of things I want to read ordered by size/length/reading time.

That, and I also get value out of tracking books I might want to read.

Whenever a book references another book I may want to read later, or there is a HN comment recommending a book which sounds interesting, I'll add it to my "to-read" list. Then when I finish my current book, I can sort this list by average rating to decide where to go next.

> What is it about Goodreads that makes people want to use it?

I dive deep into a number of long-running series. Cosmere/Sanderverse, Star Wars, Dresden Files as examples. Once you step away from a series/topic for a bit, it's hard to walk back and see "What did I read? What's next?" - especially when you're doing it via (multiple) libraries.

GoodReads is the best I've found for tracking so far. I also have a private-notebook for some series - but goodreads is just easier. If you feel negative value in a feature (following authors/communities seems like line noise?) - just don't use That feature. I have ~300 books on my 'Read' shelf - That's valuable information moving forward I use when deciding What's Next.

I use it purely for the Groups. In particular, one group called "The Evolution of Sci Fi" which I've been a member of for some years now. They have a monthly read which I rarely have time to acquire and get through, but have sometimes read recently enough to contribute. Plus various interesting discussions about sci fi past and present.

I had no idea the site had groups!

The UI is especially bad for browsing and discovering Groups. However it's almost the only aspect I interact with. I've set up email digest notifications for new messages so that I can instantly click through to active discussions.

Goodreads lets me get a list of books I've read, share recommendations with my retired father, and once in a blue moon it makes a good recommendation to me. My biggest issue with books is discoverability. That being said, I must report two or three spammers a day.

I have a modest library, and I used to use it to track things I want to read, but that has been replaced by the "save for later" button in amazon's store.

I've used it but I forget it exists. I wish smoking was like that! I'm not sure what the addictive element is meant to be.

The reviews are poor enough to just be a waste of time I regret looking at. I mostly read non-fiction history, science, health, politics and something I have only noticed recently is that so many Amazon and GR reviews are just political takes - using the review section to advance or attack some position instead of actually discussing the book. Pretty tiresome.

I think I remember every single book I have read that's worth reading, and that list is in the hundreds. Not because my memory is so good, but how do you forget if you actually thoroughly enjoyed it / got something out of it?

edit: I don't have a goodreads acct and don't fully remember what it is, but I think the value there is finding people who like books you like, especially less famous ones, and then finding what else is on their list.

It's performative, like all social media. It's about signaling to your social network that you are an intellectual

I use it for tracking lists.

It’s easier than keeping my own cloud doc and looking up titles and authors.

That’s it. I like a list of all books I’ve read and if I liked them. And I like a list of books I want to read.

I’m happy that I can see what my friends read, but that’s not a determining factor of using the site. And way less since no one I know uses facebook any more.

I use it (sparingly) for tracking which books I've read/want to read, getting recommendations and seeing what people say about certain books as (partial) information to check if they're worth the time

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