Task: Goodreads

I really love Goodreads.com. I was suspicious of another social networking site, because Facebook should really be enough, but I love books and I thought I would try it out. I'm so glad I did.

The social part of it is fun. Sometimes I will add a book, or a review of a book, and see other friends add it to their lists, and I like that. I will add on the recommendation of others as well, so it's very mutual. It is fun seeing who is reading what, and what they thought about it. To some extent it fills the void left by the dissolution of my book club. So really, that part is great, but it came later, and would probably have not been enough of a draw on its own.

What really pulled me in was the ability to sort my reading lists, and that's where the task came in. You see, I always want to read more books than I can immediately get to. Frequent inspiration came from the Oregonian book review section, Smithsonian magazine bibliographies (which they don't really do anymore), and one memorable summer reading column by Georgie Ann Geyer.

Tracking was hard. I printed out the column, and scrawled things in a notebook, and as I became more digital I created a Word document where I would write book information. I later added an Amazon wish list to track new books, but I didn't really want the books as gifts--I just wanted to remember to read them.

Suddenly, Goodreads created a great way of putting them all in one place, and the task was to get that done. It was a bit tedious, but this is one of the goals that I actually accomplished fairly quickly.

This is one area where I became impressed with Goodreads, because they had almost everything. I think the only things I could not find were a Lao-language history book, and another book that was really old, and may not have been published normally. It was a huge step up.

It also became very clear how far in over my head I was with my book desires, because as I finished I was at about a 3:1 ratio of book to read versus books read, and I have not been able to shake that. I'm sure I have not entered every book I have read yet, but I have not entered every book I want to read either, so clearly that's just how it's going to be.
Still, I am reading more, and this is another way that the site really helps. It is so easy to find ideas for what to read next. It's true there are other factors there. I have time to read on my evening commute, which I did not before, and by the grace of Maria's frequent trips to the Cedar Mill library, and their extensive collection, I have means and opportunity added to my motive. It is a beautiful thing.

So my reading is more prolific and more organized, and I have to credit Goodreads for that. If I want to enter Steve Duin’s reading contest for this year, I can easily see what was read and check the page count. I do still have one little problem though. We’ll talk about that tomorrow.

In the meanwhile, come friend me on Goodreads. I have awesome shelves!

39 minutes walking outside
Matthew 1-6 and James